A description of the shield of Aeneas, modelled by Mr. Wm. Pitts, for Mr. Joseph Widdowson, goldsmith : to be executed in gold, 3 ft. 6 in. diameter, after the manner of Benvenuto Cellini.
London: Printed by Mills, Jowett and Mills, [1828]
Physical Description
15 p. and 1 unnumbered plate (fold.); 208 mm.
General Note
The pamphlet has been bound in the volume with its printed paper cover which reads, 'Description / of the / Shield of Æneas / now exhibiting at the / Royal Academy.' Pitts exhibited his design at the Royal Academy in 1828. In addition to the folded plate detailing Pitts' design, the pamphlet contains extracts from Virgil's Aeneid, book VIII, lines 885-977.
The work was never completed before Pitts' death in 1840 but an unfinished copper version of the 'Shield of Aeneas' was exhibited at the Great Exhibition of 1851, and again at the London Exhibition of 1862.
Provenance
Part of a set of pamphlets from the library of Richard Westmacott RA presented by Mrs Rodwell in 1937 (see RA Annual Report for 1937, p. 55).
Bound (3) in vol. III of a set of pamphlets from the library of Richard Westmacott RA.
Binding Note
In green quarter-bound leather; spine with two red leather labels, both lettered in gilt, the first as 'Miscellaneous' and the second as 'Vol. / III'.