Books and Manuscripts

Sloan, Samuel
The Model Architect. A Series of Original Designs for Cottages, Villas, Suburban Residences, Etc. Accompanied by Explanations, Specifications, Estimates, and Elaborate Details...
Philadelphia: Published by E.S. Jones & Co., (1852). In two volumes. First edition. 4to. Illustrated with chromolithographic frontispiece and 209 lithographs on 183 sheets (including four chromolithographs). Contemporary three-quarter black calf over marbled paper-covered boards, stamped in gilt, boards and extremities worn and rubbed; all edges trimmed; moderate to heavy foxing to plates and text; light to moderate wear and soiling to text. See Reese, Stamped with a National Character 63 (later edition)

Together with:

Sloan, Samuel
American Houses: A Variety of Original Designs for Rural Buildings...
Philadelphia: Printed by Henry B. Ashmead, 1861. First edition. 8vo. Illustrated with 29 lithographic plates (some chromo and tinted). Quarter brown leather over brown pebbled cloth, stamped in gilt, boards and extremities slightly worn; all edges trimmed; foxing to text and plates; some plates toned. Coolidge, Samuel Sloan: Architect of Philadelphia 1815-1844 p. 155

First edition of Philadelphia-based architect Samuel Sloan's scarcest title, and one of the earliest books published in America to utilize chromolithography. A second edition was published in 1868 by Henry Carey Baird.

"Architectural pattern books published in the United States, which inevitably had a large number of plates, were almost entirely devoid of color before 1850. The prolific architect, Samuel Sloan, changed this with a number of influential works on architectural design in the 1850s and 1860s. Sloan's books were filled with tinted and colored lithographs showing exterior and interior designs for houses in an eclectic range of styles from Gothic to Oriental via Italianate. He offered not only design patterns and floor plans, but estimated costs and provided interior decoration ideas as well. Colored illustrations played an important part in Sloan's campaign to improve the architectural tastes of the expanding middle class." (Reese, p. 77).