Picturesque Tour of the Seine, from Paris to the Sea; with Particulars Historical and Descriptive

London: R. Ackermann, 1821. First Edition. Near fine. A. Pugin, J. Gendall. 4to, 13 1/2 x 11 (343 x 280 mm), pp. x, 177, title vignette and 24 hand colored aquatints, map. Later three-quarter yellow levant morocco with fillets, spine decorated in gilt with 5 raised bands and black title label; marbled boards and endpapers, a.e.g.. Spine and boards in very good condition, binding tight and square, text and plates with very occasional spotting.
[Abbey, Travel 90; Tooley 445; Bobins, Exotic and the Beautiful II: 548]. This is a first printing of one of the great nineteenth-century English color plate books illustrating the scenery along the Seine from Paris to Le Havre. Luminous impressions of the plates, beautifully hand-colored. Engraved by Thomas Sutherland (1785 - 1825) and Daniel Havell (1785 - 1826) from sketches and drawings by Augustus Pugin (1812 - 1852) and John Gendall (1790 - 1865), the illustrations also include a vignette on the title page representing the Château de Rosny (home of the Duchess of Berry), a large vividly-colored vignette on the last page, and a colored map. Views of Le Havre, Rouen, Elbeuf, Honfleur, Vernon, Mantes, Saint-Germain, Saint-Cloud, Paris, etc. The album is dedicated to King Louis XVIII. The color prints are a veritable tableaux presenting the architecture, landscapes, and inhabitants of this region before the industrial revolution.
The work was issued by Ackermann between January and June 1821 in 6 separate parts, each containing 4 plates. Seven hundred and fifty copies were printed on regular paper, at 14s per part, as the present copy, and fifty large-paper copies were also issued. The wrappers of the original issue read "The River Seine is well known to form a distinguished feature in the Tour of France, as it winds through and adorns the important province of Normandy, and is the great commercial Channel of the Metropolis of that Kingdom. This River reflects, in its earlier stream, the most striking views of metropolitan grandeur; and, as it proceeds, Nature has been most lavish in beautiful pictures on its banks, and presents, in its course, a succession of objects, whose landscape enrichments are connected with antiquarian circumstances peculiarly interesting to the English Traveller.