LEWIS, John Frederick

Lewis's Sketches of Spain & Spanish Character, made during his Tour in that Country, in the years 1833-4. Drawn on Stone from his original Sketches entirely by himself. London, Published by F.G. Moon, Printseller to the King, 20, Threadneedle Street, and John Lewis, 78, Wimpole Street. - Printed at C. Hullmandel's Lithographic Establishment, 49, Gt. Marlborough Street , [1836]. In-folio (536 x 360 mm) title, dedication leaf, and table leaf (List of Subjects), 25 lithographed plates colored at the time. Half eggplant bassoane of the time. Travel in Aquatint and Lithography 1770-1860 from the Library of J. R. Abbey ... A bibliographical catalog, volume I (1956, repr. 1972, 1991), no. 149, p. 129. First edition. A color copy of the period. With a map of the moon The plates depict peasants, smugglers, bullfighters, friars or buildings (churches, convents, plazas, bullring, posada) - mainly in Andalusia (Granada, Seville, Sierra Nevada, Ronda, Gibraltar) but also in Madrid, Toledo and Segovia. The vignette on the title plate shows a bullring after a bullfight. The list of subjects also gives the names of the owners of the original sketches at the time. After his trip to Spain, Lewis not only published this book of lithographs and Lewis's Sketches and Drawings of the Alhambra (1835), but also exhibited numerous watercolors of Spain at the Royal Academy and the Old Watercolour Society between 1833 and 1838. According to the advertisement pasted between the endpapers of the Royal Academy copy, in addition to being published in Imperial Folio (priced at £4.4s.), copies were also available "Coloured and Mounted ... in a Portfolio" (priced at £10.10s.). Stitched copy.