Joseph Nash | Views of… Windsor Castle. London, 1848, one of very few “Royal” copies

Joseph Nash

Views of the interior and exterior of Windsor Castle. London: Thomas M’Lean, 1848

FIRST EDITION, folio (716 x 560mm.), lithographed title and dedication to Queen Victoria, list of plates, 25 very fine chromolithographed plates, hand-finished by Nash and mounted on card, some heightened with gum arabic, ink-ruled borders and neat manuscript titles in blue ink on mounts, blue half morocco over blue cloth by J. Wright, spine gilt in compartments, gilt edges, light marginal dampstaining to three leaves, plate mounts lightly foxed, binding slightly rubbed

A “ROYAL” COPY OF THE FIRST EDITION. Cited by Abbey as “an early example of three-colour printing,” this is one of the “few Royal Copies” in which “the figures and smaller details are hand-finished, probably by the artist”. The present copy is royal in two senses, having formerly been in the library of HRH Prince Michael of Kent (sale, at Christie’s, 6 June 2006, lot 71). The plates give us a glimpse not only into a monarch’s palace, but also into the daily life of the royal family.

Painter and lithographer Joseph Nash (1809-1878) was noted for his faithful reproduction of architectural detail and for enlivening his pictures of buildings and rooms with scenes of celebration and domesticity. Both are very much in evidence here; the detail in the plates is impressive, with everything carefully delineated, from the gothic tracery on the roof of the chapel to the reproductions of Old Masters hanging on the walls. But the greater effect is produced by the sense of life emanating from each tableau—even in the rare uninhabited room there are such signs, like a shawl tossed carelessly over the back of a chair.

REFERENCES: Abbey, Scenery 360; Tooley 339

PROVENANCE: Christopher Turnor, Stoke Rochford Hall, Lincolnshire, armorial bookplate; HRH Prince Michael of Kent, sale, Christie’s, 7 June 2006, lot 71