Curiosities of Great Britain. England and Wales Delineated; Historical, Entertaining & Commercial. Alphabetically Arranged by Thomas Dugdale, Antiquarian, Assisted by William Burnett. 9 vols (set)

Description

Original publisher’s royal blue cloth gilt, ornate blind decor to boards, gilt lettering and decor to boards and spines. Spines sunned. Mild rubbing to boards; moderate wear to board edges and spines, with chipping to bases and tops of spines and small (1.5 cm) loss to base spine of vol. I). 8vos (16.7 x 25.4cm). All edges gilt. Original primrose yellow endpapers, some starting at gutters. All hinges sound. Vols I-VI have 15 illus, most with tissue guards, and 7 double-page hand-coloured maps. Vol. VII has 14 illus and 7 maps. Vol. VIII has 13 illus and 8 maps. Vol. 9 has 3 illus and 1 map. All vols have frontispieces with tissue guard (inc. in counts of illus above), and engraved t.p. with vignette. In total 120 illus & 58 maps. In vol. VII, maps 2 & 7 almost completely detached at gutter (with no loss to maps themselves); map 1 partially detached at gutter. In vol. VII: map 1 slightly loose at gutter. Minor scattered foxing throughout. Vol. I has title: ‘The Topographical Dictionary of England and Wales’. Pagination continuous across vols. Thomas Dugdale (fl. c.1818-1846), antiquarian and topographical author; ‘England and Wales Delineated’ is his most significant work. Dugdale is known for the fine detail of his county maps, best displayed in these volumes, in which he was assisted by a civil engineer, William Burnett. Dugdale’s work was published with two separate sets of maps, the first using those from the George Cole and John Roper British Atlas of 1810, and the second (these vols) using a new set of maps engraved by Joshua Archer (1792-1863) which were derived from those of Cole and Roper. These Joshua Archer maps, organised alphabetically by Dugdale, are notable for being designed for use rather than decoration, displaying a new more ‘scientific’ approach to mapmaking and containing a wealth of information, covering everything from the ancient ‘hundreds’ (divisions within a county), through turnpike roads and canals, to railways. Editions are found bound in anything up to eleven volumes, always undated; this one is a late issue. T.p. of vol. I has pencil annot: ‘apparently published soon after 1855′; however, we have dated with reference to 12pp. publisher’s advertisements to rear of vol. IX, which include an advertisement for The Carriage builders’ and Harness Makers’ Art Journal dated by the Bodleian’s John Johnson collection to 1860. Rear of vol. IX also includes preface and t.p. for volume II of a revised 2-vol edn of Dugdale’s England and Wales Delineated, edited by E. L. Blanchard; WorldCat estimates dates for this edn as 1854-1860. Given that pagination for this 2-volume edn is also 1582pp., this set may be this revised edn, divided into a more familiar set of multiple smaller vols. ~Robust packaging. All UK orders with tracking, overseas orders on request. Used books are exempt from USA tariffs.