Edward Dodwell's Superb Views in Greece.

Dodwell, Edward. Views in Greece. From Drawings By Edward Dodwell, Esq. FSA &c. London Rodwell & Martin. 1821
Folio; π1 / π3 B-Q2 [ π1: Title; [π2:prospectus/ avis [ missing] ; π3: List of plates.]
30 coloured aquatint views
First edition , ordinary format on thick paper.
Very fine contemporary polished calf, armorial crest to front and back boards, triple gilt fillets on the covers, ; spine gilt; brown morroco letterpieces;
marbled end papers; all edges gilt.
From the Library of George Granville, Leveson-Gower, 1st Duke of Sutherland (1758 -1833).

George Granville Leveson Gower was the son and heir of George, 2nd Earl Gower, afterwards Marquess of Stafford, and Louisa Egerton, daughter and eventual coheir of Scroop Egerton, 1st Duke of Bridgewater. Educated at Christ Church, Oxford, where he matriculated 3 May 1775, he was created an M.A. 31 October 1777. Elected Member of Parliament for Newcastle under Lyme 1779 1784, and for Staffordshire 1787 1799, he succeeded his father as 2nd Marquess of Stafford in 1803, was made a Knight of the Garter in 1807. He was created Duke of Sutherland 28 January 1833, a matter of months before his death.
He married, 4th September 1785, Elizabeth Sutherland, Countess of Sutherland in her own right, only daughter of William, 18th Earl of Sutherland. Infamous for his rôle in the "Highland Clearances" c 1810-1820.

Some of the books in his library belonged to his son George Granville Sutherland Leveson Gower, who became 2nd Duke of Sutherland (1786 1861) known as Lord Gower during his father's lifetime.
George Granville was created Member of Parliament for St Mawes 1808 1812, for Newcastle under Lyne 1812 1815, and for Staffordshire 1815 1820, and was summoned to the House of Lords under his father's Barony of Gower in 1826. He succeeded his father in the Dukedom in 1833. The Library of the 2nd Duke was sold at auction by Sotheby, Wilkinson & Hodge on 10 March 1892.


Text / Description of each plate in English (recto) and French (verso). 30 aquatint views in Greece:
Vol.I
1. Port Bathy, and capital of Ithaca
2. Dinner at Crisso.
3. Castalian Spring.
4. Parnassus.
5. Ruins of Orchemenos.
6. Katabathron of Lake Copais.
7. View of the Parthenon from the Propylæa.
8. West Front of the Parthenon.
9. South-West View of the Erechtheion.
10. Entrance to the Tower of the Winds.
11. Dance of the Derwisches.
12. Bazar of Athens.
13. Entrance of Athens.
14. Temple of Jupiter Olympus and River Ilissos
15. Athens from Mount Arcesmus.
16. South-East view of the temple of Sunium.
17. Temple of Jupiter Panhellenios.
18. Interior of the Same Temple.
19. Monasetry of Phineromene.
Vol II.
20. Thermopylæ
21. Village of Portaria on Mount Pelion.
22. Hyperian Spring at Phere.
23. Larissa.
24. Mount Olympus.
25. Sepulchre of Hassan Baba.
26. Gate of the Lions at Mycenæ.
27. Plain of Olympia.
28. Temple of Apollo Epicurius.
29. Lake of Stymphalos.
30. Monastery of Megaspilia in Arcadia. Binding: Very fine.
Sepia aquatint vignette to title.
Lacks the Avis Π2.
List of plates. Blanks inserted between description and each plate, with off-set to verso.

Plates have title in pencil [Binders notes?]to margin, in the 1st volume most of these are to lower margin and are bound in to the gutter so barely visable, except Plate 11 Dance of the Derwisches which is portrait . in the 2nd volume Plates 20-30 the plates are bound at upper margin, and pencil ".titles" are again just visible at the gutter.
Generally bright and clean. see list below of very minor faults.
A few plates have very light spotting , a couple entering the plate:
Plate 1. Ithaca; slight indentation to margin and one in the sky.
2. Crisso; slight indentation to margin.
9. Erechteion: light soiling to margins.
12. Bazar; light soiling to margins.
14. Jupiter Olympus; finger marks to right margin.
15. Athens from Mt.Anchesmus;Light soiling ; light spot to sky, upper left.
18. Interior Aegina; Margins lightly toned; some light spotting to sky.
22. Hyperian Fountin; light spots to sky.
25. Hassan Baba; light spots to sky.
26. Lion's Gate; light spots to sky.
29. Stymphalos; crease to upperleft margin, far from plate.
30. Mega Spillia; light soiling to margins, some minor light spotting to sky.

