Architecture prints are printed images of buildings, ruins, plans, elevations and architectural details, produced by engraving, etching, aquatint or lithography. They range from the plates of great architectural treatises to topographical views of country houses, cathedrals and city streets.
Published pattern books spread classical architecture across Europe, and in Britain works such as Colen Campbell's Vitruvius Britannicus helped to establish Palladianism in the eighteenth century. Giovanni Battista Piranesi's dramatic etchings of Roman antiquities were bought eagerly by Grand Tourists and remain among the most admired architectural prints ever made. Later publications recorded Gothic churches, ornament and the seats of the nobility and gentry, and many such plates have since been separated from their books and sold individually. Collectors consider the quality and strength of the impression, whether the paper is the original and has good margins, the presence of any original hand-colouring, and freedom from foxing, staining and trimming. Framed in sets, architecture prints suit libraries, studies, halls and staircases, and they sit comfortably with both period and contemporary furniture.
