"The work is without a precedent in the annals of literature; and when we regard the circumstances of difficulty that surrounded the task of its execution, the praise bestowed on those who undertook it can scarcely be too great. The Contractors, in that enlarged spirit which appears to have entered into all that belongs to the Exhibition, engaged men of reputation and authority in every department of science and manufacture to contribute such descriptive notes as should render the work currently instructive. It thus contains a body of annotations, which express the condition of human knowledge and the state of the world's industry in 1851: and is a document of the utmost importance, as a summary report of this vast international 'stock-taking,' which no great library—nor any gentleman's library, of those who aim at the collection of literary standards—can hereafter be without. It is not the work of a day, a month, or a year: it is for all time. Centuries hence it will be referred to as an authority on the condition to which man has arrived at the period of its publication. It is at once a great Trades Directory, informing us where we are to seek for any particular kind of manufacture—a Natural History, recording the localities of almost every variety of native production—and a Cyclopædia, describing how far science has ministered to the necessities of humanity, by what efforts the crude products of the earth have been converted into articles of utility or made the medium of that refined expression which belongs to the province of creative art. The Exhibition has lived its allotted time, and died; but this Catalogue is the sum of the thoughts and truths to which it has given birth,—and which form the intellectual ground whereon the generations that we are not to see must build.... It will be evident from what has been already stated that a more important contribution to a commercial country than the 'Official Descriptive and Illustrated Catalogue of the Great Exhibition' could scarcely have been offered.... All possible means have been taken to render it worthy of the wonderful gathering of which it is the permanent record."—Athenæum.
This work is also published in Five Parts: Parts I. and II., price 10s. each; and Parts III., IV., and V., price 15s. each.
SPICER BROTHERS, Wholesale Stationers.
WILLIAM CLOWES & SONS, Printers.
OFFICIAL CATALOGUE OFFICE, 29. New Bridge Street, Blackfriars; and of all Booksellers.
POPULAR RECORD OF THE GREAT EXHIBITION.—HUNT'S HANDBOOK, being an Explanatory Guide to the Natural Productions and Manufacture of the Great Exhibition of the Industry of all Nations, 1851. In 2 volumes, price 6s. By ROBERT HUNT, Professor of Mechanical Science, Government School of Mines.
"Every care has been taken to render this compilation a record worthy of preservation, as giving within a limited space a faithful description of certainly one of the most remarkable events which has ever taken place upon this island, or in the world—the gathering together from the ends of the earth, of the products of human industry, the efforts of human thought."—Extract from Preface.
"One of the most popular mementoes and histories of the actual gathering of the nations."—Athenæum.
"It should be read and retained by all as a compact and portable record of what they have seen exhibited."—Literary Gazette.
SPICER BROTHERS, Wholesale Stationers.
WILLIAM CLOWES & SONS, Printers.
OFFICIAL CATALOGUE OFFICE, 29. New Bridge Street, Blackfriars; and of all Booksellers.