Description

Immediate dispatch from Somerset. Nice older book in good condition. Pages in good condition. No notes or highlighting. See images. Fantastic book.

About the book >.>.> Let us begin with a definition. A ‘pavillon’ was a rent then a square rent-shaped room or the high ends and ‘extr?mit?s angulaires’ of certain large buildings hence any building in the garden away from the main house. We take our title from these garden-houses if big enough to be lived in and we include certain small ch?teaux and some town houses which have a particular garden quality and were constructed out of a desire to get away. The English ‘country house the French ‘maison de plaisance the German Jusrschlos convey the same idea but with no limitations as to size so it is better to stretch the name ‘pavilion’ to include a few somewhat larger houses exercises in simplicity. Folly in both French and English suggests a small building which is either bizarre or extravagant and is usually coupled with the name of its creator. But Littr? suspects it derives from ‘feuil?e’ or ‘feuillie a leafy arbor or branch-house (from the ‘foleis of medieval Latin) with nothing outrageous about it. The aim of this album is not to provide an exact work of reference so much as to recreate that ‘douceur de vivre of the days before the French Revolution and thus to help the reader to explore this charming world for himself. We have witnessed a major renewal of interest in the eighteenth century and a spectacular boom in the furniture paintings and minor objects of the reigns of Louis XV and Louis XVI but the houses from which these things were taken have nor shared in the general revaluation perhaps because they cannot be circulated on exhibition or change hands in the auction room Indeed they shose a tendency to disappear either through war damage or because they are expemice to repair of because the spacious pattern of forecourt and house with garden behind inflames the greed of the town planner. Some fall into the hands of devoted private owners others are kept up by the state but not a few grow ruinous of are taken over by corporare bodies bureaucratic military or religious who find our attentions unwelcome. (MP)