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.
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[MATHIEU, Adolphe.]
Notice sur Frédéric-Auguste-Ferdinand-Thomass Baron de Reiffenberg ...
Mons, Hoyois, 1850
Only edition, published in 100 copies by the Société des Bibliophiles Belges. Reifenberg (1795-1850) was the Keeper of the Belgian Royal Library from 1837 until his death in 1850. This obituary was written by his friend the poet Adolphe Mathieu. He gives a bibliography of works written or edited by...
£85
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GERVASIO, Agostino.
Intorno alla iscrizione puteolana de’ Luccei osservazioni ...
Naples, Stamperia Reale, 1851.
First edition. Gervasio attempts a new interpretation of an ancient inscription discovered in Pozzuoli.
£150
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[COSTUME.]
6 Blätter Altenburger Trachten.
Altenburg, Schnuphase’sche Buchhandlung, [c. 1857].
Charming Altenburg costume plates, lacking at least one plate.
£150
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[SALON DE 1857.]
Explication des ouvrages de peinture, sculpture, architecture, gravure et lithographie des artists vivants exposés...
Paris, 1857.
Catalogue for the Salon of 1857.
£75
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FENTON, Roger.
Lichfield Cathedral, south transept portal and steps.
1858.
A fine print of one of Fenton's most striking architectural photographs, the details of the stonework given human scale, and a touch of mystery, with the figure posed half-in and half-out of the doorway. It was one of a number of images of Lichfield which 'from a restricted distance, move around the...
£12500
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[BERLIN.]
Verzeichnis der Werke lebender Künstler welche fur die Kunstaustellung in den Sälen des Königl. Akademie-Gebäudes...
Berlin, Hofbuchdruckerei, 1860.
Exhibition catalogue of contemporary artists.
£45
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[UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, OXFORD.]
Subscription list for repairs to the College Chapel.
[Oxford, c. 1860].
A printed appeal from University College, signed by the Master Frederick Charles Plumptre (1796–1870), for funds to improve the interior of the Chapel, with an admission that ‘the College has no funds whatever to devote to such a purpose’. The list of subscribers contains some ninety names.
£50
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[SALON DE 1863.]
Explication des ouvrages de peinture, sculpture, architecture, gravure et lithographie des artists vivants exposés...
Paris, 1863.
Catalogue for the Salon of 1863.
£65
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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
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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
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NORMAND, Alfred Nicolas.
L’architecture des nations étrangères. Etude sur les principales constructions du parc à l’Exposition...
Paris, A. Morel, 1870.
First edition. This is a presentation copy, inscribed on the half-title to the author’s friend Charles Garnier, architect of the Paris opera house that bears his name: ‘A son ami Ch. Garnier. Souvenir affectueux A. Normand’. The two men had known each other since they were both ‘pensionnaires’...
£4000
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[SMITH, John William.]
A Catalogue of the Books, Manuscripts and Prints, belonging to [John William Smith] …
London, Letts, Son & Co, [1870s-90s].
A manuscript book catalogue employing a printed form. John William Smith, of Clifton Terrace, Westbourne Terrace, and then Queens Gate, had a relatively predictable library of largely nineteenth-century material including history, classics, and literature (much Dickens and Tennyson), plus a smattering...
£300
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FARINGTON, Susan Maria (illustrator).
The 104th Psalm. Illustrated by Susan Maria Ffarington. Worden.
London, Vincent Brooks Day & Son, [c. 1867].
The Faringtons or Ffaringtons were an ancient family of Worden Hall, Leyland, Lancashire, with a substantial family archive. Susan Maria (1808–1894) edited The Farington Papers for the Chetham Society in 1856, and made other contributions to local history, but this unusual panorama seems to have...
£650
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[SALON DE 1876.]
Explication des ouvrages de peinture, sculpture, architecture, gravure et lithographie des artists vivants exposés...
Paris, Imprimerie National, 1876.
Catalogue for the Salon of 1876.
£75
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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
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RUSKIN, John.
The stones of Venice … With illustration drawn by the author. Fourth edition.
Orpington, Kent, George Allen, 1886.
A deluxe copy, one of 220 copies, of the fourth expanded edition, printed on Van Gelder laid paper with the plates on India paper.
£375
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COX, John Roalfe.
Horses in Accident and Disease: Notes and Sketches.
Edinburgh, George Waterston & Sons for David Douglas, 1892.
First edition of an elegantly illustrated veterinary work. An early advocate of the use of chloroform anaesthetic when operating on horses, J. Roalfe Cox here offers tender line drawings and brief descriptions of twenty-eight equine ailments.
£70
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CROOKES, William, Sir.
Autograph letter, signed, to Sir John Evans.
London, 7 Kensington Park Gardens, 26 May 1892.
The scientist Sir William Crookes writes to congratulate the archaeologist and geologist John Evans on his imminent knighthood: ‘I must take this opportunity – the last perhaps in which I can call you “Mr” – to offer you my sincere congratulations on the honour which I see is to be conferred...
£250
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BEARDSLEY, Aubrey, art editor; Henry HARLAND, literary editor.
The Yellow Book. An Illustrated Quarterly. Volume...
London [– & New York], Elkin Mathews & John Lane [– John Lane, The Bodley Head], and Boston, Copeland & Day, April 1894 [− April 1897].
An excellent set of the first edition of The Yellow Book, the decade-defining illustrated quarterly that captured the spirit of decadence and aestheticism and gave its name to ‘the yellow nineties’.
£2000
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BRADLEY Gertrude M., illustrator.
An archive of drawings for Just Forty Winks.
[c. 1897].
Fifty-eight delightful preliminary pencil sketches by the illustrator Gertrude M. Bradley for Just Forty Winks, Hendry’s tale for children, offered with a copy of the first and only edition, rare in the dustjacket.
£850