Sutherland, Elizabeth Leveson-Gower, Duchess of (1765-1839)
Views on the Northern and Western Coasts of Sutherland
£1,764
Rare Books, Manuscripts, Maps & Photographs
Auction: 07 February 2024 from 10:00 GMT
Description
[London:] Engraved by Mr. F. C. Lewis, c.1833. Engraved title-page with list of contents, engraved map, 22 hand-coloured aquatints after Sutherland by F. C. Lewis (on wove paper, J. Whatman watermarks, 25 x 17cm, tipped to card mounts, 44.5 x 28 cm, a few aquatints mounted at all four corners, mounts with contemporary manuscript numbering), all loose as issued in cloth portfolio inscribed on inside front cover 'For Wm Mackenzie Esqr, with the Duke of Sutherland's kind regards, S.', title-page and map slightly spotted, title-page with a few small nicks to edges [Bobins supplementary list 08/14; S. P. Lohia collection 5560]
Footnote
First and only edition. Very rare on the market: while eight copies of the work are confined to the National Library of Scotland as part of the Sutherland Estate Papers (Acc.13290), no other copy appears to have been offered at auction. The Duchess Sutherland was the driving force behind the modernisation of her family's vast estate and the associated clearance of tenants from highland to coastal areas. A talented watercolourist, she also published a collection of etchings titled Views in Orkney and on the North-Eastern Coast of Scotland, which appeared in 1807.
Provenance: 1) With Charles J. Sawyer (bookseller, London), catalogue 280, 1969; 2) Acquired by the vendor from John Grant (bookseller, Edinburgh) in 1979 (typescript catalogue description included: '[...] Such is the high quality in the faithful reproduction of the artist's work that these subjects have been mistaken for original watercolours').