Plans, elevations, sections, and perspective views of the gardens and buildings at Kew, in Surry ... / by William Chambers ...

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Accession number: 
PML 53027
Author: 
Chambers, William, Sir, 1723-1796.
Published: 
London : Haberkorn, 1763.
Description: 
8 p., 43 p. of plates (part folded) ; 54 cm
Credit: 
Gift of Henry S. Morgan, 1962.

In 1757 William Chambers, the only architect in England to have directly observed East Asian architecture, began to design new gardens at Kew with artificial ruins and exotic structures. His famous pagoda represents the Chinese style on which he published two treatises. Chambers's discussion of Chinese gardens, some of which he classified as Romantic, promoted the idea of provoking powerful emotional responses through selected effects in landscape design: "the spectator is to be amused . . . his curiosity excited, and his mind agitated by a great variety of opposite passions." His work is the basis for the Continental European concept of the jardin anglo-chinois.

Notes: 

Architectural designs by Chambers, William Kent ... and John ...
Figures furnished by Giovanni B. Cipriani (1727-1785).
Views drawn by John Joshua Kirby (1716-1774), Thomas Sandby (1721-1798) and T. Marlow and William Marlow (1740-1813).
Plates engraved by F. Patton, Tobias Müller, Edward Rooker, James Basire, James Noural, W. Wollett, Paul Sandby, Thomas Major and Charles Grignion.
Uncut copy.

Inscriptions/Markings: 

Watermark: on page with Theater of Augusta. Fleur-de-lis in shield, surmounted by crown, over "4" and letters "LVG", (Strasbourg lily).

Provenance: 
Provenance: book-plate of Villiers, earl of Jersey (Osterley Park); Jane Norton Grew Morgan (Mrs. J. P. Morgan, Jr.); Henry S. Morgan
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