Art & Architecture

Contact Alex Day or Andrea Mazzocchi

Art & Architecture encompasses a broad sweep of material, from early works concerning architecture and architectural history, and books and manuscripts on the fine arts and aesthetics, antiquities and archaeology, to pattern and design books, and private press books and fine bindings. The department also handles original artwork, artistic archives, posters, and propaganda material.

  1. HELMAN, Isidore-Stanislas-Henri.

    Faits mémorables des empereurs de la Chine, tirés des annales Chinoises, dédiés à Madame,...

    Paris, chez l’auteur … et chez M. Ponce, [1788].

    Two handsome engraved works by the French engraver and printseller Helman (1743–1806/9), here on uncut sheets, the first depicting scenes from Chinese history, the second episodes in the life of Confucius (Kong Fuzi).

    £6000

  2. [HERALDRY.]

    Manuscripts relating to Low Countries nobility.

    [Low Countries, mid-seventeenth century?]

    A fine set of manuscripts relating to Low Countries heraldry and history compiled by a learned local antiquary.

    £1750

  3. HOLBEIN, Hans; Wenceslaus HOLLAR, engraver; [Francis DOUCE, editor].

    The Dance of Death, from the original Designs...

    [McMillan] for J. Coxhead, 1816.

    An attractive early nineteenth-century edition of Holbein’s Dance of Death, printed from Hollar’s etchings with descriptions in English and French and prefatory essays by the antiquary Francis Douce.

    £375

  4. HOSSCHIUS, Sidronius.

    Sidronii Hosschii e Societate Iesu elegiarum libri sex. Praemittuntur illustrissimorum virorum poemata in...

    Antwerp, Balthasar Moretus ‘ex officina Plantiniana’, 1656.

    First collected edition of the neo-Latin verse of the Flemish Jesuit and poet Sidronius Hosschius (Sidron de Hossche, 1596–1653), edited after his death by his fellow poet Jacques van de Walle (1599–1690), and prefaced with poems on Hosschius’ death commissioned by the future Pope Alexander...

    £600

  5. HOWITT, William.

    The rural and domestic life of Germany: with characteristic sketches of its cities and scenery, collected in a...

    London, Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, 1842

    A fine copy of the first edition of Howitt’s account of his travels in Germany and Austria, and one of the best books in English about German life at the time. Howitt had moved with his family to Heidelberg in 1840 and stayed in Germany for more than two years on account of the education of his older...

    £100

  6. HURTADO, Eugenio, scribe.

    [Missal for feast days.]

    Madrid, 1827.

    An extraordinary and enormous liturgical manuscript with painted and stencilled decorations, in a remarkable binding on wheels for ease of movement

    £9500

  7. JACOBSON, Ken.

    Odalisques & Arabesques: Orientalist Photography 1839–1925.

    [London], Quaritch, 2007.

    Profusely illustrated, this is the most comprehensive survey to date of nineteenth- and early twentieth-century photography of the Middle East and North Africa. Using Orientalist painting as a counterpoint, it primarily relates the extraordinarily rich visual documentation of the peoples and cultures...

    £60

  8. KECHT, Johann Sigismund.

    Der verbesserte praktische Weinbau in Gärten und vorzüglich auf Weinbergen … dritte, vermehrte, und...

    Berlin, [Trowitzsch and Son for] the author, 1823.

    Third, expanded edition (first 1813) of J.S. Kecht’s influential treatise describing his innovative methods of pruning grapevines to maximise harvest, first developed in his garden in Berlin and later praised by Goethe.

    £450

  9. LABORDE, Ernest.

    Vieilles maisons boutiques & paysages de Paris. Eaux fortes originales de Ernest Laborde. Presentées par Gustave...

    Paris, Jules Meynial, 1918 [1919].

    First edition, very rare: two series of twenty etchings each on the most picturesque houses and shops in Paris, produced between 1911 and 1918 by Ernest Laborde (1870–1935).

    £1950

  10. [LABOURS OF THE MONTHS &c.] 

    Januarius.  Februarius.  Merz.  April … 

    Nuremberg, Joh. Andreae Endterische Handlung, [second half of eighteenth century]. 

    A scarce popular print depicting the labours of the months and signs of the zodiac, four continents, the four classical elements, and the four seasons. 

    £475

  11. LA SERRE, Jean-Puget de.

    Grab-Statt der weltlichen Ergötzlichkeiten, einstens in Französischer Sprache zubereitet … anjetzt...

    Regensburg, Johann Conrad Peetz und Bader, 1738.

    First edition in German of Tombeau des délices du monde, by the French dramatist and historian Jean-Puget de la Serre (1594–1665).

    £375

  12. LEVEY, Michael.

    The later Italian Pictures in the Collection of Her Majesty the Queen … second edition.

    Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1991.

    Revised second edition of Levey’s catalogue of the later Italian paintings in the Royal Collection, from Carracci to Zuccarelli and including the largest group of Canalettos in the world, a specially bound duplicate of Elizabeth II’s presentation copy.

    £475

  13. LEWIS, Wyndham.

    The Caliph’s Design. Architects! Where is your Vortex?

    London, The Egoist Ltd., 1919.

    First edition, a pamphlet of art criticism, particularly an attack on ugly modern architecture; there is (rare) praise for Cézanne and Picasso.

    £400

  14. LEWIS, Wyndham.

    Wyndham Lewis the Artist.

    From ‘Blast’ to Burlington House’ … London, Laidlaw & Laidlaw, [1939].

    First edition, first issue.

    £125

  15. [LEWIS, Wyndham.]

    Agenda. Wyndham Lewis Special Issue.

    [London, Poets and Painters Press (William Cookson), 1969.]

    A triple issue of Agenda devoted to Wyndham Lewis. Bridson’s article, ‘The making of The Human Age’ appears on pp. 163-171, and mentions his own inscribed copy of the work; also included are the talk commissioned from I.A. Richards before the broadcast of The Childermass,...

    £75

  16. [LOO, Pieter van, attributed.]

    156 watercolours of flowers, plants, and fruits.

    [Holland, c. 1760–80].

    A truly stunning collection of over 150 original eighteenth-century botanical watercolours, attributed to the noted Dutch botanical artist Pieter van Loo (1731–1784).

    £100000

  17. LUCAN.

    Pharsalia cum annotationibus in margine adiectis, quae brevis commentarii vice esse possint.

    Antwerp, Michael Hillenius, 1528.

    An uncommon edition of Lucan’s poem on the Civil War between Caesar and Pompey, with extensive Breton provenance and contemporary annotations, in a contemporary binding.

    £2500

  18. MACDIARMID, Hugh.

    Poems to Paintings by William Johnstone 1933 …

    Edinburgh, K.D. Duval, [1963].

    First edition.

    £25

  19. MARKHAM, Sheila.

    A third Book of Booksellers: Conversations with the Antiquarian Book Trade, with an Introduction by Richard Ovenden.

    London, 2025.

    First edition, limited to five hundred copies, of the third collection of Markham’s interviews with antiquarian booksellers.

    £35

  20. MARKHAM, Sheila.

    A second Book of Booksellers: Conversations with the Antiquarian Book Trade, with an Introduction by Nicolas Barker.

    London, 2014.

    First edition, limited to five hundred copies, of the second collection of Markham’s interviews with antiquarian booksellers.

    £35