Anyone for mezzotints?

[sigmapsidelta]

Do mezzotints have any popularity in the US?

I have a set of volumes, huge and hefty things with boards like fence planks, containing quite a number of these things. They are all dated 1830 to 1840.

And last night someone told me the three volumes carried a price of around, ahem, well, five figures before the decimal point. I'd like to believe that. Well, I really really want that to be correct. But I'm a bit short on the know how of art, and the guy who gave me that rather large number is a conservator by profession, and has worked on things like the Domesday book, so he's not daft. Problem is, would I be daft for believing him?

The books (more like suitcases with pages bound in) are 'Engravings from the Works of Sir Joshua Reynolds' published by Hodgson and Graves I know not when, but many of the actual mezzotints are dated 1830s. I know that may mean as much as a copyright date, but they're the only mention of time units anywhere in the books. Bookfinder has the first volume, but only in 21st century reproduction. However, they attached a date of 1865 to the title, which seems highly likely or not far off.

Then the book throws a spanner in the works: the publisher, Hodgson and Graves, are billed on the title page as 'Printers to His Majesty'. Nice for them, but there hadn't been a king on the throne for 28 years in 1865. Easily long enough to have their 'By Appointment to' plaque changed. Whereas until 1837 there was a royal male behind flattening the cushion on that chair, and had been since 1714. Pity it doesn't mention which majesty. Maybe they got their's in 1714 and saw it so many times over the next 123 years that it just lost its meaning to them, so they never thought to change it. Victoria would not have been amused.

I've chased this around a few times and just ended up holding my own tail. I don't think I know the right places to look, or the right questions to ask if I find them. Are these things actually books, or are they art in a leather-covered wooden overcoat? Have I been book hunting when I might have been better off braving an art gallery and hoping the staff got the gist of my unsophisticated grunting? I'm not an arty type. Always beat me why people paint pictures of things when we have devices like cameras. I'm probably biased because I'm no good at it.

I was hoping Imagine.Ink still dropped in here. I know she liked old photographs, but she had posted about many other things and might have had some ideas. Professor Booknoodle would know, but its a long time since that name posted.

.

[jeanpaulbooks]

The Professor still sells online on an alternative site, and he is also on facebook.  You could contact him through either one.

[argon38]

Well, this set sold in 2015 (I don't know how much for):

https://historical.ha.com/itm/books/art-and-architecture/-joshua-reynolds-engravings-from-the-works-... 

The original 3-volume Engravings from the Works of Sir Joshua Reynolds appears to date from 1834-38:

https://discover.libraryhub.jisc.ac.uk/search?q=Engravings%20from%20the%20Works%20of%20Sir%20Joshua%... 

The dating confusion is likely due to the fact that there was a continuation in 4 volumes from 1865-1882, imaginatively entitled Continuation of the Engraved Works of Sir Joshua Reynolds:

https://discover.libraryhub.jisc.ac.uk/search?q=Engravings%20from%20the%20Works%20of%20Sir%20Joshua%... 

I definitely wouldn't trust POD reprints as a source of bibliographical information.

[argon38]

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@argon38 wrote:

The dating confusion is likely due to the fact that there was a continuation in 4 volumes from 1865-1882, imaginatively entitled Continuation of the Engraved Works of Sir Joshua Reynolds:

https://discover.libraryhub.jisc.ac.uk/search?q=Engravings%20from%20the%20Works%20of%20Sir%20Joshua%... 

---

It seems the "1865" continuation was really issued in three volumes from 1861-1868:

https://www.royalacademy.org.uk/art-artists/book/engravings-from-the-works-of-sir-joshua-reynolds-p-... 

but it was followed by yet another volume around 1874-1880, entitled (even more imaginatively) Further Continuation of the Engraved Works of Sir Joshua Reynolds:

https://www.worldcat.org/title/further-continuation-of-the-engraved-works-of-sir-joshua-reynolds-pra... 

Note the imprint of the 1865 Continuation:

Published by Henry Graves & Company, Printsellers & Publishers to Her Majesty, the Queen, and Their Royal Highnesses The Prince and Princess of Wales. 6, Pall Mall;, London.: 1865  [recte 1861-68].

[imagine.ink]

I truly wish I could help, but I know nothing about mezzotints. 

[rennybooks]

There are three listings for the title in Worthpoint.  They are all for the same set of books (as in the exact same).  The description:

Author: Reynolds, Samuel William, 1773-1835. Note: Mezzotint engravings by S.W. Reynolds.
Engravings from the Works of Sir Joshua Reynolds. London: Hodgson and Graves, [n.d., ca. 1833-1838]. Three folio (44 cm.) volumes containing 300 plates.

The lowest price listing at $125 was at a Heritage Auction in March of 2105. The same set reappeared on Ebay in May of 2015 and sold for $300.  The third listing is a duplicate of the Ebay listing.

I would take it all with a grain of salt and continue your research, but it might be a starting point.

[jeanpaulbooks]

According to the Rare Book Hub, this sold at auction in 2014 at Dominic Winter Book Auctions for 502 GBP:

"Reynolds (Sir Joshua). Engravings from the Works of Sir Joshua Reynolds, 3vols., pub. Moon, Boys and Graves, 1833-35, numerous mezzotint plates by S. W. Reynolds, some light scattered spotting, contemp. uniform half morocco gilt, rubbed and some marks, spines lightly discoloured, folio, together with others by and about Sir Joshua Reynolds, mostly 19th century, 4to/8vo."

And, this sold at Dominic Winter in 2011 for 540 GBP:

"Engravings from the Works of Sir Joshua Reynolds, 4 vols., Bayswater: S. W. Reynolds, [1820-26], numerous mezzotint plts., a.e.g., contemp. green half morocco gilt, rubbed and worn, folio, together with Engravings from the Works of Sir Joshua Reynolds, 2 vols., 2nd series, Henry Graves & Co., 1865, numerous eng. plts., occ. spotting, contemp. non-matching half morocco, rubbed and slight wear to joints and extrems., folio, plus Engravings from the Works of Sir Joshua Reynolds P.R.A. by S.W. Reynolds and other Eminent Engravers, 4 vols., Henry Graves & Co., [1874-80?], numerous eng. plts., occ. spotting, a.e.g., contemp. half morocco, elaborate gilt dec. spines (numbered VI-IX), extrems. rubbed and slightly worn, folio."

[sigmapsidelta]

That 'numerous' in the first one is a bit suspect. The list of plates is the page following the title page in each volume, and they are all numbered. There are 100 plates per volume. Still, it certainly sounds like the same three volumes.

From another direction I have been advised to break them. It wouldn't take much as only one volume is intact, the others both have loose boards. I've never been keen on that idea, not just because I'd rather not damage such things, but that would leave me with 300 or so mezzotints to find homes for instead of one three volume book set. As to pricing after breaking, the same party reckoned they should sell individually for around £20 each.  Another 'tip' was that some of them may attract higher prices and silly numbers came into it again.

I think I'd better make some friends in art galleries. If they do end up being broken they'd be better in a gallery than a bookshop.

.

[sigmapsidelta]

I'm two thirds of the way through collating these things. I think that £504 set got a better price than this one ever could. Volume 1 has 10 missing plates out of the 100. Volume 2 has 6 missing. Just hoping that's it for absences and volume 3 is complete. I'll find out later.

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