Fragments on the Theory and Practice of Landscape Gardening.

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Creator

Humphry Repton.

Title

Fragments on the Theory and Practice of Landscape Gardening.

Publisher

London: T. Bensley & Son for J. Taylor,

Date

1816.

Description

Provenance: Dumbarton Oaks co-founder Mildred Bliss, with her bookplate.

I have lived to see many of my plans beautifully realized, but many more cruelly marred sometimes by false economy, sometimes by injudicious extravagance.

Humphry Repton, 1816

Having visited several European libraries—including Wormsley with the Grolier Club—that displayed Repton’s Red Books, I could not resist the desire to own Fragments, offered to me by the late dealer and club member Geoffrey Steele during a 2000 visit.

Years earlier, I made several visits to Dumbarton Oaks and the home of Mildred Bliss. My copy bears her personal bookplate, and this association makes it a prized part of my collection. This first edition of Repton’s final great work on landscape gardening contains all forty-three plates, including twenty-two hand-colored aquatints and twenty wood engravings.

Source

Millard McAdoo Riggs, Jr.