New York: Wm. C. Bryant & Co., Printers, 1866.
Sold
Hardcover. First edition. Octavo. pp. [1-7] 8-135 [136 (blank)]. With 10 lithographic plates (including three folded maps) and two mounted albumen photographs. Publisher's blind-stamped cloth over boards, re-backed with most of the original spine laid down, title in gold on the front board. Small bookplate on the front pastedown. Some loss at the spine ends, the final letterpress leaf (with attached free endpaper) is neatly detached, the back joint is split (with the board firmly reattached), else very good with a few faint creases to the large folded map. This Ninth Annual Report describes and illustrates the many improvements and progress of the work on Central Park up through January 1st, 1866. It features four handsome tinted lithographic plates depicting “The Lake” (frontispiece), a “Drinking Place for Horses”, the “Tunnel and Traffic Road”, and the “Statue of Commerce”. Also included is a color plate of the “Gonfalon at the Terrace” (bearing the arms of the City of New York), and a large folded color lithographic "Map of the Central Park" (measuring approximately 34" x 9"). Also of interest are the two mounted oval albumen photographs of the Rustic Bridge and Boat Landing: as the new technology of photography became more commercially viable, they most likely were used in place of wood-engraved illustrations. Included also are two additional folded maps, and two additional plates (with schematic illustrations of the park’s retaining walls and drainage system). Very scarce: *OCLC* locates only three copies.
Item #351503
