Ruins of Many Lands. A Descriptive Poem.

London: William Tegg and Co.. Very Good- with no dust jacket. 1850. Hardcover. Moderate rubbing to leather at joints and edges and corners of boards. Gutter split at front hinge. The portrait frontispiece has moderate foxing and a vertical crease to the inner margin. Provenance: An owner's inscription on front fly leaf - "Sophia Eleanor Mercer - A precious heirloom, not to go out of the family - left by me to my grandson John Lawrence Anderson and not to go out of the family "Nellie Mercer" nee Wray mentioned in note by Richard Bate - who illustrated this book when over 70 years old". ; Second edition. [1-4] i-viii (IX-XVI, hand-numbered additional manuscript leaves listing 95 plates, pp. XIV-XVI blank except for hand-numbering) (9)-394 pages. Portrait frontispiece. Extra-illustrated with 95 additional pen, ink and wash drawings by Richard Bate. These are the original ink and wash drawings, i.e. not mechanically reproduced. The illustrations are presumably all based on other printed illustration sources. On a couple of the illustrations, the source is named: illustration number 3, "Procession of the Bull beneath the mound of NIMROUD" gives as the source "from Layard's Nineveh"; and illustration number 12 "A General View of the Great Temple at Edfou" gives the source from which the ink sketch has been rendered as the "Pictorial Bible". The illustrations are skillful and evocative. They are generally in black ink only, a few also use a light brown sepia colour, e.g. number 3 "Procession of the Bull beneath the mound of NIMROUD." Each illustration initialed by hand "R. B.", and dated between 1854 and 1856. Dates usually indicate the month, sometimes just the year. Each illustration of an ancient ruin matches a reference to that ruin in the lines of the poem, the line being annotated with the number of the corresponding illustration. Handwritten list of the titles of the illustrations bound in with the preliminary leaves. Full green morocco binding with gilt panels to both boards, gilt decoration to spine. Gilt dentelles. Marbled endpapers. All page edges gilt. Page dimensions: 182 x 117mm (7 1/8" x 4 5/8"). Inscribed on a piece of paper laid down on page XIII:"for Sophy / your affte. Father / Richard Bate / Love to Nelly and a kiss for me." Richard Bate (1775-1856) was born in London. In 1807 he travelled to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. In Brazil he established a trading company in nautical, optical and surgical instruments. Watercolour paintings by Bate of the city of Rio de Janeiro are held by Cornell University. His daughter Sophia, to whom this volume was gifted by her father, was born in Brazil in 1817, and died in London in 1889. Richard Bate returned to England in 1854. Sophia married Dr Septimus Wray (1792-1869) and they had one child, Sophia Eleanor Wray (1848-1940). Sophia Eleanor Wray married Dr John Thomas Mercer in 1870. The front fly leaf has the signature of "Sophia Eleanor Mercer". They had a daughter Eleanor Maria V. Mercer (1875-), who married Laurence Anderson (born Tokyo, 1875). Eleanor Maria V. Mercer and Laurence Anderson had a son John Laurence Anderson, born in Bangkok in 1900. John Laurence Anderson, grand-son, is also mentioned in a family inscription on the front endpaper by Nellie Mercer nee Wray (Sophia Eleanor Mercer). The illustrations include stone ruins and monuments of the ancient ("Dark Era") and classical worlds, and geographically principally from Rome, Greece, the Near and Middle East. Also Palenque from Mexico. Illustrations include: Babylon (Birs Nimroud); Nineveh; Mount Hor; Petra; Nubian Pyramid; Ipsamboul; Edfou; Latopolis; Thebes; Carnac; The Memnon; Dendera; Pyramids at Gizeh; The Sphinx; The Nile; Heliopolis; Alexandria; Gibraltar; Uxmal; Palenque; Elephanta; Temple of Minerva at Sunium; Mars Hill, Athens; Paul preaching; Corinth; Egina; Samos; Patmos; Rhodes; Rome; Tivoli; Vauclause; Avignon; Ephesus; Tyre; Lebanon; Baalbec; Palmyra; Persepolis; Dead Sea; Tiberias; Capernaum; Samaria; Tomb of Rachel; Bethlehem; Jerusalem. [References: Stickel, Erico J. Siriuba, "Uma Pequena Biblioteca Particular: Subsídios para o Estudo da Iconografia no Brasil" (São Paulo: Universidade de São Paulo, 2004. p. 83); Ferrez, Gilberto. "Aquarelas de Richard Bate: o Rio de Janeiro de 1808 - 1848" (Rio de Janeiro: Galeria Brasiliana, 1965).] .