Lot 160: REPTON, Humphry (1752-1818). Sketches and Hints on Landscape Gardening. L

REPTON, Humphry (1752-1818). Sketches and Hints on Landscape Gardening. London: W. Bulmer and Co., for J. & J. Boydell, [1795]. First edition of a ground-breaking book on landscape gardening, illustrated with clever moveable overslips demonstrating the transformative potential of garden design. Repton was the first to adopt the term Landscape Gardening, explaining in his introduction that the art can only be advanced and perfected by the united powers of the landscape painter and the practical gardener. The former must conceive a plan, which the latter may be able to execute... yet the luxuriant imagination of the painter must be subjected to the gardener's practical knowledge in painting, digging, and moving earth. Abbey Scenery 388. Oblong folio (281 x 384mm). 16 aquatint plates, 10 of which are hand-colored, and 4 of those double-page; all but two with overslips inserted to show alternate garden plans; wood-engraved tail-piece (occasional faint spotting). Original boards, uncut; quarter morocco slipcase.