A & C Black Collection
The publishing house of Adam and Charles Black was founded in 1807 when Adam Black opened his own bookshop shortly after his twenty-third birthday.. In 1851, the firm bought the copyright of Sir Walter Scott's Waverley novels for £27,000. During the years 1827–1903 the firm published the 7th, 8th and 9th editions of the Encyclopædia Britannica.
Originally the company was based in Edinburgh where many booksellers were also publishers and all publishers were booksellers. In June 1889 the company made the huge move from Scotland to London — taking up residence in 4,5,6 and 7 Soho Square, together known as the Soho Bazaar.
The Black's Guides were travel guide books published by the Adam and Charles Black firm of Edinburgh (later London) beginning in 1839. Later the firm also published the A. & C. Black Colour Books: Twenty Shilling Series (1901–21), a series of high-quality travel books illustrated in color by various artists. Pricing. 20/- in the early nineteen hundreds was more than the average weekly wage.
The series' style tended towards the "colloquial, with fewer cultural pretensions" than its leading competitor Baedeker Guides. Contributors included David T. Ansted, Charles Bertram Black, and A. R. Hope Moncrieff. The A. & C. Black's 20/- series used water-colour artists and was the first to use the new "three colour" process for colour plates. The books were lavish in their use of colour illustrations with most volumes having 70 or more colour plates.
In the 20/- series the three elements of a book - the text; the illustrations and the cover - come together beautifully. The text was not closely associated with the illustrations, authors were not expected to describe the illustrations and were specifically required to produce "bright readable descriptions not overloaded with statistics"
The standard print run for the 20/- series was 3000 and yet, despite this, some titles with the same print run are much harder to find today. In addition to the 20/- standard edition most of the books published up to about 1906 were also produced in De-Luxe Limited editions (typically priced at two guineas) and a very few "super De-Luxe" editions with original watercolours (originally priced at five guineas).
Dust wrappers appeared from about 1905 and some published before this date had wrappers produced for them. They were not, in general, attractive and were meant to do exactly what dust-wrappers are supposed to do - protect the book. But all these dust jackets do is cover up the real beauty of the covers so they are often not found or change the value of the books.
Making of the Nations. Each volume in this hardback series, published by Adam and Charles Black in London, contained "32 full-page illustrations from original paintings and from photographs, also maps, plans, and other illustrations in the text".
References:
Alexander Nicolson, ed. (1885), Memoirs of Adam Black (2nd ed.), Edinburgh: A. and C. Black.
Available Books
Book Title |
Date |
Abbotsford Painted and Described
|
1905 |
Algeria and Tunis, Painted and Described
|
1906 |
Alpine Flowers and Gardens, Painted and Described
|
1910 |
Australia, Painted and Described
|
1910 |
Beautiful Wales Painted and Described
|
1905 |
Belgium, Painted and Described
|
1908 |
Birds of Britain
|
1907 |
Bonnie Scotland Painted and Described
|
1912 |
Brabant and East Flanders, Painted and Described
|
1907 |
Bruges and West Flanders, Painted and Described
|
1906 |
Burma, Painted and Described
|
1905 |
Canada, Painted and Described
|
1907 |
Canterbury Painted and Described
|
1907 |
Constantinople Painted and Described
|
1906 |
Cornwall Painted and Described
|
1915 |
Deeside Painted and Described
|
1911 |
Dutch Bulbs and Gardens, Painted and Described
|
1909 |
Edinburgh Painted and Described
|
1904 |
Egypt, Painted and Described
