Customer Reviews

Regency Design 1790-1840

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John Morley's Regency Design offers a wealth of information for anyone seeking an indepth resource on the Regency Style. The organization of the information makes it easy for the reader to follow and locate specific areas of interests. Parks, Gardens, Exterior Architecture, Interior Design and Furniture are all included with generous amount of illustrations. Morley's Regency Style is now in my company's design library as the recommended sourch for Regency Style research. I highly recommend this book for design professionals, instructors and anyone interested in the study of classical styles.

All my congratulations to John Morley - he has provided an enormous volume - full of lush illustrations, good background information and a great browsing volume of Regency Design

Following what is popularly known as teh extended regency, or late Georgian period John Morley uses the period of 1790-1840 which covers the end of George III's reign (and the regency period of 1811-1820), the reign of King George IV, William IV and first few years of Victoria. This early part of the century is the start of the great industrial years, the increasing population in Britain, and increasing wealth.

What I loved best about this book is its easy reference. It is divded into four sections, Parks and Gardens, Exterior Architecture, interior decoration, and Furniture. Within each section looking at the formative incluences, styles, and how they manifested.

Each chapter has good explanatory commentary, and is well illustrated. The only other book I can really compare this to is one I have read by Steven Parrisen which also done excellent works on Regency architecture. This book covers a great deal more in one volume which I felt allowed a broader depth of understanding of the style. It would be really nice to include two other sections (I think) one of food, and one of clothing. I daresay to do that there would be a great deal more to have to add as well and this book would need to double in size.

Nice reference book, good for browsing through too.

This is the top design book I own.

The layout makes the most of the book's large (11" x 14") format. There are many full-page illustrations, and other illustrations are generously sized. Many are breathtaking. The book is just chock-full of large, brilliant illustrations.

The text in this book is easy to read - other reference books seem meant for academics. It is incredibly thorough and interesting.

I ordered a used copy of this book, and it was still close to $200 - I think this is the most expensive book I own. But the cost was well worth it in terms of enjoyment and design ideas (for an amateur interested in design history).