Dedication and preface by Josiah Boydell dated March 25, 1805; the plates are dated 1790-1804.
Title vignettes (of Mrs. Damer's basso relievos)
Of the artists, Smirke, Fuseli, and Northcote contributed the largest number of plates; the others, including Reynolds, Opie, and Stothard, are represented by from one to five plates each; engraved by R. Thew, T. Ryder, P. Simon and others.
Sometimes confused with "Boydell's graphic illustrations ... of Shakspeare", 1804? a separate issue of the (smaller) plates prepared for their edition of Shakespeare, 1802, which also consists of 100 plates, most of them quite different from these large plates.