TRESHAM, Henry (ca 1751-1814). Le Avventure di Saffo. Rome: N.p., 1784.
Large 4o (429 x 321 mm). Engraved title with aquatint vignette, one engraved text leaf, 18 aquatint plates printed in sepia and green, light marginal pencil drawing on text leaf. Contemporary parchment backed boards. Provenance: acquired from Marlborough Rare Books, 1981.
FIRST EDITION, LARGE-PAPER COPY of Tresham's work of early Italian aquatints. In most copies, all aquatints are printed in brown (save for "La Fuga Notturna," which is printed in black). Nancy Pressly notes, though, that "some [of the plates] in the British Museum volume have been printed with either pale blue or gray-green ink" as this copy. This set of aquatints was inspired by Conte Alessandro Verri's Le avventure di Saffo poetessa di Mitilene, published in 1780. The designs illustrate Verri's narrative and each aquatint (except number 12) includes a brief quotation from the text. See: Nancy Pressly's The Fuseli Circle in Rome: Early Romantic Art of the 1770's, Yale Center for British Art, 1979.
TRESHAM, Henry (ca 1751-1814). Le Avventure di Saffo. Rome: N.p., 1784.
Large 4o (429 x 321 mm). Engraved title with aquatint vignette, one engraved text leaf, 18 aquatint plates printed in sepia and green, light marginal pencil drawing on text leaf. Contemporary parchment backed boards. Provenance: acquired from Marlborough Rare Books, 1981.
FIRST EDITION, LARGE-PAPER COPY of Tresham's work of early Italian aquatints. In most copies, all aquatints are printed in brown (save for "La Fuga Notturna," which is printed in black). Nancy Pressly notes, though, that "some [of the plates] in the British Museum volume have been printed with either pale blue or gray-green ink" as this copy. This set of aquatints was inspired by Conte Alessandro Verri's Le avventure di Saffo poetessa di Mitilene, published in 1780. The designs illustrate Verri's narrative and each aquatint (except number 12) includes a brief quotation from the text. See: Nancy Pressly's The Fuseli Circle in Rome: Early Romantic Art of the 1770's, Yale Center for British Art, 1979.
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