Large 4to. (335 x 249 mm.) Publisher’s decorative cloth, gilt-lettered blue cloth labels to the upper board and spine, t.e.g., decorative endpapers, t.e.g.; pp. xvi, 111, [1], b/w photo frontispiece, and 267 b/w photo plates; the joints around the spine label tender, the corners very lightly bumped, else a bright, clean copy.

Provenance: An interesting association copy. Inserted loose at the front of the volume, although evidently at one time pinned to the ffep., a note in ink on mourning letterhead bearing the address, Cockenzie House, Prestonpans, East Lothian, a house rented by Sir Robert Lorimer’s father, James, as a summer residence. The hand is that of Hannah Cassels im Thurn, Sir Robert’s sister, and wife of the explorer, plant hunter and civil servant, Sir Everard im Thurn.

In the note Hannah describes the sad circumstances surrounding the purchase of the book, ‘This copy of The Life & Works of Sir Robert Lorimer was got by Sir Everard im Thurn as a parting gift to Sir Edward Denham when he went as Governor to British Guiana [Guyana]. Sir Everard was disappointed to find Sir Edward Denham had started before he sent off the book. It is now awaiting Sir Edward Denham’s directions as to what to do with it. H. C. im Thurn.’ In the interim Sir Everard had died, Hannah, now a widow, being left to tie up loose ends. Sir Everard’s published exploits in Venezuela were the inspiration for Arthur Conan Doyle’s novel, The Lost World.

First edition of what remains the best account of Sir Robert Lorimer’s career as a country house architect, furniture designer, and the architect of the Scottish National War Memorial, Edinburgh.

Stock number: 1002