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