Abstract

BERNARD ADAMS, London Illustrated 1604-1851: Books and their Plates. Library Association Publishing, 1983. xxxii + 586 pages, 50 illustrations, index, £68. Notwithstanding its title, this is not yet another picture book. There are, indeed, fifty plates selected to introduce the history of the subject, but the 586 pages which follow are the solid text of a catalogue. This is a compilation of inestimable value to anybody concerned with the graphic history of London, whether as historian, bibliophile or connoisseur of engraving. The catalogue lists 230 books in chronological order. Each entry contains a history and full description of the work, followed by a list of the plates it contains, with their captions, credits, publication-lines and sizes in millimetres of the plate area and plate-mark. There are indexes both to subjects and names, the latter including those of artists, engravers, architects, authors, titles and publishers. The multiple usefuless of such a book is immediately obvious, but it has a special importance at the present time. Thousands of London topographical prints are floating about the world, passing in and out of the sale-rooms or secreted in the forgotten portfolios of small collectors. The vast majority are survivors from the great massacre