Salmon, William
The London and country builder’s vade mecum : or, the compleat and universal architect’s assistant. Comprehending the London and country prices of the different works of bricklayers, glasiers, painters, masons (etc). The second edition.
London, “printed for J. Hodges, at the Looking-Glass, over-against St. Magnus-Church, London-Bridge” 1748.
Full Description
8vo. Engraved frontispiece, (2) + ii + (8) + 187 + (1)pp. Contemporary full calf, rubbed, slightly cracking at hinges and with a split towards foot of upper joint (but binding is nonetheless sound). Lightly browned internally. From the library of the Earls of Macclesfield, with mid-19th century Macclesfield armorial bookplate, and a small blind stamp with Macclesfield coat of arms on frontispiece and first three printed leaves (as customary with books from this library).
Second edition of a book first published in 1741. William Salmon (1703-1779), although himself merely a master carpenter in Colchester, Essex, had a lasting impact on his contemporaries as the author of Palladio Londinensis, a design manual for builders published in eight editions between 1734 and 1773. He also produced a series of successful builder’s price books, of which the present one is the fullest (it ran to at least five editions, the last being likewise published in 1773). For this edition the publisher added an engraved frontispiece, showing trees being felled and measured, originally used as the frontispiece for a book on the cultivation of fruit trees by Moses Cook. This edition not in BAL Cat.