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Taylor, Charles (1756--1823)
The artist's repository and drawing magazine, exhibiting the principles of the polite arts in their various branches. ... ['Fourth' edition]
London (Place), publish'd by C. Taylor,, [1788].
4 vols ; 21.6 cm. (8º)
I: iv, [4], 214 p., stipple-engr. t.-pl., [59 ] stipple-engr. pl. (14 fold.)
II: vii, [1], 132, 159, [1] p., stipple-engr. t.-pl., [22] pl. (1 fold.)
III: 48, 41*--48*, 49--228 p., stipple-engr. t.-pl., XVI, [50] pl. (20 fold.)
IV: 187, 68 p., stipple-engr. t.-pl., [77] pl. (9 hand-col.)

Charles Taylor adopted the pseudonym Francis Fitzgerald. Originally published in 78 numbers, issued in two parallel series of 39 numbers each from April 1784 to about June 1787, this somewhat disorganised work was intended to form on the one hand a course of 'Lectures on the Polite Arts' by 'Francis Fitzgerald, Esq. Drawing Master', and on the other a periodical 'magazine' of 'Miscellanies'. However the course of Fitzgerald's lectures, having covered the elementary principles and practice of drawing, is interrupted by a 'Compendium of Colours' introduced 'at the request of not a few young friends' (vol. II, pp. ii--iii), and resumed thereafter as a 'Second Set of Lectures' devoted to perspective, architecture, and the 'Principles of Landscape' painting. As if in sympathy, the 'Miscellanies' are likewise broken into two series.

A further complication arises when the second set of lectures, and indeed the whole work, is brought to an unceremonious conclusion by means of 'A Dictionary of Principles and Terms of Art', offered ' to the Public as an eligible Medium between a termination of that Work in an imperfect and sudden manner, and a prolongation of it beyond the convenience of its readers.' (Preface to Dictionary, vol. IV). To help the poor reader and his binder decide how to put these disparate pieces together a final note to the Dictionary suggests disarmingly: 'This work may be bound either in two volumes or four. When in two volumes, the two series of Lectures form the first volume. When bound in four volumes, each series of Lectures makes a volume. The Compendium of Colours, with the first course of Miscellanies, makes also a volume. And the Dictionary may precede the second course of Miscellanies in another volume. Or, The Dictionary may be united to the Compendium of Colours in one volume; and the two courses of Miscellanies form a volume together.'

Copy Notes The Soane copy, which is bound in four volumes from the sheets of several 'editions' including a so-called 'fourth edition' dated 1788 (Preface to vol. I), follows the second of the above suggested arrangements, even though this leads to the apparent anomaly of including part of vol. IV (i.e. the Dictionary) in vol. II. The 'Theory of Colours' plate from vol. II is misbound as frontispiece to vol. I. Volume IV includes 11 botanical plates (nine hand-coloured and two duplicate impressions in uncoloured state), presumably the 'series of Colored Flowers' called for in the Preface to vol. II.

Imperfect: vol. I wanting 10 plates (viz. pl.[XVI--XVIII], [XXXI], [XXXVI], [XXXVIII], [XLII], [LIV--LV], & [LX]); vol. II wanting two of the three plates relating to the 'Compendium of Colours'; vol. III wanting four of the Architecture plates (pl. XXX, XXXII-IV); and vol. IV wanting 31 plates as follows: Miscellanies 1st series: 'Spring' (p. 24); 'Summer' (p. 79); 'Autumn' (p. 88); 'Winter' (p. 125); 'Plenty' (p. 127); 'Peace' (p. 144); 'Tasting' (p. 127); 'Hearing (p. 182); 'Portrait of Inigo Jones' (p. 154); Six plates at p. 67. Miscellanies 2nd series: 'Morning' (p. 53); 'Noon' (p. 54) 'Evening' (p. 54); 'Night' (p. 55); 'Hope' (p. 65); 'Encouragement' (p. 65) ;'Vanity' (p. 66); 'Industry' (p. 66) ;'Hearing' (p. 67); 'Smelling' (p. 67) ;'Seeing' (p. 67); 'Feeling' (p. 67) ; 'Head of an Angel after Mr Shelley'; 'Tipsy Cobbler Asleep, after Worlidge'; 'Boy, after Mr Cosway'; 'Diana & Endymion, after Mr Rossi'.

Binding C18th tree calf, gilt-rolled spines with metope and pentaglyph motif, gilt-tooled volume numbers, black morocco spine-labels.

Reference Number 3433

Additional Names Fitzgerald, Francis, pseud


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