London: Printed for J.C. Stadler, 1808. First edition. Elephant folio. (iv), x, (2), 41 pp. Some sheets watermarked J. Whatman 1807 and 1804. Illustrated with 20 superb plates: aquatint frontispiece (uncolored state), one full-page hand-colored engraved ground plan; 18 aquatint and engraved plates and vignettes (six with hand-colored movable overslips, one with hand-colored overpage, one double-page plate, one folding plate, two plates in sepia wash), all by J.C. Stadler after Repton. Sometime three-quarter dark blue morocco over marbled paper-covered boards, decorated in gilt; frontispiece misbound after E1; E1 misbound after d1; small repairs along edges of title-page; short repaired tear in gutter of folding plate; scattered light creasing to overslips; scattered light soiling to text and plates. Tooley 397; Abbey, Scenery 55

A handsome first edition of English landscape designer Humphry Repton's innovative proposal for the redesign of the Royal Pavilion at Brighton. Hired by the Prince Regent (later King George IV), here Repton reimagines the Pavilion's neoclassical structure as a Mughal-inspired palace with exotic flower gardens, depicted in 20 superb plates with moveable overslips. "Repton's shift in scaling dramatizes the visual consequences of his plans. In the before flap on top, the Brighton pavilion appears hidden, isolated, distant--impressions intensified by the tiny person and by the over-writing on the shadowy building. When the flap is raised to reveal the proposed redesign, the space between us and the pavilion has now become intimate and comfortable, filled with well dressed visitors..." (Tufte, Visual Explanations, p.17). While the Prince supported the project, his financial troubles did not allow it to go forward. Despite this, some of Repton's ideas were used by John Nash, who was commissioned in 1814 to redesign the building that still stands today.