The Picture Collector's Manual, Adapted to the Professional Man, and the Amateur; Being a Dictionary of Painters, Containing fifteen hundred more names than in any other work
London: T. & W. Boone, 1849. 2 volumes, 8vo (22 x 14 cm). xxii, 508; 640 pages. Publisher's plum embossed cloth, unopened. Spines faded, but a handsome set, with some light foxing to the preliminaries in both volumes. Item #406094
FIRST EDITION of this exhaustive survey of painters, with brief biographical entries. It includes an alphabetical arrangement of the scholars, imitators, and copyists of the various masters; and a classification of subjects, showing the names of those who painting in several schools of art, "thus affording, in all uncertain cases, a clue by which the judgment may be guided, the opinion strengthened, and the doubt removed." Hobbes's dictionary is an excellent source for how Victorians rated artists, often differing greatly from current opinion.
Price: $125.00