We have donated the remaining architectural prints to Special Collections at Bizzell Memorial Library so that they will be available to aspiring architects and others for many years to come.
From the sublime to the mundane, these architectural prints document exploration, ancient history, and trips abroad. There are also elevations and house plans, as well as some apparently used for London building permits.
Click on any image to enlarge it and see a slide show of all the work on this page.
The auction closed November 16. Minimum bids were half the appraised value of the prints. For more about the collection and the auction, please see this page.
17th Century Europe’s View of Asia
Alain Manesson Mallet, French 1630-1706
Mallet was a 17th century French military engineer and cartographer who began his career as a soldier. He later taught mathematics to pages in the court of the Sun King, Louis XIV.
Description de l’Univers was first published in Paris in 1638 and is perhaps the greatest work of its kind in the 17th century. It contains a wide variety of information, including star maps, maps of the ancient and modern world, and a synopsis of the customs, religion and government of the many nations included in his text. Mallet himself drew most of the figures that were engraved for this book.
Temple de Daibuth
1683 or 1719 engraving
Image size: 5.5 x 8.5
Book plate from Japan section of Description de l’Univers, 1683 or 1719, depending on edition.
Matted, unframed
Appraised Value: $130
Vedute- Views of Italy
Views to remember, vedute, were often sold as souvenirs to wealthy 17th and 18th century Northern European tourists to take home from the Italian leg of their Grand Tour. For more information, see this Article from the MET.
Giovanni Battista Piranesi, Italian 1720-1778
One of the greatest printmakers of the eighteenth century, Piranesi always considered himself an architect. He may have studied printmaking in his native Venice. After his arrival in Rome in 1740, he apprenticed himself briefly to Giuseppe Vasi, the foremost producer of the etched views of Rome that supplied pilgrims, scholars, artists, and tourists with a lasting souvenir of their visit. Piranesi’s dreams of antiquity, from his earliest architectural fantasies, often surpassed reality.
Etchings from Vedute di Roma
By 1747, Piranesi had begun the work for which he is best known, the Vedute di Roma (Views of Rome), and he continued to produce plates for the series until the year of his death in 1778. The etchings were sold both individually and bound into books. You can see one of the books, currently being offered for £200,000, at Shapero Rare Books in London. The article also has a good deal of information about the series and the artist.
Veduta della Santa Maria in Vallicella detta la Chiesa Nuova
View of the façade of Santa Maria in Vallicella from the Piazza della Chiesa Nuova, Rome
1752 etching
Image size: 7 x 5 inches
Framed
Appraised Value: $750
Veduta della Villa Panfili fuori di Porta S. Pancrazio
View of the Villa Panfili outside the S. Pancrazio Gate
1752 etching
Image size: 7 x 5 inches
Framed
Appraised Value: $750
Veduta interna dell’Atrio del Portico di Ottavia
Internal view of the Atrium of the Portico of Octavia looking towards the fish market
1760 etching
Image size: 22 x 28 inches
This area was used as a fish market beginning in the middle ages until the late 19th century. More information for this print is available from the MET.
Unframed
Appraised Value: $700
Veduta del Palazzo Odescalchi
V iew of the Odescalchi Palace, opposite the Palazzo Colonna and the Church of SS. Apostoli
1753 etching
Image size: 16 x 25.5 inches
Unframed
Appraised Value: $750
Luigi Rossini, Italian 1790-1857
Luigi Rossini was born in Ravenna, Italy and studied at the Academy of Bologna graduating in 1813 as an architect and artist. Heavily influenced by Piranesi, Rossini drew many of the same landmarks from the same points of view.
Frontespizio Della Antichita Romane
Frontispiece of Roman Antiquity
1823 copperplate engraving
Image size, 26 x 18 inches
The frontispiece of the book, Le Antichita Romane, ossia raccolta delle piu interesnti vedute di Roma Antica, (The Roman Antiquities, or collection of the most interesting views of Ancient Rome.) There were 101 plates in the book. On the lower right corner of the plate is engraved “T1 Roma 1823” On the lower left corner of the Plate “Rossini des & inc”.
Framed
Appraised Value: $600
Veduta delle Mura di Roma, Porta Celimontana
View of the City Wall of Rome near the Celimontana Gate
1823 copperplate engraving
Image size, 26 x 18 inches
From Le Antichita Romane. The plate’s full title: Veduta delle Mura di Roma, dalla parte interna della Città, vicino alla Porta Celimontana
Framed
Appraised Value: $750
Veduta dell’Arco di Settimio Severo
View of the Arch of Septimus Severus
1820 copperplate engraving
Image size: 26 x 18 inches
From Le Antichita Romane. The Arch of Septimus Severus was erected in 203 AD to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the reign of Emperor Septimius Severus, who had returned in victory from the wars in Partia (today Iran and Iraq.) The Forum is visible in the background in this view.
Framed
Appraised Value: $750
Veduta del Interno del Pronao del Pantheon
View of the Interior of the Pantheon Porch
1820 copperplate engraving
Image size: 20 x 29 inches
Framed
From Le Antichita Romane
Appraised Value: $750
A View from England
John Coney, English 1786–1833
An architectural draftsman and engraver, Coney was born in London’s East End. He was apprenticed to an architect, but never followed the profession. Instead, he began making and selling pencil drawings of Westminster Abbey and other buildings from the age of 15. He published a number of works illustrating buildings in Britain and continental Europe, the first being a series of views Warwick Castle.
