CORDINER, Charles author and illustrator]. Remarkable Ruins, and Romantic Prospects, of North Britain. With ancient Monuments, and singular Subjects of Natural History … The Engravings by Peter Mazell. [London]: Publish’d as the Act directs July 17th. 1788. by Peter Mazell engraver, No. 32 James Street Covent Garden, [1788-1795].
Two volumes, 4to. Contemporary marbled sheep, gilt foliate border to covers, flat spines, rebacked retaining the original twin red morocco labels, marbled endpapers, marbled edges, pink silk page-markers; with 99 leaves of plates, including engraved frontispiece and engraved vignette title in vol. I; corners and extremities restored; bound without second engraved title (as is sometimes the case), some very light off-setting and spotting, but overall very clean; Provenance: Wrest Park armorial bookplate of Thomas Philip de Grey, 2nd Earl de Grey (1781-1859).
First edition, the Wrest Park copy, bound from the original parts, of this charming visual and verbal description of Scotland, an ‘early contribution to the construction of a romantic image of the Scottish Highlands’ (ODNB). Charles Cordiner (c. 1746-1794) was a Scottish Episcopal clergyman and antiquary from Banff, Aberdeenshire. His Remarkable Ruins is a miscellany of illustrations with commentary published in parts every three months from 1788 to 1795. Each part features two plates of landscapes, one of antiquities, and one of marine animals. The choice of subjects was likely influenced by Thomas Pennant’s circular distributed to Scottish clergymen before his second tour of Scotland in 1772, which outlined topics of interest. Pennant later claimed credit for inspiring Cordiner’s work. The illustrations, all by Cordiner, were engraved by Peter Mazell, a London-based Irish painter and engraver who also provided the engravings for Pennant’s Tours.
ESTC T56849
#2120406