A new book of Chinese designs calculated to improve the present taste consisting of figueres, buildings, & furnitur, landskips, birds, beasts, flowers and ornaments, &c.

EDWARDS, George and Matthias DARLY.

Edité par sold by the authors,, London,, 1754

Rare first and only edition of an important mid-18th-century pattern book of chinoiserie designs, published at the height of the fashion for Chinese-inspired ornament in Britain. This copy, though incomplete, is offered as a collection of engravings and remains a substantial and representative example of the work.The publication is among the most extensive English compilations devoted to Chinese-style ornament. After a single-page index, the plates present a wide range of designs, including gates, railings, figures and costume, idols, beds, mirrors, cartouches, boats, furniture, birds, flowers, and ornamental devices. Architectural subjects include bridges, pagodas, temples, porticoes, windows, garden buildings, niches, and a hermitage, alongside panels, doors, and other decorative applications.The designs reflect a pronounced rococo interpretation of Chinese motifs. Rather than adhering to Palladian principles of geometry and symmetry, the compositions favour asymmetry and richly worked surface decoration, with fretwork, pagoda roofs, urns, and dense vegetal ornament predominating. Many of the designs function more as decorative schemes or façades than as structurally resolved buildings.The designs also had a wider afterlife: several were reused with added landscape backgrounds in Chinese architecture (1759), attributed to Paul Decker (1677-1713), while others appeared in The ladies amusement, or the Whole art of Japanning made easy (ca. 1760). Elements of Darly s ornamental vocabulary were further republished in A compleat body of architecture (1773).The title page has been restored and is browned, some staining and browning throughout, particularly to plate 14, an unnumbered plate between 42 and 43, and plate 89. Plate 22 is unbound and loosely inserted. Plates 60 and 102 each have a tear. In total, 44 plates are lacking. Two plates are numbered 56. Otherwise in good condition.l Archer, p. 310 66.1; ESTC T14907 (4 copies); Guilmard, p. 519 n. 21; Harris, p. 177 no. 187; WorldCat 8341451, 174557889. 19th-century, half beige leather, title lettered in gold on the spine, marbled paper sides. With 76 engraved plates and an engraved title page. Pages: [4] pp. and an engraved title page and 76 engraved plates. N° de réf. du vendeur ABC_50458

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Titre : A new book of Chinese designs calculated to ...
Éditeur : sold by the authors,, London,
Date d'édition : 1754