Worksop Robert White, Park Street 1870

xxiv + 201pp + 15 b/w and colour plates, including frontispiece. List of subscribers. Edges of leaves coloured red. Pasted plate with engraving of Roche Abbey attached to end paper. Loose inserts including the original order form for the works published by Robert White, an independent plate engraving showing Roche Abbey (dated 1785) and a photographic postcard dating from c. 1900, also depicting the abbey. Red cloth boards with black inlaid design and gilt lettering, continued on spine. 4to. Vg., with some signs of ageing on edges of boards. Comprehensive study of the history and architecture of Roche Abbey in Yorkshire. Text gives detailed accounts of the various abbots associated with the site, organised chronologically and including Darandus (1147-1159), Reginald (1223-1238) and John Gray (1465-1479). Also featured are chapters on the dissolution and the possessions of the abbey. Text is accompanied by beautifully engraved plates detailing the architectural design of the complex, runic inscriptions found there, as well as prospect views and a comprehensive contemporary map of the site. Included towards the rear of the volume is an account of the flora at Roche Abbey, involving an extensive catalogue of plants and flowers. Significantly, the author also includes an account of the work done to the site under the design and supervision of Lancelot 'Capability' Brown in 1776. Abeling quotes an entry from Gilpin, relating to the site, and also describes Brown's working methods, noting how "Mr. Brown...has committed such havoc in the way of pulling down and covering up, that nothing less than an extensive disinterment can enable us to discover how much of the ruins of Roche remain underground."

London Cassell, Petter, Galpin & Co. nd 1870-1873

Publication in parts begun in 1870 - 104 parts issued, completed 1872. Four volumes, each with chromolithographic frontis. Vol. 1: iv + 412 pp; Vol. 2: iv + 412 pp; Vol. 3: iv + 412pp; and Vol. 4: iv + 428 pp. Small 4to. Publisher's quarter calf with gilt lettering. Vg. Collection of Dresser's series of 31 articles, including the first printing of his article "Principles of Design" within these volumes. The articles formed the basis of the 1876 book, 'Studies in Design'. Dresser's designs include the first appearance of his aesthetic teapot. Other articles include 'Chemistry Applied to the Arts', 'Material on Colour Pigments', 'Civil Engineering', 'Colour Theory' (by A H Church) 'The Lathe', 'Optical Instruments', 'Museums: Their Construction, Arrangement and Management', 'Photography, 'Ship Building', etc. Bright set. A brilliant example of journals at the time demonstrating the whole range of interests the Victorians held in design matters. Cassell's Technical Educator was the most successful of the Victorian self-help part-works. It was a companion to Cassell's New Popular Educator. It appears to have come out in fortnightly issues over a period of 2 years - although most surviving copies seem to have been sold as two or four volume sets. The intended readership was evidently the upwardly mobile class of skilled artisans and mechanics.

Ross printed and sold by W Farror 1818

First edition. viii + 154pp illustrated with portrait frontis, tipped in plates of Goodrich Castle unnumbered and naively drawn map with key at page x. Further illustration of Tintern Abbey. Guide book to the key sites of interest to tourists of the Wye Tour. Small 8vo. Full calf, contemporary binding. Marbled end papers. Small split at head of spine and spine slightly rubbed. Minor foxing to prelims. Interesting local printing from Ross on Wye. Some contemporary annotations on the verso of the dedication leaf concerning the frontis of John Kyle. One or two other minor supplementary notes in the same neat hand on elements mentioned in the guide. Gilpin's 'Observations on the River Wye and Several Parts of South Wales etc., relative chiefly to Picturesque Beauty' was made in the summer of the year 1770 was published in 1782 and became a resounding success. This guide was a one of a number produced in response to the development of the tourist trail in this part of Wales which remains popular today.