Lot 73: REPTON, Humphry; John ADEY & George STANLEY (d.1858). Designs for the Pavillon at Brighton . London: T.Bensley for J.C.Stadler, to be sold by Boydell and Co. and others, 1808 [plates watermarked 1807].

REPTON, Humphry; John ADEY & George STANLEY (d.1858). Designs for the Pavillon at Brighton. London: T.Bensley for J.C.Stadler, to be sold by Boydell and Co. and others, 1808 [plates watermarked 1807].

2υo (518 x 351 mm). 20 plates and illustrations, including an engraved hand-colored plan; 19 aquatints, 9 hand-colored (6 of these with overslips, one with overpage, one double-page, one folding), 2 with sepia wash, all by Stadler after Repton (last plate with tear repaired on verso, some creasing to overslips, a few small marginal stains). Earth 20th-century quarter cloth (rebacked preserving original spine); cloth folding case.

FIRST EDITION. "Repton's shift in scaling dramatizes the visual consequences of his plans. In the before flap on tip, the Brighton pavilion appears hidden, isolated, distant--impressions intensified by the tiny person and by the over-writing on the shadowy building. When the flap is raised to reveal the proposed redesign, the space between us and the pavilion has now become intimate and comfortable, filled with well dressed visitors... Repton overreached in several other before/after comparisons, exagerrating the impact of his proposed improvements. In the plan at left, the design of the flap, the pole-people, and the integrated text are all ingenious and delightful--but the integrity of the work is compromised by persistent visual cheating" (Tufte, Visual Explanations, p.17). Abbey Scenery 57; cf. Tooley 396 (variant title).