Rare Nine-Volume A Collection of Prints to Auction

An exceptionally rare nine-volume set of A Collection of Prints, Engraved after the Most Capital Paintings in England by John and Josiah Boydell will go under the hammer at Anderson & Garland Auctioneers tomorrow.

Published in London between 1769 and 1792, no complete nine-volume set is currently known to be held in any institution and no complete set has ever been traced at auction. The last recorded appearance was an eight-volume set, the greatest number of volumes ever presented as a single lot, which came to sale in 1948. Single or paired volumes are held at the Royal Academy of Arts, London, and at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

Discovered in a private library in a historic Scottish housw where the volumes have resided for many years, the collection is bound in uniform quarter calf with marbled boards and illustrated throughout with engravings and mezzotint plates after masters including George Stubbs, Raphael and Van Dyck. It represents the cornerstone of Alderman John Boydell's transformation of the British art market.

Boydell (1720–1804) was one of the most important figures in the history of British art commerce. Dismissed in his early career as a journeyman engraver, he rose to become what his contemporaries celebrated as the 'Commercial Maecenas', a publisher and patron whose entrepreneurial drive dismantled French dominance of the print trade and established Britain as its pre-eminent force.

A Collection of Prints was his first major publishing initiative and its impact was immediate and lasting. The subscription list was headed by George III to whom the work is dedicated and whose portrait appears in the title vignette, crowned by Apollo, together with Augusta, Dowager Princess of Wales, and the Earl of Bute.

Beyond commerce, Boydell's advocacy for public patronage of the arts helped lay the groundwork for what would become the National Gallery, established in 1824. He served as Sheriff of London in 1785 and Lord Mayor in 1790, and was awarded the Royal Academy's Gold Medal in 1773 for his services to the print trade.

The set has an estimate of £10,000–£15,000 and will appear in the July 15 Books & Works on Paper Auction.