[Great Exhibition] | Catalogue of the historic 1851 Great Exhibition

[Great Exhibition]

Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations, 1851. Official Descriptive and Illustrated Catalogue. London: Spicer Brothers; W. Clowes & Sons; George Edward Eyre and William Spottiswoode, 1851 [with:] Reports of the Juries on the Subjects in the Thirty Classes into Which the Exhibition was Divided. London: Spicer Brothers; W. Clowes & Sons, 1852

5 volumes, 8vo (252 x 169 mm). Engraved additional title by John Tenniel, numerous engraved plates and in-text illustrations, some folding, 76 pp. advertisements to vol I, 8pp. exhibition official catalogue to vol II; foxing. Original pictorial gilt blue cloth, all edges gilt; light rubbing to extremities, minor wear to spines.

First edition. Issued hastily before the exhibition closed, the catalogue was later corrected and expanded to include many illustrations and descriptions omitted from the first issue. Includes the first and second reports of the commissioners and the supplementary volume of the catalogue. Conceived by Prince Albert and realized in Hyde Park’s Crystal Palace, the 1851 Exhibition gathered over 14,000 exhibits—half from overseas—and drew more than six million visitors.

PROVENANCE

Seymour Teulon, Tenchleys Park, Limpsfield, Surrey (blind stamp and manuscript autograph, 1851) — Christie's East, 16 November 1994, lot 233