WEST INDIA SCENERY, WITH ILLUSTRATIONS OF NEGRO CHARACTER, THE PROCESS OF MAKING SUGAR, &c. FROM SKETCHES TAKEN DURING A VOYAGE TO, AND RESIDENCE OF SEVEN YEARS IN, THE ISLAND OF TRINIDAD.
Bridgens, Richard:
London: Printed by Wm. Davy, published for the Proprietor by Robert Jennings & Co., [nd, but one plate with imprint dated 1836]. Small format advertisement slip facing titlepage. Handcolored lithographic additional title by Bridgens, twenty-six lithographic plates (three handcolored, twenty by and after Bridgens, two by T.S. Cooper after Bridgens, one by G. Hawkins jnr. after Bridgens, one by Picken after Bridgens, two unsigned), printed by A. Ducôté (6), Dûcoté & Stephens (3), Louis Haghe (1) or Day & Haghe (16). Folio. Publisher's blue morocco-grained cloth, titled "Bridgens' / West India / Sketches" in gilt on upper cover, yellow endpapers, expertly rebacked to style with neat repairs to extremities. In modern dark blue morocco- backed cloth box, spine lettered in gilt, rebacked to style with neat repairs to extremities. Very rare album of views of Trinidad - no copy is listed as having sold at auction in the past thirty years. One of the rarest and most important of the early visual records of the West Indies: no examples are recorded by OCLC as being held by Caribbean institutional libraries. Individual prints from this album are occasionally encountered on the open market - generally with later coloring, as this work was only ever issued in the form described by Abbey at the published price of £1.10s. However, the complete work, as here, is extremely rare. Little is known of the career of Bridgens. According to the title he was resident in Trinidad for seven years, and also published a work on the antiquities of Sefton Church near Birmingham. The work begins with four plates of the sights encountered during the voyage to the West Indies: two handcolored plates of fish, and an uncolored view on board during part of the ceremony of "crossing the Tropic." The "sea-views" conclude with a very fine view for the Port of Spain, Trinidad, taken from the sea. The remaining plates are a mixture of pure topographical views: "St. Ann's, the Governor's Residence"; "View of the Pitch Lake"; a series of five images connected with the production of sugar; nine plates recording the everyday life of the black inhabitants; two sheets of character studies. The work finishes with four images of trees native to the area (including a final handcolored plate of plantains and bananas). Each plate is accompanied by a single leaf of letterpress text, generally comments by Bridgens on the image, but also including quotes from Robert Montgomery Martin's HISTORY OF THE BRITISH COLONIES (London, 1834-35), Henry Nelson Coleridge's SIX MONTHS IN THE WEST INDIES (London, 1826), and a number of other contemporary works. The work can be dated from these quotes, as well as the date on the imprint of the plate titled "Carting sugar. / Rose Hill the residence of Edward Jackson," and the fact that Day & Haghe are listed as "Lithrs to the King" (Queen Victoria came to the throne in 1837). ABBEY 680. OCLC 16785217. SABIN 7814.
(Item ID: WRCAM38217) $42,500.00