25 - [ARMORY - MADRID]. VALENCIA DE DON JUAN, widowed Count of. (Juan Crooke y Navarrot). Historical and Descriptive Catalog of the Royal Armory of Madrid.

[ARMORY - MADRID]. VALENCIA DE DON JUAN, widowed Count of. (Juan Crooke y Navarrot). Historical and Descriptive Catalog of the Royal Armory of Madrid. First edition of the catalog of the prestigious collection of the Royal Armory of Madrid, illustrated with numerous in-text and out-of-text reproductions; a very fine first-impression copy on Japanese paper, in an attractive binding embossed with the coat of arms of the Kingdom of Spain. Madrid, n.p. Fototipias de Hauser Y Menet (Imprenta de S.F. de las Heras), 1898. Quarto, full chocolate morocco, ribbed spine decorated with the title and author’s name in gilt letters, date at the bottom, covers stamped with the coat of arms of the Kingdom of Spain, guilloché endpapers, gilt fillet on the edges, interior roulette, white rep linings and endpapers, gilt head, original covers preserved (contemporary binding). XV, 447 pp. and 3 unnumbered folios. 334 black-and-white illustrations in the text and 26 plates at the end. Spine faded, slight scuffing, top worn down, slight crack beginning at the bottom of the spine. First edition of the catalog of the Royal Armory of Madrid, one of the world’s richest collections of weapons and armor, including, notably, the royal suits of armor of Charles V and Philip II. Compiled by Juan Crooke y Navarrot, the widowed Count of Valencia de Don Juan (1839–1904), it is illustrated with numerous engravings and phototypic reproductions in the text, as well as 26 separate plates, depicting the suits of armor, breastplates, helmets, shields, bucklers, saddles, bridles, firearms, and bladed weapons that make up this prestigious collection. Limited edition of 200 numbered copies; this is one of the first 50 copies printed on Japanese paper (no. 31). A fine copy of the first edition, in an elegant binding featuring the coat of arms of the Kingdom of Spain.