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 g𝓰ilt

Spectacular gouache draw⛦ings 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