Grotesque architecture, or rural amusement; consisting of plans, elevations, and sections, for huts, retreats, summer and winter hermitages . cascades, baths, mosques, moresque pavilions, grotesque and rustic seats, green houses &c, .

About this Item

Wrighte, William. Grotesque architecture, or rural amusement; consisting of plans, elevations, and sections, for huts, retreats, summer and winter hermitages . cascades, baths, mosques, moresque pavilions, grotesque and rustic seats, green houses &c, London, I.J. Taylor, 1790. 8vo. 14pp + (2)pp publisher's list. With engraved frontispiece by A. Thornthwaite, and 28 engraved plates. Ochre morocco, with gilt grotto design on front cover, similarly blind-stamped on back, gilt title on cover and spine (by Peter Foster, with his fish device inside back cover). A finely produced catalogue of measured plans for grottoes, hermitages and exotic garden buldings. Oriental or rustic in inspiration, several have Indian or Turkish motifs - lotus leaf bases, columns terminating in palms, mosque-like domes; there are 4 dramatic designs for picturesque cascades. An innovation of note is the frontispiece of a landscape setting which incorporates in one plate most of Wrighte's designs; it was intended to help the 'prospective client' visualize his choice of feature in situ. Archer says 'Wrighte was the first to publish such a scene in a book of architectural designs - showing specific designs set into natural surroundings in a consciously artful way'. Wrighte cites Thomas Shaw's Travels . (in) Barbary and the Levant, (1738) as his authority on mosques. The second edition (the first was published in 1767). A very good copy. Bookplate of John Steegman, tipped in. Berlin Katalog 3420. John Archer, The Literature of British Domestic Architecture 1715-1842, 1985, p853. See also Eleanor von Erdberg, Chinese Influence on European Garden Structures, 1936, p209 etc. Seller Inventory # 904

Contact seller

Report this item

Bibliographic Details