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MATTHEW PILKINGTON — A GENERAL DICTIONARY OF PAINTERS
1824 · Two Volumes · Extra-Illustrated with Engraved Prints
Contemporary Full Blue Morocco Leather
London: Thomas McLean, 1824. A new edition, revised and corrected, with numerous additions, particularly of British artists. Complete in two text volumes.
An extensively extra-illustrated copy of Pilkington’s influential dictionary of painters, enriched with inserted portraits, landscapes, architectural views, and prints after Old Master paintings.
The volumes are bound in contemporary full dark blue straight-grain morocco leather, with elaborate gilt and blind decoration, raised spine bands, marbled endpapers, and all edges gilt.
Volume I has substantial leather loss at the head of the spine. Both volumes contain foxing, heavier on some illustrated leaves. Please see the detailed condition report below.
The Extra Illustrations
The inserted prints expand the dictionary’s biographical entries into a visual collection of artists and their works. Subjects include portraits of painters, British and Continental landscapes, classical compositions, architectural views, and religious and allegorical scenes.
Among the material identified in this set are:
• Villa of Maecenas at Tivoli, after Richard Wilson, engraved by Michael Angelo Rooker and published by John Boydell in 1776
• Architectural and landscape subjects after Giovanni Paolo Panini
• Prints after Rubens and Jacob van Ruisdael
• Classical compositions after Giovanni Battista Cipriani, engraved by William Wynne Ryland
• Material after George Morland, etched by John Swaine
The prints vary in size, paper, date, and technique. This practice of expanding a book with separately acquired illustrations is known as extra-illustration or Grangerization.
The Bindings
Full dark blue straight-grain morocco leather, with broad gilt and blind-tooled cover borders, ornamental corner tools, raised bands, decorated spine compartments, gilt titles and volume numbers, and gilt inner dentelles.
The formal blue-and-gold bindings retain considerable decorative appeal despite their wear.
Provenance
Both volumes bear the bookplate of Rev. E. A. Waller, Farmington. His role, if any, in assembling the extra illustrations has not been established.
Bibliographic Details
• Author: Matthew Pilkington
• Title: A General Dictionary of Painters
• Publisher: Thomas McLean, London
• Date: 1824
• Extent: Two text volumes, complete
• Pagination: Volume I, xvii, 543 pages; Volume II, 568 pages
• Binding: Contemporary full straight-grain morocco leather
• Additional material: Inserted engraved illustrations worn, with a significant defect to Volume I: substantial loss at the head of the spine exposes the underlying structure. The boards and most of the decorated backstrip remain present.
Volume II is better preserved. Both volumes show rubbing, scuffing, and abrasions to the covers, joints, raised bands, corners, and edges, with localized surface loss. Much of the gilt and blind decoration remains clear.
Interiors show variable toning and foxing, pronounced on some plates, title pages, and surrounding margins. The inserted prints vary in condition and include examples with trimming, marginal wear, and handling marks.
Complete in two text volumes. The extra illustrations have not been individually enumerated, and no fixed plate complement is asserted.
Please examine the photographs for the spine loss, binding wear, bookplates, foxing, and representative inserted prints.
