The Complete House Builder, containing fifty plans and specifications of dwellings, barns, churches, public buildings, Etc. by [CARPENTER, James H.) - 1890

Chicago: Donohue, Heneberry & Co, 1890. First Edition. Softcover. Very good. Octavo, 62pp., plus 88pp. of illustrations. A crisp, clean copy of a very fragile and cheaply produced book. Rear wrap partly detached at the outer joint, but still holding. some mild dampstains and one old tape repaor to wraps. Contents age-toned, with one leaf gently chipped at the outer margin, else rather nice; overall very good. Wonderfully scarce and figure-driven guide to modern practical architecture during the height of the Victorian period in Chicago. Facades, interior plans, and bird's eye views make up the majority of the contents. Though he is not credited on the title page or wrappers, the author is Chicago architect John H. Carpenter (a "Press Notices" page in the frontmatter credits Carpenter with authorship, as does OCLC). Carpenter was the founder of the Chicago Architectural Club, whose website has this to say about him: Buildings were being built by the hundreds in the early 1880's when James H. Carpenter, a 42-year-old English born itinerant "draughtsman" in Chicago, who worked from time to time in various offices, realized that the need for trained men to finalize designs and produce the working drawings needed for the construction of Chicago's buildings had reached a critical stage. Just what Carpenter's motives were have never before been defined, but it was he who brought eighteen "draughtsman" colleagues together to form The Chicago Architectural Sketch Club in the spring of 1885. This organization, later renamed The Chicago Architectural Club, was responsible for the evolution and development of the Chicago School of Architecture more than any other individual, firm, or professional society." The pamphlet is rare in commerce; we locate just one appearance in a dealer catalogue in the past half century. OCLC lists eight physical holdings, just one of which is in Chicago (Art Institute). Interestingly, this volume is noted on the front wrapper as being number 16 in the "Dearborn Series." This was a series of mostly dime novels published by Donohue, though a full list of titles shows that a few other nonfiction titles (such as a cookbook, a financial literacy volume, and a few bibliographies) were among the novel-heavy list. Rare.