THE REPOSITORY OF ARTS, LITERATURE, COMMERCE, Manufactures, Fashions, and Politics…

[London]: R[udolph] Ackermann, 1809-19. 21 of the first 22 Volumes of this periodical, consisting of Series I, Volumes I-XIV in 14, Jan. 1809-Dec. 1815 (complete run, incl. 4 supplements), & Series II Volumes II-VIII, July 1816-Dec.1819 (lacking Series II Volume I & May issue of Series II Volume 7). 8vo. 14 engraved titles & 6 (of 7) wood-engraved titles (lacking that for Vol. II Part VII. 745 plates (engravings, aquatints, lithographs, a few folding, most hand-coloured; 4 double-sided plates counted as 8, 1 of the so-called plates actually a letterpress table): lacking pp. 19-24 in Series I Vol. IV, lacking some of the cloth &/or card samples from the allegorical plates. also lacking upper half of engraved titles (vignettes) in Series I, Vols. I-IV. wood-engraved text illus. various bindings: the first 4 vols. in contemporary quarter red morocco (rubbed), the other 17 vols. in contemporary half calf comprised of 2 styles with different paper covering bds. (spines damaged, covers of 16 vols. detached) (plates offset, occasional foxing, some allegorical plates browned, some plates shaved at outer &/or lower edge sometimes affecting captions, some dampstaining in 1 volume, some folding plates with tears – no loss). armorial bookplate of George Crookshank [1773-1859], a prominent office holder, politician, landowner, and businessman in Upper Canada, with his signature in some of the volumes. First number styled ‘Second Edition’ on contents leaf, but contents leaf for July in Volume IV misprinted June, which, according to Abbey, is an indication of being bound from the original parts. The present set comprises the whole of Series I in fourteen volumes and seven of the first eight volumes of Series II (but lacking Volume I, Jan.-June 1816, and the May issue of Volume 7 (1819). This set is lacking 66 plates in the parts that are present plus a further 41 for those that are not. Most of the missing plates are from the first four volumes (46) and most of these in turn are bird, animal, and sporting prints by Howitt. Five of the remaining volumes have all of their plates. A collation against Abbey is available upon request. Rudolph Ackerman originally worked in his father’s coach-building business in Germany, and then as a designer of coaches and print-shop proprietor in London, where he settled in 1795. He soon established himself as the leading fine art publisher in England in the first quarter of the nineteenth century. While his large and expensive single publications such as The Microcosm of London (1808-11), Westminster Abbey (1812), University of Oxford (1814), University of Cambridge (1815), were financially risky and sometimes unprofitable, the Repostory was wildly popular and successful. Published monthly from 1809 to 1828 in a total of 40 volumes in 3 Series with almost 1500 engraved, aquatint, and lithographed plates, it could already, by the end of the first year "boast of three thousand subscribers – a large number for those early days of journalism." (Martin Hardie) From the third number onward it was issued under the general editorship and management of Frederick Schoberl [1775-1853]. The text included a vast array of information intended for general public consumption, politics, war news, simplified technology, art and book reviews, social events, reports on public health, market prices, bankruptcies, fashions. Included are articles and plates relating to Canada, i.e. accounts of Montreal, Halifax, Fredericton, and Quebec, a view of Fort George in Upper Canada from Old Fort Niagara by E.W. [Edward Walsh], ‘Queenston, or the landing between Lake Ontario & Lake Erie’, &c. New inventions are described and illustrated such as gas lighting (Ackermann was one of the earliest users of gas lighting in London to illuminat. Hardcover.