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Seventeen Hand-Colored Engraved Plates Depicting the Costume of the University of Oxford
UWINS, Thomas. The Costume of the University of Oxford, Illustrated by a Series of Engravings from Original Drawings by Thomas Uwins. To Which is Prefixed a Brief Account of the Members and Officers of that University. London: Printed for R. Ackermann, by L. Harrison and J.C. Leigh, 1815.
Large quarto (13 1/4 x 10 7/8 inches; 337 x 276 mm.). [6], 18 pp. Stipple-engraved portrait of Lord Grenville, Chancellor of the University of Oxford, by Henry Meyer after William Owen, and seventeen hand-colored line- and stipple-engraved plates by J. Agar after T. Uwins. The text is watermarked "W & S S/1813 (?)." The plates are watermarked "J Whatman/1812," except for the portrait of Lord Grenville, which is watermarked "J Whatman/1806 (?)."
Contemporary half red roan over marbled boards. Front cover with red roan label decoratively tooled and lettered in gilt, smooth spine decoratively tooled in gilt in compartments, marbled endpapers. Several of the plates with early ink annotations at the lower edge identifying the subjects of the portraits. Minor rubbing to extremities. Mild foxing and browning, except for the portrait of Lord Grenville, which is slightly foxed and has a small faint dampstain in the outer blank margin, and offset onto the facing text leaf. Armorial bookplate Philip Bliss on front pastedown. An excellent copy.
"In each volume [Ackermann's History of the University of Oxford (1814) and History of the University of Cambridge (1815)] there is a series of hand-coloured plates of costume, in line and stipple, by J. Agar after T. Uwins, fifteen in the Cambridge, and seventeen in the Oxford. Mr. Uwins seems to have been inspired with the belief that all university dons are divinely tall and slender, with the exception of doctors of divinity, who alone in both volumes are depicted in possession of a comfortable portliness" (Martin Hardie, pp. 105-106).
"Cette suite est extraite du grand ouvrage: History of Oxford publié en 1814 par Ackermann" (Colas).
Colas 2947. Hiler, p. 4. See Abbey, Scenery, 278, and Tooley 5 ("The "Costume of Members of the University of Oxford" was also issued separately in elephant quarto for £3 13s. 6d").
Price: $1,750
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