Wimpole

Cambridgeshire's finest country house, Wimpole Hall is renowned for the beauty and grandeur of its buildings, gardens and wider designed landscape. The evolution of the mansion and its estate are particularly well documented through a wealth of surviving survey, design and topographical drawings - just over 300 individual items in total, many of which still remain at Wimpole.This superb catalogue represents the first time that this outstanding visual material has been made available in a comprehensive and accessible format. The drawings range in date from the mid-seventeenth to the mid-twentieth centuries and are a compelling illustration of how Wimpole was at the heart of changing fashions in architecture and garden design. The list of designers involved reads like a roll-call of architectural history: James Gibbs, Sanderson Miller, Henry Flitcroft, James 'Athenian' Stuart, John Soane all worked on the house, while in the gardens their counterparts included Charles Bridgeman, Lancelot 'Capability' Brown and Humphry Repton.With the exception of a very few engravings, the material comprises architectural drawings and topographical views (interiors and exteriors), executed on paper in pen and ink and/or pencil and watercolour.
Many are exquisitely detailed. Both the collection at Wimpole and drawings held elsewhere are included.The book opens with a background essay on Wimpole, giving a valuable overview and context to the collection. The drawings themselves are then presented in a catalogue, ranged chronologically and with individual entries, detailing the designer, subject and dimensions, together with a full description and analysis. Each is illustrated by a thumbnail black-and-white image, whilst the accompanying compact disc, contained inside the back cover of the book, displays the same images but in larger (full-screen) format and with many in full colour.The first comprehensive publication depicting the evolution of a magnificent country estate, comes in accessible format designed to appeal to the specialist and general reader and offers an illuminating historical context on the great architects and landscapers. It contains a CD with many of the catalogued works shown in full colour.