The Baronial and Ecclesiastical Antiquities of Scotland. 4 Vols.
Edinburgh: Oliver and Boyd, 1901. Hardcover. Large Quarto. 240 plates with steel engravings. Original blue cloth with gilt lettering and ruling on spine. Tope edges gilt. Title page printed in red and black. Additional b/w title page for volume one bound in. Black endpapers. Historiated woodcut endpieces for each subject, relating to the respective topic.
Collection of two hundred and forty steel engravings depicting the extraordinary architecture of Scotland. "...the intention of this work was not to represent all the Antiquities of Scotland, but such a selection as should combine the spirit of the whole, by the features conveyed in those delineated. Hence many edifices, singularly plain in their character, have found place in it; while others. embracing both elaborate design and constructive merit, have been omitted, simply to avoid repetition." (Introduction).
Scotland's architecture has attracted attention first in the early part of the eighteenth century. Slezer's Theatrum Scotiae (1718) was the earliest and best work up to Robert Billing's work. Pennant's "Tour in Scotland" (1769) features a number of buildings abut is not devoted exclusively to architecture. Rev. C. Cordiner of Banff's three volumes "Letters and Remarkable Ruins and Romantic Prospects of North Britain" (1780-1795) are confined to buildings in his own district and the North of Scotland. Two small volumes, considered important, by Adam de Cardonnell (1788), and between 1789 and 1791 two volumes of Francis Grose's "The Antiquities of Scotland" were published.
Light wear along edges of binding, small chips and closed tears. Some age-toning to endpapers and light foxing to margins app. half of the etchings with foxing in margins, only twice very light foxed stains in images. Good- to very good condition. Item #56062
Price: $375.00