The first edition in print of these two lectures by the leading Victorian art critic John Ruskin (1819-1900) on the political economy of art. With the author's corrections and additional notes.

The lectures, given at the Manchester Art Treasures Exhibition in July 1857, 'subverted the display of masterpieces by speaking of art in economic terms... concerned with issues of production and distribution within the aesthetic sphere. What linked them to political economy was a labour theory of value derived from Adam Smith and David Ricardo; for artists, like Gothic craftsmen, were workers, creating the pictorial wealth celebrated by the Manchester exhibition' (ODNB).

First edition; small 8vo (18 x 11.5 cm); contemporary ownership inscription in pen to front free endpaper verso, ads; publisher's olive typographic cloth, spine slightly darkened, minor wear to spine ends and corners, front endpapers split at gutter margin but holding, a very good copy; viii, 248, [2]pp.