[Back]     [Blueprint]     [Next]





Online Introduction to


Beautiful Buildings in France and Belgium,

by C. Harrison Townsend



Visualizing the settings for historical events is a lot easier with the physical evidence. This book preserves pictures of some buildings, including citadels, and churches, from the Middle Ages and Renaissance, that were lucky enough to survive until the 19th century. A few of them didn’t survive the 20th.

The text is short, just a brief commentary by Townsend on the pictures. The sketches are in various media, usually unspecified, but include watercolor and pastels. Many of the pictures have people in the foreground dressed in period costume and you will find a covered wagon (!!!) and the occasional coach on the streets as well. A few doggies also bark their way through some of the drawings.

The Hubbell Publishing Company was a small art deco publishing house and the paper quality and typography of the book is wonderful. Get one. Antiquarian booksellers have lots of beautiful books that are not expensive and are the same price as a trashy paperback on the bestseller list. The copy of the book I have had a home in a small library in Dayton and Montgomery County until it was discarded. How can a book with rare prints of ancient buildings be deemed trash?

The Table of Contents is called the List of Plates, because the text is a brief commentart. The pictures take center stage in this book.

Here goes (click and go):

Frontispiece
&
Title Pages
&
Author’s Preface


Copyright  © 2007 by Elfinspell


[Back]     [Blueprint]     [Next]