![GIBBS, James (1682-1754). A Book of Architecture, containing Designs of Buildings and Ornaments. London: [William Bowyer], 1728.](https://www.christies.com/img/LotImages/2005/CKS/2005_CKS_07046_0284_000(101606).jpg?w=1)
Details
GIBBS, James (1682-1754). A Book of Architecture, containing Designs of Buildings and Ornaments. London: [William Bowyer], 1728.
2° (445 x 285mm). 150 engraved plates by H. Hulsberg, J. Harris, E. Kirkall, B. Baron, J. Mynde, and G. Vertue after Gibbs, 5 folding. (Occasional light spotting and browning, some dampstaining, principally affecting text and latter plates, last 5 plates with slight marginal worming, one folding plate trimmed at fore-edge, 2 others creased and with short tears.) Contemporary reversed calf, blind-tooled borders, spine gilt in compartments, gilt morocco lettering-piece (some wear causing small losses, boards detached). Provenance: plate 38 titled in an early hand -- pencil sketch on the verso of one plate and two loosely-inserted drawings of architectural details -- Philip Grantham Yorke, 9th Earl of Hardwicke (1906-1974; bookplate dated 1932).
FIRST EDITION. 'Gibbs's great collection of designs ... its influence on design, and on architectural publishing in the eighteenth century was immense' (RIBA). Trained in Italy, Gibbs published A Book of Architecture in part to affirm his own reputation in England, following the omission of his designs from Vitruvius Britannicus (due to Campbell's antipathy), and it was the 'first book by a British architect consisting of his own designs, executed and projected' (Harris, p.208). Among his most noteworthy projects published here are the designs for St. Mary-le-Strand, St. Martin-in-the-Fields, and the proposed quadrangle for King's College, Cambridge. 'These designs ... had a great influence in the United States as well as in England for about one hundred years' (Fowler) -- for example, Thomas Jefferson owned a copy of the Book of Architecture. RIBA notes that Bowyer's ledgers record that 550 copies of the work were printed. Berlin Kat. 2270; Fowler 138; Harris 257; Millard British 22; RIBA 1206.
2° (445 x 285mm). 150 engraved plates by H. Hulsberg, J. Harris, E. Kirkall, B. Baron, J. Mynde, and G. Vertue after Gibbs, 5 folding. (Occasional light spotting and browning, some dampstaining, principally affecting text and latter plates, last 5 plates with slight marginal worming, one folding plate trimmed at fore-edge, 2 others creased and with short tears.) Contemporary reversed calf, blind-tooled borders, spine gilt in compartments, gilt morocco lettering-piece (some wear causing small losses, boards detached). Provenance: plate 38 titled in an early hand -- pencil sketch on the verso of one plate and two loosely-inserted drawings of architectural details -- Philip Grantham Yorke, 9th Earl of Hardwicke (1906-1974; bookplate dated 1932).
FIRST EDITION. 'Gibbs's great collection of designs ... its influence on design, and on architectural publishing in the eighteenth century was immense' (RIBA). Trained in Italy, Gibbs published A Book of Architecture in part to affirm his own reputation in England, following the omission of his designs from Vitruvius Britannicus (due to Campbell's antipathy), and it was the 'first book by a British architect consisting of his own designs, executed and projected' (Harris, p.208). Among his most noteworthy projects published here are the designs for St. Mary-le-Strand, St. Martin-in-the-Fields, and the proposed quadrangle for King's College, Cambridge. 'These designs ... had a great influence in the United States as well as in England for about one hundred years' (Fowler) -- for example, Thomas Jefferson owned a copy of the Book of Architecture. RIBA notes that Bowyer's ledgers record that 550 copies of the work were printed. Berlin Kat. 2270; Fowler 138; Harris 257; Millard British 22; RIBA 1206.
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