A Description of the Villa at Strawberry-Hill. A facsimile of the copy extra-illustrated for Charles Bedford in the collection of Lord Waldegrave of North Hill. Edited by Nicolas Barker.

£395 · Offered by Maggs Bros Ltd

Presented to members of the Roxburghe Club by The Rt. Hon Lord Waldegrave of North Hill, PC. A limited number of copies are for sale. Horace Walpole moved to Strawberry Hill in 1747. In the following years he made innumerable changes, turning it into an embodiment of the gothic ideal. From as early as 1768 Walpole intended to “draw up a description and catalogue of the whole house and collection”. The fulfillment of this was A Description of the Villa of Horace Walpole published in 1774. “The importance of the Description in Walpolian studies cannot be exaggerated” wrote W.S. Lewis. The design of the house and its inventory of furniture, pictures and curiosities, provides the physical realization of Walpole’s aesthetic and literary purpose, “It was built to please my own taste, and in some degree to realize my own vision”. One of Walpole’s additions was the building of the Printing House in 1757 which was to be the home of the Strawberry Hill Press. The first book issued from the press was an edition of the Odes of Thomas Gray. The Description of the Villa, Walpole’s manifesto, was first published there in an extremely scarce shortened version in 1772, before appearing as published here, in 1774”. Only six large paper copies of the Description were printed. This was the only copy with an inscription by Walpole himself, to his “Deputy” Charles Bedford. It is also the grandest of all the copies, improved by the addition of beautiful watercolour copies by George Harding of the p

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