The American Builder's Companion; or, A System of Architecture, Particularly Adapted to the Present Style of Building

Charleston, MA, 1811. Full calf. Very Good. Daniel Raynerd. The very important 1811 "corrected and enlarged" 2nd edition of this early, seminal guidebook in American architecture. Authored by Asher Benjamin (1773-1845), considered one of the country's first great writers on architecture. Contains more plates (59) than the 1st edition (44), which was published 5 years earlier in 1806. The 59 copperplate engravings have here been carefully collated (for completeness and condition) and, as with the 1st edition, were executed by Daniel Raynerd. We note that in his 2 pg. Preface to this 1811 2nd edition, Benjamin states "Sixteen plates, whch were in the first edition, I have laid aside, and have added twenty nine new ones; which almost make this a new work". This copy remains solid and well-preserved, and presents very well. Bound in the publisher's original --or at the very least a contemporary-to-the-period-- full mottled calf. Red leather title label in gilt (very likely later) at the spine. Light, forgivable foxing throughout the text, mild offsetting at the endsheets and pastedowns. Wonderful handwritten notes ("Diameter of Columns to the Height") adorn the frontispiece and the front pastedown, and clearly suggest the 19th century scribbles of a hard-at-work carpenter/architect. Quarto, 102 pgs. all told. A nice piece of architectural Americana.