Jun 10, 2015 - Sale 2387

Sale 2387 - Lot 1

Price Realized: $ 6,750
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 6,000 - $ 9,000
ALBERTI, LEON BATISTA. The Architecture . . . in Ten books. Of Painting in Three Books and of Statuary in One Book . . . And now First into English and Divided into Three Volumes by James Leoni. Engraved frontispiece and privilege leaf in Volume 1, all titles in Italian and English, text in Italian and English printed in double-column, 102 engraved plates, including 24 double-page or folding, engraved by Leoni, Barnard Picart, John Harris, and J. Cole; woodcut vignettes on title-pages, initials, head- and tail-pieces. Folio, contemporary calf, worn, late 19th-early 20th century period-style rebacking with red calf gilt spine label, raised bands and decorations; Part I lacks subscriber's list. London: Thomas Edlin 1726 [i.e. 1726-30]

Additional Details

first edition in english of alberti's renaissance architectural masterpiece "De Re Aedificatoria" along with his shorter treatises on painting and statuary; to this, he added a supplement with his own designs. ex-collection henry, duke of kent, the first english patron to employ leoni as an architect, with his armorial bookplate; to his great great grandson, Thomas Philip, Earl de Grey, with his bookplate. Henry Grey was created Duke of Kent in 1710 and was one of the lords who administered the affairs of the kingdom from the death of Queen Anne until the arrival of King George I between August and September 1714. The title became extinct until George III revived it for his son Edward Augustus (the father of Queen Victoria). Again, becoming extinct, the title was revived for Prince George, son of George V, succeeded in 1942 to his son Prince Edward, the current Duke of Kent--Burke's Peerage, 1883, pages 252-53; 256. Millard II, 4; Berlin 2267; Cicognara 378; Fowler II; RIBA, 48.