Bowyer’s Illustrated Annals of Napoleonic Europe

An illustrated record of important events in the annals of Europe, during the last four years: comprising a series of views of the principal places, battles, etc. connected with those events. Together with a history of those momentous transactions compiled from official and other authentic documents. London: printed by T.Bensley and Son, for Robert Bowyer 1816

The book could be bound up with other illustrated works in the same format, such as Bowyer’s ‘Campaign of Waterloo’, and Abbey notes that copies exist with varying numbers of plates (up to 19), issued over a considerable period suggesting ‘a steady and very considerable sale for years’. Several plates in our example have 1816-dated watermarks, suggesting that this is an early issue. It may be that Bowyer bound up copies to order. The text appears to have been supplied by the theologian, bibliographer and author Thomas Horne.

Condition & Materials

Horne, Thomas Hartwell; Robert Bowyer ed.: Folio. pp. [ii] (letterpress title), 32, [xx] + 10 aquatint plates with original hand colour, of which two (Moscow, and the entry of the ‘Allied Sovereigns’ into Leipzig) are folding + engraved b/w plate of facsimile signatures and documents; occasional trivial spotting, but generally clean. Publisher’s boards with printed label, a little worn at corners, rebacked in blue calf.

References 

Abbey, Life, 352-353.