£6,000 - £8,000
Architecture. Campbell (Colen, Architect), Vitruvius Britannicus, or The British Architect, Containing the Plans, Elevations, and Sections of the Regular Buildings both Publick (sic) and Private in Great Britain, with Variety of New Designs [...] either from the Buildings themselves, or the Original Designs of the Architects, three volume set, first edition, London: Sold by the Author, 1715, 1717, & 1725, subscriber' volume I: engraved title-page and dedication leaf (i.e. plates 1 & 2), 10pp, plates 3-100, including 11 which are double-page elevations over 2 plates, also, plate 20's broad fore-margin is chipped, smaller chip to the upper-margin of plate 67, it and plates 68-70 have small water stains to portions of their upper-margins, plate 96 fore-margin with small chip and faint & dormant worm trail, none of these come close to affecting or touching the images or their platemarks, volume II: engraved title-page (i.e. plate 1), 8pp, plates plates 2-100, including 13 which are double-page elevations over 2 plates & 3 longer elevations over 4 plates, plate 93 is incorrectly numbered 94, plates 83 has a small margin chip and 97 a small marginal tear, again none of these come close to affecting or touching the images or their platemarks, volume III: 12pp, plates 3-100, including 21 which are double-page elevations or plans over 2 plates, lacking plates 1-2, plates 90 & 90 and 91 & 92 are transposed by the binder, letterpress pp. 1-6 with discreet inner-margin water stain, not affecting letters, pp. 7-8 a trifle tatty, the majority of each volume's leaves are bright and clean, however some are toned/browned to varying degrees, additionally some fore-margins have slight spatters from the edges being speckled, however none of this affects or detracts from the rich impressions of the plates as this is a particularly broad-margined copy, contemporary/contemporaneous tan calf boards, rolled in blind with a foliate pattern, scuffed and rubbed, rebacked, recornered and repaired to style in tan calf gilt by the Wyvern Bindery, with gilt-lettered red morocco pieces, slightly speckled edges, custom made 20th c tan cloth clamshell boxes by the aforementioned bindery, with gilt-lettered backs and fleece-lined, folio (52 x 37cm), [Harris 97 & 99; Archer 32.1 & 33.1; Fowler 76], (3)
Provenance: 1) Richard Prime (1784-1866), of Walberton Park, West Sussex, Conservative MP for Western Sussex (1847-54); armorial bookplates to pastedown; 2) Tony Hickman, 20th c architect; 3) Julian Bicknell (b. 1945), New Classical architect and designer of the Palladian Henbury Hall, Cheshire; pictorial bookplates to pastedown.
Campbell's monumental work promoting the virtues of neo-Palladianism and featuring many of the great houses of England
Fees apply to the hammer price:
Room and Absentee Bids:
24% inc VAT*
Online and Autobids:
25.8% inc VAT*
