Published by Faber And Faber Limited, London, 1956
First Edition
Hardcover. Condition: Good +. Dust Jacket Condition: Fair. First Thus. First British Edition (First Thus) (Statement Of First Published). Originally Published In France. Includes General Index And Recipe Index. The Book Is Bound In A Rose Cloth With Dark Blue Lettering And Decorative Border On The Spine. No Ownership Information Present. The Board Edges Are Lightly Faded And Have A Few Tiny Bumps. The Page Edges Have Tanned And Have A Few Tiny Spots. The Jacket Is Worn And Has Small Chips And Tears. The Spine Is Darkened And Stained. Tape Repair To The Inside At The Upper And Lower Spine.
Language: English
Published by George Braziller, New York, 1975
ISBN 10: 0807607517 ISBN 13: 9780807607510
Seller: Ground Zero Books, Ltd., Silver Spring, MD, U.S.A.
First Edition
Hardcover. Condition: Very good. Dust Jacket Condition: Good. First Printing thus [Stated]. The format is approximately 9.5 inches by 12.50 inches. 111, [1] pages. Illustrations. Translator's Notes. Books by J. F. Steinbruber, Notes. The dust jacket is in a plastic sleeve. This was first published in a Limited Edition by The Merrion Press, London, in 1972. A reprint of Steingruber's 4th and final book. An imaginative and ingenuous work offering plans for buildings based on the Roman alphabet. Born in 1702 and raised in Bavaria in a wealthy family of building contractors, German architect and agricultural inspector Johann David Steingruber learned masonry and architectural drawing from his father and uncle. He went from being a simple mason to a designer at the court of Marquis Christian Friedrich Charles Alexander of Brandenburg-Ansbach. Over the years he designed and directed work on a large number of buildings, including churches, schools, hospitals, town halls and other institutional buildings, as well as houses. Regarded as the founder of the Markgrafenstil -a style typical of many churches built in the 1700s, especially in Protestant areas of the Brandenburg region, characterized by a simple, typically Calvinist style-, Steingruber is best known for the fictional intricate illustrations of his 1773 Architectural Alphabet, in which he converted the alphabet into plans for a series of eccentric baroque buildings. Originally published in installments at Steingruber's own expense, the volume opens with its gloriously long title in an "arch of contents", the columns inscribed with thumbnail images of the letter buildings to come. Although the title page lists 1773 as the publication date, the last installment came in March 1774. In his lifetime, Steingruber published three other works, illustrated and described toward the end of this facsimile, but Architectonisches Alphabeth became his most famous. Steingruber dedicated his Architectural Alphabet to Christian Friedrich Carl Alexander, Margrave of Brandenburg-Ansbach, and his first wife Frederica Carolina. Steingruber had to be satisfied with his payment as an appointee court and public surveyor, and later principal architect of the board of works even though he went to the trouble of making sure that his employers' monograms and their associated buildings appeared in the span above the roman arch. There was not much chance of these letter-shaped edifices' being built. Nevertheless, Steingruber adds matter-of-fact descriptions to his elevations and plans, calling out heating, kitchen, toilet and servants' arrangements as if conferring with a prospective client ready to commission one of these typographic palaces. Who would not want a serif with a view? Or conduct guests on a tour of the bowl, capline, crossbar, stem, stroke and tail of the property?