Grotesque Architecture, or, Rural Amusement; consisting of plans, elevations, and sections, for huts & retreats, summer and winter hermitages, terminaries, chinese, gothic, and natural grottos, cascades, baths, mosques, moresque pavilions, grotesque and rustic seats, green houses, etc. many of which may be executed with flints, irregular stones, rude branches, and roots of trees. The whole containing twenty-eight entire new designs, beautifully engraved on copper plates, with scales to each. To which is added, a full explanation, in letter press, and the true method of executing them.

Wrighte, William

Published by Henry Webley, London, 1767

About this Item

14 pages (including etched frontispiece), 1 uncounted leaf, 28 plates (complete). 4°. Early work on architectural follies by the obscure British architect William Wrighte. "Another example of this fascination with ruinous materials is William Wrighte's "Grotesque Architecture, or Rural Amusement" (1967) [.] The frontispiece [.] is filled with representations of ruins, from the ruined arch in the right background, framed by a large oak, to the primitive hut in the left middle ground, to the crumbling hermitage in the right foreground. The quotation on the frontispiece, from Robert Norris's "Art of Architecture" (1742), emphasizes the rough surface of the buildings and the way it should interact with natural elements[.]" (Wanning Harries, 1994, p. 72). Recent full-leather binding with gilded back. Browning and foxing throughout. Flyleaves heavily stained. Title page with small ink stains. Plate 16 with loss in upper right edge (in white margin). Owner's entry on front flyleaf. First edition. Rare.

Seller Inventory # BN2516

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Grotesque Architecture, or, Rural Amusement; consisting of plans, elevations, and sections, for huts & retreats, summer and winter hermitages, terminaries, chinese, gothic, and natural grottos, cascades, baths, mosques, moresque pavilions, grotesque and rustic seats, green houses, etc. many of which may be executed with flints, irregular stones, rude branches, and roots of trees. The whole containing twenty-eight entire new designs, beautifully engraved on copper plates, with scales to each. To...
• Publisher: Henry Webley, London
• Publication Date: 1767
• Language: German
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: 1. Auflage
• Condition: Befriedigend
• Seller catalogs:
  • Rara