PILKINGTON, Matthew. A Dictionary Of Painters, From The Revival Of The Art To The Present Period …A New Edition, With Considerable Alterations, Additions, An Appendix, And An Index By Henry Fuseli, RA. For J. Johnson; R. Faulder; etc, 1805.
4to. (280 x 215 mm.). Contemporary full tan calf, the joints cracked but firm, the boards decorated with gilt-tooled borders comprising double gilt fillets containing a border made up from a repeated anthemion gilt tool, gilt-tooled shell spandrels at each corner, the spine divided into six compartments with raised bands, gilt-lettered in the second compartment, the remainder richly decorated with gilt-tooled floral devices and curlicues, gilt edges, gilt dentelles, all edges marbled, marbled endpapers; xx, 693 + [1] + [20]pp., index and errata; the engraved armorial bookplate of Henry Mussenden Leathes Esq. of Herringfleet Hall in Suffolk to the front pastedown.
Extra-illustrated with a complete set of seventy-five finely etched portraits of painters and sculptors by James Girtin, each with a tinted border. The portraits were published separately in 1817.
First published in 1770 and greatly expanded over the next thirty years or so. The present edition was the first to be edited by the artist Henry Fuseli who took the opportunity to completely revise the work. Pilkington's work subsequently formed the basis of Bryan's Dictionary of Painters and Engravers.
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