24. Chambers, Sir William.
Plans, Elevations, / Sections, and Perspective Views / OF THE / GARDENS
/ AND / BUILDINGS / At KEW in Surry, / The Seat of
Her ROYAL HIGHNESS / The Princess Dowager of Wales. / BY /
WILLIAM CHAMBERS, / MEMBER / Of the Imperial Academy of
Arts at Florence, and of the Royal Academy of Architecture at Paris, /
ARCHITECT / To the KING, and to Her Royal Highness the Princess
Dowager of WALES. / LONDON, / Printed by J. Haberkorn, in Grafton
Street, St. Anne's Soho; / Published for the Author, / And to be
had at his House in Poland Street; / Likewise of A. Millar, D. Wilson,
and T. Becket, all in the Strand; and of R. and J. Dodsley / in
Pall-Mall; R. Sayer in Fleet-Street, A. Webley in Holborn, J. Walter
at Charing-/Cross, and Dorothy Mercier at the Golden Ball, Windmill
Street, Golden Square. / MDCCLXIII.
Folio. Engraved frontispiece (1 leaf); title page (1 leaf); dedication (1
leaf); description of plates (1-8); 41 engraved plates, of which 2 are
folding (2 of a total of 43 are missing).
The engravers were James Basire (see No. 3); Charles Grignion
(see No. 23); Tobias Miller, or Müller (fl.1763-90), born in Nuremburg,
but working in London where he had a brother, Johann Sebastian
Miller, or Müller, also an engraver; James Noual; F. Patton (see No. 3);
Edward Rooker (see No. 3); P. Sandby (see No. 23); and William
Wollett (1735-85), of Dutch descent but English birth, who became
engraver to the king in 1775.
The frontispiece, an allegory on architecture with the royal coronet,
the Prince of Wales feather, and the badge of the Garter being used to
form a kind of "Corinthian" capital, was drawn by William Hogarth
(No. 56) and engraved by William Wollett. It was first used in Kirby's
Perspective of Architecture, 1761 (No. 63).
For a note on Chambers, see No. 23. In 1762 Chambers built for
Augusta, Dowager Princess of Wales, several temples and what were
called "unmeaning falballas of Turkish and Chinese chequerwork" at
Kew. Among these was the famous pagoda, which survives, and is illustrated
in this work. Chambers had sketched in Canton and later published
a Chinese pagoda in Plate I of his Designs of Chinese Buildings
(No. 23).
He endorses this book by saying: "All the architectural designs and
ornaments were done by me with the greatest care and accuracy, the figures
drawn by Signor Cipriani, and the views by Messieurs [Jos.] Kirby
[No. 63], Thomas Sandby, and [Wm.] Marlow, all of them excellent
draftsmen. The whole work is engraved by the most eminent of our
Artists."
Plate VIII of this work shows an elevation of a garden seat by
William Kent, while Plate XXXIV shows its plan (see Plates XI and
XII). These were copied in pen and ink and wash by Cornelia Jefferson
Randolph while she was at Monticello with her grandfather Thomas
Jefferson (see Plate XIII).
Many of the plates in this book are in the Chinese taste, especially
Plates IX, XI, XV, XXIII, XXV, XXXII, XXXVIII, XXXIX, and XL,
but Plate XV, "the House of Confucius," is especially good for railings
and may have strengthened Jefferson's liking for this form. In addition,
some of the plates show pavilions in a neoclassic manner.
Sowerby points out that Jefferson, on his visit to Kew, was primarily
interested in the Archimedes screw for raising water and went so
far as to illustrate it in his notes.
Jefferson's own copy of this work, which Kimball (p. 93) says was
acquired before 1783, was sold to Congress. He ordered it for the University
in the section on "Architecture" of the want list, but it has not survived.
It has recently been replaced by the present copy, the gift of the
Thomas Jefferson Memorial Foundation.
U. Va.
*NA7746.K4C4.1763
M
Sowerby 4225
Chambray, Fréart de. See Fréart de Chambray (No. 46).
