Howley, James. The Follies and Garden Buildings of Ireland.

New Haven & London: Yale University Press, 1993. First edition. Large square 4to. pp. x, 251. Profusely illustrated throughout with photographs by James Howley and Roberto d’Ussy, and drawings by James Howley and Duncan Moss. Publisher’s green cloth, upper cover blocked in gilt with architectural device, spine lettered in gilt, in the original pictorial dust jacket. A fine copy in the original dust jacket.

An important and beautifully illustrated survey of Ireland’s architectural follies and ornamental garden structures, documenting a fascinating but often overlooked element of the Irish landscape. Drawing on extensive fieldwork, Howley records a wide range of structures built for aesthetic, symbolic, or whimsical purposes on Irish estates from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

The book explores obelisks, grottoes, hermitages, rustic arches, towers, sham castles, eye-catchers, temples, mausoleums, bridges, gazebos, and summer-houses, placing them within the wider context of landscape design and the culture of the Irish country house. Many of the structures recorded had previously received little scholarly attention, and the work remains one of the definitive studies of Irish follies and garden architecture.

Illustrated with atmospheric photography and architectural drawings, the volume also includes a useful gazetteer of Irish follies, notes, bibliography, and index, making it an essential reference for historians of architecture, landscape design, and the Irish country house tradition.

[L3 7 Top]