The History of the Old Water-Colour Society (2 vols)

2 vols. xx, 558, viii, 486. Indexed. Grand volumes bound in deep red buckram with gilt lettering to spine. Black endpapers. Pages gilded on upper edge. Both volumes rubbed at extremities, with cloth frayed and thinning at head and heal of backstrip; leaves soiled on upper edge. In vol 1, verso ffep tanned; bastard title has previous booksellers’ notes (price and identification) in pencil. Bindings mildly strained. Pages remarkably bright, crisp and clean; small loss at edge of title page in vol 1. Full title: A History of the Old Water-Colour Society, now the Royal Society of Painters in Water Colours, with Biographical Notices of its Older and of All Deceased Members and Associates, Preceded by an Account of English Water-Colour Art and Artists in the Eighteenth Century. The Society was founded in 1804 by William Frederick Wells and its original membership included William Sawrey Gilpin, Robert Hills, John Claude Nattes, John Varley, Cornelius Varley, Francis Nicholson, Samuel Shelley, William Henry Pyne and Nicholas Pocock. The members seceded from the Royal Academy where they felt that their work commanded insufficient respect and attention. These volumes provide a detailed history of the Society from its founding up to 1891, as well as biographical and artistic assessments of its many members. The Society is now known as The Royal Watercolour Society.