Collegiate Church of Irthlingborough, Northamptonshire
From Ecclesiastical Edifices of the Olden Time: A Series of Etchings, with Ground-plans and Facsimiles of Hollar’s Views, of the Cathedral and Conventual Churches, Monasteries, Abbeys, Priories, and Other Ecclesiastical Edifices of England and Wales by John Coney, after Wenceslaus Hollar’s illustrations.
Engraved etching: circa 1815
Image size: 14 x 10 inches
Appraised Value: $125
Architectural Details: Gates, Columns, and Elevations
Bussi, Italian 18th century
Coliseum Plan, Elevation and Section
Steel engraving, brown ink
Image size: 7 x 9.25 inches
Framed
Appraised Value: $200
Forum Plan, Elevation and Section
Steel engraving, brown ink
Image size: 9.5 x 7 inches
Framed
Appraised Value: $200
Samuel Wale, English 1721 – 1786
Samuel Wale was one of the original members of the Society of Artists of Great Britain and of the Royal Academy. He held a number of positions within the Academy, including that of the first professor of perspective. He was also the first member to benefit from their pension fund, after suffering a paralytic stroke in 1778. Wale later became the Academy librarian and continued to hold the professorship until his death.
While he was a sign painter, engraver, and historical painter, Wale’s primary work was in designing vignettes and illustration for books.
A Gate at Mylasa
1745 copper engraving
Image size: 13 x 8 inches
From A Description of the East, and some other Countries, Richard Pococke, London, W. Bowyer, MDCCXLV (1743-1745)
Framed
Appraised Value: $300
A Sepulchral Arch at Pola
1743 copper engraving
Image size: 13 x 8 inches
From A Description of the East, and some other Countries, Richard Pococke, London, W. Bowyer, MDCCXLV (1743-1745)
Framed
Appraised Value: $300
Peter Mazell, Irish, active c. 1759 – 1797
Mazell worked primarily in London and was a member of the Society of Artists and the Royal Academy. He was both a painter and engraver. Best known for his natural history subjects, he also did engravings for books on travel, architecture and ancient ruins.
Pediments and Imposts
1759 copperplate engraving
Image size: 16.5 x 12
Plate from A Treatise on Civil Architecture : in which the principles of that art are laid down, and illustrated by a great number of plates, accurately designed, and elegantly engraved by the best hands; Published, 1759 by William Chambers; Book in the Yale University Library.
Unframed
Appraised Value: $60
House Plans from the 19th Century
Paris
Jean François de Neufforge, Belgian 1714 – 1791
Neufforge moved to Paris around 1738 and studied engraving and architecture. In 1755, he launched the project for which he is best known, Recueil élémentaire d’architecture... His planned work was presented to the Academy of Architecture, which approved it in 1757.
The eight folio volumes were published between 1757 and 1780. They contained 900 engravings of aspects of eighteenth-century architecture, most of which he designed and engraved himself. They cover the full range of buildings of his day and include facades, floor plans, doors, columns, vases, stairways, fireplaces and fences. The book was widely used by architects in the 1700s.
Development pour un Batiment de six Toises
Development for a Six Story Building
1767 copper engraving on laid paper
Image size: 14.25 x 9.5
From Recueil Élémentaire D’Architecture qui Représente Divers Exemples d’Églises et Chapelles; des Grands Bâtiments depuis 12 Toises de face jusqu’à 120 plusieurs Décorations d’Apartements et Salles de Spectacles:…Paris: J.F. de Neufforge, 1767.
Unframed
Appraised Value: $80
Development pour un Batiment de quatre Toises
Development for a Four Story Building
1767 copper engraving on laid paper
Image size: 14.25 x 9.5
From Recueil Élémentaire D’Architecture qui Représente Divers Exemples d’Églises et Chapelles; des Grands Bâtiments depuis 12 Toises de face jusqu’à 120 plusieurs Décorations d’Apartements et Salles de Spectacles:…Paris: J.F. de Neufforge, 1767.
Unframed
Appraised Value: $100
London
James Carter, English 1798–1855
Engraver, born in the London parish of Shoreditch. While still young he won the Society of Arts silver medal for drawing. He was first articled to Edmund Turrell, an architectural engraver, but later on concentrated on landscapes and figures. 1830-1840 employed largely on engravings for the annuals, especially the Landscape Annual of Robert Jennings; executed plates after Samuel Prout, David Roberts, and James Holland; was employed by John Weale on numerous architectural works.
Plate IXXXVII
Engraved etching
Image size: 9 x 7.25 inches
Architectural plan
“Publshed as the Act directs March 1st 1776 by F. Newsbury, Indgate[?] Street”
Unframed
Appraised Value: $200
Plate IXXIII
Engraved etching
Image size: 9 x 7.25 inches
Architectural plan
“Publshed as the Act directs March 1st 1776 by F. Newsbury, Indgate[?] Street”
Unframed
Appraised Value: $200