Select Views in Great Britain, Engrav'd by S. Middiman, from Pictures and Drawings by the Most Eminent Artists. With Descriptions

Later straight-grain russet morocco, spine ornately lettered and tooled in gilt (4 raised bands), boards with ornate borders stamped in gilt and blind within three gilt rules, a.e.g.; oblong 4to; with 54 copper-engraved plates by Middiman, after numerous artists; pp. [4] (title-p., blank, ads), [53] double-sided leaves of text describing the plates in French and English, [2] index and list of subscribers. Small, scattered stain on front board; corners bumped; some light scuffing along joints and edges of boards. Off-setting of plates onto facing pages, making pale ghosts, but a lovely copy inside and out. Two bookplates on front paste-down, one in Norwegian. Second Edition, the first issued in parts between 1784 and 1792. Samuel Middiman (1750-1831) was employed by the Boydells for several years and engraved several of the plates in the Shakespeare Gallery. As the DNB points out, his "chief excellence lay in the engraving of landscape, in which he pursued worthily the course marked out by [William] Woollett and others." In this, his best-known book, he based his plates on landscape drawings by such artists as Francis Wheatley and himself. This copy contains a second, variant Plate II, showing an entirely different view of Keswick-Lake than that depicted in the first, customary plate and described in the text. Most likely, this was a trial version that was replaced by a view showing more of the landmarks around the lake. [Upcott, Bibliographical Account of.English Topography, p. xxiv.].…