Gould, John (editor); [Walpole, Horace]; [Vertue, George]
A Dictionary of Painters, Sculptors, Architects, and Engravers, Containing Biographical Sketches of the Most Celebrated Artists, From the Earliest Ages to the Present Time
London: Gale and Curtis, 1810. Small octavo, nineteenth-century full vellum, green morocco spine label. Slight bowing to vellum boards, early gift inscription in ink on front pastedown, early notes in ink and pencil to penultimate blank.
A very handsome first edition of this traveler's guide to the art of Europe: “though this work is presented to the Public in the compact and portable size of a pocket volume, yet it will be found to contain a greater variety of matter, and more useful information, than is to be met with in the voluminous works of any writer on the subject." With a four-part appendix devoted to artists of the English School, with content drawn from Horace Walpole's Anecdotes of Painting in England, itself based on the eighteenth-century work of George Vertue. A near-fine copy.
