Histoire d'Angleterre, d'Ecosse et d'Irlande

Suite of 2 frontispieces and 61 portraits from Isaac de Larrey's History of England, Scotland and Ireland 1713-1730.

All portraits by Dutch Baroque master Adriaen van der Werff.

Copperplates engraved by Pieter Stevens van Gunst and others including Gerard Valck, Cornelis Vermeulen, Nicholas Pitaut, Benedict Audran, Jean Audran, Charles Simonneau, Pierre Drevet, Etienne Desrochers and Willem van der Gouwen.

Allegorical frontispiece (by Bernard Picart) and 28 portraits from Isaac de Larrey's Histoire d'Angleterre, d'Ecosse et d'Irlande, Reinier Leers, Amsterdam, 1713.

Allegorical frontispiece and 33 portraits from Isaac de Larrey's Histoire d'Angleterre, d'Ecosse et d'Irlande, Johann Covens and Cornelis Mortier, Amsterdam, 1730.

Plates mostly by Pieter Stevens van Gunst, and others including Gerard Valck, Cornelis Vermeulen, Nicholas Pitaut, Benedict Audran, Jean Audran, Charles Simonneau, Pierre Drevet, and Etienne Desrochers.

A sumptuous collection of oval portraits in decorative Baroque frames surrounded with allegorical figures, putti, crowns, coats of arms, garlands, and other paraphernalia.

Portraits of English royalty, aristocrats and clergy from the 16th and 17th centuries, including Henry VII, Henry VIII, Edward VI, James I, Charles I, Oliver Cromwell, Charles II, James II, William III and Mary II, James IV and V of Scotland, etc.

Many queens and ladies including four wives of Henry VIII (Catherine of Aragon, Jane Seymour, Catherine Parr, and Catherine Howard), Elizabeth of York, Mary Queen of Scots, Lady Jane Grey, the Nine Day Queen, Bloody Mary, Anne Hyde, Margaret Tudor, Mary of Guise, and more.

Also includes European royalty Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, Philip II of Spain, Frederick V of the Palatinate, William I Prince of Orange, Ferdinand 3rd Duke of Alba, Francis Duke of Anjou, Alexander Duke of Parma, etc.

Adriaen van der Werff, 1659-1722, was a Dutch painter of religious and mythological scenes and portraits, active mainly in Rotterdam. He combined the precise finish of the Leiden tradition (learned from his master Eglon van der Neer) with the classical standards of the French Académie Royale. From 1697, he was Kabinettsmaler (court painter) to Johann Wilhelm, Elector of Palatine, in Dusseldorf.

Brown leather spine worn and chipped, paper title label illegible, marble paper boards scuffed and stained, torn stubs of two plates removed at front, some plates coming loose from binding. All plates with wide margins, good solid impressions of the engravings, with even age-toning to the paper. A few scattered spots of foxing, slight curling of a few corners, and dust to page edges, but generally very good.