Justin Croft Antiquarian Books : (LONDON). BANKS, John Henry, & Co. - A Balloon View of London [as seen from Hampstead].

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(LONDON). BANKS, John Henry, & Co. A Balloon View of London [as seen from Hampstead]. London: “published as the act directs, May 1st 1851, by, Banks & Co... Effingham Wilson,” 1851.

(670 × 1100 mm), steel engraved on a single large sheet, mounted (as issued) on linen and folded, preserved in original folding boards with publisher’s engraved illustrative title to upper cover, title in early manuscript to spine label (and to linen verso of one panel of the map). Slightly dusty, minor splitting to folds at margins without loss, central transverse fold lightly browned, boards quite rubbed and soiled. An excellent survival.

The very scarce first edition of Banks’s famous Balloon View, issued to coincide with the opening of the Geat Exhibition: and depicting Crystal Palace in its orginal site in Hyde Park. The map was frequently reissued in following decades and the first edition is now very hard to find.

£2000.00