Picturesque Views of Southern Coast of England, Turner 1826. This two-volume set of books is titled “Picturesque Views of the Southern Coast of England, From Drawings Made Principally by J. M. W. Turner, R.A., and Engraved by W. B. Cooke, George Cooke, and Other Eminent Engravers”. The set was published in London in MDCCCXXVI [1826] by John and Arthur Arch in Cornhill, J. M. Richardson, opposite the Royal Exchange, Roswell and Martin on New Bond-Street, Lloyd and Son on Harley Street, and W. B. Cooke at Soho-Square, they were printed by W. Nicol at the Shakespeare Press on Cleveland Row, and they are first editions, according to WorldCat. The books are 3/4 bound, with five raised bands, six gilt-ruled compartments with gilt titles and elaborate gilt tooling on the spine, marbled endpapers with the bookplate of Thurland Castle, half-titles, the title page, a Contents page for each volume, the first volume has a list of plates arranged alphabetically that appear in the two volumes, the plates and text are unpaginated - they’re not numbered - and all the edges are gilt. There are eighty engravings altogether, and that includes forty-eight plates and thirty-two vignettes. The plates are followed by text, and all the illustrations are protected with thin paper guards. Joseph Maillord William Turner (1775 - 1851), also known as William Turner, was an English Romantic painter, printmaker and watercolorist. He is famous for his expressive coloring, imaginative landscapes and turbulent, often violent marine paintings. He was born in Covent Garden in London, he enrolled at the Royal Academy when he was just 14, exhibited his first work at 15, opened his own gallery in 1804 and became Professor of Perspective at the academy in 1807, where he lectured until 1828, and he was a prolific, but eccentric, artist who lived in squalor the last few years of his life. The Cooke brothers were among England’s most important engravers, and it took them 12 years to complete the set because Turner was not always happy with their work. The books are tall and measure 14 7/8 x 11 in. wide and are in pretty good condition. The front cover of the first volume is a bit loose and the rest of the book has a tight binding and clean pages and text, with faint brown spots in the margins on a couple of plates and pages at the rear, and the second volume has a tight binding and clean pages and text, with brown spots in the margins and on some of the tissue guards towards the rear; there is rubbing on the raised bands, at the heel and crowns, along the edges of the spine and the boards, and rubbing and wear at the tips, and the books are exceptionally rare as a complete first edition set. We found only two sets being offered on the rare book website we use and people are asking $2000 and $2100 for each set, the spines on one set have large chips, and this set is in better shape. The set has also been ranked as one of the 100 outstanding illustrated books published in England between 1790 and 1914. #187 #1645