Macklin Thomas Editor (3 results)

Magazine. 40p., 5.5x8.5 inches, interview, reviews, essays, articles, ads, film stills, very good digest-size magazine in stapled pictorial wraps.

4to, pp. 42; in the original printed wrappers, coloured dark green and with printed title 'Macklin's catalogue of pictures 1790' on upper cover; stitched as issued, a little worn but a remarkable survival. The picture dealer and printseller Thomas Macklin planned to exhibit a hundred pictures and publish engravings based on these, at monthly intervals beginning in February 1790. This is the catalogue of the third such show, in which, it seems, 41 paintings were exhibited by such masters as Reynolds, Gainsborough, Fuseli and both of the Cosways, Richard and Maria. Each painting is listed with its accompanying passage, either from the poet which inspired it, or from the Bible. At the end are printed the Proposals for what is perhaps Macklin's most enduring monument, the 'Macklin Bible', which even now is a breathtaking achievement. ESTC locates just 12 copies of this piece, with just Yale, Rutgers and Frick the only copies located outside the UK. Listed as a poetical miscellany in NCBEL II 412.

First edition; 6 vols; folio (48.5 x 40 cm); 68 engraved plates (of 70), numerous engraved vignettes, text printed in large type in double columns, armorial bookplate to front pastedown of each vol., slight offsetting to text-block, occasional spotting; contemporary blue straight-grained morocco, meander rules in gilt and blind to covers, gilt spines in 7 compartments, all edges gilt, pink endpapers, covers faded in places, corners slightly bumped, a pleasing example. Macklin's sumptuous edition of the King James Bible 'Embellished with engravings, from pictures and designed by the most eminent English artists'. A lovely copy, with excellent provenance for the Kinnaird library, well-known for the superior condition of their collection. One of the 'most ambitious editions produced in Britain, often pirated but never rivalled' (ODNB). This vast undertaking, dedicated to the King, was published in 70 parts, each at £1 1s. Macklin (1752-1800) issued his prospectus for the Bible in 1789; he commissioned new type, new paper, and the engravings after prominent contemporary artists including Fuseli, Reynolds, Kauffman, Hamilton, and West, promising a Bible that would be 'finished in a style of elegance (and magnificence in Paper, Printing, and Engraving) of which there is not in Europe or the world any example'. It took 11 years to complete, and the eventual cost of £30,000 almost bankrupted Macklin. Though the final engraving was finished five days before his death, the last of the vignettes was not completed for another six weeks, and he consequently never saw the finished work. Herbert 1442; Darlow/Moule 982.