The History of the Royal Residences of Windsor Castle, St. James's Palace, Carlton House, Kensington Palace, Hampton Court, Buckingham House and Frogmore by PYNE, William Henry (1769-1843) - 1819

London: printed for A. Dry, 1819. 3 volumes, large quarto. (15 7/8 x 12 1/2 inches). Seven section titles. 100 finely hand-coloured aquatint plates, printed in colours, by T. Sutherland, W.J. Bennett, R. Reeve, and D. Havell after J. Stephanoff, C. Wild, R. Cattermole, W. Westall and G. Samuel. Extra-illustrated with an engraved view of Windsor Castle engraved by Sands after Allom, bound into vol. 1. Contemporary calf, rebacked to style, spine with double-raised bands in six compartments, lettered in gilt, marbled endpapers A rare large-paper issue, with pre-publication watermarks, of this important architectural record of the British palaces and among the best known and most wonderful English colour plate books. One of the main glories of Pyne's work is the remarkable pictorial record it offers of the interior decorations and furnishings of Windsor Castle, showing the castle as it was before the extensive alterations carried out from 1824-1828. Also depicted in some detail are St. James's Palace, Carlton House (with a splendid series of now-vanished interiors created for the Prince Regent by Holland with Wyatt and Nash as architects), Kensington Palace, Hampton Court, Buckingham House (including a view of the east front as it was a century before Aston Webb's drastic remodelling carried out in 1913), and Frogmore as remodeled by Wyatt. The plates are beautifully printed colour aquatints with intricate hand colouring by accomplished colourists of the day. Published in both regular and large paper (as here) issues, the work was published at 24 and 36 guineas, respectively. Besides being printed on larger, superior paper, the hand colouring on the large paper issue is more finely accomplished. Abbey Scenery 396/397; Martin-Hardie, pp. 91; Prideaux, p. 348; Tooley 389.