[Rarebooks] fa: SIX ENGRAVINGS BY H. THIELCKE AFTER THE DESIGNS OF PRINCESS ELIZABETH - 1813

[Ardwight Chamberlain]

Listed now, auction ending SUNDAY, November 17. More details and images can be found at the URL below or by searching under the seller name arch_in_la.

http://tinyurl.com/m3lhhlv

Thanks again,
Ardwight Chamberlain
L.A.

[Henry Daniel Thielcke (engraver); William Combe:] Six Engravings by H. Thielcke, after the Designs of Her Royal Highness the Princess Elizabeth. With Illustrations in Verse. London: Published by R. Ackermann [and] Printed by William Bulmer and Co., Shakspeare Press, 1813. First edition thus. Tall 4to (30.5 x 24 cm) bound in full period marbled calf; [4] + 38 + [2] pp; with an engraved  and etched dedication page to Queen Charlotte and six stipple engraved plates on Whatman wove paper with tissue guards.

Privately published in a small edition by Thielcke in 1810, these engravings were acquired by the enterprising Rudolph Ackermann, publisher par excellence of illustrated and color plate books, who was (as he states in his dedication) "influenced, by the Beauty of the Designs, the Interest of the Subjects, and the profound Respect due to the Royal Personage whose superior Taste and leisure hours produced them, to republish the whole with original and appropriate Verse," the latter generally attributed to William Combe. Princess Elizabeth (1770 - 1840) was the seventh child and third daughter of George III. Considered the most artistic of an admittedly inartistic family, Elizabeth was a keen watercolorist, decorator of fans, and cutter-outer of silhouettes. Many of her designs adorned the walls at Frogmore House.

Binding somewhat worn and scuffed; front and rear joints cracked, but both boards are secure; contents with occasional small spots and a couple of creases/dimples from fingering; text leaves with modest toning; light foxing to the tissue guards and endpapers; otherwise quite clean and sound, firmly bound. Quite uncommon.