WITH 28 STEEL-ENGRAVED PLATES OF EUROPEAN AND AMERICAN SCENES AND VIEWS

BARTLETT, W.H. The Pilgrim Fathers; or, the Founders of New England in the Reign of James the First. London: Arthur Hall, Virtue, 1853. Royal octavo, contemporary full red morocco gilt, raised bands, all edges gilt. $550.

First edition, with 28 steel-engraved plates depicting scenes and views of places associated with New Englands' Founding Fathers.

William Henry Bartlett was one of the most accomplished British landscape artists of the 19th century, and his volumes of views in Europe, America and the Near East were exceptionally popular with audiences both in the United States and England. In The Pilgrim Fathers, Bartlett's express intent is to present the story of the Pilgrim flight to the New World in search of religious freedom ("familiar to every child—at least, in the New England States") to an English readership, "and to give it additional clearness by illustrations of the different localities connected with it. These he has accordingly sought out in England, Holland, and America; and it is from these pen-and-pencil memorials, and these alone, that his work can lay claim to any distinctive originality." "The principal merit of this work is in the fine plates" (Sabin 3789).

Thin faint margin of dampstaining to fore-edge of last two plates. Very handsomely bound.