HE BUILDER'S POCKET-TREASURE

PAIN, William.  THE BUILDER'S POCKET-TREASURE; OR PALLADIO DELINEATED AND EXPLAINED.                                          

London: W. Owen, 1785. 8vo. Contemporary full-calf. iv, 90 pages,which includes 55 engraved plates, of which 27 folding. Fourth edition. [Archer 238.3; Harris, 623; Park, 64, Schimmelman, Architectural Books, 94].

One of the rarest of the Pain titles, it was first published in 1763.  This 1785 edition was greatly enlarged in text and plates.  It is one of the most appealing of the eighteenth-century pattern books.  It was designed as the original "pocket book"--small enough to fit into the pocket of the craftsman.  Pain's books were popular among building craftsmen in America.  This title was advertised in Boston by 1771 with more than a dozen other examples advertised from Postsmouth, New Hampshire to Philadelphia.  It was reprinted in Boston in 1794--the sixth architecture book published in America.  Several of its plates were copied by Asher Benjamin for his 1797 Country Builder's Assistant--the first truly American architecture book.  Contemporary owner's signatures on front blank leaf, title leaf and preface page.  Sympathetically respined.  Very good.

 

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