FIRST EDITION. WITH AN ORIGINAL WATERCOLOUR BY GEORGE SIDNEY SHEPHERD. John Papworth was an architect who adopted the second name of Buonarroti. After putting forward a design for a trophy to the Battle of Waterloo his friends called him a second Michelangelo hence his choice. Papworth supplied a series of architectural notes to Rudolph Ackermann’s popular ‘Repository’ which was illustrated with fine coloured aquatints. Indeed he was responsible for the design of his showroom 101 The Strand. In 1816 Ackermann decided to publish as one volume those exterior images best describing the London of the day. There was one new plate in the work on ‘The Guildhall’. The original watercolour by George Sidney Shepherd (1784-1862) is of the Russell Institution in Great Coram Street, plate 75 in the book. Adams records that George Shepherd and his son Thomas contributed at least 35 of the views. He goes on to state that the son appears to have engraved many of them to. He cites other original drawings existing in the British Museum, Guildhall Library, Greater London Council as it was and the Westminster Public Library.

The work is divided into two distinct sections, the first being more personal in nature dealing with places of worship, theatres, and homes. The second part covers the commercial side of the city. The fine London Squares are depicted here comprehensively for the first time in over a hundred years. “Copies carrying Papworth’s name (on the title-page) are somewhat scarcer than those without” (Abbey). No priority has been identified and this is an example of the issue without his name. Provenance: Christie’s South Kensington 3 July 2003; Collection of Denis Collins. Abbey Scenery 217; Adams 117; Martin-Hardie pp. 112, 312; Prideaux pp. 143, 347; Tooley no. 361.