Lot 108
Elphinstone, John
A Set of Twelve Views of the Castle, & other Public Buildings in & about Edinburgh
Auction: Other Properties | Wed 25 February from 10am | Lots 63 to 255
Description
[cover-title]. Edinburgh: for A. Donaldson, 1760. First and apparently only edition, oblong folio (25.2 x 38cm), original printed wrappers (with title, list of contents and imprint to front), stitched as issued, 12 engraved plates after John Elphinstone mainly by Nathaniel Parr, no letterpress
Footnote
Extremely rare: no other copy traced in libraries, auction records or bibliographical literature. Examples of the individual prints making up the volume are held by institutions including the National Galleries of Scotland and Edinburgh University Library, catalogued with the conjectural date of c.1740. The Honourable John Elphinstone (1706-1753), son of the 9th Baron Elphinstone, was a military engineer and cartographer best known for his map of Scotland, A New and Correct Mercator's Map of North Britain, which was dedicated to the Duke of Cumberland and published a few months before the outbreak of the 1745 Jacobite Rebellion, during which it was used by both sides to plot their movements.