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.
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[BENDISCIOLI, Faustino.]
Quadro ossia saggio epilogato del Sistema di liberta’ proclamato dai Francesi.
Milan, Stamperia [dei Patrioti d’Italia] di Strada Nuova, [1799].
An impassioned tract attacking the claims of a new life of liberty promoted in Europe after the French Revolution, very rarely to be found in any of the three editions published in the same year.
£200
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BLANQUI, Jérôme Adolphe, l’Ainé.
Histoire de l’économie politique en Europe, depuis les anciens jusqu’à nos jours, suivie...
Paris, Guillaumin, 1837.
First edition of ‘the first major history of political economy’ (The New Palgrave). Blanqui (1798–1854) taught at the Institution Massin, where he came into contact with J. B. Say, who was greatly impressed by him. In 1833, he succeeded Say as holder of the chair of political and industrial economy...
£125
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[BOLOGNA.]
Delle oggetti di belle arti nel famoso Tempio di S. Paolo in Bologna e delle vicissitudini di esso brevi notizie.
Bologna, ‘nella stamperia di San Tommaso d’Aquino’, 1831.
First edition of this detailed description of the Baroque masterpieces in the church of San Paolo Maggiore (or San Paolo Decollato) in Bologna, among them works by Guercino and Cavedoni.
£275
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BORBONI, Domenico.
Architectura Dominici Borbonii celeberrimi architecti, et pictoris Bononiensis.
[Bassano,] ‘ex typographio Remondiniano Veneto’, [c. 1670?].
Only known edition of this very rare collection of superb architectural plates by the Bolognese architect and painter Domenico Borboni, published by Giovanni Antonio Remondini, our copy used as a draughtsman’s pattern book.
£3750
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[BRISTOL.]
The Bristol Contest, being a Collection of all the Papers published by both Parties, on the Election, 1754.
Bristol, ‘sold by the Printing-Office … and by J. Palmer’, [1754].
Extremely rare first edition of this Bristol-printed political pamphlet, bound with the first edition of a French work on pyrotechnics used both for spectacle and for war.
£650
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[BRITISH LIBRARY.]
The Eighteenth Century Short Title Catalogue.
[London,] British Library, 1983.
First and only microfiche edition of ESTC, subsequently expanded into the English Short-Title Catalogue and made obsolete by digitisation.
£175
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BURNE-JONES, Edward.
The Little Holland House Album … with an Introduction & Notes by John Christian.
The Roxburghe Club, 2024
The Little Holland House Album was compiled by Edward Burne-Jones in about 1858-9 for Sophia, Mrs Dalrymple, the youngest of the seven celebrated Pattle sisters who played such an important role in mid-Victorian cultural life. Their centre was Little Holland House in Kensington where another of the...
£75
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BURY, Stephen.
Artists’ books: the book as a work of art, 1963-2000.
London, Bernard Quaritch Ltd, 2015.
The history of artists’ involvement with the book format between 1963 and 2000 includes a fascinating range of artists and movements from Mallarmé to the Piece of Paper Press via Cubism, Futurism, Dada, Fluxus and conceptual art. This second edition includes updated text with new bibliographic descriptions...
£60
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CAPPONI, Alessandro Gregorio, Marchese.
Catalogo della Libreria Capponi o sia de’ Libri Italiani del su Marchese Alessandro...
Rome, Bernabò & Lazzarini, 1747
First and only edition of the catalogue of this remarkable library assembled by Capponi (1683–1746) and containing over five thousand titles, mainly of early Italian literature. The catalogue was compiled by Alessandro Berti with bio-bibliographical notes by Domenico Giorgi. The collection now forms...
£900
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CARDONNEL, Adam de.
Picturesque Antiquities of Scotland [I–II] …
London: Printed for the Author, and sold by Edwards … also by Edwards’s, in Halifax. 1788.
First edition, the very rare issue with the plates in sepia, printed directly onto thick wove paper.
£975
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CARTARI, Vincenzo.
