Architecture

The History of Its Building, frontispiece and very numerous illustrations (mostly b&w, a few in colour) from photographs, paintings, portraits and engravings, numerous reproductions of architectural drawings, maps and ground-plans, appendices and index, 288 pp, brown cloth in d/w, damp-marks to corners of covers (see picture) but no damp-staining whatever to the pages, spine of d/w faded and a little creased at top edge, in all other respects in very good condition, Victoria and Albert Museum 1982

23.9 x 18.8 cm, 1080g, ISBN 0 90520 925 7

That is, in South Kensington, in London.

An astonishingly detailed and comprehensive work, written in double columns with illustrations on almost every page – see the specimen page below, and the description from the dustwrapper flaps.  It was, however, to quote the author's 'Times' obituary of 14th November 2013, "barely an excerpt from a vastly longer study for which he was accorded a senior doctorate by the Royal College of Art in 1983."  Now long out of print, and in my opinion it is almost inconceivable it would ever be reprinted.

The stains to the corners of the covers (both corners of the front cover, and one to the rear) are puzzling, particularly as the cloth to the bottom front inside corner is not quite large enough to cover the board underneath.  The only explanation I can put forward is that this was a copy marked in the binding process, and sent out as a review copy (as publishers often did with slightly defective books).  The pages themselves are unmarked and in very good condition, and the binding is sound.