1900 Reproductions in Facsimile of Drawings by the Old Masters, in the collection of the Earl of Pembroke and Montgomery at Wilton House

Description

Colour Plates, Illustrated, Rebound, Very Scarce

The very scarce first edition of this collection of facsimile reproductions of the works of the Old Masters, reproduced from a collection held by the Earl of Pembroke and Montgomery at Wilton House in Wiltshire, and including works from artists including Leonardo da Vinci, Andrea Medulla, Caliari, Corregio and Titian.

Illustrated with sixty-six large reproductions of the drawings from these artists. Collated, complete.

The majority of plates are accompanied by descriptive and explanatory passages from Sandford Arthur Strong, an English orientalist, art historian and librarian, who was invited by the Earl of Pembroke to visit Wilton House, where this collection was housed and he was inspired to produce this work.

Originally issued unbound and with plates divided into six parts and held in wraps, the work is rebound here in an institutional cloth binding, with the bookplate of the Bath Municipal Library to the front pastedown, library markings to head of front free endpaper, and blind stamp to title page head and two further plates. No further library markings.

A very scarce and impressive collection of the drawings of the most celebrated European artists from the fifteenth century onwards.