Details
Lake Price and Richard Ford

Tauromachia, or the Bull-Fights of Spain... representing the most remarkable incidents and scenes in the arenas of Madrid, Seville, and Cadiz. London: J. Hogarth, 1852. Large 2° (540 x 373mm). Hand-coloured lithographic additional title and 25 hand-coloured lithographic plates after Lake Price, trimmed and mounted on card in imitation of watercolours. (Title and 6 plates with generally light but obtrusive spotting.) Contemporary marbled morocco gilt, covers with decorative border of rolls and fillets, the upper cover lettered in gilt with title and artist's name, spine in seven compartments with raised bands, blue morocco lettering-piece in the second, the others with repeat decoration made up from various small tools, gilt turn-ins, gilt edges (light scuffing to extremities). Provenance: Frecheville L.B.Dykes (armorial bookplate).

A FINE COPY OF THE DE LUXE COLOURED ISSUE OF ONE OF THE GREATEST ILLUSTRATED WORKS ON BULL-FIGHTING TO BE PUBLISHED DURING THE 19TH-CENTURY. Richard Ford, in the preface, writes of the bull-fight: 'This spectacle, so full of varied interest, and quite peculiar to the Peninsula, links the past with the present... it brings out the living people of Spain in all their genuine nationality; to the Artist, the exhibition is singularly attractive; the combinations of local colour and custom, the pomp and circumstance of the combat, are no less picturesque than the attitudes and actions of the performers and spectators are energetic and impassioned... it falls to the lot of comparatively few to behold these stirring sports in their startling reality. At them, my friend Mr. Lake Price has had the good fortune to be repeatedly present; he has made himself perfectly acquainted with the whole performance... Accordingly, a mirror of the Bull-fight, from beginning to the end, is now held up in his series of plates, which are confidently submitted to the indulgence and patronage of the public.' Palau 236895; Tooley 385.

More from IMPORTANT ATLASES, COLOUR-PLATE AND NATURAL HISTORY BOOKS

View All
View All