The Carpenter's Assistant: Containing a Succinct Account of Egyptian, Grecian and Roman Architecture.
Worcester, Boston et al: Edward Livermore, Benjamin B. Mussey et al, 1852. Fifth Edition. Hardcover. Quarto. iv, 7-148pp., LXIX plates. Rebacked with modern leather over original calf with gilt lettering on red leather label on spine; raised bands. Frontispiece engraving. Includes also a description of the Tuscan, Doric, Ionic, Corinthian and Composite Orders; together with specifications, practical rules and tables for carpenters, and an eight page glossary of architectural terms. Illustrated with some 200 illustrations of architectural drawings and plans, technical drawings, arches, mouldings, elevations, columns, doors, gutters, stairs, etc. Revised, improved and enlarged with additions on Rural Architecture; embracing Plans, Elevations, Grounds, etc, of cottages, villas and farm-buildings by Lewis E. Joy.
Beginning his career as a mason, Brown became one of Massachusetts' first architects and was a mentor to several distinguished architects of the period, including Lewis E. Joy, his co-author. At the time of publication, Brown lived in Lowell, Massachusetts. This is the expanded 1852 fifth edition of a work originally published in 1848. William Brown's manual for carpenters and builders went through at least six editions, the final one in 1854. Brown practiced architecture in Lowell, Massachusetts. His goal was to provide a basic architectural manual to explain construction. The books was widely used by New England architects and influenced the design of a number of distinguished buildings. The first plate or frontispiece facing the title page shows the castle-like Oread Institute in Worcester, Massachusetts, which Brown apparently helped to design. This school for women was a major actor in the abolitionist movement. There are other images of buildings the author credits to himself, including a villa he identifies as the residence of Thomas A. Clark, Esq. in Worcester that in 1852 had "just been completed." All plates with descriptive text while additional text if illustrated with architectural drawings and plans.
This copy was purchased on July 2, 1852 by someone named Gallup. The rest of the name is difficult to decipher: "F & J" or "J & J." There were a number of F. and J. Gallup's living in Connecticut in the 1850s, all of them farmers. Since one of the book's innovations was to include more extensive designs for "farm-buildings" including piggeries, dairy houses and barns, this may have belonged to one of them. Like a number of other volumes in the collection, the upper left corner of the endpapers shows I. A. Frary's highly stylized mark "1940/St. Louis" added. Plates upward from LIX to LXIX without descriptive text on facing pages. Some print, e.g. Roman numbers, of plates illegible due to having been washed. Binding with some wear along edges and rubbed. Inside front and back gutter reinforced with white linen tape and inked names of previous owners. Frontispiece with light foxing, title page more pronounced. Some sporadic foxing of pages with added plates clean. Good to very good condition. Item #49382
Price: $875.00