Medals, Coins, Great Seals, And Other Works Of Thomas Simon: Engraved And Described By George Vertue
Vertue, George (1780)
Book Summary
The Second Edition, with Additional Plates and Notes, and an Appendix by the Editor - Tall 4to [30 by 23.5 cm], contemporary full English calf; professionally rebacked in period style, spine ruled and decorated in gilt; red calf spine label, gilt; all board edges hatched in gilt; all page edges yellow. Printed title leaf; 10, 66, 67–74*, 67–72, 75–95, (1) pages, complete; 40 superb engraved plates including the elaborately engraved title. Remarkably clean, without the spotting sometimes seen. Original boards rubbed, else a fine copy. A large and very attractive copy of one of the most delightful of all 18th-century English numismatic books. Vertue's plates are works of art in every possible sense: they are superior in execution to nearly all others of the time period. Forrer, in his Biographical Dictionary of Medallists, pronounced Simon "the finest medallist who ever worked in England." Vertue's magnificent work was the first and only substantial study of an individual English medallist until well into the following century. The text displays evidence of considerable scholarly research, and has inevitably been used as a starting point for later studies of Simon's work. Edited by the antiquary Richard Gough, this second, and preferred, edition was given a new printed title page, two additional plates, and notes by both Gough and Charles Combe with transcriptions of documentary sources. Dekesel V67. Manville 211.