University of Virginia Library

23. Chambers, Sir William.

DESIGNS / OF / CHINESE / BUILDING, / FURNITURE,
DRESSES, / MACHINES, and UTENSILS. / Engraved by the Best
Hands, / From the ORIGINALS drawn in China / BY / Mr. CHAMBERS,
Architect, / Member of the Imperial Academy of Arts at Florence.
/ To which is annexed, / A DESCRIPTION of their TEMPLES,
HOUSES, GARDENS, &c. / LONDON: / Published for the AUTHOR,
and sold by him next Door to Tom's Coffee-house, Russelstreet,
/ Covent-Garden: Also by Mess. Dodsley, in Pall-mall; Mess.
Wilson and Durham; / Mr. A. Millar, in the Strand, and Mr. R. Willock,
in Cornhill. / Mdcclvii.

Folio. Title page (1 leaf); dedication (1 leaf); list of subscribers (1
leaf); preface (2 leaves); text (1-19); title page in French (1 leaf);
dedication in French (1 leaf); preface in French (2 leaves); [new
pagination:] text in French (1-19); 21 engraved plates.

The plates were engraved by P. Fourdrinier (see No. 21); J. Fougeron,
an engraver in London whose first name was Ignace; Charles Grignion
(1716-1810), who was born in London of French parents, did some
work with Hogarth (No. 56), was a founder member of the Royal
Academy, and had a son, also named Charles, who was an engraver as
well; Edward Rooker (see No. 3); and P. Sandby, who may have been
Paul (1725-1809) or Pierre (1732-1808).

Among the subscribers were architects, a "Bookseller at Bath," a
builder, a carver, ecclesiastics, an engraver, the "Master of Perspective
to HRH, Prince of Wales," a professor of moral philosophy, and a
sculptor. Listed with the architects were John and James Adam, James
Payne, and John Vardie. "J. Reinolds" was among the painters, and both

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Plate IX. From No. 23. Pavilion in the Court of the Pagoda of Ho-nang, Canton (Pl. II).

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Plate X. Jefferson's drawing for Hotel D East, University of Virginia (N-362).

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William Chambers (1726-96) was born at Stockholm where his
grandfather was a prosperous English merchant. His father returned to
England in 1728, but William, at sixteen, went to China with the Swedish
East India Company, where he made a series of sketches which were
later published in this book in 1757. At eighteen he went to Italy to study
architecture and while in Rome lived with Charles-Louis Clérisseau (No.
29).

After his return to England he became architectural tutor to the
Prince of Wales (afterwards George III), to whom this book is dedicated,
a founding member and the first treasurer of the Royal Academy,
and the comptroller of His Majesty's works. He was eventually knighted
and was buried in Westminister Abbey, in the Poet's Corner. His books
include, in addition to Designs for Chinese Buildings, the Treatise of
Civil Architecture (1759; 2d ed., 1768; 3d ed., 1791); the Buildings at
Kew, 1763 (No. 24); and the Dissertation on Oriental Gardening, 1772.

He introduces his Designs of Chinese Buildings by saying:

I am far from desiring to be numbered among the exaggerators of Chinese
excellence . . . yet they must be allowed to claim our notice as a distinct
and very singular race of men; as the inhabitants of a region divided by
it's situation from all civilized countries; who have formed their own manners,
and invented their own arts, without the assistance of example. . . . Our notions
of their architecture are very imperfect . . . and no designs worth
notice have yet been published.

These which I now offer the publick are done from sketches and measures
taken by me at Canton some years ago, chiefly to satisfy my own curiosity.
. . .[10]

Whatever is really Chinese has at least the merit of being original:
these people seldom or never copy or imitate the inventions of other nations
. . . but their architecture has this farther advantage that there is a remarkable
affinity between it and that of the antients, which is the more surprising
as there is not the least probability that the one was borrowed from the other.

In both the antique and Chinese architecture the general form of almost
every composition has a tendency to the pyramidal figure: In both, columns
are employed for support; and in both, these columns have diminution and
bases, some of which bear a near resemblance to each other: fretwork, so

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55

common in the buildings of the antients, is likewise very frequent in those of
the Chinese; . . . the Atrium, and the Monopteros and Prostyle temples, are
forms of building that nearly resemble some used in China. . . .

Though I am publishing a work of Chinese Architecture, let it not be
suspected that my intention is to promote a taste so much inferior to the antique,
and so very unfit for our climate: but a particular so interesting as the
architecture of one of the most extraordinary nations in the universe cannot
be a matter of indifference to a true lover of the arts, and an architect should
by no means be ignorant of so singular a stile of building: at least the knowledge
is curious, and on particular occasions may likewise be useful; as he may
sometimes be obliged to make Chinese compositions, and at others it may be
judicious in him to do so. For though, generally speaking, Chinese architecture
does not suit European purposes; yet in extensive parks and gardens,
where a great variety of scenes are required, or in immense palaces, containing
a numerous series of apartments, I do not see the impropriety of finishing
some of the inferiour ones in the Chinese taste. Variety is always delightful;
and novelty, attended with nothing inconsistent or disagreeable, sometimes
takes [the] place of beauty. . . .

The buildings of the Chinese are neither remarkable for magnitude or
richness of materials; yet there is a singularity in their manner, a justness in
their proportion, a simplicity, and sometimes even beauty, in their form,
which recommend them to our notice. I look upon them as toys in architecture:
and as toys are sometimes, on account of their oddity, prettyness, or
neatness of workmanship, admitted into the cabinets of the curious, so may
Chinese buildings be sometimes allowed a place among compositions of a nobler
kind. [Preface]

This book (as well as Chambers's Dissertation on Oriental Gardening)
was extremely influential in spreading a taste for things Chinese.
Kimball (p. 126) states that Jefferson knew the book as early as 1771.
It is supposed to have been a source for what Jefferson called "Chinese
railings," and certainly Plates II, III, VI, and XI show railings which do
relate to the ones he designed, the first three most closely (see Plates IX
and X). Jefferson used the term on an early scheme for the pavilions at
the University of Virginia (N-309), a drawing which may be dated before
May 1817, as well as on subsequent drawings for the University.

Jefferson ordered the book for the University in the section on "Architecture"
of the want list, but there is no record of its having been received
by the library during his lifetime. The present copy was recently
acquired, the gift of an anonymous donor. Jefferson's own copy was sold
to Congress.

U. Va

*DS708.C4.1757

M

Sowerby 4220