FINE ARTS' COURTS. OFFICIAL CRYSTAL PALACE HANDBOOK. [De Luxe binding]. Publication Date: 1854 Condition: Very Good

Title: FINE ARTS' COURTS. OFFICIAL CRYSTAL PALACE ...

Publisher: Crystal Palace Library and Bradbury & Evans. London.

Publication Date: 1854

Binding: Hardcover

Book Condition: Very Good

Edition: 1st Edition

Five volumes in one. Nineveh Court in the Crystal Palace described by Austen Henry Layard, folding plan, profusely illustrated, 80 printed pages. The Pompeian Court in the Crystal Palace described by George Scharf, folding plan, illustrated, 73 printed pages. A Handbook to the Courts of Modern Sculpture by Mrs. Jameson, folding plan, 91 printed pages. The Natural History Departmentof the Crystal Palace described, Ethnology by Dr. R.G.Latham, Zoology and Botany by Edward Forbes, illustrated, 92 printed pages. Geology and Inhabitants of the Ancient World described by Richard Owen, the animals constructed by B.W.Hawkins, folding plate, profusely illustrated, 40 printed pages. 12.5 x 18 cm. Contemporary straight grained, ruby, morocco. Spine in five compartments with central floral emblems in gilt with pointille and double gilt fillet borders and leafy corner pieces (some rubbing and slight wear to head and tail). Covers with dated, central, official Crystal Palace medallion gilt stamps within hand-tooled intricate, gilt borders and corner emblems (corners slightly worn, some rubbing to edges and slight wear to outer hinges). Inner gilt greek key pattern dentelles, with watered silk doublures with gilt tooled borders on the pastedowns. All edges gilt. The Crystal Palace was a cast iron and plate glass structure, originally built in Hyde Park, London, to house the Great Exhibition of 1851. After the exhibition, the Palace was relocated to an area of South London known as Penge Place which had been excised from Penge Common. It was rebuilt at the top of Penge Peak next to Sydenham Hill, an affluent suburb of large villas. It stood there from June 1854 until its destruction by fire in November 1936. The nearby residential area was renamed Crystal Palace after the landmark. The park still contains Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins's Crystal Palace Dinosaurs which date back to 1854. Unusual and attractive de luxe contemporary binding compared to the more common cloth examples more frequently seen. Seller Inventory # 5139