A Description Of The Villa Of Horace Walpole, Youngest Son of Sir Robert Walpole Earl of Orford, At Strawberry-Hill, near Twickenham. With an Inventory of the Furniture, Pictures, Curiosities, &c.
RA Collection: Book
Record number
06/2650
Imprint
Strawberry-Hill:: Printed By Thomas Kirgate,, M.DCC.LXXIV.
Physical Description
[4], 158 p.: [1] illus.; 220 mm. (Small Folio.)
Contents
[T.p., t.p. with illus.] - [Text] - Strawberry-Hill, A Ballad, By William Pulteney Earl of Bath - Appendix. Pictures and Curiosities added since the Catalogue was printed - List Of The Books Printed at Strawberry-Hill - Additions Since The Appendix - More Additions.
Responsibility Note
The text was prepared by Walpole himself.
The illustration is unsigned.
References
ESTC, T14983
A.T. Hazen, A bibliography of Horace Walpole (1948; repr. 1973).
A.T. Hazen, A bibliography of the Strawberry Hill Press (1940; repr. with addenda 1973), 22.
M. Brownell, The Prime Minister of taste: a portrait of Horace Walpole (2001).
P. Sabor, Horace Walpole: a reference guide (1984).
N. Pevsner, Some Architectural Writers of the Nineteenth Century (1972), p.1-8.
M. McCarthy, The origins of the Gothic Revival (1987).
Summary Note
Although the publication-date of 1774 is carried on its title page, the presence of the Appendix, Additions and more Additions (bifolia Ii - Rr and leaf Ss) indicates that we have here the issue of 1786.
Walpole bought Strawberry Hill in 1749 and altered and enlarged it in Gothic Revival style, employing successively the amateur architects John Chute and Richard Bentley and the professionals Robert Adam and James Essex. His collections included prints of portraits, ancient coins, French porcelain and contemporary paintings.
The one illustration is an exterior view of the villa.
Reproductions
An electronic reproduction was published in 2003 (Farmington Hills, Mich.: Thomson Gale). A microfilm version was published in 1986 (Woodbridge, CT: Research Publications).
Provenance
Presented by Mr. F. Richardson in 1896 (along with a copy of Aedes Walpolianae (1751) formerly owned by Sir Joshua Reynolds).
Binding Note
19th-century half brown morocco, brown cloth-covered boards; spine lettered 'Strawberry Hill'.
Architecture - Interior decoration - Villas - Country houses - Great Britain - Richmond-upon-Thames - Strawberry Hill - History - 18th century - Gothic Revival
Catalogues - Guidebooks - Great Britain - 18th century