Books and Manuscripts

First Use of the Term "Interior Decoration" in English

London: Printed by T. Bensley, for Longman, Hurst, Rees, and Orme, 1807. First edition. Large folio. Illustrated with an engraved title-page and 60 etched plates. Three-quarter red morroco over crimson pebbled leather-covered boards, stamped in gilt, joint and and spine ends rubbed, front corners rubbed, rear corners worn; speckled red edges; marbled endpapers; foxing to text and plates. Abbey, Life 24

First edition of Thomas Hope's important Regency-era design book, the first to introduce the phrase "interior decoration" into the English language. Hope based his large, simple line drawings on the rooms from his own Dutchess Street mansion in London, a popular destination for London's fashionable elite. Hope published this work to promote his vanguard taste to the public, one that combined myriad styles and objects from different time periods, including Ancient Greek, Roman, Egyptian, Neoclassical French, as well as Ottoman and Indian sources.