Lot 57
Robson, George Fennell
Scenery of the Grampian Mountains, 3 copies, all in different states
£1,638
Rare Books, Manuscripts, Maps & Photographs
Auction: 07 February 2024 from 10:00 GMT
Description
First edition. London: printed by S. Gosnell, published by the author, 1814. Oblong folio (49.5 x 33cm), 41 plates (soft-ground etchings, uncoloured), engraved folding map, errata slip [Abbey Scenery 504, with plates coloured];
Second edition (2 copies). London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, 1819. Folio (52.6 x 34cm and 51.8 x 32cm), each copy with 41 aquatint plates and engraved folding map hand-coloured in outline, one copy with the plates hand-coloured, one with plates uncoloured, coloured copy with title from original wrapper mounted to front pastedown [Abbey Scenery 506, coloured issue only].
Uniform 20th-century red crushed half morocco, all edges gilt, second edition, uncoloured issue with offsetting from plates, faint offsetting in coloured issue
(3)
Footnote
Robson visited Scotland in 1809 on the back of his successful debut at the Royal Academy in 1807. He reputedly wandered over the mountains 'dressed as a shepherd with a copy of Walter Scott's Lay of the Last Minstrel (1805) in his pocket' (ODNB), and on his return exhibited his views at the Associated Painters in Water Colours from 1810 to 1812, and then at the Society of Painters in Oil and Water Colours from 1813, before publishing them first in 1814 soft-ground etchings, then in 1819 as aquatints. Abbey describes the first edition, as 'so scarce that its existence is hardly known'. The title-page for the second edition describes the plates as 'coloured from original drawings made on the spot by the spot', so it is unusual to encounter an uncoloured copy as here.
Provenance: Beeleigh Abbey Books (W. & G. Foyle Ltd), with typescript catalogue description.
