Camillo de Vito | "Vedute di Napoli", early nineteenth century, contemporary green morocco gilt album

Camillo de Vito

Vedute di Napoli. Italy, [early nineteenth century]

Folio (405 x 270mm.), an album so-titled on spine, 59 watercolour drawings in gouache, many signed lower right, captioned at foot, contemporary green morocco gilt

Spectacular gouache drawings of Naples and environs, including 10 of an erupting Vesuvius. De Vito was a noted local artist specialising in this popular genre.

This collection has a distinguished English provenance, being from the library of the noted bibliophile Frances Mary Richardson Currer (1785–1861). Thomas Frognall Dibdin wrote of her library: “I may honestly say, that with the exception of Althorp, Chatsworth, and Stowe, I know of NO such collection of books, situated in the country that can pretend to break a lance with it” (A Bibliographical and Picturesque Tour).

PROVENANCE:

Frances Mary Richardson Currer, bookplate