Ideas for Rustic Furniture; proper for Garden Seats, Summer Houses, Hermitages, Cottages, &c. on 25 plates. London, I. & J. Taylor, the Architectural Library, circa 1800.
First Edition. 8vo, (235 x 145 mm), 25 engraved plates including the title, some staining, particularly to the title-page, in slightly later marbled wrappers, sprung and detached, possibly the result of an early and not very successful restoration project, consequently several of the plates are loose.
A delightful suite of plates showing designs for rustic furniture to be used either in the garden or inside modest country dwellings or cottages. Fourteen designs for chairs are included on the first seven plates, two long stools, four sofas (decorative but perhaps rather uncomfortable), three tables, one bason [sic] stand, six mirrors on three plates and three large chimney pieces. The title-page and final leaf, both unnumbered, are captioned ‘Frontispiece’ and represent decorative entrances and exits to a garden. Wright is mostly remembered for his very popular Grotesque Architecture, which was first published in 1767 and ran to numerous editions. A much larger work than the present, it included a number of rustic seats as well as architectural and garden plans.
ESTC t146494, at BL, RIBA, The National Trust, V & A and Massachusetts Institute of Technology only; the Met also has a copy.