Birch's County Seats of the United States of North America - The Reese Example

BIRCH, William (1755–1834). The Country Seats of the United States of North America, with some Scenes concocted with them. Part the First. Containing Twenty Plates Springland, near Bristol, Pennsylv.a: W. Birch, Enamel Painter; 1808. First edition of the first part (all published). Here is what AI says it’s worth: $65,000. Cost: The sale of Reese’s personal collection (Christie’s May–September 2022; the present volume being lot 85 - $60,480) Oblong quarto (8 ¾” x 11 1/8”, 224mm x 282mm): engraved general title with hand color, letterpress preface (printed recto only), engraved part-title with hand color, 18 engraved plates with hand color, 3 leaves letterpress descriptions (printed recto only). Bound in contemporary half red straight-grained morocco over marbled paper boards. Title gilt to a red morocco label within a gilt roll border on the front board. On the spine, four panels divided with double gilt fillets, and a gilt rosette to each panel. Presented in a red morocco clam-shell case. Splits to the hinges, with general wear to the extremities. Some rubbing, wear and a little soiling to the boards. Mild damp-staining to the end-papers, with tanning to the letterpress leaves. Scattered soiling to the margins mostly (some within the plate-mark). Altogether a solid copy in its original condition. With a description on the stationery of Charles Sessler laid in. William Russell Birch (1755–1834) was born and trained in England by no less than Thomas Jefferys, the jeweler and map-seller, and Sir Joshua Reynolds, founding President of the Royal Academy. He brought this expertise to the New World, settling in Philadelphia in 1794. Over the course of the XVIIIc — beginning with Britannia illustrata (1707–1709) and culminating in Angus’s 1787 Seats of the Nobility and Gentry — pictorial surveys of residences in the UK came to glorify both the owners and the architects of these domestic wonders. Birch sought to bring the trend to the New World; this is the first such book printed in America. Birch sought to repeat the success of his City of Philadelphia, a collaboration with his son Thomas (the Country Seats brought in Birch’s other son George), which had begun in 1800; its subscribers included Thomas Jefferson as vice president (it is written that he displayed the volume at the entrance to his office once president), Gilbert Stuart and William Hamilton. Perhaps it was the anti-aristocratic sentiment of the young Republic, but the Country Seats — ending with the view from Birch’s own home at Springland (Cot) — never found the same success. As such, it is very rare indeed (especially intact and original, as the present item is); it is a Howes “c” (“obtainable only with great difficulty”). The volume was owned by William Reese, one of the great Americana dealers and author of Stamped with a National Character, an account of American color-plate books of the XIXc (this being no. 2). The sale of Reese’s personal collection (Christie’s May–September 2022; the present volume being lot 85) has proven to be a landmark of Americana and color-plate material. Howes B 460; Sabin 5531; Stamped with a National Character 2.

Estimation:€71,536.08

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