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WHERE THE GREAT CITY STANDS. A STUDY IN THE NEW CIVICS.
(London: Essex House Press and B. T. Batsford, Ltd., 1917). 292 x 222 mm. (11 1/2 x 8 3/4"). xii, 164, [4] pp. FIRST EDITION.
Publisher's printed blue paper boards backed with linen, smooth spine with black lettering, edges untrimmed. With 121 illustrations, many of them full-page photographic plates. With erratum slip inserted following title page. Front pastedown with ink signature of "H. Nightingale / 1936." Crawford, "C. R. Ashbee: Architect, Designer & Romantic Socialist" (2005), pp. 169-70. ◆Spine a bit soiled and a little frayed at ends, corners bumped, isolated faint foxing, but an excellent copy, clean and fresh internally in a solid binding.
Ashbee's proposal for incorporating arts and crafts into urban life follows the closing of his Guild of Handicraft, which had flourished in London but foundered after the move to the country. Taking inspiration from urban planning pioneer Patrick Geddes and drawing on ideas gleaned from his travels in America, Ashbee describes, in Crawford's words, "a sense of the city as a progressive social force, expressing the aspirations of the democracy towards a finer life." The illustrations depict Pre-Raphaelite art, handicrafts and the workshops in which they were produced, and numerous photographs of architecture in Britain and America, ranging from restored Tudor guildhalls to Frank Lloyd Wright structures. (CCS1910)
Price: $300.00