[ATKYNS, ROBERT]. The Ancient and Present State of Glocestershire; Illustrated with Seventy-Three Copper-Plates, Containing a Map of the County, a Plan and Prospect of the City, a View of the Cathedral, Sixty One Seats, and Three Hundred and Twenty Coats of Arms, of the Nobility and Gentry Residing in the County at the Time of the First Publication. London: Printed in the year MDCCXII. Reprinted by T. Spilsbury for W. Herbert, at No. 27, in Goulston-Square; and sold by J. Millan, at Charing Cross; T. Payne, at the Mews-Gate; Davis and Reymers, opposite Gray's-Inn Gate, Holborn; B. White, in Fleet-Street; Baker and Leigh, in York-Street, and T. Davies, in Russel-Street, Covent-Garden; J. Brotherton and H. Parker, in Cornhill; G. Keith, in Gracechurch-Street; J. Buckland, Hawes and Co. Johnson and Payne, in Pater-Noster Row; J. Robson, in New Bond-Street; T. Cadell, successor to Mr. Millar, in the Strand; and W. Otridge, behind the New Church in the Strand; and by T. Dunn, in Glocester., MDCCLXVIII. [1768].
Second edition by Sir Robert Atkyns, knt. Complete in one volume. Leather-bound. Hardcover. Thick folio (2°)(460 x 300 x 90 mm.), pp. [10], 452, [6] pages, [73] plates. English text in double columns. Edited by William Herbert. Stunning contemporary panelled calf; spine with seven raised bands, the compartments fully gilt ruled and tooled, morocco lettering-piece in second compartment. 8 engraved plates, printed on one side, of 320 small coats of arms; 1 engraved county map; 3 views of the city; 64 double-page engraved plates by John Kip (3 of the city, the others of seats) - mostly bird's-eye views. Title-page with decorative woodcut. Preface & Advertisement. Author's epitaph and plate list. Rear index. Head- and tail-pieces. Decorative capitals. Foot-notes. Initial and terminal blanks present. Condition: Collated complete. The original 18th century binding beautifully preserved with the hinges intact and only minor rubbing or scuffing to lower board. Contents largely fresh and clean with just the odd fox spot, all the plates complete and unblemished. A magnificent example and rated very good. Scarce thus.
Notes: Second edition issued without portrait frontispiece. Sir Robert Atkyns (bap. 1647, d. 1711), topographer and antiquary. ‘... He compiled comprehensive manorial descents and attempted to record the population of each parish, based on the numbers of houses therein and the yearly birth and burial numbers. The resulting first folio county [the above first published 1712] which eulogizes the Stuarts, is especially valuable for its series of sixty-five engravings by Johannes Kip, illustrating the county seats and manor houses in the first decade of the eighteenth century, and preserving a record of features now altered or entirely lost...’. [ESTC T21872; Alston, XI.58; Upcott 250].
