Artistic Homes in City and Country: A Selection of Sketches Prepared in the Routine of Office Work and Now Amplified and Enlarged.

Boston: James R. Osgood and Company, 1882. 4to, brown pictorial cloth, upper cover and spine stamped in red and green, green floral endpapers. 4 ff., 44 heliotype plates, [6] pp. of ads.

First edition of this scarce compendium of house designs largely in the Queen Anne style, intended in part to promote Albert Fuller’s architectural firm, one of the finest in Albany, New York in the late nineteenth century.

This scarce pattern book is illustrated with heliotype plates of Fuller’s richly detailed pen and ink renderings of the exteriors and interiors of eight villas, seven cottages, and a city house, with floor plans for each. Also included is a rendering of a country church with an inset floor plan.

Albert Fuller (1854–1934), studied architecture in Albany, and worked as a draftsman for Odgen and Son. He established his own practice circa 1879, formed a partnership with William A. Wheeler 1883–87, with William B. Pitcher 1890–1909, and finally with William P. Robinson until Fuller’s death in 1934. Fuller is “credited with the design of some of the finest buildings of his time in Albany” (Withey and Withey).

An excellent record of Fuller’s Queen Anne-style work.

CONDITION: Good, light damp-stains to covers and to lower fore corner throughout volume, head and foot of spine rubbed.

REFERENCES: Hitchcock 479; Withey and Withey, Biographical Dictionary of American Architects, p. 225; Albert W. Fuller at Wikipedia.