The Practical Builder's Perpetual Price Book : Elucidating the Principles of Ascertaining the Correct Average Value of the Different Artificer's Works Usually Employed in Building

1834 (1825) 180pp. Good/None. Brown leather boards with diamond patterning, some rubbing and chipping to edges/spine, minor scuffing/soiling. Contents tight and fairly clean, with some soiling and browning, replacement endpapers, old repair to frontis, a few small tears/creases. B&W engravings throughout. A fascinating old book on the principles of building with 'cursory observations on the customs of measuring in the various parts of the united kingdom, in reference to the recent Act for establishing iniformity in weights and measures'. There is an appendix 'comprehending the substance of every clause in the Building Act - with information of the utmost importance to the practical builder, not only in the Metropolis, but in every part of Great Britain and Ireland'. There are chapters on the work and costs of sawyers, bricklayers & common masons, plasterers, slaters, plumbers, painters, glaziers and smiths. Elsom was an English architect and writer of architectural handbooks, who worked in Ireland in the first and second decades of the nineteenth century. After serving his pupilage with Robert Browne, Clerk of the Works at Kew Palace, Elsam practised in the London area and in Dublin. A rare early edition of this important book.…