CONTRASTS; OR A PARRALLEL BETWEEN THE NOBLE EDIFICES OF THE FOURTEENTH AND FIFTEENTH CENTURIES, AND SIMILAR BUILDINGS OF THE PRESENT DAY; SHEWING THE PRESENT DECAY OF TASTE, Accompanied by appropriate text.

First edition, first printing. Contemporary half calf and marbled paper covered boards, ruled in blind and with titles and simple decoration in gilt to the spine. Quarto. Marbled endpapers. All edges red. Etched frontispiece illustration, additional etched title lettered in red within an architectural border, letterpress title printed in red and black and 14 etched plates. A very good copy, the binding square and firm with a little rubbing and bumping to the corners, the calf a little rubbed. The contents, with a little spotting and toning to the prelims and plate margins, are otherwise clean throughout.

The English architect, designer, artist and critic's manifesto, a groundbreaking publication that brought Pugin fame and notoriety. "Through his illustrations and text he satirised current architecture in which neo-classicism had sunk to an uninspired level; moreover, he perhaps rightly pointed out that pagan architecture was unsuitable for Christian purposes, as in church building" (Elzea, Pre-Raphaelite Era, p. 18). "'Contrasts' illustrates Augustus Welby's teaching in a particularly striking form. Written in eloquent, learned and lively prose, his lessons were forcibly driven home by the illustrations, which he etched himself. Here the ancient and modern styles were shown on facing pages; a visual demonstration which reflected directly on the shoddy work of his own time" (PMM). [Fowler 265; PMM 284b].