Strawberry Hill: Horace Walpole's Gothic Castle

London: Francis Lincoln Limited, 2007. Hardcover. VG. light shelf-wear to covers; minor rubbing to corners. pgs lightly edge-toned. back cover fly-leaf has yellow smudging/soiling.. rose cloth boards w/ gilt spine printing. 160 pgs w/ bw & color illustration. pictorial dustjacket. "Strawberry Hill began as Walpole's 'Little play-thing house' and became one of the wonders of the eighteenth-century architectural world. Woefully neglected for years, it is now undergoing major restoration and will emerge in triumph as the seminal house of the gothic revival in England." "Walpole and his 'Committee of Taste' devoted themselves to their gothic creation. It became a visitor attraction with Walpole's own guidebook and housekeeper to show ticketed visitors round. The authors take us on that same route and room by room, with Walpole at our elbow, reveal the theatrical planning, the deliberate contrasts of light and colour and the love of drama invested in every detail of the building, its decoration and its furniture." "At first Walpole sought the 'gloomth' of medieval buildings and details from tombs, heraldic devices and stained glass were used to promote the effect that would inspire his own gothic tale The Castle of Otranto. Later, with the building of the magnificent Long Gallery and its incredible papier mache ceiling, Walpole revelled in 'gothicism and gold'." "The book is illustrated with many of the engravings that Walpole himself commissioned of his house and its interior decoration. There are modern photographs too."--BOOK JACKET.