Beschreibung:

The City of Philadelphia, in the State of Pennsylvania North America; as it appeared in the Year 1800 consisting of Twenty Eight Plates.
Springland Cot, near Neshaminy Bridge on the Bristol Road, Pennsylvania”: 31 December 1800 [but 1798-1800]. Oblong folio (387 x 460 mm). Engraved title-page with the arms of Pennsylvania, hand-colored engraved Frontispiece, letterpress introduction and plate list, engraved Plan of the City of Philadelphia by W. Barker, 28 hand-colored engraved plates (including two extra-illustrations), letterpress Subscriber’s list and Prospectus leaf. Contemporary full calf, ruled in gilt, green morocco gilt title label on the upper cover. Housed in a morocco-backed clamshell box. Condition: repaired tears to the title and table of contents, repaired tears or other restoration to most plates, 5 plates paper-backed, several plates with light mat burn; rebacked to style, recased maintaining the original marbled endpapers but with new blanks, restoration at the corners. Provenance: William Hayward; Joseph Chamberlain (1883 gift inscription on the front free endpaper from Hayward to Chamberlain); Martin Snyder (obtained from A. S. W. Rosenbach). Plate list, in order of appearance: [Plate 1] The City of Philadelphia [engraved title-page] [Plate 2] Frontispiece. The City & Port of Philadelphia, on the River Delaware from Kensington. [Plate 3] Plan of the City. [Plate 4] Arch-street Ferry, a commercial scene, with shipping, &c. [Plate 5] Arch-street, with the Second Presbyterian Church. [Plate 6] New Lutheran Church, in Fourth-street. [Plate 7] Old Lutheran Church, in Fifth-street. [Plate 8] South east corner of Market and Third street. [Plate 9] New Presbyterian Church, in Market-street. [Plate 10] Perspective View of the inside of the Market-place. [Plate 11a] High Street, From the Country Market-place Philadelphia. State 1. [Plate 11b] High Street, From the Country Market-place. State 2, depicting Washington's funeral procession. [Plate 12] High-street from Ninth-street. [Plate 13] The House intended for the President of the U.S. in Ninth-street. [Plate 14] An unfinished house, in Chesnut-street. [Plate 15] Second-street north from Market-street, with Christ Church. [Plate 16] New-Market, in South Second-street. [Plate 17a] Bank of the United States, in Third Street. [Plate 17b] Bank of the United States, with a View of Third Street. [Plate 18] View in Third-street from Spruce-street. [Plate 19] Library and Surgeons' Hall, Fifth-street. [Plate 20] Congress Hall and New Theatre, in Chesnut-street. [Plate 21] State-House, in Chesnut street. [Plate 22] Back of the State-House. [Plate 23] State-House Garden. [Plate 24] Gaol, in Walnut Street. [Plate 25] Alms-House, in Spruce-street. [Plate 26] Pennsylvania Hospital, in Pine Street. [Plate 27] Pennsylvania Bank, in Second-street. [Plate 28] Water-works in Centre Square. [Plate 29] Preparation for War to Defend Commerce. Swedish Church, Southwark, with the building of a frigate. the first american color plate book, a noted rarity and the best depiction of philadelphia as the capital of the infant united states. William Birch, a celebrated painter of miniatures on enamel, emigrated from England in 1794, arriving in Philadelphia at a time of enormous growth. The city was the capital of the United States and the center of the nation's trade and commerce. Indeed, in the last decade of the 18th century, the city's population increased fifty per cent. Houses, churches, and other buildings were being erected all over the city, including an executive mansion for President George Washington. Important facilities and institutions, such as The Pennsylvania Hospital, the Philadelphia Library, and Alexander Hamilton's Bank of the U.S. were opening. "Birch's eye was trained for the visual aspect of life around him, and its impact upon him was such that he decided to record it" (Snyder, William Birch: His Philadelphia Views). The Introduction to this first edition explains the artist's intent: “The ground on which [the city of Philadelphia] stands, was, less than a century ago, in a state of wild nature, covered wi