Strawberry Hill
by Anna Chalcraft (9780711226876)

"Strawberry Hill" was Horace Walpole's 'Little play-thing house' and became one of the wonders of the eighteenth-century architectural world. Woefully neglected for years, it is now undergoing a major restoration programme. Walpole and his 'Committee of Taste' lavished all their care and affection on their gothic creation. It became a visitor attraction with Walpole's own guidebook and housekeeper to show ticketed visitors round. The authors take us on that same route and room by room, with Walpole at our elbow, reveal the theatrical planning, the deliberate contrasts of light and colour and the love of drama invested in every detail of the building, its decoration and its furniture. The book is illustrated with many of the beautiful engravings that Walpole himself commissioned of his house and its interior decoration. There are modern photographs too. This sumptuous production, designed to delight historians of taste, would surely have met with Walpole's approval.

USD $45.00

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