Boydell (John & Josiah) A Set of Prints Engraved after the Most Capital Paintings in the Collection of Her Imperial Majesty The Empress of Russia, Lately in the Possession of the Earl of Orford at Houghton in Norfolk; with Plans, Elevations, Sections, Chimney Pieces & Ceilings, 2 vol., first edition, text in English and French, engraved portrait frontispiece of Empress Catherine II by Caroline Watson after Alexander Roslin in vol. 1, vol. 2 lacking portraits frontispiece of Robert Walpole, engraved titles with vignettes, engraved dedication to vol.1, 28 engraved plans, elevations and interiors of Houghton Hall on 19 sheets, and 129 plates on 105 sheets (1 double-page), mostly engravings or mezzotints from paintings by Bartolozzi, Boydell, Farington, Earlom, Green, Fittler, Heath and others, after Rembrandt, Poussin, Claude, Leonardo, Caracci, Rubens, Titian and others, many excellent impressions, well inked with strong contrasts, and including some scratched letter and unlettered proof impressions, titles and dedications with some spotting, chips and repaired tears, vol. 2 with dampstaining to lower corner, heavier at start, mostly to margins but straying into a few images, double-page plate with tape repair to verso, a few plates creased, a few short tears to margins, some repaired, a few plates trimmed within margins, bookplates to pastedowns, modern half morocco, [Brunet I, 1192; Lowndes III, 856], large folio (670 x 495mm.), John and Josiah Boydell, 1788.

⁂ Large and finely engraved record of the large collection of paintings formed by Sir Robert Walpole at Houghton Hall sold en bloc to Empress Catherine II of Russia.

Provenance: James Archibald Campbell (1807-1879, bookplate with autograph note: "These two volumes... offered to me... by James Archibald Cameron, in apparently good health, Dec. 9, 1879. Mr Campbell died the same evening about 9p.m.").