The Parsons of Bath - 18th Century Stone Carvers. Part 3.

The Parsons of Widcombe, Bath.

18th Century Stone Carvers.

Part 3.

Robert Parsons (1717 - 1790).

His son Thomas Parsons (1744 - 1813).

Some notes and photographs with particular reference to the pocketbook collection of drawings of designs by Thomas Parsons - A Collection of Vases Terms etc, Bath Central Library, B731.7 PAR 38:18

I am very grateful to the archivists at Bath Archives for allowing me access and to take the photograph here of this manuscript.

I have posted previously at some length on the 18th Century stone carvers of Widcombe, Bath, Somerset see:

https://english18thcenturyportraitsculpture.blogspot.com/2018/07/parsons-and-greenway-sculptors-of-bath.html

The Urn on the left - two similar painted to simulate porphyry in the Pantheon at Stourhead

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Parsons says in the list at the beginning of his workbook that some of the Vases 73 -78 came from "hints" from Carter's Builder's Magazine.

Whilst the drawings do not refer directly to the engravings in Carters Magazine - it gives an indication of the illustrated works and architectural engravings available to Parsons.

John Carter (1748-1817). The Builders Magazine.

Carter designed the Gothic Midford Castle just South of Bath 

Hussey, C ‘Midford Castle, Somerset’, Country Life 3 March 1944

The builder's magazine: or, a universal dictionary for architects, carpenters, masons, bricklayers, &c. as well as for every gentleman who would wish to be a competent judge of the elegant and necessary art of building. ... Consisting of designs in architecture in every stile and taste, ... together with the plans and sections, serving as an unerring assistant in the construction of any building, ... The whole forming a complete system of architecture, in all its branches, ... By a Society of Architects. A new edition.

London printed for E. Newbery; and sold by all other booksellers in Great Britain and Ireland, 1788.

The 'Society of Architects' named in the title is fictitious, the text being largely reprinted from The builder's dictionary, 1734 (q.v.), and the designs illustrated in the plates entirely the work of John Carter (1748--1817). The first edition was published by Francis Newbery in parts from September 1774 to October 1778. This "new edition", published by Newberry's widow, is a reprint with the addition of an eight-page 'List of Prices by an Eminent Surveyor' based on the 1785 edition of Taylor's The builder's price-book. ESTC t118296; Harris and Savage 69.

For the full publication see -

https://archive.org/details/bim_eighteenth-century_the-builders-magazine-_carter-john-f-s-a_1775/page/n477/mode/2up

For a much better scan but with only the engravings see -

 https://archive.org/details/buildersmagazine02cart/page/n1/mode/2up

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