Christie, Manson & Woods Ltd (London)

(24.5 cm), 38 (4) pp., frontispiece, [24] leaves of plates (pls.1-48). 86 lots. Publisher’s pictorial wrappers. - A group of 241 drawings attributed to Stefano della Bella (1610-1664), assembled by the calligrapher Thomas Tomkins (1743-1816), and subsequently in Robert Holford’s collection (sold by Sotheby’s, 22 May 1928). The anonymous consignor in 1975 was the collector-dealer Wynne Jeudwine (1920-1984). Phyllis D. Massar, “Drawings after Prints by Stefano della Bella” in Print Quarterly, volume 14 (1997), pp.283-288, rejects the attribution of these drawings to Della Bella: “It was obvious to me then that these drawings were not by Stefano, but I could not then, nor can I now, name the hand”. ¶ Covers lightly dust-soiled; otherwise a very good, unmarked copy.