Tour Through Paris, A.

London: William Sams, [1828]. An Unusually Fresh & Clean Copy

SAMS, William. A Tour Through Paris, Illustrated with Twenty-One Coloured Plates, Accompanied with Descriptive Letter-Press. London: William Sams, [n.d., 1828].

[Second edition], identical to the first of 1824 but with subtitle added, and plates in different order. Folio (14 1/4 x 10 7/16 inches; 361 x 265 mm.). Engraved title-page and twenty-one hand-colored aquatint plates with accompanying unpaginated text to each. Plates watermarked 1827 and 1828.

Contemporary quarter crimson straight-grained morocco over marbled boards. Gilt decorated compartments at spine head and tail bookending title in gilt. With the bookplate of Laurence Currie. A fine copy, unusually fresh and clean.

Published by printer-bookseller William Sams, of whom little is known, these beautifully designed and aquatinted prints of brilliant hue and warm saturation depict lively and diverse Parisian street scenes and interiors.

The Plates:

1. Distribution of Wine on the Morning of St. Louis
2. The Voitures of Versailles
3. The Blind Man of the Pont des Arts
4. Dancers on Stilts in the Shams-Elysées
5. Office of Nurses
6. Porters and Fishwomen Revelling Round the Statue of Henry IV
7. Interior of a Swimming School
8. Parisians Reading the Public Prints in the Garden of the Tuilleries
9. The Catacombs
10. Chamber of Deputies
11. Street Characters
12. Itinerants on the Boulevards
13. Military Degradation
14. The Juggler of the Chateau d'Eau
15. La Morgue
16. The Flower-Market
17. The Meridian of the Palais Royal
18. The Charcoal Porters
19. Procession of the Fete-Dieu
20. A Corps de Garde of the Garde Nationale
21. Promenade of Her Serene Highness the Duchess of Berri...

Abbey, Travel, 114. Colas, 2898. Lipperheide, 1187. Tooley, 444.