A compleat treatise on perspective, in theory and practice; on the tru
MALTON, Thomas. A Compleat Treatise on Perspective, in Theory and Practice; on the True Principles of Dr. Brook Taylor. [4], viii, [8], 284 pp. Illustrated with an engraved frontispiece and 46 numbered, mostly folding engravings, five with moveable parts. London: Printed for the author, and sold by Messrs. Robson, et al., 1776. BOUND WITH:
An Appendix or second Part to the Compleat Treatise on Perspective. 160 pages : 10 plates, one with a moveable part. Folio. 367 x 232 mm, bound in period English polished calf, over original boards. London: Printed for the author, and sold by Messrs. Robson, et al., 1783.
Rare First Edition of both parts. A fine copy of both parts of Malton's work on perspective, written as a guide for painters and artists. According to the entry by CCA, the first edition of the first part from 1776 is "one of the 300 copies delivered to subscribers before the rest were destroyed in the printer's fire of 2 Mar. 1776. 'An appendix, or second part' was published in 1783, delayed seven years because of the fire" (Canadian Center for Architecture, online catalogue).
Malton's Compleat Treatise on Perspective, is one of the special genre of scientific books to possess illustrations with "cut-out" parts or folding moveable flaps. Five of the forty-six engravings have tipped-on diagrams meant to be folded into geometrical figures, much like John Dee's Euclid (1570) and/or Cowley's Theory of Perspective Demonstrated (1765-6).
Thomas Malton (1748-1804) published two books on geometry and perspective before being appointed professor at the Royal Academy in 1775. As professor of art and perspective, his classes were attended by J.M.W. Turner and Thomas Girtin. Malton exhibited his views of London and other paintings at the Royal Academy and was awarded a prestigious prize by the Society of Arts. In 1792 he published the work by which he is now best known: A Picturesque Tour through the Cities of London and Westminster, illustrated with a hundred colour aquatint plates. Between 1798 and 1800 he produced Views from Cambridge, and was at work on a similar title on Views from Oxford at his death.
The present work was widely used during the eighteenth century by British artists and painters as the basic text on perspective. Nearly all of Malton's illustrations demonstrate use of perspective as it pertains to artistic representation in painting, drawing, and engraving. Specifically, he offers techniques for portraying perspective in rendering interior spaces, as well as for furniture (bookcases, desks, chairs, organs), shadows from candle light, carriages with moving wheels, domes and ceilings, stairwells, opened windows and doors, buildings (Queen's Palace St James Park, the Royal Hospital, and St. Paul's Covent Garden), Doric arcades, Ionic capitals, vases, cubes, curvilinear objects, vanishing points of tiled floors, globes and spheres, etc. The plates were engraved by the author, Peter Mazell, Tobias Miller (i.e. Mueller), Anker Smith, and Joseph Colyer, all after Malton.
Malton's text is divided into four books: Book One discusses light and colour, theory of vision, and chapters on reflection, transparency, and refraction; Book Two focuses on the Theory of Perspective; Book Three on the Practice of Perspective, and Book Four contains observations on light and shade, shadows, and reflected light on water, in mirrors, etc. In the Preface Malton refers to the contents of his Appendix, but according to the records of CCA (see above) this Appendix was not printed until 7 years later in 1783 due to a fire in the printer's establishment. Fine, complete copies of this work are exceedingly rare; most were heavily used by artists, and the moveable parts were worn and eventually removed. This copy is extremely fresh.
PROVENANCE: Richard Dunne, Stamp on title page.
Not in Millard, Fowler, Harris, Berlin Katalog. Listed only once in Weinreb Architectural catalogues: Catalogue 1, no. 101 (1961) (and that was the second edition of 1778!). Blau & Kaufmann, Architecture and Its Image 28.
Item nr. 169229
Price:
$18,500.00