Author: Allen, Thomas: (Whittock, Nathaniel, illust.:)
Title: A New and Complete History of the County of York. Illustrated by a Series of Views engraved on steel from original drawings by Nathaniel Whittock.
Publication: London: I. T. Hinton, 1828; 1831; 1831.
Description: 3 vols., 4to., pp. [v], vi-x, 491, [i] + York cathedral frontispiece, engraved title-page and 13 further plates; [ii], 598 + frontispiece, engraved title and 30 further plates; [ii], 550 + frontispiece, engraved title and 96 further plates. Plates quite foxed but only occasional foxing elsewhere, some plates have offset toning onto the page opposite. The Boston Castle plate opposite p.505, vol. III, has wax on it: the image is unaffected, though p.505 has lost 5-6 words. The Scarborough Museum plate is bound opposite p.456 instead of p.446 as listed. Later half tan calf neatly rebacked in a slightly later colour with spines retained, titles and volume numbers gilt lettered directly, marbled boards and endpapers. Rubbed and a bit chipped, a few scuffs, edges worn, but still a good set. Each volume is divided into books (vol.I, books I-III; vol.II books IV-V; vol.III books VI-VII). Bookplate of The Constitutional Club to the front paste-down of each volume, and the Club's crest at the tail end of each spine.
The Constitutional Club was a London gentlemen's club with premises (now demolished) at 28 Northumberland Avenue, just off Trafalgar Square. It was established in 1883, disbanded in 1979.Closely aligned with the Conservative party, it counted P.G. Wodehouse among its members and appears in disguised form in several of his novels, including two Psmith novels (Psmith in the City (1910) and Leave it to Psmith (1923)) and Pearls, Girls and Monty Bodkin (1972). Thomas Allen (1803-1833) was a prolific writer and illustrator of topographical works, producing in his short life volumes on The History and Antiquities of the Parish of Lambeth and the Archiepiscopal Palace (1827); The History and Antiquities of London, Westminster, and Southwark (1827-1828); A New and Complete History of the County of York (1828?31); A History of the Counties of Surrey and Sussex (1829?30); guidebooks to London (1830) and some plates and articles for the Gentleman's Magazine. At the time of his death he had begun publication of A History of the County of Lincoln. Allen's works 'were almost all published in several parts, tosatisfy the demand for cheap, illustrated topographies from a public eager for historical detailsenlivened by romantic and picturesque scenery'. (Baigent, ODNB)
Bibliography:
Reference Number: [54598]
Price: £375
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