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MAJOR ACQUISITION IN HONOR OF ROBERT LEE MAYS
With gratitude for the generosity of the Besse
Johnson and George Blanton Allen Memorial
Foundation, the Cherokee Garden Library is
delighted to have been able to acquire a seminal historic
volume in honor of Robert Lee Mays, a Cherokee Garden
Library Board Member and valued advisor. For many years,
the Garden Library has been searching for John Buonarotti
Papworth’s Rural Residences consisting of a Series of
Designs for Cottages, Decorated Cottages, Small Villas,
and other Ornamental Buildings, accompanied by Hints on
Situation, Construction, Arrangement and Decoration, in
the Theory & Practice of Rural Architecture; interspersed
with Some Observations on Landscape Gardening
(London: Printed for R. Ackermann, by J. Diggens, 1818).
The Cherokee Garden Library already owns the other
significant Papworth volume: Hints on Ornamental
Gardening consisting of a Series of Designs for Garden
Buildings, Useful and Decorative Gates, Fences, Railroads,
&c: accompanied by Observations on the Principles and
Theory of Rural Improvement, interspersed with Occasional
Remarks on Rural Architecture (London: Printed for R.
Ackermann, by J. Diggens, 1823).
Born in London in 1775, John Buonarotti Papworth was a
prolific English architect, designer of landscapes, and town
planner. In addition to laying out many significant properties,
Papworth was a designer of myriad artifacts, including
furniture, textiles, and other decorative elements. He also
designed conservatories, entrance gates, coach houses,
stables, and the Gothic summer house at Claremont,
Surrey (1816), for Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg and
later Princess Charlotte Augusta. From 1817 to 1820,
he prepared designs for the Park and Palace at Bad
Cannstadt, near Stuttgart, for King Wilhelm I. Although
only part of the Park was realized, Papworth was
honored with the title of “Architect to the King of
Württemberg.” Papworth was responsible for many
London shop fronts and other buildings, and was a pioneer
in the use of iron for construction purposes. His monument
to Lieutenant- Colonel Sir Alexander Gordon on the field
at Waterloo, Belgium in 1815 was an early example of a
broken column used as a memorial. He was a founding
member of the Institute of British Architects. He contributed
frequently to Rudolph Ackermann’s Repository of Arts
Papers, entitled Architectural Hints. They were republished
as Rural Residences consisting of a Series of Designs for
Cottages, Decorated Cottages, Small Villas, and other
Ornamental Buildings . . . (1818), and in 1823 he
published designs for garden buildings as Hints on
Ornamental Gardening.
Today, Papworth’s volumes are studied extensively in
Europe and the United States by architects and landscape
architects. The addition of Papworth’s Rural Residences to
the Cherokee Garden Library greatly strengthens the
collection while honoring an important supporter and
advisor to the Garden Library.
Garden Seats, Plate XXV, from John Papworth’s
Rural Residences . . . (1818).