Designs of Inigo Jones

The first edition of this continuation by the English architect Isaac Ware (1704-1766) of William Kent's Designs of Inigo Jones. Illustrated with 53 engraved plates, including 5 double-page designs.

Published in c.1731-1733 without imprint and with the engraved cartouche to the title verso inscribed 'Most of these Designs are already Executed, & the rest, are at Burlington House'.

'Ware attribute many, but not all, of the designs shown in the plates to Inigo Jones: six chimney pieces, one staircase, one theater, seven ceilings, piers at Windsor Castle, an altarpiece and screen in Somerset House Chapel, a stable, and a simple rectangular garden "Seat" with Doric columns in antis. William Kent is represented by more designs than Jones: 11 chimney pieces, the dining room at Houghton, another room designed for the Duke of Grafton, an obelisk for Shotover, and a variety of garden seats and pavilions: a "Room" at Shotover, two "Rooms" at Claremont, "Seats" for Sir Charles Hotham and Lord Cobham, and a domed "Temple." Kent's garden "Rooms" are simple in plan, and based on octagonal, square, or circular figures. The building at Shotover is domed, and the entrance of one "Room" at Claremont is framed by battered architraves. The largest garden structure is the two-story domed "Seat" depicted in Plates 43 and 44, five windows wide on the ground story, front by hexastyle pedimented Doric portico, with three rooms inside on the ground floor. There is one design by Lord Burlington, for the piers at the entrance to Chiswick House (Plate 25). The design for an "Alcove" (Plate 23) is unattributed' (Archer).

Oblong 4to (25 x 17.5 cm); 53 engraved plates, including 5 double-page, engraved title and tables of contents, armorial bookplate to front pastedown, the odd minor tear to lower margin not affecting designs, toned with occasional moderate spotting, small worm track at gutter margin of first 5 plates; contemporary half reverse calf, marbled boards, edges stained red, a little rubbed with minor loss to extremities, very good; 56ff.

ESTC T116217; Archer 340.1; cf.Millard 34.