Architectural Review, 1897–1903

We have been donated six very early copies of Architectural Review. The magazine started in 1896 and our copies are scattered between 1897 and 1903. A sixpenny monthly, this was a high-quality outlet for what was burgeoning interest in architecture amongst the middle classes. 

Our earliest in for May 1897 and, while a bit ragged round the edges, clearly sets the tone for what follows. With an article on Sir Edward Burne-Jones, it also had a retrospective on the late architect William Eden Nesfield (1835–1888), plus general articles on recent architecture, and the use of colour in architecture (ironically, all images are in black and white). In fact, the magazine, on its art-paper, was entirely in black and white for all of our copies. Drawings and photographs are probably equally represented.

The advertising is suitably upmarket. Placements for sculptors and decorative marble masons vie for space with tilework, furniture, pipework and the very latest in baths and toilets. Names such as Doultons, Warings, Shanks, Kendal and Milne still survive, but here we have evidence of long-gone companies and what they tried to sell.

By 1899 the magazine was honing its target audience, and had introduced the strapline ‘for the artist and craftsman’. By then the cover had been changed for something a little hardier, and that might account for why our earliest copy is so dog-eared.  

With none in our collection so far, we are very pleased to add these copies of Architectural Review in.