Jonathan Clark Fine Books
Art and Architecture
RICHARDSON, George.
A Treatise On The Five Orders Of Architecture, In Which The Principles Of That Art Are Illustrated By Elegant And Correct Examples, ... Containing Twenty-Two Plates Engraved In Acquatinta, producing the Spirit and Effect of finished Drawings in Indian Ink; With complete Explanations in English and French, accompanied with Observations made on several of the Antiquities of Rome, and various Parts of Italy, at Pola in Istria, and the southern Provinces of France, in the Years 1760, 1761, 1762, and 1763.
London, Printed For The Author ... By George Nicol, 1787.
Folio (542 x 344 mm.) Bound in the original grey boards, paper spine; pp. x, 32, [1f.], advertisement dated London, May 15th, 1787, printed recto and verso, 22 aquatint plates, 1 small folio sheet loose, dated London, 1st June, 1787 and printed with proposals for Richardson’s New Designs in Architecture (1792), along with other works by him already published, including the present work to which is added in ink ‘and on Colombier Paper, Two Guineas.’; the boards rubbed, two small old wax splashes to the upper board, expert repair to the gutter of p.ix, small pinhole at p.29/30, not affecting the text, very light old waterstain to the lower margin of a few leaves, otherwise a bright, clean, unsophisticated copy.
Sole edition. Parallel text in English and French.
Apprenticed to John Adam in his Edinburgh office, Richardson was subsequently employed as a draughtsman in the London office of John’s younger brothers, Robert and James. On the recommendation of Robert he accompanied James on his Grand Tour undertaken between 1760 and 1763. It seems that Richardson was not treated very well by James, having to conceal sketches and drawings made in his own time from his employer for fear of angering him. On Richardson’s return he continued to work in the Adam office as a draughtsman for a few years before establishing his own practice. However he made a living primarily from teaching and his own publications. The drawings he had made on his travels in Italy, the south of France and Istria were used as the basis for the examples illustrated in the present volume, they include the Pantheon and the Theatre of Marcellus in Rome and the Temple of Diana at Nîmes.
The subscribers’ list includes a number of the leading architects of the day, Robert and James Adam, William Chambers, John Carr, Cockerell, George Dance, Henry Holland, Soane, James and Samuel Wyatt. The list also includes a large number of cabinet-makers, among them Thomas Chippendale, William Ince, George Hepplewhite and George Smith.
BAL Early Printed Books 2760; Harris/Savage 744; Ingamells, John. A Dictionary of British and Irish Travellers in Italy 1701-1800. Yale, 1997. p.811.
Stock number: 1062