Observations on the Theory and Practice of Landscape Gardening.

£8,500 · Offered by Shapero Rare Books · No longer available

An important work which provides 'a guide to [Repton's] approach to landscape design, with explanations of his aims and his methods of achieving them in specific instances'. The book is a compilation of texts from a number of the Red Books he had composed since his last publication, many of them now lost - those for Balstrode, Corsham, Gayhurst, Shardeloes, and West Wycombe. Several others are now in American collections - those for Armley, Brandesbury, Culford, Ferney, the Royal Fort, Bristol, and Stonelands. Repton's Red Books, almost always bound in red morocco, included Repton's suggestions for ways to make clients' estates even more beautiful; with a hill removed here, a lake created there, a clump of trees artfully placed... The books were not printed but were manuscripts with the texts, maps, and drawings done by experts at the height of their professions. Each book included a before and after - a watercolour view of the chosen scene after proposed changes had been made, overlaid by a hinged cutout turning the picture back to the original view. The Red Books formed handsome albums of views for display in the patron's library, to serve as plans or to record work in progress. But Repton's work was very expensive: some clients commissioned their surveys for social prestige, but never attempted to put his recommendations into practice. Repton's Observations is, in effect, a handbook of tricks of the trade, or rather profession, for, unlike Capability Brown, who had usually

• Binding: Hardcover

Found via Rare Books Intel, a search across rare-book dealers, auction houses and marketplaces worldwide.