First edition of a beautiful series of aquatints with plans, elevations and cross-sections of garden architecture, published simultaneously in both an English and the present French edition. Most copies of the English edition are later reissues with the plates reprinted from the original copperplates ca. 1816 or ca. 1822, while at least the present copy of the French edition has the plates in the original printing, giving the best possible images. The beautiful designs, by William Robertson, show benches, gates, pavilions, bridges, boat houses, temples, mausoleums, aviaries, arbours, bath houses, etc., all intended for gardens and parks and sometimes shown in a setting with trees, ponds, etc. They still reflect the neo-classical styles of the time and the influence of the 18th-century archaeological excavations at Herculaneum and Pompeii, but they already presage what was to become known in England as the Regency style. The two sphinxes on the bridge in plate 23 are a very early example of Egyptian revival.
Fine copy with only an occasional minor spot or small stain and nearly untrimmed, with many deckles intact. Binding slightly rubbed and spine and corners worn. Berlin Kat. 3430; ESTC T165019 (4 copies); cf. Abbey, Life in England, 63; BAL 2803; not in Springer.