Hind (Arthur M.), 1880-1957; Corbett (Margery), 1882-1981; Norton (Michael)

Three volumes (25.5 cm), I (1952): xxx, 333 pp., 156 plates (319 illustrations) and frontispiece. II (1955): xxxii, 413 pp., 252 plates (617 illustrations) and frontispiece. III (1964): xiv, 396 pp., 214 plates (466 illustrations). Uniform publisher’s red cloth, printed dust jackets (volumes II and III only). - A work intended to give a complete history of British engraving (in copper, or other metal) from the Tudor Period through the reign of Charles I; a fourth volume, which was to have covered 1649 to 1688, was never published. Each volume is arranged in three parts: the first deals with the more important works by both known and anonymous masters; the second lists engravers in chronological order; and the third describes the prints of anonymous engravers, together with the works of foreign engravers working in England. Each print is located in at least one collection. Many engravings, wholly cartographic in character are described. “Every historian of the period, every student of its literature or of its art, will want to own this book” (Frances A. Yates, from a review of volume III, in The Book Collector, Winter 1964, pp.514-518). ¶ Endpapers of volume I slightly spotted, and a few marks and insignificant stains on binding; lacking its dust jacket. The other two volumes are in fine state. Overall, an excellent, clean set of this standard work.