A very rare true first edition of ‘Moor Park Rickmansworth by Alvin Langdon Coburn (1882-1966) more usually found in a 1915 imprint. In 1909 he published a ground breaking photo book on London, a folio book with 20 hand pulled gravure plates prepared by Coburn himself representing a revolutionary “transition from pictorialism to modernism”. When Coburn settled in London in 1909, he began learning the photogravure process. He became so adept in the process that he set up two hand-operated printing presses in his home. For both the ‘London’, 1909, and ‘New York’ 1910 publications, he personally prepared the printing plates, exposing, etching and steel-facing them. He then pulled proofs until he obtained a perfect specimen for his printer to match. During the production of the books, Coburn closely supervised the production of the prints. Coburn has long been recognized as one of the master photographers of the early 20th century, closely associated with Alfred Stieglitz and his circle.

Coburn became a key figure in the development of pictorialism, a photographic movement in vogue from around 1885 following the widespread introduction of the dry-plate process. He became the first major photographer to emphasize the visual potential of elevated viewpoints and later made some of the first completely abstract photographs. The first of two major books produced by Alvin Langdon Coburn with illustrations rivalling his original photographs. Two of Coburn’s notable publications were.

One of rarest productions is this one of Moor Park, a fascinating documentary record of a great country house set in Hertfordshire, England. Pevsner described it as the grandest eighteenth-century house in the county. It was designed by Sir James Thornhill for Benjamin Styles who made his fortune in the South Seas. The photographs comprise interior ones of palatial doorways, mantels, paintings, and exterior ones of the gardens, lodge and deer park.

The end of the book includes a reprint from the 1740 edition of the works Sir William Temple (1628-99) and his description of the gardens, of which nothing remained in by 1914. The letterpress is by the Chiswick Press, with the plates provided by the Mezzogravure Company, London. The entire work has the feel of a privately published work intended for family and close friends. The 1915 edition is a work present in the normal bound manner. ODNB; Pevsner, Sir Nikolaus ‘The Buildings of England’.