"The Great Houses Of London" 1986 PEARCE, David

PEARCE, David[224] pp.The Vendome Press198612" x 8 1/2" Fine/ Fine Scroll Down for (9) Additional Scans: The Great Houses of London is an account of extraordinary buildings, most of which no longer exist, of such great designers as Robert Adam, and if the enormously rich English aristocrats grandees who commissioned these houses. When Queen Victoria remarked to her neighbor, the Duchess of Sutherland, "I have come from my house to your palace," she was by no means exaggerating. The palaces of the nobility were second only to churches in architectural and aesthetic significance, and defied comparison with the châteaux of France or the palazzi of Venice. Filled with astonishing French and English furniture, generally equipped with a large private picture gallery to display priceless paintings bought on the Grand Tour, staffed by between 50 and 60 servants, these houses expressed the taste and aspirations of a single person, and usually one rich and powerful enough to have his own way. A