The Antiquities of Athens: Measured and Delineated by James Stuart F R S and F S A and Nicholas Revett, Painters And Architects . Volume One

London: Printed By John Haberkorn for the Authors, 1762. First edition. Hardcover. Good. Folio, unpaginated, vintage marbled boards, rebacked with corners of canvas, new endpapers; Lacks plates 21 & 22 in chapter 4 ( showing Bacchan pirates turned into dolphins), some mostly marginal bookworm tracks; Errata leaf bound in place, long vertical tear in the last folding plate. Rare.

This is vol. 1 only: Subsequent volumes appeared into the early 1800s. [ Fowler 340 ]. "After their return to London in 1755, Stuart worked on the first volume of Antiquities of Athens, which was published in 1762. He wrote and revised the text, had the illustrations engraved and designed a binding, as well as painting views of Greece and Pola in gouache for exhibition. The first volume contained details of just five buildings in the northern part of Athens, but more were promised in further volumes. The first volume had more than 500 subscribers. Few were architects or builders, which limited the impact of the work as a design sourcebook. It was, however, well received by scholars, antiquaries and gentleman amateurs. The presentation binding that Stuart designed for Antiquities of Athens had a Neo-Classical design and inspired architect Robert Adam to design similar presentation bindings for his work on the antiquities of Spalatro. Antiquities of Athens helped shape the European understanding of ancient Greece. It brought an entirely new design vocabulary to 18th-century European architecture and design, and later became an essential sourcebook for the 19th-century Greek Revival - V&A exhibit on Stuart in 2007." Most of these engravings were engraved by James Basire, who, ten years later, taught engraving to William Blake. I count 78 engravings ( including head and tail-pieces and two folding plates. A few plates were executed by Edward Rooker, who was celebrated for his architectural plates.