“THE OVERLAYS… HAVE CAUSED COLLECTORS TO TREASURE HIS ENGRAVINGS”: REPTON’S ILLUSTRATED LANDSCAPE GARDENING, 1803 FIRST EDITION

REPTON, Humphry. Observations on the Theory and Practice of Landscape Gardening. Including Some Remarks on Grecian and Gothic Architecture. London: Printed by T. Bensley for J. Taylor, 1803. Folio (11 by 14 inches), recent three-quarter tan calf, raised bands, elaborately gilt-decorated spine, red morocco spine label, marbled boards, endpapers and edges.

First edition of this influential and beautifully illustrated manual, with stipple-engraved frontispiece portrait, 24 aquatint plates (one folding)—12 hand-colored, three tinted, and 12 with folding overslips, three line-engraved building plans, 11 aquatint vignettes (two with overslips), and numerous wood-engraved in-text illustrations, views, plans, and a hand-colored diagram. A handsomely bound copy, most desirable uncut and with all folding overslips present.

Rejecting the formalism of his early mentors, William Kent and Lancelot Brown, Repton adopted a more natural and varied style of ornamentation, which has been described as combining "artistical knowledge… with good taste and good sense" (DNB). "Repton's… facility as a watercolorist enabled him to illustrate his proposed 'improvements' by means of charming perspective views furnished with flaps designed to allow the prospective client to make a direct comparison between his park in its improved and unimproved condition… he was mentioned by name in Jane Austen's Mansfield Park" (Colvin, A Biographical Dictionary of English Architects, 489-90). "Repton's book is not a theoretical treatise… He offers instead a guide to his approach to landscape design, with explanations of his aims and his methods of achieving them in specific instances" (Millard). "The overlays in Repton's books on landscape gardening, by means of which he showed selected prospects before and after he had turned his hand to them, have caused collectors to treasure his engravings as curiosities, but they are remarkable as well for the excellence of his draftsmanship" (Ray). Abbey, Scenery 390. Tooley 399. Millard, British Books 65 (second edition). Ray, The Illustrator and the Book in England 38. Owner signature on title page.

Interior generally fine, hand-coloring bright and lovely. Very handsomely bound.