Etchings, Representing The Best Examples Of Ancient Ornamental Architecture; Drawn From The Originals In Rome, And Other Parts Of Italy, During The Years 1794, 1795, And 1796. By Charles Heathcote Tatham, Architect; Member Of The Academy Of Saint Luke At Rome, And Of The Institute At Bologna.

All plates carry publication-dates ranging between May 1798 and April 1799: they had been produced at the rate of six per month. In 1800 a further thirty plates would be printed - which are sometimes found bound with the first seventy-two and retaining the 1799 title-page. (A formal second edition was published in 1803, and a third in 1810 - often reprinted. In 1806 Tatham published the companion Etchings representing fragments of antique Grecian and Roman architectural ornament; and in 1826 the two works were issued together.)

In his Preface Tatham praises Le Roy, Stuart and Revett for accurate accounts of ancient Greek architecture, but says that he hopes to surpass Piranesi in the accuracy of his representations of architectural ornament. As the French revolutionaries have dispersed classical sculpture, his book may provide patterns for artists: 'The late celebrated President of our Royal Academy has most wisely inculcated, that the ideas of an artist ought first to be acquired by making himself familiar with the best productions of the greatest masters'. Tatham made his drawings at the request of the architect Henry Holland, who was then working on Carlton House, Woburn Abbey and Southill. Tatham's own severe architecture was exemplified at Castle Howard (gallery), Wilton Park, Trentham and Rookesbury and in his competition designs for the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge; but his greatest influence was on the Neoclassical design of furniture and silver.

Some plates show parts of the frieze of the temple of Antoninus and Faustina, begun in 141 A.D.; but most show undated fragments, from the Vatican and Capitoline museums and various palazzi, villas and churches in Rome or near it (Castelgandolfo, Frascati, Tivoli); one shows a vase in Naples cathedral.

These outline designs, almost devoid of shadow, were contemporary with the pure outline etchings of Flaxman and of Percier and Fontaine, and were a model for Thomas Hope's Household furniture (1807).

In 1816 John Soane bought the fragments which Tatham had acquired for Holland and displayed them in his study at Lincoln's Inn Fields; where they may be seen today.