Anecdotes of Painting in England: With Some Account of the Principal Artists, and Incidental Notes on Other Arts: Volumes 1, 2, 3 [with] A Catalogue of Engravers, Who Have Been Born, or Resided in England... (Bound into Two Books)

England: Strawberry-Hill, 1763. First Edition. Hardcover. Good (Boards are heavily worn/scuffed/smudged; covers are very loose; ribbon bookmarks are frayed and worn; spine strips are chipped and scuffed at both ends; inner hinges are cracked; textblock edges are toned/scuffed/smudged; bookplate of former owner ifc of volume 1; interior is clean, but toned and lightly foxed and smudged in places; marginalia is present in places; textblocks appear solid.). Contemporary brown leather binding with mounted red and black title and volume cards on the spines, with gilt lettering and illustration; marbled endpapers; black cloth bookmark; two books, the first with the heraldic bookplate of Thos. Patten of Bank, Esq. the second volume showing the remains of said bookplate. Book 1:Frontis, tp, (iii-XII), Contents of the First Volume, pp. 1- 168, [14 pp. Appendix followed by 6 pp. Indexes, and 1 pp. Errata]. Contents of second volume, Vol. 2: TP, pp. 1-158, [51 pp. Appendix, followed by 6 pp. of Indexes and 1 p. Errata. Book 2: Contents of third Volume: TP dated 1763, pp. 1-155, [Appendix of 3 pp. followed by Indexes of 8 pp. and one pages of Advertisement], Catalogue of Engravers TP, dated 1763, (2 blank sides, Directions to The Printer), pp. 1-128, (blank), Portrait of George Vertue followed by 14 pp., List of Vertue's Works (20 pp.) followed by Indexes (7 pp.) All four title-pages bear the signature of Thos. Patten, Junr. Volumes 1,2,3 are richly illustrated, the last part less so. These volumes were printed at Strawberry Hill Estate by Walpole. There is a biography section at the back of the second volume and, in additon, a page advertising "Lately Published" works from the publisher. Book one contains 39 plates and 1 frontispiece. Book two contains 46 plates.

"This, the most ambitious of Walpole's works, was based on forty notebooks compiled by George Vertue, the engraver and antiquary (1684-1756), with a view to writing the first history of painting in England. Walpole records in ‘Short Notes' and the ‘Journal of the Printing Office' that he bought Vertue's notebooks and drawings from Vertue's widow in 1758 for £100 and that in 1759 he ‘began to look over the notebooks in order to compose the lives of English painters.' The result was Anecdotes of Painting in England, with some Account of the principal Artists; And incidental Notes on other Arts; Collected by the late Mr George Vertue; And now digested and published from his original MSS, by Mr Horace Walpole, 4 vols. 1762-71."

"Walpole's Preface states that owing to the paucity of native-born geniuses, England ‘has not a single volume to show on the works of its painters. This very circumstance may with reason prejudice the reader against a work, the chief business of which must be to celebrate the arts of a country which has produced so few good artists. This objection is so striking, that instead of calling it The Lives of English Painters, I have simply given it the title of Anecdotes of Painting in England. The indefatigable pains of Mr. Vertue left nothing unexplored that could illuminate his subject, and collaterally led him to many particularities that are at least amusing: I call them no more, nor would I advise any man, who is not fond of curious trifles to take the pains of turning over these leaves.' Walpole brought his work down to the end of George II's reign in 1760. He included ‘other arts,' ‘Statuaries, Carvers, Architects, and Medallists,' and closed with an ‘Essay on Modern Gardening.'

"Over thirty of Vertue's notebooks have been printed verb. et lit. by the English Walpole Society from the originals, which are now mostly in the British Library. The originals show that Walpole's description of them, ‘indigested' and ‘unreadable,' is charitable-‘chaotic' and ‘illiterate' would not be unjust. The Anecdotes show that Walpole was a superb editor who brought order and style out of Vertue's incoherence... besides making Vertue's notes readable, Walpole added much new material and closed the gaps in Vertue's account. ‘From the reign of Henry III Mr Vertue could discover no records relating to the arts for several reigns,' Walpole wrote. ‘I shall endeavour to fill this hiatus by producing an almost entire chronologic series of paintings from that time to Henry VII when Mr Vertue's notes recommence,' and he did so in twenty-one pages.

"The first two volumes of the Anecdotes appeared in 1762, the third volume and Catalogue of Engravers in 1763; the fourth volume was printed in 1771, but was held up until 1780 because Walpole didn't want to offend Hogarth's widow by his strictures on the artist's ‘Sigismonda.' All five volumes were reprinted in 1825 and 1849. I hope one day that the Lewis Walpole Library will publish another edition that will make clear the contributions of both Vertue and Walpole to their pioneer history of painting in England." -- "Rescuing Horace Walpole" by Wilmarth S. Lewis.