Construction Treatise on Worship Houses

(ALEXANDER, William).  OBSERVATIONS ON THE CONSTRUCTION AND FITTING UP OF MEETING HOUSES, &C. FOR PUBLIC WORSHIP.

York: William Alexander, and others, 1820. 4to. Later quarter-calf, marbled boards. 66 pages, 5 double-paged plates. First edition.

An influential book on the construction of Quaker Meeting Houses that was much used in the United States where a great many such buildings were constructed shortly after its publication, mainly from western Pennsylvania and Ohio, south along the Appalachian mountains to North Carolina.  It is a detailed study, illustrated with plans, construction details, and seating arrangements.  The book is quite rare.  OCLC cites only six libraries in the United States as owning copies, and we could find no examples of the book for sale at auction during the past thirty years and no copies catalogued by Ben Weinreb, Hugh Pagan, Charles Wood, or Geoffrey Steele, four leading architectural book specialists of the past fifty years.  Rebound in a sympathetic binding  Very good.

$4,850.00