Lot 141
Rees, Abraham
The Cyclopaedia
Auction: 16 June 2026 from 10:00 BST
Description
… or, Universal Dictionary of Arts, Science, and Literature. London: printed for Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme & Brown, 1819-20. First edition, 45 volumes (39 text volumes, 5 plate volumes, 1 map volume), 4to (26.5 x 19cm), 20th-century blue cloth with replaced endpapers, gilt lettering on spines, 1101 engraved plates (236, 230, 196, 177 and 262 in each respective plate volume, complete as checked with index in volume 39), some folding, some double-page, and 62 engraved maps, engraved frontispiece of Rees in volume 1, light fading and staining to bindings, foxing and soiling to some of the plates, occasional foxing to beginning and end of text volumes otherwise internally clean (45)
Footnote
The ‘Cyclopaedia’ appeared serially between January 1802 and August 1820, ‘illustrated with numerous engravings, by the most distinguished artists’. William Blake engraved 7 plates: v. 1 of plates: Armour, plate no. 4 & 5 on 1 leaf; v. 2 of plates: Basso relievo, plate no. 4; v 3 of plates: Miscellany, plate no. 18; v. 4 of plates: Sculpture, plate no. 1-4.