Beschreibung:

The Country Seats of the United States of North America, with some Scenes connected with them.
Springland, near Bristol, Pennsylvania: William Birch, 1809. Oblong small folio (210 x 277 mm). Hand-colored engraved title, hand-colored engraved section title, 18 hand-colored engraved views. Introduction leaf preceding the plates and 3 leaves of explanation following. Publisher’s drab wrappers with letterpress paper title label on the upper wrapper, rear wrapper in facsimile. Housed in a cloth chemise and morocco-backed slipcase. Condition: 3 plates with moderate to heavy foxing, the others quite clean; wrappers rebacked, minor chips at edges, repaired tear. Provenance: Martin P. Snyder. Plate list, in order of appearance: [Plate 1] The Capital at Washington (vignette on title) [Plate 2] The View from Springland (vignette on second title) [Plate 3] Devon, in Pennsylvania, the Seat of Mr. Dallas. [Plate 4] Mount Sidney, Seat of General Barker, Pennsylvania [Plate 5] Seat of Mr. Duplantier, near New Orleans [Plate 6] Montibello, the Seat of General S. Smith Maryland [Plate 7] Woodlands, the Seat of Mr. W. Hamilton, Pennsylvania [Plate 8] Sedgley, the Seat of Mr. William Crammond, Pennsylvania [Plate 9] Hoboken in New Jersey, the Seat of Mr. John Stevens [Plate 10] Hampton, the Seat of General Ridgley, Maryland [Plate 11] Lansdown, the Seat of the late Wm. Bingham, Pennsylvania [Plate 12] Echo, Pennsylvania, belonging to Mr. Bavarage [Plate 13] Mt. Vernon the Seat of General Washington [Plate 14] Fountain Green, the Seat of Mr. S. Meeker, Pennsylvania [Plate 15] Solitude, in Pennsylvania, belonging to Mr. Penn [Plate 16] Belmont, the Seat of Judge Peters, Pennsylvania [Plate 17] York-Island, with a view of the Seats of Mr. A. Gracie, Mr. Church, etc. [Plate 18] Mendenhall Ferry, Schuylkill, Pennsylvania [Plate 19] China Retreat, Pennsylvania, Seat of Mr. Manigault [Plate 20] Elysian Bower, Springland, Pa. among the earliest and rarest american color plate books and the first on american scenery . Country Seats, Birch’s second book published in America, principally depicts views near Philadelphia (13), but also shows estates in Virginia (most notably Mount Vernon), New York, New Jersey, Maryland and Louisiana. “Birch and his sons, Thomas and George, collaborated on the work, combining line and stipple engraving with delicate coloring to rich effect. The conception of Country Seats was primarily decorative, a handsome series of views aimed at an audience such as might possess country estates themselves” (Reese, Stamped with a National Character). Snyder similarly argues that while Birch’s “Philadelphia Views was inspired by a burst of civic pride and enthusiasm, the Country Seats was much more a work born of Birch's individual background, ambitions, and failures. It was, in fact, the product of a desire to raise the prevailing levels of taste in homes and of a desire to identify himself with the leisurely and wealthy life externally portrayed in his pictures” (Snyder). First issued in four parts for a limited number of subscribers, the work met with little commercial success. “Birch nonetheless proceeded to put his work into book form. After the issue to subscribers was complete, he reissued the plates as one volume in 1809 in a trade edition [as the present copy]. Very few copies appear now to exist. The make-up of the plates and letterpress was identical with the first issue except in three respects: notation of the copyright on the reverse of the title plate; substitution of the revised version of the view of Mount Sidney; and correction of the spelling on one of the plates from ‘Mendenghall’ to ‘Mendenhall’ Ferry” (Snyder). The last copy of this work in wrappers to appear at auction was at Christie’s New York on 22 April 1983; only one other copy has appeared at auction since that time. Howes B460 “c”; Reese, Stamped with a National Character 2; Sabin 5531; Snyder, “William Birch: His Country Seats of the United States” in PMHB, vol. 81, no. 3.