?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 5,000 - $ 7,500
(ARGENTINA.) Vidal, Emeric Essex. Picturesque Illustrations of Buenos Ayres and Monte Video. 24 hand-colored aquatint plates. xxviii, 115 pages. Large 4to, 12 3/4 x 10-inch sheet size, later mottled calf, moderate wear; small tag on front pastedown, plate #14 bound here as frontispiece, 5-inch repaired tear to another plate, light offsetting, minimal wear. London: R. Ackermann, 1820
first edition, issue undetermined, of this attractive and important plate book. Each view is accompanied by several pages of explanatory text, with subjects ranging from "Pampa Indians" to "Balling Ostriches" to "Convoy of Wine Mules," plus a general view of Buenos Aires. It was issued to capitalize on the general British interest in Argentina at that time; several thousand British subjects were then doing business in Buenos Aires. Only 800 were published per Tooley, most like this in elephant quarto. Abbey Travel II, 698; Tooley, English Books with Coloured Plates 495 ("the only notable colour plate book in English dealing with the Argentine"); Sabin 99460.
