Pattern Books
Downing authored two important pattern books, Cottage residences (first published 1842) and The architecture of country houses (first issued in 1852). The books featured black-and-white illustrations of Gothic Revival and Italianate style houses set in verdant landscapes, along with a chatty, approachable text aimed at the potential home-owner, not the builder. In Downing’s hands, the pattern book was a source of design ideas and advice on good taste in building, furnishing, decorating, painting, and in some sense, good manners for the early Victorian age.
Design IV--An ornamental farm house. A.J. Downing, Cottage residences, [1842]. AA7120 D7521 c.2
Design VI--A villa in the Italian style, bracketed. A.J. Downing, Cottage residences, [1842]. AA7120 D7521 c.2
Downing showed “ideas” for buildings, but rarely included dimensions, structural information, or written specifications to guide actual construction. Homeowners had to rely on skilled local craftsmen to take these small drawings and floor plans and translate them into a full-size building. Homes based on Downing's designs dot the American landscape, including Willow Hall, built for George Vail, a businessman and member of the New Jersey legislature and United States Congress. Vail's home, of local granite conglomerate rock known as “puddingstone,” was derived entirely from Design V in Downing’s Cottage residences.
Design V--A cottage villa, in the bracketed mode. A.J. Downing, Cottage residences, [1842]. AA7120 D7521 c.2
Willow Hall, home of Congressman George Vail, Morristown, NJ. 1848. Photograph by Jim DelGiudice.
A.J. Downing, A treatise on the theory and practice of landscape gardening, 1849. AA9552 D751
All three of Downing's books featured standard mid-nineteenth publisher's cloth bindings with patterns embossed on the front and back boards and a central decorative gilt stamp that hinted at the book's content.
The second of his architectural pattern books, The architecture of country houses (left), was first issued in 1852, just months prior to Downing’s death. The title went through nine printings over twenty years. In it, he set forth a philosophy of the ideal way of life for Americans: suburban or even rural, in a home that was designed to reflect the character of its builder, set in a landscape that used native plants to enhance the property and the community of which it was a part.
It continued his emphasis on the improvement of rural housing through the adoption of the Romantic Revival style, but focused on larger houses rather than cottages. And although the title promises to deal with architecture, the cover of the book is marked by a panel stamp of three "Elizabethan chairs of modern design," signaling that the book also includes information on interior decoration.
Downing’s interest in the decorative arts encompassed furnishings, wall and window treatments and flooring. These illustrations from The architecture of country houses (below left) provide rare views of mid-19th-century interiors from a designer’s point of view.
Downing was also the first (and a rare) author to include color swatches in his volumes on building. The text of Cottage residences contains a lengthy section on appropriate colors for the exterior of cottages and villas; colors that would have the buildings blend into the landscape, rather than stand out from it. Downing described the soft tones he favored as “fawn” and “straw” but added colored swatches to his book, recognizing that words were inadequate. Color printing was in its infancy so in order to achieve the desired effect, each rectangle was hand-painted with water colors. Compare the color swatches of these examples from Avery’s collection. They are different from each other, and from other versions of the book, but they show the general range of colors that met Downing’s dictate of “colors harmonious with nature”.
Grecian and Italian style interiors. A.J. Downing, The architecture of country houses, 1853. AA7120 D7513
Hand-painted color swatches for house exteriors. A.J. Downing, Cottage residences, [1842]. AA7120 D7521
Hand-painted color swatches for house exteriors. A.J. Downing, Cottage residences, 1860. AA7120 D75215