first great aquatint book on London

The first great aquatint book on London, with fine delineations of the architectural treasures therein. Copies rarely appear on the market.

Proposals were issued in March 1791 to publish the work by subscription in 24 numbers. The first four plates are dated 30 June 1792, as is the engraved dedication to the Prince of Wales. The final plates to appear are dated 1 March 1801. The two engraved calligraphic title-plates (both dated 21 August 1792) are intended to divide the work into two 'volumes' even though the text is printed in continuous register and the pages and plates are numbered in unbroken sequences: here it is bound in one volume as usual.

The buildings which most interested Malton are given a greater number of plates - nine to St Paul's cathedral, seven each to Somerset House and Westminster Abbey, four each to the Adelphi and the Royal Exchange, and three to the Bank of England. Many are shown in a steep perspective (which set an example to Turner and Girtin); and his concern to combine topographic accuracy with atmosphere is evident in, for example, his engraving 'View from Scotland Yard' (pl. 27).

No plate is signed by Malton as draughtsman or engraver. But each (except pl. 53, 55) bears his publisher's imprint, and the publication-date. The two title-plates are signed as written by Tomkins and engraved by Ashby. The printer is named in the colophon on p. 112: 'T. Bensley, Printer, Bolt Court, Fleet Street, London'.

With the title page bearing '81 Titchfield Street, Portland Place' imprint, as consistent with first state uncoloured copies, but with the corrected spelling of the word 'Sacristary' in plate 10, suggesting that this is an early, but not the first, issue. Thomas Malton junior was the son of an architectural draughtsman and writer on perspective who exhibited drawings at the Incorporated Society of Artists and at the Royal Academy. Malton the younger was placed with the architect James Gandon and admitted to the Royal Academy Schools as an architectural student in 1773, where he was awarded a silver medal in the following year and in 1782 a gold for a theatre design. The Picturesque Tour is remarkable, if not unique, in that the 100 large plates of which it was composed were all engraved and aquatinted by the artist in person. The secret of the aquatint process, rediscovered in France in 1768 by Le Prince, had crossed the Channel with Charles Greville and in 1774 was passed to Paul Sandby, who dubbed it 'aquatinta' and applied it to his 24 Views in Wales and Four Views of Warwick Castle published in the three succeeding years. Malton's project was on an altogether larger scale as it was not only the first considerable collection of London topography and architecture engraved in aquatint but also the first large British assembly of such engravings on any topic' (Adams).

First edition, early issue; 2 vols in 1, folio (43.5 x 33 cm); 2 engraved calligraphic titles, engraved dedication leaf to Prince of Wales with vignette, 100 plates engraved and aquatinted by Malton, armorial bookplate to front pastedown, some light marginal spotting and offsetting; contemporary full diced calf, rebacked with original spine laid down, corners restored, gilt rule and frame to boards, gilt rolled turn-ins, spine lettered in gilt in six gilt stamped compartments, a very good copy; iv, 112pp.

Adams 72; Abbey (Scenery), 204.