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Item #41133 Plans, Elevations and Sections, of Hot-Houses, Green-Houses, an Aquarium, Conservatories, &c. Recently Built in Different Parts of England, for Various Nobleman and Gentlemen. George TOD.
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Plans, Elevations and Sections, of Hot-Houses, Green-Houses, an Aquarium, Conservatories, &c. Recently Built in Different Parts of England, for Various Nobleman and Gentlemen
Plans, Elevations and Sections, of Hot-Houses, Green-Houses, an Aquarium, Conservatories, &c. Recently Built in Different Parts of England, for Various Nobleman and Gentlemen
Plans, Elevations and Sections, of Hot-Houses, Green-Houses, an Aquarium, Conservatories, &c. Recently Built in Different Parts of England, for Various Nobleman and Gentlemen
Plans, Elevations and Sections, of Hot-Houses, Green-Houses, an Aquarium, Conservatories, &c. Recently Built in Different Parts of England, for Various Nobleman and Gentlemen
Plans, Elevations and Sections, of Hot-Houses, Green-Houses, an Aquarium, Conservatories, &c. Recently Built in Different Parts of England, for Various Nobleman and Gentlemen
Plans, Elevations and Sections, of Hot-Houses, Green-Houses, an Aquarium, Conservatories, &c. Recently Built in Different Parts of England, for Various Nobleman and Gentlemen

Plans, Elevations and Sections, of Hot-Houses, Green-Houses, an Aquarium, Conservatories, &c. Recently Built in Different Parts of England, for Various Nobleman and Gentlemen

London: J. Taylor, 1812. Folio. (14 3/4 x 10 1/4 inches). [5], 6-23 pp., 27 hand-colored aquatint plates, one of which is double-page. Eight page publishers catalogue at back.

Original boards, rebacked with original paper spine label

Second edition, identical to the first of 1807, covering a variety of hot houses and green houses in England and illustrated with hand colored plates.

This text compiles a selection of green and hot-houses in England in the early 19th century as these structures were coming in vogue with the upper classes. While greenhouses can trace their history as far back as the Roman Emporer Tiberius and greenhouse development in Britain and Europe steadily progressed from the 16th century from orangeries, it was in the early 19th century that England had taken the lead in hothouse construction. Thanks to its industrial and technical advances, iron and glass became popular building materials for the wealthy who were able to afford the high cost of these new materials. Further, the author observes the upper classes' newfound preoccupation with botany had increased demand for commissioned horticulture buildings, especially hothouses and greenhouses. The new modern materials needed to make greenhouses and hothouses made these particularly fashionable and practical structures in the early 19th century. The buildings presented include greenhouses, exotic houses, conservatories, pineries, hot-houses, peach houses, roseries, orangeries, fruiting pineries. These individual structures are described textually and paired with their corresponding plate. Every design plate in this work delicately illlustrates each structure with their sectional views, plan, and elevation providing an intricate illustration of these fascinating buildings. Most plates are designs by the author, George Tod, a British surveyor and hothouse builder, while the eight additional plates are designed by William T. Aiton, His Majesty's Gardener at Kew and Kensington. Patrons of note include the naturalist Sir Joseph Banks whose pinery is shown on Plate XI and Her Majesty Queen Charlotte whose Green and Hot House at Frogmore is shown on Plate IX. After taking the lease at Frogmore in 1792 for a county retreat for herself and her unmarried daughters, Queen Charlotte enlarged and modernized the home and gardens in the 1790s. The gardens were transformed in the Picturesqe style complete with winding lakes, glades, walks, bridges , and various newly erected garden buildings, including this greenhouse by W. T. Aiton. While another garden building of this period, a summerhouse in the form of a Gothic ruin by James Wyatt still remains, unfortunately this green and hot house hybrid does not.

Abbey,Life 77 (first edition); "Hothouses and Greenhouses," New York Botanical Garden; "Frogmore House and Gardens," Royal Family UK; "Way Back When: A History of the English Glasshouse," Hartley Botanic.

Item #41133

Price: $7,500.00

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