Views of Cities and Scenery in Italy, France, and Switzerland

First bilingual English-French edition, illustrated with three engraved title pages and one hundred and thirty-two steel-engraved plates after drawings by Samuel Prout and James Duffield Harding, with tissue guards.

Publisher's brown half-chagrin bindings, boards in blind-stamped percaline, a gilt trophy at the centre of each board, a small gilt coat of arms at the head of the upper board of each volume, spines richly gilt with ornamental tooling, bilingual title and volume number gilt-lettered on the spines, yellow paper endpapers, gilt edges. Spines and corners lightly rubbed, some scuffing, one joint of the third volume split at the foot, occasional foxing.

A pleasing collection of picturesque views of Italy, France and Switzerland by two English artists close to John Ruskin.

Samuel Prout and James Duffield Harding, a master and his pupil, were both leading figures of nineteenth-century British picturesque watercolour and architectural drawing. Both were admired by the celebrated English art critic John Ruskin, one of the principal inspirations behind the Pre-Raphaelite movement and the Gothic Revival, who praised their gift for the naturalistic and sensitive depiction of ancient architecture and of nature.

In this work, the publishers Fisher, Son & Co. accompanied Prout's and Harding's plates with bilingual texts, in English by Thomas Roscoe and in French by Alexandre Sosson, reflecting a simultaneous release in London, Paris and New York. Each of these texts is introduced by a quotation from an ancient or modern author.

An elegant testament to the golden age of the illustrated English travel book, carried by the talent of Samuel Prout and James Duffield Harding, two leading figures of picturesque architectural drawing, in the publisher's romantic binding.