Designs For Cottages, Cottage Farms, And Other Buildings; Including Entrance gates And Lodges. By Joseph Gandy, Architect, A.R.A.

Joseph Michael Gandy ARA

RA Collection: Book

Record number

03/1745

Author

Joseph Michael Gandy ARA

Imprint

London:: Printed For John Harding, 36, St. James's-Street., 1805.

Physical Description

[2], x, 28, [2], 3, [1] p., 43 pl.; 307 mm. (Quarto).

General Note

In some copies (including that of the Royal Academy) Harding's 2-page and 4-page lists of books are bound in before and after the plates.

[T.p., dedic.] - Introduction - Explanation Of The Designs - [Bookseller's advertisement, 'Books On Agriculture ... Sold By John Harding, 36, St. James's Street'] - [Plates] - [Advertisement, 'Books On Agriculture And Rural Affairs. Lately Published by John Harding, 36, St. James's Street'].

Responsibility Note

Thirty-one of the plates carry the name of 'J. Gandy Archt. A.R.A.' Twenty six carry the signatures of engravers - I.W. Harding (7 plates), C. Rosenberg (16 plates) or S. Alken (3 plates).

Each plate carries the publisher's imprint of John Harding.

The printer is named on the title-page verso: 'Printed by B. McMillan, Bow-Street, Covent-Garden'.

The work is dedicated by the author to Thomas Hope.

References

Royal Institute of British Architects, British Architectural Library ... Early printed books, 2 (1995), no. 1171; J. Archer, Literature of British domestic architecture (1985), 84.1; Life in England in aquatint and lithography ... library of J.R. Abbey (1953/R1972, 1991), no. 18, p.14; Joseph Michael Gandy 1771-1843 [exhibition catalogue] (1982).

Summary Note

The publication-date of 1805 is repeated on several plates - 'March 1805', 'March 10 1805' or 'March 18 1805'.

Building projects had been curtailed by the Napoleonic wars. But publishing these designs for small structures and cottages Gandy argues that cost efficiency can be accompanied by good design, so that residents may acquire an 'early habit of contemplating fine forms' and 'natural good taste'.

The plates show: six designs for lodges; 34 for cottages; one for a picturesque public-house; one for eight attached cottages forming a circle; one for a village of circular cottages.

Like James Malton and William Atkinson Gandy valued variety of form. Here he combines simple geometric forms in an irregular manner - decorated only by pilasters and relieving arches (in the style of his teacher Sir John Soane). His circular buildings and groups echo compositions recently published by C.-N. Ledoux.

The verso of the first list of 'Books On Agriculture' announces, 'On the 10th of May will be published, in Royal Quarto, Another Volume Of Designs For Cottages And Farm Buildings, With Some Plans For Entrance Gates And Lodges. By The Author Of The Present Work.'

Reproductions

A fasimile was published at Farnborough in 1971.

Provenance

Purchased January 1995.

Binding Note

19th-century paper-covered boards, with pink and black title-plate pasted on upper cover, reading 'Gandy's Cottages Farmbuildings &c'; cream paper spine-label lettered 'Gandy's Cottages &c. 2l. 2s.'

Name as Subject

Joseph Michael Gandy ARA

Subject

Architecture, British - Houses - Cottages - Rural housing - Gates - Gatehouses - Lodges (caretakers' houses) - Great Britain - 19th century
Designs - Pattern books - Catalogues, Booksellers' - Great Britain - 19th century
Pictorial works - Aquatints - Great Britain - 19th century

Contributors

John Harding, publisher
Buchanan McMillan, printer
John W. Harding, engraver
Samuel Alken, engraver
Thomas Hope, dedicatee
Charles Rosenberg, engraver