August 12, 2010
UNIQUE FOLIO CONTAINING THE ORIGINAL DRAWINGS OF W.H. BARTLETT
Likely Bartlett’s Earliest Surviving Work
The most beautiful Norman Cathedral in England.
The book and drawings:
Britton, John., 1771-1857 . The History and Antiquities of the Abbey, and Cathedral Church of Peterborough. London: Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, and Green, 1828. Illustrated with engraved title, wood-engraved printed title vignette, and 15 engraved plates and plans, extra-illustrated with the original drawings and plans for the engravings. 4to., re-mounted as a grand folio (37 x 26 cm). Full brown crushed levant, covers with elaborate gilt panels and gilt turn-ins, by Riviere & Son. Joints rubbed, cracking to upper joint, beginning separation of one board, light circular stain to front board, overall Very Good. A magnificent architectural work on what is perhaps the most beautiful Norman Cathedral in England. Extra-illustrated with the original pen and sepia ink washes, drawings in pencil, and plans including eight renderings by William H. Bartlett and two by George Catermole, and others by Henry Ansted and E. Blore. The original renderings also include an additional alternate central vignette for the engraved title. Only a detail plate for the cathedral’s circular windows is not paired with its original. [$9500]
Wiliiam Henry Bartlett was born in Kentish Town, London in 1809. He was apprenticed to John Britton, and became one of the most beloved and widely copied topographical illustrators of his generation. His depictions of America in his American Scenery (1840), his great commercial success, became iconic 19th century images which never lost their seductive qualities despite the advent of photography which largely replaced his art-form. The 8 original drawings by W.H. Bartlett present here are no doubt among his earliest surviving work, having been published when he was merely nineteen years old , and no doubt executed in the year before that.
His precocious talent, seen now in these drawings, was also evident at the time of publication. As Britton himself states in his Auto-biography, remarking about the passage of twelve years from the original conception of the book until its publication, “A new set of drawings was then prepared by W. H. Bartlett, who has since acquired deserved celebrity as a landscape illustrator of oriental and other foreign scenery. That gentleman was assisted by Henry Ansted, and Penry Williams; and two or three of the drawings originally made by the former artists were also used for the work. Mr. Bartlett, although then comparatively inexperienced, displayed so much taste and feeling in his sketches and finished drawings, that the plates executed from them are among the most successful of the series.
[Ref: The Auto-biography of John Britton: in three parts. By John Britton, T. E. Jones Published by Printed for the author, as presents to subscribers “The Britton Testimonial”, 1849 Original from Harvard University Digitized Aug 26, 2005].
