Paul Thompson
William Butterfield: Victorian Architect.
The MIT Press, 1971. First edition. 0262200201 xxix/526 pages.
Large-format volume, measuring approximately 7.75" x 10", is bound in gray cloth, with stamped gilt lettering to spine and front cover. Ornamental design stamped in red and gold also appears on spine and front cover. Book shows very light shelfwear. Binding is firm. Top edge of text block is tinted red. Book exhibits light shelfwear, with very light dust soiling to top edge of text block. Interior is clean and bright. Work is illustrated with b&w and color pictures as well as plans. Dust jacket, with price of $25 on front flap, shows shelfwear, with sunning to spine panel and small closed tear at top of front spine edge. Jacket is preserved in mylar cover.
"William Butterfield has taken a central place in every history of nineteenth-century architecture; and rightly, for he was the pioneer of the original High Victorian phase of the Gothic Revival, and the first Victorian architect to experiment with constructional colour.
This is the first biography of Butterfield and thus meets a major need. It seeks, through a combined discussion of Butterfields's personality, his style, and the social situation within which he worked, to reach a new understanding not merely of Butterfield but of the whole significance of High Victorian architecture."