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. CASAL, Ugo Alfonso.

    A small archive of letters, photographs, and typescript material on his collection of Japanese lacquers.

    [Japan and California, 1930–1955.]

    A fascinating archive relating to the extensive Japanese lacquer collection of the Swiss–Japanese banker Ugo Alfonso Casal, including photographs, a 5370-item inventory of his collection, and several lectures on the history and production techniques of Japanese lacquerware.

    £975

  2. [COLOGNE.]

    Hôtel de Belle Vue à Deutz vis-à-vis de Cologne, tenu pour J. A. Kimmel.

    [Cologne, c. 1880.]

    An ambitious lithographic advertisement for the Hotel de Belle Vue in Deutz, facing Cologne over the Rhine, with a ‘Rhein-Panorama’ printed on the verso.

    £250

  3. [DRESS HABITS.]

    Considerazioni d’una dama ad una sua amica intorno al vestiario odierno.

    [S.l.,] Impresso dal Curti del fu Giacomo, 1810.

    Extremely rare set of six pious reflections on modern dress habits, ostensibly written by an anonymous lady to her friend.

    £350

  4. DREYFUS, John. 

    Aspects of French Eighteenth Century Typography.  A study of type specimens in the Broxbourne Collection at Cambridge...

    Cambridge, The Roxburghe Club, 1982.

    A history of French type design in the eighteenth century based on the author’s detailed examinations of French type ornaments and typefounding methods. 

    £120

  5. FOUNTAINE, Andrew.

    Catalogue of the celebrated Fountaine collection of Majolica, Henri II Ware, Palissy Ware, Nevers Ware, Limoges...

    [London], 1884

    First day only of the Majolica sale of the Fountaine collection. Andrew Fountain (1676-1753) was ‘the predecessor of Horace Walpole as an arbiter of taste and virtu’ (ODNB). His engravings and drawings were sold in July 1884, pictures in 1894 and porcelain in 1904.

    £25

  6. GARGIULO, Raffaele.

    Cenni sulla maniera di rinvenire i vasi fittili Italo-Greci. Sulla loro costruzione, sulle loro fabbriche più...

    Naples, Tipografia Virgilio, 1843.

    Second, revised and enlarged edition (first 1831), illustrated with sixteen handsome engraved plates.

    £275

  7. KECHT, Johann Sigismund.

    Der verbesserte praktische Weinbau in Gärten und vorzüglich auf Weinbergen … dritte, vermehrte, und...

    Berlin, [Trowitzsch and Son for] the author, 1823.

    Third, expanded edition (first 1813) of J.S. Kecht’s influential treatise describing his innovative methods of pruning grapevines to maximise harvest, first developed in his garden in Berlin and later praised by Goethe.

    £450

  8. [LABOURS OF THE MONTHS &c.] 

    Januarius.  Februarius.  Merz.  April … 

    Nuremberg, Joh. Andreae Endterische Handlung, [second half of eighteenth century]. 

    A scarce popular print depicting the labours of the months and signs of the zodiac, four continents, the four classical elements, and the four seasons. 

    £475

  9. ‘MAWE, Thomas’ [but John ABERCROMBIE]. 

    Every Man his own Gardener.  Being a new, and much more complete Gardener’s...

    London: Printed for W. Griffith … 1767. 

    Second edition, published in the same year as the first, of an immensely popular work, which went through at least twenty-five editions; this copy with interesting horticultural provenance and an amateur-tooled binding.

    £225

  10. MIDDLETON, Charles.

    Designs for Gates and Rails suitable to Parks, Pleasure Grounds, Balconys &c, also some Design for Trellis...

    London, Published by J. Taylor, at the Architectural Library …, [c. 1805].

    First edition of this charming pattern book of garden designs by Charles Middleton which concentrates on gates, rustic fences and trelliswork. Middleton was a pupil of William Paine, and rather than finding success as a building architect he produced a number of fine architectural pattern books.

    £675

  11. MILLER, Philip.

    The Gardeners Kalendar, directing what works are necessary to be performed every month in the kitchen, fruit, and...

    The Fourteenth Edition. London, John Rivington, H. Woodfall, A. Millar, J. Whiston and B. White, G. Hawkins, J. Hinton, R. Baldwin, L. Hawes...

    A very attractive copy of the most popular work of Philip Miller (1691−1771), the foremost British gardener of the eighteenth century, with five folding plates of botanical illustrations.

    £165

  12. PAPINI, Roberto.

    Le Arti d’Oggi: Architettura e Arti Decorative in Europa.

    Milan and Rome, Bestetti and Tumminelli, 1930.

    First edition of a thorough and extensively illustrated survey of architectural and artistic styles and artworks from across Europe at the beginning of the twentieth century, preceded by the idea of a utopian town, ‘Universa’, where the futuristic ideal for a new society can be achieved and craftsmanship...

    £300

  13. 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

  14. SHENSTONE, William.

    The Works, in Verse and Prose… in three Volumes … Fifth Edition …

    London: Printed for J. Dodsley … 1777.

    Fifth edition of the Works (1764), the first edition of which was planned by Shenstone but published after his death, with Robert Dodsley’s description of Shenstone’s important garden at The Leasowes, one of the first natural landscape gardens in England and one of the most influential,...

    £325

  15. [STRASBOURG.]

    Souscription patriotique de la part du beau-sexe de Strasbourg.

    [S.l., s.n., 1789?.]

    Rare first edition of this entertaining satirical piece on women's clothing, published in the aftermath of the French Revolution. After complaining that the recent craze for ‘gauze, muslin, linen and feathers’ had brought the country to its knees, the text describes how the patriotic women...

    £165

  16. TOMS, William. 

    Thirty-six new original and practical designs for chairs, adapted for the Drawing and Dining Room, Parlour and...

    Bath, W. Evans, [c. 1830]. 

    A fine and rare furniture pattern book by William Toms, ‘carver in general’ at Bath. 

    £650