Windsor Castle: An Architectural History. Collected and Written by Command of Their Majesties Queen Victoria, King Edward VII, & King George V. HOPE, William Henry St John.

First edition, number 240 of 1,050 copies, an especially fine copy complete with the map volume, often wanting. The book "remains to this day the most comprehensive study of any English castle ever undertaken" (Munby, Barber, & Brown, p. 13). This was the most important work of the English antiquary Hope, and the largest project of his life. He began it in 1893 with Queen Victoria's approval, continued it through Edward VII's reign, and finished it under George V, whereupon he received a knighthood. Vast in scope and sumptuous in design, "It has been printed from new type on pure rag paper, specially made for this edition. It is illustrated by exquisite reproductions in colour of drawings by Paul Sandby; by a large number of collotype plates reproducing a unique collection of original drawings, engravings and photographs which show the castle at every stage of its development; as well as by beautiful woodcuts prepared expressly by the great engraver Orlando Jewitt. [the map volumes contains] a complete series of plans, specially printed in fourteen colours, which show the dates of all the buildings in the Castle and their successive changes" (advertisement, in Country Life, 29 November 1913). Julian Munby, Richard Barber, & Richard Brown, Edward III's Round Table at Windsor, 2007. 3 vols (2 text, 1 map), imperial quarto. Text volume with plates throughout; 8 loose large folding maps in map volume. Original half vellum, spines lettered in gilt, blue paper-covered sides, blue endpapers, top edges gilt, others untrimmed. A fine copy.