Select Views of London: With Historical and Descriptive Sketches of Some of the Most Interesting of Its Public Buildings

London: for R. Ackermann, by J. Diggens, 1816. First Edition. Fine. Imperial 8vo, 10 1/4 x 7 in (260 x 178 mm); [8], 159, [1] pp., with 76 hand-colored plates, 5 are extended fold-outs, by J. Hamble and Joseph Constantine Stadler after Papworth and Augustus Pugin. Elegant later black morocco binding by Riviere, London, raised bands, gilt title, gilt fillets on board edges, richly decorated gilt turn-ins and marbled endpapers. a.e.g. A few leaves browned with plate offsets, but plates are beautifully fresh.

[Abbey Scenery 217; Tooley 361; Prideaux 143-144;]. First edition in book form of "one of the great books of London." (Franklin), collecting a series of architectural notes describing contemporary London. The views here are divided into two sections: the first, of places of worship, entertainment, and residences; the second, of mercantile and financial establishments. It was originally published in serial form between 1810-1815. Abbey, Scenery, 217 notes two issues with no priority but copies with Papworth's name on the title page (as in this copy) are somewhat rarer.
Papworth, whose second name of Buonarotti he adopted around 1815 after friends acclaimed him as a second Michelangelo following his design for a Waterloo trophy, was one of Ackermann's stalwarts. He was an architect, a founding member of the Royal Institute of Architects, designer of furniture, decorations, accessories, and store fronts, and a landscape designer. He designed Ackermann's showroom at 101 Strand.