Designs in Architecture: For Garden Chairs, Small Gates for Villas, Park Entrances, Aviarys, Temples, Boat Houses, Mausoleums, and Bridges; with their Plans, Elevations, and Sections, Accompanied with Scenery, etc.
London: R. Ackermann's Repository of Arts, 1800.
First Edition. 14 leaves. Illustrated with engraved dedication leaf with hand-colored vignette and 24 hand-colored aquatint plates, colored by hand, interleaved with the text. Oblong folio (10¼x13¼"). Early green half morocco and cloth, spine lettered in gilt, edges speckled red. Near Fine with lightly worn binding, small bump to lower edges, front free endpaper and first blank creased; contents have some light offsetting.
The second of two works by Irish architect William Robertson (1770-1850) published in his lifetime. Issued in English and French editions simultaneously, this is one of the scarcest and most attractive books of the genre. J.R. Abbey notes that the aquatints are "of very fine grain and discreet colouring. The engraving by Rowlandson at the head of the dedication is of great interest." Two of the plates include very early illustrations of swimming pools. Abbey Life in England in Aquatint and Lithography 63.
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