The Alhambra
Owen Jones, 1842
JONES, Owen (1809-1874) and Jules GOURY. Plans, Elevations, Sections, and Details of the Alhambra. London: Owen Jones, 1842-1845.

First edition of this superbly printed, pioneering work. Owen Jones's Grand Tour, which included Constantinople and Cairo, sparked his fascination with Islamic buildings. In 1834 he and the young French architect Jules Goury visited Granada and the Alhambra. After Goury's sudden death, Jones visited the Alhambra again in 1837. The printing of the sketches of these two trips and the need of the flat, opaque, and accurate color schemes to reproduce the decorative motifs led Jones to set up his own chromolithographic press in the Adelphi with the help of Day & Haghe. Abbey Travel, 156.

Two volumes, folio (575 x 415mm). Chromolithographic titles and 102 lithographic plates, of which 70 are chromolithographs and a number heightened in gold (minor soiling and chipping to extremities of preliminary pages; some plates with minor repairs or wear to margins). Half blue morocco gilt over matching boards.