Heading: (California)
Author:
Title: Artistic Homes of California. Issued with S.F. News Letter 1887-8
Place Published: San Francisco
Publisher:Frederick Marriott
Date Published: 1887
Description:

[110] pp. Illustrated with 52 "Artotypes" by Britton & Rey after photographs. Each plate with a page of descriptive text with Bay Area advertisements on the leaf versos. (Oblong 4to) 21.5x28.5 cm (8½x11¼"), burgundy half-morocco, spine gilt, front cover with stylized gilt lettering.

Extremely rare small printing detailing Bay Area architecture. The Artistic Homes of California was a feature in Marriott's S.F. News Letter that proved so popular he issued this deluxe edition. The photographs are of the exterior of the homes, showing immediate vicinity and giving the name of the resident and exact address. The majority of the homes were in San Francisco, with a few in Oakland and San Jose. Architects include Albert Pissis, William Moore, Curlett & Cuthbertson, Clinton Day, A.H. Macy, Charles Geddes, Schmidt & Shea, et al. Only three of the 38 San Francisco homes published in this work remain standing, (one of which is the Lilienthal house at Clay and Franklin. See Alexander & Heig, San Francisco: Building the Dream City, 2002, p.276). A superb visual record of California's stately Victorian and Beaux-Arts buildings, many of which would be destroyed just a few years later in the great earthquake and fires of 1906. Homes include those of John Spreckles, Mark Hopkins, Leland Stanford, Thomas Montgomery, William Haas, Wallace Everson, and many other prominent citizens. Very rare, no copies appear at auction in the past 25 years. The plates are numbered and mostly indexed to 61, but the Bancroft Library's copy also contains just 52 (the only copy on RLG Union catalogue).

Rubbing and wear to leather and boards, gilt faded from covers, front joint cracking, rear joint rubbed; hinges cracked but binding holding, varying degrees of toning and scattered foxing to plates, some are cut off along the lower margin from misprinting; very good.