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.

  1. RICKMAN, Thomas.

    An attempt to discriminate the styles of English architecture from the Conquest to the Reformation with notices...

    London, [1819].

    Second, much enlarged edition, of Rickman’s celebrated investigation into Gothic architecture which was originally published in 1817. ‘This, the first systematic treatise on Gothic architecture in England, soon became well known, and Rickman’s nomenclature was followed by all subsequent writers...

    £275

  2. ROBERTS, Henry.

    The dwellings of the labouring classes, their arrangement and construction, illustrated by a reference to the model...

    London, Society for Improving the Condition of the Labouring Classes, 1850.

    First edition of one of the most important publications on philanthropic housing by the architect and housing reformer Henry Roberts (1803-1876).

    £250

  3. 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

  4. ROUQUET, Jean-André. 

    The present State of the Arts in England.  By M. Rouquet, member of the Royal Academy of Painting and...

    London, for J. Nourse, 1755. 

    First edition in English, published in the same year as the French original, from the library of the great Scottish economist and philosopher Adam Smith (1723–1790). 

    £19500

  5. [ROUSSEAU, Pierre.] 

    Considérations sur le théatre de l’opéra.  Novembre 1822. 

    [Paris,] de l’imprimerie de Rignoux, [1822].

    Very rare proposal for a new opera house in Paris by the architect Pierre Rousseau (1751–1829), annotated by the author and accompanied by an autograph letter. 

    £475

  6. 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

  7. [SALON DE 1850.]

    Explication des ouvrages de peinture, sculpture, architecture, gravure et lithographie des artists vivants exposés...

    Paris, 1850.

    Catalogue for the Salon of 1850, the exhibition of contemporary French artists in Paris. The submissions of architectural drawings get the most detailed treatment although the first medal in the architecture section was not awarded.

    £75

  8. SASSOON, Siegfried. 

    Nativity. 

    London, Faber & Gwyer, 1927. 

    First edition of this striking collaboration between Siegfried Sassoon and Paul Nash. 

    £175

  9. SAULCY, Louis Félicien, Caignart de.

    Note sur une inscription punique découverte au Cap Carthage en 1841. Lue à l’Académie...

    [Paris], Imprimerie Royale, 1843.

    Rare offprint from the Journal Asiatique on a stone found at Carthage inscribed with Phoenician text, and a contribution to the deciphering and study of the Phoenician-Punic language.

    £250

  10. [SCHLOSSER, Johann Albert].  BODDAERT, Pieter.

    Epistola ad … Hier. Dav. Gaubium … De chaetodonte diacantho, descripto atque...

    Amsterdam, apud M. Magerum, 1772.

    First and only edition of Boddaert’s description of the Royal Angelfish found in the Schlosser natural history cabinet.  This is the first monograph on the Royal Angelfish (and its first illustration), a now common species of coral fish in the Pacific and Indian Ocean. 

    £500

  11. [SCHLOSSER, Johann Albert.] BODDAERT, Pieter. 

    Epistola ad virum celeberrimum Johannem Burmannum … De Chaetodonte Argo descripto...

    Amsterdam, apud Cornelium van Tongerlo, 1770.

    First and only edition of Boddaert’s description of this Indo-West Pacific fish species found in the Schlosser natural history cabinet. 

    £500

  12. SCHÜBLER, Johann Jacob, et al.

    Designs for furniture, funerary monuments, garden buildings.

    Augsburg, [c. 1710s–20s].

    An interesting sammelband containing over fifty handsome engraved plates with late Baroque designs for furniture, monuments, and summerhouses, published at Augsburg by Jeremias Wolff (1663–1724) and his heirs, and by Joseph Friedrich Leopold (1668–1727).

    £3750

  13. (SCHWERIN) (GLOECKER, A.F.W).

    Bibliothek des Vereins für Meklenburgische Geschichte und Alterthumskunde, wie solche am Ende des...

    … Erste Fortsetzung 1837 … [until] … Achte Fortsetzung 1844. (Schwerin), 1836-1844.

    The Verein für Mecklenburgische Geschichte (‘Association for the history of Mecklenburg’) was founded in 1835. Here we have the catalogue of its library, with over 1500 books, as it grew over the years from its foundation to 1844. This is a fascinating record of local interest books, some published...

    £150

  14. SHENSTONE, William.

    The Works, in Verse and Prose… in three Volumes … Fifth Edition …

    London: Printed for J. Dodsley … 1777.

    Fifth edition of the Works (1764), the first edition of which was planned by Shenstone but published after his death, with Robert Dodsley’s description of Shenstone’s important garden at The Leasowes, one of the first natural landscape gardens in England and one of the most influential,...

    £325

  15. [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

  16. [SOCIETY OF ARTISTS.]

    A Catalogue of the Pictures, Sculptures, Models, Designs in Architecture, Drawings, Prints, &c. Exhibited...

    Printed by Harriot Bunce, Printer to the Society. 1774.

    First edition of the Catalogue for the selling exhibition of 1774. The Society of Artists emerged in 1760 as a loose association of artists, including Joshua Reynolds and Francis Hayman, who wanted greater control over exhibitions of their work than they experienced under William Shipley’s Society...

    £1100

  17. [SOCIETY OF JESUS.] 

    Les découvertes d’un bibliophile réduites a leur juste valeur.  Avec quelques cas de conscience curieux. 

    Strasbourg, L.F.  Le Roux, [1843]. 

    First edition of this scathing response to Busch’s anti-Jesuit Les découvertes d’un bibliophile, central to the highly polemical ‘affaire du Bibliophile’ which divided Strasbourg in 1843. 

    £375