Lot 263
Catton, Charles, the Younger
Rare Books, Manuscripts, Maps & Photography
Auction: 31 August 2016 at 12:00 BST
Description
Animals drawn from Nature and Engraved in Aquatint. London: Printed for the Author and sold by I. and J. Taylor. First edition, oblong folio (426 x 275mm.), 36 fine hand-coloured aquatint plates by and after Catton heightened with white and gum arabic, contemporary calf gilt in upright folio format, covers with neo-classical borders, gilt turn-ins, marbled edges, neatly rebacked, endpapers renewed, some rubbing
Footnote
Note: First edition, marking the earliest use of aquatint for a work on natural history. This copy varies from others in having been bound in an upright rather than oblong format, the plates being mounted on contemporary blanks (watermarked 1794) and then framed within pen-and-ink and wash borders, with captions and numbering in ink. The son of the artist Charles Catton the Elder (1828-1798), coach painter to George III and founder-member of the Royal Academy, Charles Catton the younger was taught by his father and admitted to the Royal Academy Schools in 1775. He worked as a landscape artist in England and Scotland, exhibiting some 37 paintings at the Royal Academy between 1775 and 1800. As a book illustrator, he prepared designs to illustrate Gay's Fables as well as the plates for the present work, but emigrated to North America in 1805. Nissen ZBI 847.
Provenance: H.R.H. The Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester, KG, KT, KP, armorial bookplate