OBSERVATIONS ON ITALY

First Edition and a copy with notable provenance having belonged to Earl Granville KG and then to Edward and Hugh Greenfield Doggett. Illustrated with nine finely engraved full-page plates of iconic Florentine scenes, engraved by Lizars after the art of Gherardi and Bell. 4to, handsomely bound by Simier, binder to the King of France, in full red straight-grain morocco, the covers elaborately decorated with multiple gilt fillet rules at the borders, enclosing an inner roll tooled border in blind, surrounding a series of gilt ruled inner panels, the main panel exquisitely tooled in gilt with large corner pieces and multi-filleted rules connecting the pieces, the spine panel with raised bands gilt ruled and decorated, compartments with fine gilt tooling, one compartment lettered in gilt, all edges gilt, endleaves dyed, elaborately gilt turnovers incorporating roll-tooled borders enclosing gilt fillet rules. xii, [2], 356 pp. a fine, clean and crisp copy internally, the plates show a bit of mellowing at the edges, the binding strong and sound, light wear at the extremities, sometime rebacked incorporating the original spine panel.