Sketches of Scenery in South Wales

London. First Edition . Soft cover. Very Good. Folio - over 12 - 15" tall. DELAMOTTE GO. Oblong folio, 44*30 cm, 6 litho plates, original printed wrappers, stitched as issued (very small half inch worm track and a few micro holes through upper wrapper and first three plates), wrapper title, printed by Moser and Harris's Lithographic Press, No 71 Grosvenor Street, Brunswick Square, nd but c 1820. Plates are: Aberdylis Vale of Neath. Melincourt Vale of Neath. Yscwd yr Rhyd In the grounds of W: Williams Esq. Yscwd Inon Cam Vale of Neath. Entrance to Porth yr Ogof Caveer Vale of Neath. Kil Hepsti Vale of Neath. Originally priced at 7s 6d. Very rare. The plates are quite crude, but represent an exceptionally early lithographic work, when techniques were still experimental. It is especially pleasing to have such a work in the original wrappers! Copies of some of the plates have been traced to the National Library of Wales, cataloged as soft-ground etchings. Swansea also have the wrappers and 5 of the 6 plates. As such, ours would appear to be the only known complete copy. Housed in a modern custom, felt lined, brown cloth up and over box with a paper label to spine. It was dissatisfaction with Moser and Harris's lithographic printing that prompted the subsequently famous Hulmandel to set up his own press, and experiment to improve on their work. George Orleans DELAMOTTE (1809-1821 fl) artist and teacher, was the son of a French refugee. His brother was William Alfred Delamotte (1775-1863), drawing master at the Sandhurst Military Academy, whose son Philip was a photography pioneer known for his series on the disassembly of the Crystal Palace in Hyde Park and its reconstruction in Sydenham.