The Builder, An Illustrated Weekly Magazine for the Architect, Engineer, Operative, and Artist (1846, 1850, 1852)

London: Publishing Office, 1852. First Edition. Hardcover. Good. Three bound volumes, 13" x 8.5", covering the full years of 1846 (624 pp + index), 1850 (624 pp), and 1852 (816 pp). All bound in original three-quarter leather and marbled boards -- all with considerable wear to boards, with scuffing and staining to leather, much of the marbled paper worn or torn away. 1846 volume has a cracked rear hinge and 1852 has a broken front hinge, otherwise internals are very good. The Builder was founded in 1842 or 1843 (sources differ) by Joseph Aloysius Hansom (1803 -1882), a British architect and inventor of the Hansom cab. Architect George Godwin (1813-1888) took over as editor in 1844 and developed the magazine into "the most important and successful professional paper of its kind with a readership well beyond the architectural and building world.... Each weekly issue carried detailed reports of new building works and architectural debates plus articles on history, archaeology, and the arts. Above all, The Builder was known for its campaigns for health and housing reform. Godwin wrote first-hand reports on slum overcrowding and its results.... He supported architectural remedies such as improved housing by charitable trusts, public baths and wash-houses, and pavilion-plan hospitals, but equally he believed in improvement through individual perseverance and effort.... As editor, Godwin is reputed to have written much of each issue himself, assisted by a staff of no more than five. He took a particular interest in the quality of the illustrations used, relying mainly on wood-engravings, but later introducing photo-lithography and other photo-mechanical processes. Among the illustrators he relied on were H. W. Brewer, John Brown, Worthington G. Smith, and Benjamin Sly" (ODNB entry on Godwin). Renamed Building in 1966, the magazine is still published today and is described in Wikipedia as "one of the United Kingdom's oldest business-to-business magazines. (Inventory #: 23412)