[Rarebooks] fa: PRINCESS ELIZABETH (Daughter of George III) A SERIES OF ETCHINGS 1806 - SIGNED & INSCRIBED

[ArCh]

Listed now, auction ending Sunday, October 25. Images and more details can be found at the URL below or by searching for the seller name arch_in_la. 

https://tinyurl.com/y6juu7vd

Thanks again,
Ardwight Chamberlain
Ann Arbor, MI, USA


[Princess Elizabeth, later, Dowager Landgravine of Hesse, third daughter of George III]: A Series of Etchings, Representing the Power and Progress of Genius. London: Printed for Edward Harding, Pall Mall Court, by S. Gosnell, Little Green Street, 1806. First edition. Royal folio (49.5 x 33.5 ccm) in later calf-backed marbled boards; engraved frontispiece and 24 plates with accompanying text leaves (unpaginated).

PRESENTATION COPY, inscribed "The Countess Poulett" (née Sophia Pocock, wife of the 4th Earl Poulett) at the foot of the title-page and signed by Princess Elizabeth under the dedication to her mother, Queen Charlotte. A series of allegorical etchings by the third daughter of George III, with accompanying explanatory captions such as, "Fancy runs off with Genius" and "Genius enchained by Ignorance and Folly," though some of the explanations get a bit more convoluted: "Genius sits on a rock, heavy and stupid, his lyre unstrung; the stones of the rock, the base of a column, the planks on the water, all inanimate, without any appearance of his vivifying power, till Fancy tickles his ear with a feather plucked from her own wing." Binding a little rubbed, with corner wear; scattered spotting to the leaves throughout.