Hollyer, Samuel. OLD NEW YORK - VIEWS BY S. HOLLYER. New York, 1905, 1909 & 1912. 3 Volumes, oblong 4to., bound in full red morocco leather, gilt, with elaborate dentelles, marbled endpapers and with all edges gilt. Volume I with title page, descriptive table of contents, 65 engraved view plates with the images averaging about 3 1/2 x 5 1/2 inches, and an engraved self-portrait of Hollyer, each plate signed and titled by Hollyer in pencil; Volume II, as above, with 45 plates; Volume III, as above with 31 plates; comprising the complete series of 141 views, and collating with the three volume set in the Museum of the City of New York. The internals pristine, minor rubbing at some of the extremities, and a 1/4 x 3/4 inch scuff to the leather on the rear cover of Volume I, else a Very Fine copy of this very important and extremely rare set of historical views of New York City landmarks. OCLC locates no complete sets. It identifies the New York Public library as having a copy of Volume I with 65 plates, and Central Connecticut State University as having Volumes I and II with 110 plates. The Museum of the City of New York has a complete bound set, and the New York Historical Society has a complete set of the plates, unbound. Samuel Hollyer, 1826-1919, was born in England and worked as an engraver in both England and the US. In his career of almost seventy years, he did portrait engravings of literary figures, landscapes, and book illustrations. The Old New York views are the work for which he is primarily remembered, as they picture many structures which had already vanished when he published his work, or which are no longer standing now, and for which his engraving is now a primary record. "Samuel Hollyer's Old New York views were created at the turn of the twentieth century to recall sites and scenes in the city and the Hudson River Valley that had largely disappeared in the previous three centuries. The images are historically important sites, houses, taverns, churches, forts, theaters, and public buildings (NY Historical Society Guide to Samuel Hollyer's Old New York Views 1901-1912, NYHS, NY 2003, NYU Libraries, publisher)."
