The History of the Royal Residences of Windsor Castle, St. James’s Palace, Carlton House, Kensington Palace, Hampton Court, Buckingham House, and Frogmore.

PYNE, William Henry.

Item Number: 79010

London: A. Dry, 1819.

First edition of one of the key British colour plate books every published, with 100 hand-colored plates. Quarto, bound in contemporary full straight morocco, gilt vignettes the the front panel, gilt titles to the spine, With 100 hand-colored aquatint plates after Wild, Sutherland, Stephanoff, Westall, and others. In near fine condition with light rubbing, plates in fine condition, bookplates. An exceptional example.

One of the main glories of Pyne's work is the remarkable pictorial record it offers of the interior decorations and furnishings of Windsor Castle, showing the castle as it was before the extensive alterations carried out from 1824-1828. Also depicted in some detail are St. James's Palace, Carlton House (with a splendid series of now-vanished interiors created for the Prince Regent by Holland with Wyatt and Nash as architects), Kensington Palace, Hampton Court, Buckingham House (including a view of the east front as it was a century before Aston Webb's drastic remodelling carried out in 1913), and Frogmore as remodeled by Wyatt. The plates are beautifully printed colour aquatints with intricate hand colouring by accomplished colourists of the day. Abbey Scenery 396/397; Martin-Hardie, pp. 91; Prideaux, p. 348; Tooley 389.