Purple cloth with title in gilt within white label on spine. Condition: Very good, previous owners name written at top of front endpaper. Very faint hint of sunning to textblock edges. Dustjacket condition: Very good, with light shelfwear and light sunning to inner flaps of dustjacket.454pp. 260 b/w plates. When he died in 1881 William Burges was widely regarded as the most brilliant architect-designer of his generation. He was a Pre-Raphaelite architect, and like his Pre-Raphaelite friends he sought an artistic Holy Grail in a Victorian vision of the Middle Ages. In architecture he rivals Butterfield, Street and Norman Shaw. In furniture and stained glass he eclipses the finest work of Morris & Co. In jewellery and metalwork he is without rival, except perhaps for his hero Pugin. Scarce.