Inigo JONES on Stonehenge. Sir Andrew Fountaine’s Large Paper Copy

JONES, Inigo (1573-1652). The Most Notable Antiquity Of Great Britain, Vulgarly called Stone-heng, On Salisbury Plain, Restored, By Inigo Jones, Esq; Architect General to the King. To which are added, The Chorea Gigantum, Or, Stone-Heng Restored to the Danes, By Doctor Charleton; And Mr. Webb’s Vindication of Stone-Heng Restored, In Answer to Dr. Charleton’s Reflections; With Observations upon the Orders and Rules of Architecture in Use among the Antient Romans. Before the whole are prefixed, Certain Memoirs relating to the Life of Inigo Jones; with his Effigies, Engrav’d by Hollar; as also Dr. Charlton’s, by P. Lombart; and four new Views of Stone-Heng, in its present Situation: With above twenty other Copper-Plates, and a compleat Index to the entire Collection.

London:: Printed for D. Browne Junior, at the Black-Swan without Temple-Bar, and J. Woodman and D. Lyon, in Russel-Street, Covent-Garden., M.DCC.XXV

Three parts in one (Folio)

Each of the three works has also its own title-page, reading as follows: (1) ‘The Most Notable Antiquity Of Great Britain, Vulgarly called Stone-Heng, On Salisbury Plain, Restored. By Inigo Jones, Esq: Architect General to the Late King. The Second Edition. London: Printed for D. Browne Junior, at the Black-Swan without Temple-Bar, and J. Woodman and D. Lyon, in Russel-Street, Covent-Garden. M.DCC.XXV.’; (2) ‘Chorea Gigantum: Or, The Most Famous Antiquity Of Great Britain, Vulgarly called Stone-Heng, Standing on Salisbury-Plain, Restored to the Danes. By Walter Charleton, MD and Physician in Ordinary to His Majesty. The Second Edition. London: Printed for D. Browne Junior, at the Black-Swan without Temple-Bar, and J. Woodman and D. Lyon, in Russel-Street, Covent-Garden. M.DCC.XXV.’; (3) ‘A Vindication of Stone-Heng Restored: In which the Orders and Rules Of Architecture Observed by the Ancient Romans, Are Discussed … By John Webb … The Second Edition. London: Printed for G. Conyers, J. and B. Sprint, B. Lintot, D. Browne Junior, J. Woodman and D. Lyon. M.DCC.XXV.’

Engraved frontispiece portrait of Inigo Jones is signed ‘Anth: van Dycke Eques pinxit, W: Hollar fecit aqua forte’, engraved portrait of Walter Charleton is signed as engraved by Pierre Lombart, title printed in red and black, 9 folding or double-page engraved plates, 3 single-page plates, 12 engravings in the text. The four folding plates preceding Jones’s text are signed as drawn by J. Hassell (or Hassal) and engraved by E. Kirkall. The other plates are unsigned. One woodcut text-illustration, wood-engraved printer’s devices, initials, in-text illustrations, head and tailpieces. The printer’s name in the colophon: ‘London: Printed by James Bettenham.’

An exceptional LARGE PAPER COPY  (14 inches tall — two or more inches taller than the regular paper issue). The text pages and plates are bright and fresh throughout.  Virtually pristine internally, save for some toning and browning to the two portraits and the folding plates of Part 1. 

Copies are very rarely encountered with both portraits, all three separate titles, and the complete set of plates intact; rarer still to find one housed in a binding of this distinction. 

Impressive contemporary calf, the covers ruled with a small roll-tooled gilt border with foliate corner-pieces, gilt spine, red speckled edges. The covers display a crazed, mottled, and splotched pattern, the result of a diluted acid solution or dye applied to the leather in the eighteenth century to produce this decorative effect — the treatment has bitten into the surface, creating a uneven texture. No flaking; entirely stable. The joints have been discreetly strengthened. The red morocco lettering-piece is more recent.

The binding’s most distinctive feature is the decoration of the spine: divided into seven compartments, one bearing the lettering-piece, the remaining six each embellished with the repeat gilt elephant emblem associated with Sir Andrew Fountaine — this particular tool variant showing the trunk raised. Eight distinct Fountaine “Elephant” tool variants are recorded, though none has yet been attributed to a specific binder.  A binding with considerable presence on the shelf.

The binding was commissioned by Sir Andrew Fountaine (1676–1753), one of the most discriminating connoisseurs of his age. A contemporary admirer credited him with “great erudition, knowledge and experience”. He served as Vice-Chamberlain to Princess Caroline — later Queen — and as Master of the Mint, succeeding Sir Isaac Newton in that office. Two extended Grand Tours, undertaken between 1702 and 1714, proved decisive in forming his taste: he moved in the circle of Cosimo III, Grand Duke of Tuscany, and returned from his travels with the vast collection of paintings, majolica, and antiquities that would furnish Narford Hall, his seat in Norfolk.

A selection of “valuable books & manuscripts from the celebrated library of Sir Andrew Fountaine, of Narford Hall, Norfolk, assembled during the reigns of Queen Anne and Kings George I and II : comprising very rare English books and tracts of the XVIth and XVIIth centuries (chiefly poets and dramatists)” … : was sold by Sotheby, Wilkinson & Hodge over 3 days days in 1902.

Housed in an attractive archival box.

This is the second edition of Inigo Jones’ posthumous treatise on Stonehenge; first publication of Dr. Walter Charleton’s rebuttal to Jones, and John Webb’s attempted vindication of Jones.  Webb, Jones’s protege and relative by marriage, compiled the first edition of 1655 using Jones’s notes.

This work is also important for appending at the front of the volume an expanded biography of Inigo Jones: Certain Memoirs relating to the Life of Inigo Jones – promoting Jones’s position at the centre of British classicism.