Lot 231
Soane, Sir John
Designs in Architecture
Auction: From the Library of Professor Roland Paxton | 01 October 2026 from 10am | Lots 221 to 252
Description
consisting of Plans, Elevations, and Sections, for Temples, Baths, Cassines, Pavilions, Garden-Seats, Obelisks, and Other Building; for decorating Pleasure-Ground, Parks, Forests, etc. etc. London: for I. Taylor, 1778. First edition, 4to (25 x 17.5cm), contemporary marbled boards, rebacked, letterpress title-page, 37 engraved plates (numbered 1-38: one plate numbered both 36 and 37), spine worn, front joint partly cracked, original leather cornerpieces of boards worn away, spotting to contents [ESTC T82195; Harris 838, erroneously citing the existence of 2 preliminary leaves rather than pages]
Provenance
1) Liverpool Architectural Society (label to front board; presentation plate to front pastedown; blind stamps to title-page and margins of 12 plates).
2) From the collection of the late Professor Roland Paxton MBE FICE FRSE (1932-2025), 'Britain's foremost historian of civil engineering' (Telegraph, obituary, 12th November 2025); Professor Paxton was also a leading conservationist of Britain's engineering heritage, and led successful campaigns to restore two of the world's most important railway structures, the Laigh Milton Viaduct in Ayrshire, the world's oldest surviving railway bridge, and the Union Chain Bridge, the world's oldest suspension bridge still carrying road traffic.
Footnote
Sir John Soane's first published book.