REPTON (Humphry). Observations on the Theory and Practice of Landscape Gardening. Including some remarks on Grecian and Gothic Architecture.1805

London: Printed by T. Bensley, for J. Taylor, Second edition, 4to (344 x 277 mm), 16, 222, [2]pp., stipple-engraved portrait frontispiece by W. Holl after S. Shelley, dedication leaf, 12 hand-coloured aquatint plates (9 with overslips), 15 plain or tinted aquatint or engraved plates (3 with overslips), 32 illustrations (2 with overslips, one hand-coloured), some occasional light scattered spotting and browning, closed tears near folds of 'General View of Bayham' plate (old paper repairs to verso), contemporary diced russia, gilt dentelles, spine with raised bands in six compartments, this being Repton second major work on landscape gardening and so denoted in the lettering to the fifth compartment, edges marbled, with just minor rubbing otherwise a fine copy. Humphry Repton (1752-1818) is perhaps Britain's most famous landscape gardener. In this, one of his most celebrated works, he incorporates his method of inserting flaps in the plates which when folded show his proposed alterations to the scene and when opened it revels the original scene. This book includes coloured aquatints, reproduced from his own sketches in his manuscript Red Books, and in the preface he acknowledged Mr Clarke and his large group of colourists. Provenance: Bookplate of Colonel John Bullock of Faulkbourne M.P. (1731-1809); Armorial bookplate of Henry Rogers Broughton, 2nd Baron Fairhaven (1900-1973). Abbey, Scenery, 390 (1803 first edition); Tooley, 399; Millard, British Books, 65.