The Thames

First edition with 55 colour-plate illustrations, captioned on the tissue guards and 20 colour printed chapter headings, pull-out map of the Thames. 8vo., Original grey-blue cloth with decorative boards printed in green, white and light blue, lettered in gilt with a gilt top edge. Spine slightly darkened, otherwise a very good copy. This volume is unusual in that this was the first time such illustrations had appeared as chapter headings on the same page as the text matter. A laborious process, in that the paper had to first be coated (as the three colour process was only successful on art paper), the experiment was not repeated. A previous text written by Menpes' daughter, Dorothy, was rejected for being of an 'inadequate quality'. 'A &C Black's Twenty Shilling series of colour plate books, published from 1901 onwards, brought the world into the home at a time when travel, especially overseas, was much more difficult than it is today. For the first time books containing large numbers of colour plates - up to 100 per volume - were made available to the public at an affordable price.' (Inman).…