Art & Architecture

Contact Alex Day or Andrea Mazzocchi

Art & Architecture encompasses a broad sweep of material, from early works concerning architecture and architectural history, and books and manuscripts on the fine arts and aesthetics, antiquities and archaeology, to pattern and design books, and private press books and fine bindings. The department also handles original artwork, artistic archives, posters, and propaganda material.

  1. REFELL, A. 

    Trugbilder: Eine Anleitung Erscheinungen, auf optischer Täuschung beruhend, nach Belieben hervorzuheben und wissenschaftliche...

    Stuttgart, Rieger, 1865. 

    First German edition, rare, of this fascinating study of mirages and optical illusions, in particular ghostly apparitions, in which the author attempts to demonstrate using the principles of optics how they might appear, with the aim of proving the absurdity of the superstitions to which they...

    £1250

  2. RENGGER, Albrecht.

    Bericht über die Armen-Erziehungs-Anstalt in Hofwyl, im Namen der zu Beaufsichtigung derselben niedergesetzten...

    Tubingen, Cotta, 1815.

    First edition of an account of the agricultural school for poor children founded by Philipp Emanuel von Fellenberg on the estate of Hofwyl in Switzerland in 1799. This is a detailed account of the workings of the school, and its ethos, which was designed to be self supporting and taught children the...

    £180

  3. REYES, Alfonso. 

    La saeta … 

    Rio de Janeiro, Villas Boas, 1931. 

    First edition, one of 300 copies on papel Manchester Ledger, with a signed presentation inscription on the half-title to the Cuban symbolist poet Armand Godoy (1880–1964):

    £300

  4. [REYNOLDS, Joshua, Sir].

    A Discourse, delivered at the Opening of the Royal Academy, January 2, 1769 [also: October 16,...

    London: Printed in the Year 1769.

    First editions of seven discourses addressed by Reynolds to the newly founded Royal Academy, of which he was the first President.

    £950

  5. REZZONICO, Carlo Castone della Torre di.

    Discorsi accademici del conte … segretario perpetuo della R. Accademia delle Belle Arti. 

    Parma, [Bodoni], 1772.

    First and only edition of an exquisite little product of the Bodoni house: Count Rezzonico’s reflections on the fine arts, including a dissertation on the techniques of woodcut and engraving.  The Neo-Classical aesthetics that inform this work are reflected in the illustrations, masterfully executed...

    £700

  6. RICCI, Giovanni and PORTA, Ercolano.

    Storia della missione francescana e del Vicariato Apostolico del Hunan meridionale dalle sue...

    Bologna, Stabilimenti tipografici riuniti, 1925.

    First and only edition of this history of the Franciscan Mission in South Hunan from its establishment to 1924, with particular attention to the persecution of the Christians during the Boxer Rebellion and the following years of restoration and progress of the mission. The appendix comprises letters,...

    £450

  7. RICKMAN, Thomas.

    An attempt to discriminate the styles of English architecture from the Conquest to the Reformation with notices...

    London, [1819].

    Second, much enlarged edition, of Rickman’s celebrated investigation into Gothic architecture which was originally published in 1817. ‘This, the first systematic treatise on Gothic architecture in England, soon became well known, and Rickman’s nomenclature was followed by all subsequent writers...

    £275

  8. ROBERTS, Henry.

    The dwellings of the labouring classes, their arrangement and construction, illustrated by a reference to the model...

    London, Society for Improving the Condition of the Labouring Classes, 1850.

    First edition of one of the most important publications on philanthropic housing by the architect and housing reformer Henry Roberts (1803-1876).

    £250

  9. ROBINSON, W.

    The Parks and Gardens of Paris, considered in Relation to the Wants of other Cities and of public and private Gardens,...

    London, John Murray, 1883.

    Third edition of an attractively illustrated guide to the parks and gardens of Paris. The gardener and horticulturalist William Robinson (1838–1935) combines descriptions of the green spaces of the city with observations on the methods of their maintenance, and compares French horticulture with...

    £60

  10. ROLAS DU ROSEY, Carl.

    Die Kupferstiche, Handzeichnungen und Kunstbibliothek ... deren erste Hälfte Montag, den 13. Juni 1864 [-...

    Leipzig, Rudolf Weigel, 1864.

    Sale catalogue of the print and drawing collection assembled by the Prussian general Baron Rolas du Rosey (d. 1862). In all 7160 lots were sold. The prices achieved were moderate.

    £250

  11. ROUQUET, Jean-André. 

    The present State of the Arts in England.  By M. Rouquet, member of the Royal Academy of Painting and...

    London, for J. Nourse, 1755. 

    First edition in English, published in the same year as the French original, from the library of the great Scottish economist and philosopher Adam Smith (1723–1790). 

    £19500

  12. [ROUSSEAU, Pierre.] 

    Considérations sur le théatre de l’opéra.  Novembre 1822. 

    [Paris,] de l’imprimerie de Rignoux, [1822].

    Very rare proposal for a new opera house in Paris by the architect Pierre Rousseau (1751–1829), annotated by the author and accompanied by an autograph letter. 

    £475

  13. [SALON DE 1850.]

    Explication des ouvrages de peinture, sculpture, architecture, gravure et lithographie des artists vivants exposés...

    Paris, 1850.

    Catalogue for the Salon of 1850, the exhibition of contemporary French artists in Paris. The submissions of architectural drawings get the most detailed treatment although the first medal in the architecture section was not awarded.

    £75

  14. [SCHLOSSER, Johann Albert].  BODDAERT, Pieter.

    Epistola ad … Hier. Dav. Gaubium … De chaetodonte diacantho, descripto atque...

    Amsterdam, apud M. Magerum, 1772.

    First and only edition of Boddaert’s description of the Royal Angelfish found in the Schlosser natural history cabinet.  This is the first monograph on the Royal Angelfish (and its first illustration), a now common species of coral fish in the Pacific and Indian Ocean. 

    £500

  15. [SCHLOSSER, Johann Albert.] BODDAERT, Pieter. 

    Epistola ad virum celeberrimum Johannem Burmannum … De Chaetodonte Argo descripto...

    Amsterdam, apud Cornelium van Tongerlo, 1770.

    First and only edition of Boddaert’s description of this Indo-West Pacific fish species found in the Schlosser natural history cabinet. 

    £500

  16. SCHÜBLER, Johann Jacob, et al.

    Designs for furniture, funerary monuments, garden buildings.

    Augsburg, [c. 1710s–20s].

    An interesting sammelband containing over fifty handsome engraved plates with late Baroque designs for furniture, monuments, and summerhouses, published at Augsburg by Jeremias Wolff (1663–1724) and his heirs, and by Joseph Friedrich Leopold (1668–1727).

    £3750

  17. SCHÜBLER, Johann Jakob.

    Amor, vehementer quidem flagrans; artificiose tamen celatus, de Pantalonis custodiaque triumphans, intentato...

    Augsburg, Johann Michael Probst, [c. 1770?].

    Rare series of twelve engravings inspired by the Italian commedia dell’arte, one of the most beautiful books of the German Rococo, engraved by Johann Balthasar Probst after original illustrations by the architectural painter, sculptor, and mathematician Johann Jakob Schübler.

    £7500