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COLOURED AQUATINTS OF WATERLOO & SURROUNDINGS
BOWYER, Robert, compiler. The Campaign of Waterloo, illustrated with engravings of Les Quatre Bras, La Belle Alliance, Hougoumont, La Haye Sainte, and other principal scenes of action; including a correct military plan, together with a grand view of the battle on a large scale. To which is added a history of the campaign, ...
London, Robert Bowyer (printed by Thomas Bensley and son), 1816. Royal folio (48 x 33 cm). With 6 aquatint views on 3 full-page and 1 double-page folding plates, and 3 full-page engraved plates with a battle plan, 48 numbered portraits of the British and their allies, and 50 numbered portraits of the French, and a large wood-engraved view of the Island of St Helena in the text (plus 1 repeat). Printed on Whatman wove paper. The 6 aquatint views hand-coloured as published. Green half morocco (ca. 1870), marbled sides and endpapers, green morocco title-label on front board.
| Orders and Information | € 2500 |
A finely printed and richly illustrated account of the Waterloo Campaign, culminating in Napoleon's 1815 defeat. The large folding view of the battle (32 x 56.5 cm) shows the final assault on the French on 18 June 1815, a full-page view shows the town a month later, with troops removing the French canons from the field, and four smaller views on two plates show the surrounding villages. Only the battle plan is signed (by the engraver Davies). The main text appears on pages 1 to 30, with detailed notes on the battle plan and views on pages 31 to 34, followed by 10 pages of biographical notes on the 98 figures shown in the portraits, and a 4-page appendix summarizing the events from Napoleon's escape from Elba on 26 February 1815 to his exile to St Helena on 18 October 1815.
Although Abbey gives very different descriptions for his items 354 and 355, the only material difference appears to be that 355 has only a 12-page main text instead of the 34-page text of 354 and the present copy. The paper used for the text and the plates is a mixed stock, mostly watermarked "J Whatman|1811" and "J Whatman|1814" but with one text sheet in the present copy watermarked "J Whatman|1816."
A very good copy and nearly untrimmed (some deckles intact), with a small tear repaired at the foot of the fold of the largest view, running 4 cm into the foreground, and with the battle plan loosely inserted. Binding scuffed. A deluxe souvenir of Napoleon's defeat at Waterloo, finely printed and lavishly illustrated.
