A Rare Treatise on Interior Decoration and Architecture

“Racknitz, marshall of the court of Saxony and, by extension, his wonderful book, exemplify the German Enlightenment and what it was to be civilised in the late C18th. Some wonderful colour plates and black and white engravings.”

~John Sandoe Books

“At once an artistic and cultural cross-examination A Rare Treatise on Interior Decoration and Architecture is not just an art survey of interior decoration and architecture, but a work of cultural and historical scholarship that should be in any world history or arts collection.”
 

~Midwest Book Review

“Racknitz’s masterpiece has been rescued from obscurity, translated, edited and lucidly, authoritatively and entertainingly explained to a twenty-first-century audience.”
 

~Christopher Rowell, Furniture History Society

“The availability of Racknitz’s text in translation makes an important contribution to our understanding of historicism in the applied arts.”
 

~Olivia Horsfall Turner, Apollo

“This attractive and thorough scholarly presentation makes a contribution towards our understanding of Racknitz, the German Enlightenment and the origins of academic Orientalism in the German-speaking world.”
 

~Alexander Adams Art

“Completed in 1799, this German aristocrat’s compendium of the design predilections of 24 cultures ancient and modern has been translated into English for the first time. The treatise tells us much about the intellectual climate in which it was written, and is accompanied here by a commentary and full-colour reproductions of the original plates.”
 

~APOLLO: The International Art Magazine