An Historical and Descriptive Account of Antigua,

£45,000 · Offered by Shapero Rare Books

the most beautiful book on antigua Very rare. Only two complete copies of this work are recorded as appearing at auction in the past 100 years. The most beautiful book on Antigua, published in a very small edition. Johnson began with the grand design of publishing a large series of Views in the West Indies, with each part containing images and descriptions of a number of islands. According to an 'Advertisement' slip issued with the third part of West Indies this plan was abandoned after only three parts because of the objections that were made 'to the form in which [the West Indian] Views [were]... published'. Evidently, purchasers wanted to be able to buy views of individual islands. The 'Advertisement' continues: 'to enable purchasers to select scenes in one particular island, each number will in future contain views in one island only.' The present work, which includes amended versions of six of the views which had previously appeared in the Views in the West Indies and one additional view not published before, appears to have been the only offshoot of the earlier work to reach fruition. Difficulty in finding subscribers seems to have forced Johnson to abandon the idea of a series of works on individual islands: 'When the first specimen of the Work was prepared for inspection, it was intended by the Author, that the Work itself should appear at a much earlier period... That intention, however, was accompanied by an expectation that a sufficient number of Subscribers would

• Binding: Hardcover

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