Leaf from Aedes Walpolianae mounted with two drawings (a): Side of the Staircase, Houghton Hall, Norfolk, Elevation; (b): End of Staircase, Houghton Hall, Norfolk

Leaf from Aedes Walpolianae mounted with two drawings (a): Side of the Staircase, Houghton Hall, Norfolk, Elevation; (b): End of Staircase, Houghton Hall, Norfolk

Isaac Ware

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

These drawings relate to Isaac Ware's and Thomas Ripley's book "The Plans, Elevations and Sections, Chimney-pieces and Ceilings of Houghton in Norfolk" (first published 1735; second edition 1755 with added "Description of the Pictures at Houghton" by Horace Walpole).

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Leaf from Aedes Walpolianae mounted with two drawings (a): Side of the Staircase, Houghton Hall, Norfolk, Elevation; (b): End of Staircase, Houghton Hall, NorfolkLeaf from Aedes Walpolianae mounted with two drawings (a): Side of the Staircase, Houghton Hall, Norfolk, Elevation; (b): End of Staircase, Houghton Hall, NorfolkLeaf from Aedes Walpolianae mounted with two drawings (a): Side of the Staircase, Houghton Hall, Norfolk, Elevation; (b): End of Staircase, Houghton Hall, NorfolkLeaf from Aedes Walpolianae mounted with two drawings (a): Side of the Staircase, Houghton Hall, Norfolk, Elevation; (b): End of Staircase, Houghton Hall, NorfolkLeaf from Aedes Walpolianae mounted with two drawings (a): Side of the Staircase, Houghton Hall, Norfolk, Elevation; (b): End of Staircase, Houghton Hall, Norfolk

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.