Lot 1
Architectural designs for the Houses of Parliament - Hopper, Thomas
Rare Books, Manuscripts, Maps & Photographs
Auction: 28 January 2015 at 11:00 GMT
Description
Designs for the Houses of Parliament. London: for the Author, [1842]. First edition, oblong elephant folio, 4 plans on india paper, and 28 plates by H. Jones and others after Hopper (27 lithographed, 1 engraved), one plate on india paper, list of subscribers with one name neatly added in pen facsimile, contemporary maroon half morocco, gilt lettering piece on upper cover, preserved in new folding cloth and buckram case, with morocco lettering piece, somewhat spotted, some marginal repairs, one repair just extending into image
Footnote
Note: Despite a lucrative private practice, in the competitions for public buildings that formed such a significant feature of late Georgian architectural activity, Hopper was almost uniformly unsuccessful. Defeated by Barry in the Houses of Parliament competition, 1835–6, Hopper was one of the most persistent and percipient critics of the competition judges, setting out detailed grounds for objection in his Letter to the … First Commissioner of his Majesty's Works (1837); pursued the controversy in Hopper versus Cust, on the … Rebuilding of the Houses of Parliament (1837); and eventually went to the considerable expense of publishing his own designs in this large sumptuous elephant folio.
Rare: only 7 copies recorded on Copac.