The Architecture of Country Houses

New York: D. Appleton & Co, 1850. First Edition. First printing. Octavo (24cm). Rebound in modern green buckram, titled in gilt on spine, all edges marbled; modern endpapers; [xii],484pp; 31 inserted plates, and in-text wood engravings. Sound and clean, some browning to text, occasional offsetting: Very Good.

Downing (1815-1852) was a highly influential landscape gardener and architectural designer. As American "urban growth accelerated, he became the most influential early advocate of spacious parks within cities and codified the suburban ideal for middle- and upper-class Americans." Country Houses, his final work, was "a culmination (truncated) of his views on domestic architecture and a catalogue of the works of a rising generation of architects." In the preface, he argued that domestic architecture had a civilizing, "moral and social...influence" (ANB). The heavily illustrated book includes plans for a range of houses, from laborer's cottages to large villas, along with chapters on materials, furnishings, and warmining and ventilation. HITCHCOCK 325. (Inventory #: 59194)