188 - MORRIS, Francis Orpen. A Series of Picturesque Views (.) of Great Britain and Ireland.

MORRIS, Francis Orpen. A Series of Picturesque Views (.) of Great Britain and Ireland. London, William Mackenzie, 1880. In-4 (28 x 22 cm). Paperback, bound in the publisher’s rust-colored percaline, with black and gold titles and embossed motifs on the covers and spine. 6 vols., each illustrated with 40 chromolithographic plates. Slight scuffing on the caps, foxing on the half-leather bands, plates in very good condition. First edition. Originally published in installments between 1864 and 1880 by Longman, under the title: "The County Seats of the Noblemen and Gentlemen of Great Britain and Ireland," then by D. Banks in Leeds; the work was finally sold by subscription in six volumes in 1880 by William Mackenzie. Each volume is beautifully illustrated with 40 full-color chromolithographic plates, protected by endpapers (including the title vignette). The text is the work of the Irish pastor, ornithologist, and entomologist Francis Orpen Morris (1810–1893), while the plates, of great beauty, were drawn by the illustrator Alexander Francis Lydon (1836/37–1917) and printed by Benjamin Fawcett (1808–1893) using the Baxter process. This technically demanding process required a separate woodblock for each color, resulting in remarkable precision and depth. A beautiful, complete set in the publisher’s original cardboard slipcase.