Northern Cambrian Mountains - 1817

1817. (WALES) [COMPTON, Thomas]. The Northern Cambrian Mountains, or a Tour Through North Wales, Describing the Scenery and General Characters of that Romantic Country, and Embellished with a Series of Highly-Finished Coloured Views, Engraved from Original Drawings. London: Thomas Clay, 1820. Folio (measures 10 by 13-1/2 inches), contemporary marbled boards sympathetically rebacked and recornered in brown calf, raised bands. $9800.Second and enlarged edition, with 39 magnificent hand-colored aquatint plates of views of North Wales—nine more than the 30 found in the first edition—with descriptive text, handsomely bound.""The Views, which were taken during two Tours in the summers of 1814 and 1815, faithfully represent… striking and beautiful scenes, which are so profusely spread over this interesting portion of the Island, and have been selected… as exhibiting the most characteristic features of the country"" (Preface). Abbey's copy includes an unnumbered, out-of-series lithograph among the aquatint plates for a total of 40, but notes ""The lithograph is perhaps an experiment on the part of the publishers, for the plate shares one leaf of text with Plate 34, and the imprint is dated almost 12 months later than any of the others"" (Abbey). The 38 aquatint plates described in the text and the frontispiece are all present. Plates watermarked 1816 and 1819; text watermarked 1819 (Abbey's copy had plates watermarked 1820). Abbey, Scenery 523. Tooley 157 (with 39 plates, does not mention the lithograph found in Abbey's copy). Prideaux, 346. Hand-coloring beautiful and finely shaded, contemporary marbled boards very nicely rebacked and restored. An excellent copy of this scarce and desirable plate book.