Lot 275: BURY, Thomas Talbot (bapt. 1809, d. 1877). Coloured Views on the Liverpool and Manchester Railway ... from drawings made on the spot . London: R. Ackermann, 1833-1832.

BURY, Thomas Talbot (bapt. 1809, d. 1877). Coloured Views on the Liverpool and Manchester Railway ... from drawings made on the spot. London: R. Ackermann, 1833-1832.

2 parts, large 4° (349 x 270 and 353 x 292mm). 13 hand-coloured aquatint plates by H. Pyall and S.G. Hughes after Bury. (Plates 3 and 6 with small light stains to image, marginal waterstain to plate 5, short marginal tear to plates 6-7, some light creasing and marginal soiling.) Part I: blue half morocco by Period Binders, Bath, part II: original green printed wrappers, uncut (wrappers somewhat creased and browned), both parts in modern cloth box, preserving mid 19th-century morocco label. Provenance: Alexandre de Francy (part I interleaved and with his explanatory manuscript notes in French in a neat copperplate hand).

Second edition of part I, first edition of part II. Considered to be the finest of several series of prints published to commemorate the opening of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway on 15 September 1830. When a competition was held the year before the opening to decide upon the best locomotive, Stephenson's Rocket was unanimously declared the winner. De Francy may well have been involved in the construction of the railway as his explanatory notes on each plate show an expert knowledge. Abbey Life 400. (2)

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No VAT on hammer price or buyer's premium.