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BRYANT, William Cullen (ed.)
Picturesque America; or, The Land We Live In.
A delineation by pen and pencil of the mountains, rivers, lakes, forests, water-falls, shores, cañons, valleys, cities, and other picturesque features of our country. With Illustrations on Steel and Wood, by Eminent American Artists.
Publisher: New York: D. Appleton and Company, [1872–4]
Stock code: 42429
Price: £475 Currency Conversion
"It is the design of [this] publication … to present full descriptions and elaborate pictorial delineations of the scenery characteristic of all the different parts of our country. The wealth of material for this purpose is almost boundless" (author's preface). The superb plates were engraved by Robert Hinshelwood, a Scots engraver who emigrated to America in 1835 where he established a considerable reputation for his work on landscapes. His painstaking and highly detailed work was much appreciated not only by the publishing houses that employed him, such as Appleton's and Harper's, but also by the Continental Bank Note Company who for a time employed him producing plates for currency.
2 volumes, quarto (330 × 250 mm). Publisher's brown hard-grain morocco, sides blocked in blind and black, lettered gilt in centre, spines lettered in gilt, compartments decorated in blind, marbled endpapers, gilt edges. Steel-engraved frontispiece and half-title to each and 45 other similar plates in all, numerous steel- and wood-engraved illustrations, many full-page. Bookplate of Junior Research Club Book Drive 1940 partly removed from free endpapers. A little rubbed in places, some sporadic foxing, chiefly marginal, a good set.