Le imagini con la spositione de i dei de gli antichi ...
Venice, Francesco Marcolini, 1556.
First edition of Cartari’s influential and successful treatise on the mythology of the ancients, the iconographic handbook of painters throughout Europe for the next 250 years.
£800
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CARTER, John, and Graham POLLARD.
The Firm of Charles Ottley, Landon & Co.: Footnote to An Enquiry.
London, Rupert Hart-Davis, and New York, Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1948.
First edition of Carter and Pollard’s further research into the forgeries of Thomas J. Wise. The authors examine pamphlets of Swinburne’s poetry published under the imprint of ‘Charles Ottley, Landon & Co’ and expose them as the work of the book-collector and forger Thomas James Wise (1859–1937)....
£12
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CELLINI, Benvenuto.
Vita di Benvenuto Cellini orefice e scultore fiorentino da lui medesimo scritta, nella quale molte curiose...
‘Cologne’ [i.e. Florence], ‘Pietro Martello’ [i.e. Bartolini], [1792].
The counterfeit edition of Benvenuto Cellini’s seminal autobiography, extra-illustrated with two large engravings illustrating his ‘Perseus and Medusa’ and the ‘Hercules and Cacus’ of his rival sculptor Bandinelli.
£675
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CHALMERS, David.
Histoire abbregee de tous les roys de France, Angleterre et Escosse, mise en ordre par forme d’Harmonie: contenant...
Paris, Jean Fevrier, 1579.
First edition of Chalmer’s historical work focusing on Scotland’s relations with France and England, written at a time of marriage negotiations between England and France, seeking to dispel the idea that England had any overlordship over Scotland.
£950
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CHEESMAN, Thomas.
No. I. Six Heads Drawn and Engraved, by T. Cheesman.
[London,] T. Cheesman, No. 40 Oxford Street; and to be had of J.F. Tomkins, New Bond Street, Published February 10, 1797.
First and only edition, extremely rare, of this complete series of six heads of young women wearing head scarves by ‘one of Bartolozzi’s most outstanding pupils’.
£850
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[CHRISTIE’S – FOUNTAINE.]
Catalogue of the celebrated Fountaine Collection of Majolica, Henri II. Ware, Palissy Ware, Nevers...
London, [William Clowes & Sons for] Christie, Manson, & Woods, 16 June 1884.
An early photographically illustrated auction catalogue, partially priced, for the sale of the Fountaine collection of ceramics, enamels, and relief works.
£650
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[COLOGNE.]
Hôtel de Belle Vue à Deutz vis-à-vis de Cologne, tenu pour J. A. Kimmel.
[Cologne, c. 1880.]
An ambitious lithographic advertisement for the Hotel de Belle Vue in Deutz, facing Cologne over the Rhine, with a ‘Rhein-Panorama’ printed on the verso.
£250
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[COLUMBUS.] QUARITCH, Bernard, and Michael KERNEY.
The Spanish Letter of Columbus … A facsimile of the original edition...
[London,] Quaritch, 2006.
Over the centuries, booksellers have contributed much to the elucidation and sometimes to the falsification of historical documents. The story of the first printed account of the New World, usually known as Christopher Columbus’s Letter to Santángel or simply the Columbus Letter, illustrates...
£60
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COMBE, George.
Phrenology applied to Painting and Sculpture.
London, Simpkin, Marshall, and Co., 1855.
First edition, scarce in commerce. George Combe (1788–1858) was a Scottish lawyer and a leading exponent of phrenology, co-founding in 1820 the Edinburgh Phrenological Society. This is an art historical retrospective using phrenology as the basis for an understanding of beauty and artistic ability,...
£350
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COX, John Roalfe.
Horses in Accident and Disease: Notes and Sketches.
Edinburgh, George Waterston & Sons for David Douglas, 1892.
First edition of an elegantly illustrated veterinary work. An early advocate of the use of chloroform anaesthetic when operating on horses, J. Roalfe Cox here offers tender line drawings and brief descriptions of twenty-eight equine ailments.
£70