William Smee & Sons' Designs of Furniture  -  published circa 1850.   
 Is a more precise date available and was there another editon or
reprint circa 1870.

Hello.

A precise date is not available, but, yes, there WAS a second edition
circa 1870.

Britain's National Art Library at the Victoria & Albert Museum in
London has two different editions of the book. One is dated circa
1850. The other is dated circa 1870.

To see catalog entries for the two books, visit the National Art
Library catalog:
http://ipac.nal.vam.ac.uk

In the search box, enter: William Smee
Press "Go."

This seach will produce three hits. The first result is for a
different book ("Designs for window curtains and beds").


The second and third hits are as follows:

Title:  William Smee & Sons' designs of furniture ...
Name:  William Smee & Son.
Publication Place:  London,
Publication Date:  [1850?].
Description:  [4] p., 374 leaves of plates : chiefly ill. ; 31 cm.
Notes:  Imperfect: lacks 70 plates.
Reference Number: L.557-1938

------------

Title: William Smee & Sons' designs of furniture ...
Name: William Smee & Son.
Publication Place: London,
Publication Date: [1870?].
Description: [237] p., [8] leaves of plates : ill. ; 35 cm.
Notes: Imperfect: lacks 5 plates.
Reference Number: L.556-1938

------------

Notice that, in addition to having a different number of pages, the
two editions may be distinguished in terms of size.  The c. 1870
edition is a somewhat taller book (35 cm versus 31 cm).

search strategy:
library catalogs, william smee

I hope this helps.

---

Request for Answer Clarification by moorabool-ga on 07 Sep 2003 17:29 PDT

Thank you for the quick answer.    Just need clarification as to
whether the full number of plates is 374 or 374+70=444,   also with th
1870 edition


Description:  [4] p., 374 leaves of plates : chiefly ill. ; 31 cm. 
Notes:  Imperfect: lacks 70 plates.

---

Clarification of Answer by juggler-ga on 07 Sep 2003 17:49 PDT

Well, the descriptions are somewhat ambiguous.   Based on my
experience reading library catalog entries, my guess is that the
original number of plates was 374, and 70 are missing (i.e., 304 are
remaining).


If I were you, though, I'd try to get in touch with someone at the
National Art Library. According to their web site, they welcome
questions about their collections.  They can have someone actually
pull the books off the shelf and take a look at them for you.
http://www.nal.vam.ac.uk/nalenq.html

By email:
nal.enquiries@vam.ac.uk

By telephone:
0207-942-2400
Tuesday to Saturday
10.00 and 17.00 (London time)

By fax:
0207-942-2401

By mail:
Reader Services
National Art Library
Victoria and Albert Museum
South Kensington, LONDON SW7 2RL


Good luck!

Fast, accurate and concise.   Just needed minor clarification.