4to. (330 x 254 mm.) Original ribbed green quarter cloth over paper covered boards, paper label to the centre of the upper board; iv, 128pp., 17 engraved and etched plates, including the frontispiece; light, scattered spotting to some of the plates, otherwise a very good copy of a scarce title.

Provenance: 1. Presentation copy to John Russell, First Earl Russell (1792-1878), Prime Minister from 1846-1852, and again from 1865-1866. Inscribed by Wilkins in ink to the f.f.e.p. ‘The Right Hon.ble, The Lord John Russell, &c. &c. &c. from the author.’ 2. William Russell, 8th Duke of Bedford (1809-1872), with his engraved bookplate to the front pastedown, indicating that the book at one point was in the library at Endsleigh, near Milton Abbot, Devon, built for the 6th Duke in a cottage orné style by Jeffrey Wyattville.

Sole edition. Published towards the end of Wilkins’s life, the present work is comprised of four essays, of which two are devoted to the Erechtheum, its iconography, and its construction; the third to the construction of the roofs of temples; the fourth to an analysis of the architecture of the Temple at Jerusalem as a type for the Doric temple at Paestum. Each essay is illustrated with etched and engraved plates after detailed measured drawings.

BAL Early Printed Books 3655.

Stock number: 1286