Beckford (William).- Antigüedades Arabes de España [Granada & Cordoba], 2 parts in 1, 31 engraved plates comprising 2 pictorial titles and 29 plates & plans, 14 double-page and/or folding, one signed by Manuel Salvador Carmona, with one letterpress leaf of introduction & list of plates but no title (?as issued), washed but with traces of water-staining and light browning, William Beckford's copy with Bernard Quaritch's printed Beckford/Hamilton Palace Library bookplate preserved on front pastedown, also that of John Waldie, modern half calf over marbled boards in Beckford style with L-shaped corner-pieces and double gilt fillets, spine ruled in gilt with red morocco label, large folio, [?Madrid], [1780].

⁂ Rare early pictorial study of the Moorish architecture of Spain, notably the Alhambra in Granada and the Mosque-Cathedral of Cordoba, commissioned by the Spanish government from the Royal Academy of Fine Arts. A second volume was published in 1804. We have been able to trace only 3 records of copies at auction, two of just this volume.

Provenance: William Beckford (1760-1844), novelist, writer and collector, whose library passed to his son-in-law, the 10th Duke of Hamilton, and was sold in the great Hamilton Palace sales of 1882-83. Many of Beckford's books were bound with a gilt cinquefoil from his mother's Hamilton arms on the spine or corners.

Hamilton Palace sale (1882) Part I lot 287 "fine plates, half russia" (Quaritch £3).