Lot 150
Stirling-Maxwell, Sir William
Annals of the Artists of Spain
The Library of James Stirling, Mathematician
Auction: 23 October 2025 from 13:00 BST
Description
[And:] Talbotype Illustrations to the Annals of the Artists of Spain. London: John Ollivier, 1848-7. 4 volumes (Annals in 3 volumes, Talbotype Illustrations in 1 volume), 8vo (22.5 x 13.2cm), original blue cloth by Bone and Son (with their ticket), spines lettered in gilt, heraldic devices to covers in gilt, xliii 508, [3] 510-948, [3] 950-1481 ii, xii [2] pp., each volume of Annals with engraved additional title-page with aquatint and hand-colouring, title-pages printed in red and black, initials printed in red, engraved dedication leaf printed in red and black to volume 1, volumes 1 and 2 with a total of 12 engraved plates on india paper (mounted as issued) and 2 lithographic plates, Talbotype Illustrations with 66 Talbotype plates (i.e. salted paper prints from calotype negatives) executed by Nicolaas Henneman under the supervision of the author (various dimensions, from 8 x 6cm to 13 x 19cm), mounted as issued (with printed frames and numbers to mounts), Talbotype title-page and dedication (both also mounted), armorial bookplates of James Stirling, mild toning to spines, Talbotype Illustrations with faint mottling to covers, spotting to edges of textblocks, a few scattered instances of spotting internally, variable fading to Talbotypes, slight undulation to mounts of Talbotypes [Gernsheim 9]
Footnote
First edition of ‘the first art-historical work illustrated by photography’ (Gernsheim), presentation copy from the author, inscribed ‘To James Stirling Esqr … from W. S., Keir, Jan. 1 1849’ in Talbotype Illustrations on the verso of the title-page.
‘In 1848, William Stirling, later Sir William Stirling Maxwell (1818-1878), published his three-volume Annals of the Artists of Spain, the first scholarly history of Spanish art in English, as well as the first contextual history of Spanish art in any language. Another pioneering feature of this work was that the three text volumes were accompanied by a limited edition fourth volume of Talbotype illustrations. The existence of this fourth volume of Talbotypes has enabled the Annals of the Artists of Spain to be hailed as the first art history book to be illustrated with photographs. Despite the Talbotypes’ shortcomings as reproductions of works of art, this volume marked the beginning of a revolution in the methodology of art history, in which photographs and photographically illustrated books would become essential tools’ (Macartney).
This appears to be the first copy of the Talbotype Illustrations to have come to auction in over 10 years, and only the second in 60 years. Fifty copies were printed, of which 25 were in the present octavo format, and 25 on large paper (28 x 18cm), with 16 surviving copies being counted in Hilary Macartney's survey. The three text volumes, Annals of the Artists of Spain, were printed in a run of 750 sets in octavo and 25 on large paper; the present set is one of 25 special sets of the octavo issue, which were probably intended for presentation, and contain 'proof impressions of the plates on india paper, and two extra plates, being the dedication, and the Virgin and Child, facing page 795’ according to a limitation statement facing the title-page of the first volume.
Literature: Hilary Macartney, ‘William Stirling and the Talbotype Volume of the Annals of the Artists of Spain', History of Photography 30 (4), pp. 291-308.