Coronation of His Most Sacred Majesty King George the Fourth, The

London: Published by Henry Bohn, 1837. The Coronation of King George the Fourth
Forty-Two Magnificent Hand Colored Plates

NAYLER, Sir George. The Coronation of His Most Sacred Majesty King George the Fourth solemnized in the Collegiate Church of Saint Peter Westminster upon the Nineteenth Day of July MDCCCXXI. Undertaken by His Majesty's Especial Command, by the Late Sir George Nayler, Garter Principal King at Arms, and since his Decease Completed from the Official Documents. London: Published by Henry George Bohn, 1837.

Large folio (22 1/2 x16 1/2 inches; 571 x 419 mm.). [6], lvi, 134, [8, indexes], [1, list of plates], [1, blank] pp. With forty-five plates, of which forty-two are mezzotint, stipple, and aquatint, beautifully colored by hand, and three are uncolored outline plates. All plates interleaved. Text watermarked 1824. Two of the plates watermarked 1824 and one 1837. Small newspaper report of the sale of another copy in 1902 tipped onto title-page.

Publisher's three-quarter red hard-grain morocco over green cloth boards ruled in gilt. Front cover with large onlaid rectangular red morocco panel elaborately decorated in gilt. Spine with five double raised bands, elaborately decorated and lettered in gilt in compartments, yellow coated endpapers, all edges gilt. Armorial bookplate of William Bagnall on front paste-down.

A full pictorial and written account of the coronation of King George IV. Though originally a miniature painter, George Nayler successfully pursued a career as a herald, paying £60 for a place in the College of Arms in 1793. On 25 November 1813 his standing was increased by a knighthood bestowed by the prince regent, ‘possibly as a consolation for failing to be appointed Garter's deputy to invest the Tsar with the Order of the Garter' (ODNB). He officiated as Clarenceux King of arms at the coronation of George IV on 19 July 1821, the last coronation to include the full ceremony of the banquet in Westminster Hall. His magnificent record of this occasion appeared posthumously. As Bohn outlines in the ‘Advertisement'. Nayler embarked on a five-part work, completing only two by his death in 1831. Bohn acquired the plates and augmented them with those of Whittaker's Ceremonial to give a good overview of the event and the names of all participants for the first time.

"Intended to be issued in 5 parts, the first appeared in 1823, the second in 1827. Sir George Nayler died in 1831 and further work was suspended. Bohn acquired the copperplates and copyright in 1837, and combining them with Whittakers plates ‘Ceremonial of the Coronation of George IV', produced the above work. It was republished in 1839" (Tooley).

"In Bohn's edition thirty-three of the costume plates are reprinted from the Whittaker edition, and...with the exception of one by Uwins, the drawings are all by Francis [Philip] and James Stephanoff; while the engravers are S.W. Reynolds, H. Meyer, W. Bond, W. Bennett, E. Scriven, and P.W. Tomkins. Reynolds's work, as might be expected, is mainly in mezzotint. Besides the costume plates there are eight others in aquatint of the Ceremony of the Homage, the Banquet, etc., printed in colour and finished by hand, by Bennett, R. Havell, and M. Dubourg after C. Wild, J. Stephanoff, and Augustus Pugin, the two last working together on architectural views...Another coloured plate, making forty-two in all, is a mezzotint in colour, by S.W. Reynolds after Stephanoff, of the Court of Claims" (Martin Hardie).

Abbey, Scenery, 260 (describing the 1839 impression); Bobins II, 694; Hiler, p. 645; Lipperheide 2690; Martin Hardie, pp. 70-71, 148; Prideaux, pp. 147-148, 330; Tooley 343.