The Plans, elevations, and sections,
chimney-pieces, and cielings [sic] of Houghton in Norfolk, the seat
of the Rt. Honourable Sir Robert Walpole.
Published for Paul Fourdrinier, in London: by John Boydell in
1734/5. . . all full page
Isaac WARE, (ca. 1717. . 1766) sold by P. Fourdrinier,
1735. Engraved throughout, title, dedication and 28 plates by Ware
and Paul Fourdrinier (1698 . . 1758), engraver and printseller . .
. . . . .Houghton Hall, a country house built between 1720 and 1735
for Sir Robert Walpole (1676 . . .1745), is the greatest extant
example of Palladian domestic architecture in England.
Palladianism, the architectural style based on the work of Andrea
Palladio (1508 . . .80) of Vicenza, the most influential architect
of the late 16th century, underwent a resurgence in the early 18th
century in England, where its simplicity and rationality appealed
to Whig politicians, like Walpole, who were then in power. Walpole
hired Colen Campbell, the foremost Palladian of the day to be lead
architect on the project. Ware's book, with its splendid plates,
drawn by him and William Kent and engraved by Pierre Fourdrinier,
celebrated the completion of Houghton Hall and was the first
monograph on a British country house. . The interior detailing
shown in the present work was designed by William Kent: the designs
for the plaster ceilings were carried out by Italian craftsmen,
with gilded and painted ornament; the walls are dressed with
classical plinth, pilasters, and frieze; and pedimented
chimneypieces contain bas-relief panels above the mantelpiece.
William KENT 1685. . .1748. . . .Born in Bridlington,
Yorkshire, in 1674, William Kent trained as a sign painter and
apprenticed to a coach-painter. His ambition led him to London,
where he began life as a portrait and historical painter. He found
patrons, who sent him in 1710 to study in Italy; and at Rome he
made other friends, among them Lord Burlington, with whom he
returned to London in 1719.
There Kent designed and built furniture and temples on a
classical theme for Burlington and his friends. He also continued
with his painting, but at Burlington's urging, he branched into
architecture. As an architect, he followed Neo-Palladian tenets and
adhered to strictly symmetrical planning, especially in his finest
architectural work, Holkham Hall, Norfolk which he begun 1734 for
the Earl of Leicester. He is also known for his ceiling decorations
in Kensington Palace and for planning the treasury building, in
London. As with Kensington Palace, where Kent's focus was on the
interior, his work on Holkham included more than just the house
architectural design; he also created the Baroque interior fittings
and furnishings. His interiors were of a style similar to that
which would later be continued by Robert Adam in the period of 1760
and 1780.
William Kent died in 1748, two years before the building of his
last architectural design, the Horse Guards building in London, was
commenced (1750. . .58).
Thomas Ripley (1682)] . . February 10, 1758) was an
English architect. He was born in Yorkshire, first kept a coffee
house in Wood Street, off Cheapside and in 1705 was admitted to the
Carpenter's Company. An ex-carpenter, he rose by degrees to become
an architect and Surveyor in the royal Office of Works, where he
was influenced by the Palladian style, but never lost his
provincial manner, which earned the private derision of Sir John
Vanbrugh and the public scorn of Alexander Pope. His works included
the site of Houghton Hall for Sir Robert Walpole, which was first
designed by the Palladian architects Colen Campbell and William
Kent. These designs were greatly altered by Ripley.His appointment
in 1715 as Labourer in Trust at the Savoy marked the beginning of
his continuous rise through the Office of the King's works: In 1721
he succeeded Grinling Gibbons as "Master Carpenter," and in 1726 he
succeeded Vanbrugh as Comptroller of the King's Works, largely to
the influence of Walpole. Walpole also engineered an additional
appointment as Surveyor of Greenwich Hospital which was completed
by him. Buildings for the Office of Works included the Custom House
(1718) and the Admiralty (1723. . . 6) in London as well as the
Queen Mary Block and chapel at Greenwich from 1729 . .1750. In 1739
he was collaborating with WIlliam Kent on designs for the New
Houses of Parliament and between 1750 . .54 he made a great number
of changes to Kent's designs for the Horse Guards. His appointment
as executant architect at Houghton was the first of a number of
Walpole commissions. Here his responsibility for the applied
portico and the opening of the colonnades to the garden on the west
side demonstrated that he was more than a project manager. From
1725 he designed and built Wolterton Hall in Norfolk for Sir
Robert's younger brother Horatio, the 1st Lord Walpole and was
chiefly responsible for converting a formal park into a naturalised
landscape.Until 1731 he was in charge of the major alterations at
Raynham for the Townshend family.
Paul Fourdrinier, (1698 . . .1758), engraver and
printseller