|
1902 |
Egyptian Birds
|
1909 |
Familiar London Painted by Rose Barton
|
1904 |
Florence & Some Tuscan Cities Painted and Described
|
1905 |
Galloway Painted and Described
|
1908 |
Gardens of England, Painted and Described
|
1911 |
Geneva, Painted and Described
|
1908 |
Germany, Painted and Described
|
1912 |
Greece Painted and Described
|
1906 |
Happy England Painted and Described
|
1909 |
Highlands and Islands of Scotland Painted and Described
|
1907 |
Hungary, Painted and Described
|
1909 |
Ireland Painted and Described
|
1907 |
Isle of Man Painted and Described
|
1909 |
Isle of Wight Painted and Described
|
1908 |
Jamaica, Painted and Described
|
1906 |
Kashmir, Painted and Described
|
1911 |
Kew Gardens, Painted and Described
|
1908 |
La Côte d'Émeraude, Painted and Described
|
1912 |
Lancashire Painted and Described
|
1921 |
Lausanne, Painted and Described
|
1909 |
Liege and the Ardennes, Painted and Described
|
1908 |
Liverpool Painted and Described
|
1907 |
London to the Nore Painted and Described
|
1905 |
Malta, Painted and Described
|
1910 |
Middlesex Painted and Described
|
1907 |
Montreux, Painted and Described
|
1908 |
Morocco, Painted and Described
|
1904 |
Moscow, Painted and Described
|
1912 |
Naples, Painted and Described
|
1904 |
New Zealand, Painted and Described
|
1908 |
Norfolk and Suffolk Painted and Described
|
1921 |
North Devon Painted and Described
|
1906 |
Northern Spain, Painted and Described
|
1906 |
Norway, Painted and Described
|
1905 |
Nuremberg, Painted and Described
|
1905 |
Oxford Painted and Described
|
1903 |
Pompeii, Painted and Described
|
1910 |
Provincial Russia, Painted and Described
|
1913 |
Rome, Painted and Described
|
1905 |
Russia, Painted and Described
|
1913 |
Scottish Life and Character
|
1906 |
Sicily, Painted and Described
|
1911 |
South America, Painted and Described
|
1912 |
South Devon Painted and Described
|
1907 |
Southern India, Painted and Described
|
1914 |
Southern Spain, Painted and Described
|
1908 |
St. Petersburg, Painted and Described
|
1910 |
Surrey Painted and Described
|
1906 |
Surrey Painted and Described
|
1922 |
Sussex Painted and Described
|
1906 |
The Alps, Painted and Described
|
1904 |
The Armies of India, Painted and Described
|
1911 |
The British Empire
|
1912 |
The Canary Islands, Painted and Described
|
1911 |
The Channel Islands Painted and Described
|
1904 |
The Clyde River and Firth Painted and Described
|
1907 |
The English Lakes Painted and Described
|
1908 |
The Heart of Scotland Painted and Described
|
1909 |
The Holy Land, Painted and Described
|
1902 |
The Homes of Tennyson Painted and Described
|
1905 |
The Inns of Court Painted and Described
|
1909 |
The Italian Lakes, Painted and Described
|
1912 |
The New Forest Painted and Described
|
1904 |
The Ramparts of Empire
|
1910 |
The Rivers and Streams of England Painted and Described
|
1909 |
The Riviera Painted & Described
|
1907 |
The Royal Navy, Painted and Described
|
1907 |
The Savage South Seas, Painted and Described
|
1907 |
The Story of the British Navy
|
1913 |
The Tower of London Painted and Described
|
1908 |
The Upper Engadine Painted and Described
|
1907 |
The West Indies, Painted and Described
|
1905 |
The Wye Painted and Described
|
1910 |
Tibet and Nepal, Painted and Described
|
1905 |
Tyrol, Painted and Described
|
1908 |
Wessex Painted and Described
|
1906 |
Westminster Abbey Painted and Described
|
1904 |
Winchester Painted and Described
|
1910 |
Windsor Painted and Described
|
1908 |
Yorkshire Coast and Moorland Scenes Painted and Described
|
1904 |
Yorkshire Dales and Fells Painted and Described
|
1906 |
Yorkshire Painted and Described
|
1925 |
Yorkshire Vales and Wolds Painted and Described
|
1908 |
Venice, by Mortimer Menpes
|
1904 |
Italy
|
1913 |
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