Early Public Works Contract

(EDINBURGH)  CONTRACT OF AGREEMENT, FOR BUILDING AN EXCHANGE, IN THE CITY OF EDINBURGH. $1,850.00

Edinburgh: Hamilton, Balfour, and Neill, 1754. Small 4to. 19th century quarter-morocco, marbled boards. Folding frontispiece, 11, 60, (27) pages. First, and only, edition. [Harris, 218.]

To our knowledge, this is the first published contract for a public works building printed in the English language.  The commission was part of a more general plan to improve the public buildings in Edinburgh.  It outlines in great detail the proposed costs submitted by the architect, John Fergus, and Patrick Jamieson, a mason, for building the Exchange according to the overall design of John Adam.  As such, it gives much information about how such a grand project was organized.  The folding frontispiece shows the building's elevation for the proposed south front.  Closely trimmed with loss to a few letters along the foreedge and some very slight edge wear, else a very good copy of a rare book.  While there are several copies located by OCLC, copies in the trade are rare.  We could not locate a single copy sold at auction during the past twenty-five years.

$1,850.00