Conor Lucey 
Building reputations 
Architecture and the artisan, 1750–1830

Taking a cue from revisionist scholarship on early modern vernacular architectures and their relationship to the classical canon, this book rehabilitates the reputations of a representative if misunderstood building typology – the eighteenth-century brick terraced house – and the artisan communities of bricklayers, carpenters and plasterers responsible for its design and construction. Opening with a cultural history of the building tradesman in terms of his reception within contemporary architectural discourse, chapters consider the design, decoration and marketing of the town house in the principal cities of the eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century British Atlantic world. The book is essential reading for students and scholars of the history of architectural design and interior decoration specifically, and of eighteenth-century society and culture generally.

Table of Content

Introduction: a new apology for the builder
1 Building reputations: a genteel life in trade
2 Designing houses: the façade and the architecture of street and square
3 Decorating houses: style, taste and the business of decoration
4 Building sales: advertising and the property market
Conclusion: the builder rehabilitated?
Select Bibliography
Index

About the author

Conor Lucey is Assistant Professor in the School of Art History & Cultural Policy at University College Dublin