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3 vols., 8vo, pp. xl, 400; viii, 392; xii, 410, [2] (approbation), 5 engraved plates, woodcut ornaments to titles, typographical ornaments elesewhere. Completely uncut in simple blue publisher’s wrappers, pastedowns formed from another work in French. The spines a little frayed, remnants of early labels only, minimal creasing. A lovely fresh copy of a rare work.
First continental edition of Lewis’s Commercium philosophico-technicum (first published London 1763-6) a work of considerable value in the history of the industrial and applied arts. The author was a member of the Royal Society and a founder of the Society for the Improvement of Arts and Manufactures. Much of the first volume and part of the second is devoted to the extraction and working of gold and includes much detailed information on its smelting (with furnaces illustrated) and its application to the arts including the gilding of paper and bookbindings, together with a history of alchemy. In the later volumes he considers the manufacture of glass, the working and properties of platinum, and the use of colours in paints, dyes and inks.
Duveen p. 355; Ferguson II, 30.
£500.00
(equal to approx. US$788.84* or €618.51* for 22 May 2012)
* Dollar and Euro prices are given as a guideline only. The actual exchange rate may vary according to your payment option.
