Plans, Elevations, Sections, and Perspective Views of the Gardens and Buildings of Kew

Plans, Elevations, Sections, and Perspective Views of the Gardens and Buildings of Kew

Sir William Chambers

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

An album containing a manuscript description and original drawings for the engravings published in 1763. Where missing, replacements were supplied by Chamber's office, or by the artists Thomas Sandby, William Marlow and Joshua Kirby. The contents include a title page, dedication to Lord John Stuart, Earl of Bute, three double-sided leaves describing the plates, followed by 43 leaves containing drawings upon which the engraved plates in the 1763 publication are based, plus an unpublished plan. Further additions include: "The Ceiling of the Alhambra" (34.78.2(34)), tipped in on the verso of plate 20 (page 25), and an early layout plan of the grounds (51.635.1), inserted before the final drawing. The whole bound in green morocco with gold stamping. For the individual drawings, see: 25.19.1 through 25.19.45.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Plans, Elevations, Sections, and Perspective Views of the Gardens and Buildings of KewPlans, Elevations, Sections, and Perspective Views of the Gardens and Buildings of KewPlans, Elevations, Sections, and Perspective Views of the Gardens and Buildings of KewPlans, Elevations, Sections, and Perspective Views of the Gardens and Buildings of KewPlans, Elevations, Sections, and Perspective Views of the Gardens and Buildings of Kew

The Department’s vast collection of works on paper comprises approximately 21,000 drawings, 1.2 million prints, and 12,000 illustrated books created in Europe and the Americas from about 1400 to the present day. Since its foundation in 1916, the Department has been committed to collecting a wide range of works on paper, which includes both pieces that are incredibly rare and lauded for their aesthetic appeal, as well as material that is more popular, functional, and ephemeral. The broad scope of the department’s collecting encourages questions of connoisseurship as well as those pertaining to function and context, and demonstrates the vital role that prints, drawings, and illustrated books have played throughout history.