J. B. Waring & F. Bedford - The Art Treasures of the United Kingdom - 1858

A remarkable work from one of the most ambitious art exhibitions of the Victorian age - the Art Treasures Exhibition of 1857, held in Manchester and visited by over a million people. This monumental work, produced the following year by Day & Son, “Lithographers to the Queen,” sought to immortalise that great cultural moment when Britain’s industrial wealth and artistic taste met under one roof. A gilded and illuminated design dedicated “by permission to His Royal Highness The Prince Consort,” signalling both royal endorsement and the high ceremonial tone of this book.

Lavishly illustrated with exquisite chromolithographs - nearly two hundred years old and still astonishing in their depth and precision - the book stands as a triumph of early colour printing. Each plate represents the cutting edge of Victorian lithographic technique, a time when true colour illustration was still a luxury reserved for the affluent and for great national projects.

The present example bears wear to the covers, loss to the edge of first few leaves, a small hole on the ffep not affecting an content, and foxing and discolouration throughout, and a minor tear to plate 8 not affecting the images themselves. Plate 16 of the first section is missing. Plate 7 of the “Metallic Art” section is detached but present, plate 8 slightly loose at the top margin. Most intriguingly, the work carries a presentation label to the Shropshire Club, suggesting its place among the cultivated circles of Victorian provincial society, where art, industry, and intellect intertwined. Large and heavy, this was never a book for casual reading - it was a statement of taste and privilege, designed for drawing rooms and libraries where refinement and learning were displayed as visibly as wealth. Today it endures as an artefact of Victorian splendour.