Liber studiorum, 1812, 3 volumes, nineteenth century morocco fitted boxes

Starting price
£ 12 000
Auction dateClassic
21.09.2023 10:00UTC +01:00
Auctioneer
Sotheby´s
Event location
United Kingdom, London
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ID 1028559
Lot 246 | Liber studiorum, 1812, 3 volumes, nineteenth century morocco fitted boxes
Liber Studiorum. London: J.M.W. Turner, [1812]

3 volumes, each housed in an oblong folio fitted box (458 x 583 x 78mm.), list of plates in each volume, 71 etched mezzotint and aquatint plates after J.M.W. Turner by J.C. Easling, Charles Turner, William Say, Robert Dunkarton, Thomas Hodgetts, William Annis, George Clint, F.C. Lewis, Henry Dawe, Thomas Lupton, and S.W. Reynolds, some marked 'first state' in pencil at lower margin, each window-mounted on card mounts, housed in nineteenth century morocco fitted boxes, some light spotting, minor repairs to vol.3 box with part of hinge mechanism detached

A "truly monumental work taking rank with the highest productions of Turner's genius" (Rawlinson, p.iii). Turner conceived the Liber studiorum in part as a response, and at the instigation of his friend William Frederick Wells, to Claude Lorrain's volume of drawings entitled Liber veritatis, of which prints were published by John Boydell in three volumes under the same title (London: 1777-1804). As the work progressed it acquired a momentum that was independent of the inspiration, "exhibiting intimately his strength, as indeed also his weakness, during a period of his life in which a large part of his strongest and soberest ... work was done" (Rawlinson, p.iii). The 71 plates were issued in 14 parts (each containing five etchings) over some four years; in addition to these, a further 20 were printed, but not published. They were classified, using letters in the upper margin, as: Architectural ("A"), Pastoral ("P"), Elegant Pastoral ("E.P."), Marine ("M"), Mountainous ("M8" or "M"), and Historical ("H").
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