[Rarebooks] fa: 1914 GUIDE to FRIAR PARK, HENLEY-ON-THAMES (Home of The Beatles' George Harrison)

[Ardwight Chamberlain]

Listed now, auction ending Sunday, June 26. More details and images can be found at the URL below or by searching for the seller name arch_in_la. 

http://tinyurl.com/ho6wrn2

Thanks again,
Ardwight Chamberlain
Ann Arbor, MI, USA


Friar Park, Henley-on-Thames. Extracts (to accompany the plan) Taken from the 4th Edition of the "Guide for the Use of Visitors." [caption title]. [No place: no publisher, ca. 1914]. Folio (33.5 cm) in 1/2 morocco, spine lettered in gilt, top page edges gilt; 36, 39, 39 pp., printed on heavy semi-gloss paper; illustrated.

Three copies bound together, each with the same caption title but differing slightly in terms of layout and/or illustrations, two printed on yellow-ish stock. The plan/map is not present. Binding with wear and sunning to the extremities, a couple of small stains; the first copy with a small area of damp-stain and puckering to the fore-edge margin, else the contents are very clean and bright.

A whimsical guide to the exterior of the house, the garden, grounds, and ornaments. Friar Park, in Henley, Oxfordshire, is a neo-Gothic fantasy built in the late 19th century for Frank Crisp, an eccentric and evidently prosperous London solicitor. Most famously, it was the principal residence of The Beatles' George Harrison from 1970 until his death in 2001. Harrison built his recording studio there and reportedly enjoyed nothing so much as pottering in its extensive gardens until well after dark.