Volume II (of 2) only. With copper-engraved pictorial title-page, engraved contents leaf, & 99 (of 100) copper-engraved plates with music and accompanying images. (folio) 37.4x25 cm (14¾x9½"), later half calf & cloth.

George Bickham the Younger is best known for this captivating engraved work, first issued in fortnightly parts, each with four plates, between January 1737 and December 1739. A second edition was also brought out in parts 1740-41, and a third, printed from the original plates, was issued by John Ryall in 1765. The plates are songs by Purcell, Handel, Haydn, Corelli, Pepusch and others, each headed with an engraved vignette, and quite apart from their musical interest they provide fascinating insight into the social life of the time. Eight of the designs are after Gravelot, and in Ray's opinion many others were imitated from Watteau's Oeuvre, leading him to say the song book "may almost be regarded as French." Grove II, p. 694; Ray French 12.