Edward Dodwell (1767 1832)
was an Irish painter, traveller, antiquary and a writer on archaeology. Educated at Trinity College Cambridge.

Dodwell travelled to Greece in 1801 in company with Sir William Gell touring the Ionian Islands and the Troad, In 1805-6 when he was allowed leave of absence to travel by the government of Bonaparte, in whose hands he was a prisoner, he returned to Greece accompanied by the Italian artist Simone Pomardi, touring mainland Greece and the Ionian Islands meeting again with Sir William Gell towards the end of the tour. During this second tour he and Pomardi produced around 1000 drawings which would become the basis for A Classical and Topographical Tour through Greece during the years 1801, 1805 and 1806published in 1819, the work was dedicated to
Le Chevalier who had arranged his parole.

"The Dodwell-Pomardi practice was to draw freehand on the spot if the landscape or ruin was condensed into a particular feature rather than an extensive view, often in pen in grey or sepia ink and wash if by Pomardi, and more roughly in pencil if by Dodwell; much more deliberate drawing followed, with the assistance of the camera obscura if a more detailed and complex composition was required — without it, Pomardi and Dodwell would have produced far fewer illustrations. The finished drawings were developed later, in Italy, from a compilation of outlines, sketches and precise notes; on these, both men worked together in a concerted campaign to reach a definitive publishable stage, probably with the assistance of other artists,"[ Brian Sewell ;"In Search of Classical Greece: Travel Drawings of Edward Dodwell And Simone Pomardi 1805-1806," British Museum - exhibition review]
The Classical Tour is illustrated with lithographs of the drawings as the intended aquatint illustrations proved too expensive to produce. Thirty aquatint plates were chosen to be issued separately as Views in Greece published in 1821.

Dodwell settled in Italy after his return, living chiefly in Naples and Rome. He had amassed a large collection of ancient artifacts including the well-known Dodwell Vasewith a representation of a boar-hunt; at his death the collection consisted of over 1000 pieces and even more mineral specimens; the collection of vases is now in the possession of the Munich Glyptothek

He died in Rome from the effects of an illness contracted in 1830 during a visit of exploration to the Sabine Mountains. His last work, "Views and Descriptions of Cyclopian or Pelasgic Remains in Italy and Greece", was published posthumously" in 1834.


" Dodwell and Pomardi, like many travellers, chose to go beyond the established Mediterranean regions of the Grand Tour. The understanding these travellers brought to the archaeological remains of ancient Greece encouraged the taste among British Hellenists for Greek architecture. This gave new vigour to the Greek Revival, already begun in the middle of the 18th century by the expeditions of the Society of Dilettanti. Hellenism, the love of ancient Greece, was to promote a new movement of Philhellenism, a sympathy for modern Greek people and a desire to realise the dream, as Byron put it, "that Greece might still be free."
[Catalogue British Museum "In Search of Classical Greece: Travel Drawings of Edward Dodwell And Simone Pomardi 1805-1806,"]

Simone Pomardi 1757-1830

Little is known of him — nothing between records of his birth in 1757 and his settling in an artists' neighbourhood in Rome in 1783, nothing of his training and the influences to which he may have been subject, and from a working life of more than half a century, fewer than 50 works independent of Dodwell are known, their subjects mostly the antiquities of Rome. He would publish his own work about the travel with Dodwell "Viaggio nella Grecia fatto negli anni 1804, 1805 e 1806"published in Rome in 1820 by Vincenzo Poggioli often using the same illustrations.
Blackmer/Navari: 493; Atabey:357; Abbey, Travel: 130; Colas 876; Weber I: 1110. 510 by 360mm (20 by 14¼ inches).   ref: 3377  €25000