WALES ILLUSTRATED: 220 VIEWS/2 LEATHER BOOKS/ RARE 1830

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WALES ILLUSTRATED: 220 VIEWS/2 LEATHER BOOKS/ RARE 1830 STEEL ENGRAVINGS CASTLES RUINS / COMPARE $750- $1000+ WALES ILLUSTRATED, IN A SERIES OF VIEWS, PICTURESQUE SCENERY, TOWNS, CASTLES, SEATS OF THE NOBILITY & GENRY, ANTIQUITIES, &c. ENGRAVED IN STEEL FROM ORIGINAL DRAWINGS BY HENRY GASTINEAU. ACCOMPANIED BY HISTORICAL AND TOPOGRAPHICAL DESCRIPTIONS. VOLUMES I & II. London: Jones & Co., 1830. First Edition. Very Rare two-volume set. A handsome complete set of two large leather-bound books containing 220 fine illustrations of Welsh landscapes, towns, stately homes, ruins, etc. These lovely big books offer descriptions and pictures of castles, ruined abbeys, towns, harbors, mountains, lakes, and other picturesque and characteristic scenery of Wales. These handsome books are lavishly illustrated throughout with 109 full illustrated plates, each containing 2 pictures on each page, and there are two title pages with illustrations. Therefore there are about 220 pictures in total. The books are solid and complete and in excellent condition. With early armorial bookplates of Christopher Cole and gift inscriptions dated 1855. These books retain the original handsome leather bindings with raised bands and gilt lettering on the spine. Published more than 180 years ago, this set of books is now very rare and sought-after, usually selling for between $750 and $1000+, a very reasonable price on a per picture basis. Such a nice First Edition set is not likely to come up for sale again soon on ebay. From 'Cambria': " WALES, whether considered with reference to the nature of the country, its picturesque scenery, geographical features, or rare productions, independent of its history, as a people whose circumstances, actions, and fate, stand single and unparalleled in the annals of the world, possesses peculiar interest, and is of the highest possible importance. Varied as is the face of it, with mountains, woods, rivers, lakes, and cataracts, it becomes particularly inviting to the artist, or the admirer of Nature; and the numerous vestiges of antiquity, which lead reflection back to the scenes and transactions of remote periods, are calculated stronglv to arrest the attention of the historian and antiquary to a country long the asylum of freedom and religion; to a nation which, from the earliest period of its existence, was distinguished by independency of spirit,—which for ages defended the rights of Nature, and, as in the recent case of France, hurled defiance against the oppressors of mankind. Antiquaries have been divided in their opinions respecting the origin of the names Cambria or Wales, usually given to that portion of Britain situated to the west of the rivers Severn and Dee. The derivation, however, of the former is clearly deduced from the original inhabitants having been a tribe of the Celfae or Gauls, known under the denomination of Cymbri and Cymri; whence the Romans, agreeable to the genius of their language, would call the country inhabited by such people, in Latin, Cambria. As to the latter term, which the Saxons appear to have applied to this territory, and also to Danmonium, which comprised Devonshire and Cornwall, the etymology is not so obviously manifest. It has been by some writers observed, that Walsh, in the northern languages of Europe, signifies a stranger, and the Britons being totally unlike their conquerors, in speech and customs, were, from that dissimilarity, called Welsh, and their country, Wales. Others, dissatisfied with this opinion, suppose, from the apparent conformity in language and manners between these Britons and the Gauls, the Saxons gave them the same appellation. But the learned Sumner remarks upon this supposition, that the Saxon conquerors did not so designate them till they had expelled them beyond the Severn; that the Saxon verb weallan means, to wander; and that by this denomination they intended to brand them as fugitives. A more modern antiquary, however, contends, that the name was applied to the Britons much earlier than is stated by Mr. Sumner; for the S... read more

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