Two parts in one volume. Quarto (31x22 cm). Pp. 60, (1); 65-148, (3). Plus 15 plates including frontispiece with numerous images to each, partly printed in chromolithography and partly in collotype. Original printed green wrappers, front detached, spine worn, bookblock consequently loosening. In fine internal condition, excellent plates. ~ First edition. Very rare. The wonderful plates are printed in monochromatic collotype and in chromolithography, respectively. Collotype is one of the most accurate and attractive methods of photomechanical tonal printing processes. Highly skilled and expensive process, it cannot produce more than a limited number of impressions. It has been used for single-sheet prints and luxury portfolios, and since the 1950s has been abandoned by all except a few small specialist firms. An authoritative manual on chromolithography in 1885 (Colour and Colour Printing, by W. D. Richmond) asserts the need for at least nine separate stones to achieve such richness, but in fact the number of stones used was often more than twenty. ~ Provenance: From the library of C. P. Mulder, renowned collector and international heraldry authority, with his charming armorial bookplate,"Nil Desperandum", to first free endpaper. For a complete catalogue of Mulder's library, from which we offer a considerable number of items, see: C. P. Mulder: "Catalogue of Works on Orders, Decorations and Medals in the Library of C. P. Mulder" (Rotterdam, 1988). See also: C. P. Mulder & A. A. Purves: "Bibliography of Orders and Decorations" (Copenhagen, 1999).
