Thomas Astle THE ORIGIN AND PROGRESS OF WRITING 1803 Antique Engraved Illustration Hand Illumined Hieroglyphic Elementary Fold-Out Plates Printing Bookplates Reverend John Smith Vicar St Nicholas Newcastle on Tyne Connecticut Mary Batterson Beach James Goodwin Batterson New England Granite Works Travelers Insurance Company

Title: The Origin and Progress of Writing as well as Hieroglyphic as Elementary
Author: Thomas Astle - Thomas Astle was an English antiquary and palaeographer. "And keeper of the records in the Tower of London."
Publisher: T. Bensley
City: London
Year: 1803
Binding Style: Hardcover
Pagination: 240 pages
Width: 9.25" Height: 11.25"
Book Details: This hand-illuminated antique volume is handsomely bound in leather with gilt tooling to the boards and stippled end papers.

The work is lavishly illustrated with fold-out and in text engraved plates, "from marbles, Manuscripts and Charters, ancient and Modern," many of which are hand illuminated. From the title page, "Also some account of the Origin and Progress of Printing."

The volume is complete with 31 engravings plus the frontispiece. In addition, there is a plate mounted containing an early portrait of the author with a handwritten note. It is likely not original to the book, but definitely from the period.

The front pasted end paper contains three book plates of interest. The first is from Reverend John Smith, Vicar of St Nicholas, Newcastle on Tyne. The other two are from the Batterson family of Connecticut, Mary Batterson Beach and J. G. Batterson.

James Goodwin Batterson (23 February 1823 in Bloomfield, Connecticut – 18 September 1901 in Hartford, Connecticut) was an American designer and builder, the owner of New England Granite Works from 1845 and a founder in 1863 of Travelers Insurance Company, both in Hartford, Connecticut. He introduced casualty insurance in the United States, for which he was posthumously inducted into the Insurance Hall of Fame (1965).
Condition / Notes: This hand-illuminated antique volume shows well bound in leather with gilt tooling to the boards and stippled end papers.

The books show some age/wear externally concentrated at the extremities, including a dis-bound text block. Both boards are detached and present.

The pages are bright and the engravings are clear and crisp.

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