HULLMANDEL, Charles Joseph (1789-1850). Twenty Four Views of Italy. London: C. Hullmandel, printed at Moser and Harris, [June, 1818].

HULLMANDEL, Charles Joseph (1789-1850). Twenty Four Views of Italy. London: C. Hullmandel, printed at Moser and Harris, [June, 1818]. 

Part 1 only (of 2). Oblong folio (11 4/8 x 17 4/8 inches). Lithographed title-page and 12 fine lithographed plates. Original grey paper wrappers, stabbed and sewn as issued, with printed pink paper labels on the front cover.

THE FINEST LITHOGRAPHER IN BRITAIN OF HIS TIME

As the finest lithographer in Britain Hullmandel was indispensable to the work of such icons as John Gould, who used him to print many of his most important images. On returning from one of his continental tours in 1817 Hullmandel "met the inventor of lithography, Senefelder, in Munich. This experience seems to have changed the direction of his life and, back in London, he began drawing on stone and, later, printing from it. His first lithograph, undated, is preserved in an album of his experiments in the St Bride Printing Library, London. His earliest published lithographs, a set of Twenty-Four Views of Italy (1818), were drawn on stone by him and printed at the press of Moser and Harris in Somers Town, London, but were published from Great Marlborough Street. He seems to have taken advantage of this publication to make himself familiar with lithographic printing, and soon afterwards he set up a press in his own home.

"From that point Hullmandel's professional life was devoted to lithography. With the guidance of F. Delpech and G. Engelmann in France, he soon became a capable lithographic draughtsman and a successful printer. One of his most important early publications was Britannia delineata (1822–3), which he worked on as a draughtsman with James Duffield Harding, Samuel Prout, and William Westall, in addition to printing all the lithographs. By this time he had established himself as the finest lithographic printer in Britain" (Michael Twyman for DNB). Abbey Travel 167. Catalogued by Kate Hunter