VIEWS OF ANCIENT BUILDINGS IN ENGLAND DRAWN IN DIFFERENT TOURS AND ENGRAVED BY JOHN CARTER COMMENCING 1764..

[London]: J. Carter, Wood & West, 1793. First edition, in six parts, 119 engraved plates, all published. 32mo (12 cm.). 32; [manuscript title page for volume two], 33-64; [manuscript title page for volume three], 65-89 pp. 119 engraved plates, including the title page, which appears only in volume one, as issued [in binding the work in three volumes, manuscript title pages were suppled for volumes two and three], rectos only, each with a caption and a publication line, including date. Volume I, plates I-XXXVIII; volume II, plates XXXIX-LXX[V]III; volume III, plates LXXIX-CXIX (plate LXXVIII was misnumbered LXXIII in all copies). With the ink notation (truncated) for the White Knights Library and the later stamp "Bibliotheca Heberiana" in volume one. Lowndes gives a bad title, incorrectly calling for 120 plates as there were in the posthumously published 4-volume 1824 edition; all other references we have found notes 119 numbered leaves of engraved plates. OCLC locates three copies in the United States (Yale, Newberry, Boston Public) and five in Great Britain. Engraved book plate of George Priestly and 1909 bookplate of Robert Frederick Green in each volume. Very good. 19th century red straight-grain morocco (spines and edges scuffed, small chip at head of volume three), gilt rules and title on spines, all edges gilt. (9774). John Carter (1748-1817), draughtsman, architect, and antiquarian, studied through apprenticeships and eventually became employed by the Society of Antiquaries to work as a draughtsman on its surveys of "ancient" buildings; from a preface to another work, Carter explains that "having explored at different times various parts of England for the purpose of taking sketches and drawings of the remains of ancient sculpture and paintings, his aim is to perpetuate such as he has been so fortunate as to meet with by engraving them" (DNB). This title appeared as lot 7003 in the 1819 auction catalogue of the White Knights Library, the dispersal of a collection amassed by George Spencer-Churchill (1766-1840), Marquess of Blandford and later fifth Duke of Marlborough. Purchased then by Richard Heber, it was once again auctioned when his 100,000 volume library was sold in thirteen separate sales, 1834-1837. (Inventory #: 62044)