Don Juan.

Thomas Kelly, London, 1821

A ‘unfiltered’ look at Regency London in marvellous aquatints.

Description: 2 vols., later (c. 1900) crimson morocco by Tout & Sons, sides and board edges filleted in gilt, raised bands with gilt-ruled rectangles in six comparments on spine and gilt lettering. Red silk endpapers and pastedowns filleted in gilt. Octavo: 22 × 14 cm; pp. (vol.1): xii, 619, [1]; (vol.2): xi, 660. With 31 hand-colored aquatint plates (incl. frontispieces) by John Augustus Atkinson, under captioned tissue guards. Top edge gilt.

Ref.: Abbey 323; Rossetti 714; VD17 7:692863P

Provenance: Bookplate of E.H. Hill to 3rd. flyleaf.

Condition: Some minor wear to covers, superficial splits to upper joints. Contents with occasional minor blemish but generally clean. Aquatints in bright colours, with no offsetting.

Notes: This work capitalised on the ‘Life in London’ craze initiated by Pierce Egan’s Life in London (1821). While Lord Byron was publishing his own Don Juan in instalments, Thornton produced this alternative narrative to satisfy the public’s appetite for ‘picaresque’ adventures and social satire. The aquatints are characteristic of the period, using a copperplate etching process with tonal washes and hand colouring to depict scenes of high and low life in the British capital.