LONDON IN MINIATURE. with engravings of its public buildings and antiquities, from drawings by Alfred Mills. London: Printed for Darton, Harvey, & Darton, Gracechurch-street; and J. Harris, St. Paul’s Church-Yard.
1814. Small square 48mo, (65 x 60mm), pp. 96, with 47 full-page engraved plates; corner of front endpaper creased; in the original printed pink paper-covered boards, slight wear at tail of spine, boards a little rubbed and worn, else a good copy. First edition of one of a number of miniature books for children, illustrated by Alfred Mills, (1776-1833), and published by Darton, Harvey and Darton and J. Harris. ‘These London printed volumes became immensely popular and are much loved by children to this very day. There were issued in pink boards with the title and prince printed on the front-cover and a list of the other available titles on the lower cover. These copies were priced one shilling and sixpence while those bound in red or green roan were priced two shillings... each volume has 96 pages’ (Bondy, Miniature books, p. 63-4). ‘The author recommends Priscilla Wakefield’s Perambulations in London for a fuller account of ‘the curiosities of London’ (Osborne).
Bibliography: Darton G648(1); Moon 542; Osborne II, p. 809; Welsh, Miniature books, 4988 (erroneously calling for 48 plates); Bondy, Miniature Books, p. 65 (also erroneously citing 48 plates); not in Adams, London Illustrated.