PAINE, James.

A very good copy of this sumptuous collection of designs of English aristocratic town and country houses, with 123 engraved plates of plans, elevations and sections, both vols in their first edition, vol.1 the rare second issue (see below). The English architect James Paine (1717-89) was especially known for his designs for private houses, including Chatsworth. The second vol. was probably put on hold after 1775. ‘From the beginning of the [American Revolutionary] war until 1783 most of Britain remained in a building depression. During this period the pace of architectural publication was modest. […] Some may have considered the Treaty of Versailles a portent of economic recovery: in 1783 […] Paine issued the second volume of “Plans”. […] But the ongoing need to finance large war debt meant funds for building were scarce’ (Archer, p.19). In his work, Paine condemned Neoclassical reliance on copying ruins of Greek architecture; that is why he did not provide the five orders in his work, as architects should first and foremost be guided by taste (Archer, pp.39, 44). The designs include elevations (purely architectural, without the surrounding vegetation), plans and sections of Chatsworth, Cowick Hall, Sandbeck and Stockeld in Yorkshire, and Gosforth House and Bellford Hall, Northumberland. ‘The purpose of issuing this first major collection of designs was twofold; on the one hand he wished to advertise his executed designs in order to gain further work, and on the other he hoped […] to discourage English patrons from looking for models outside their own shores’ (BAL).

The Flemish Oscar-Antoine Surmont (1832-77), Baron de Volsberghe, has remained obscure, though a few books are recorded with his bookplate, all remarkably illustrated. 

This copy of Part I appears to be the rare second issue of the first edition of 1767 with the cancel title dated 1783 and the only copy thus.