The Letters of Philip Webb

Editor: John Aplin

The Pickering Masters
4 Volume Set: c.1600pp: December 2015
978 1 84893 498 6: 234x156mm: 395/$725
w w w . p i c k e r i n g c h a t t o . c o m/ w e b b
Philip Webb (18311915) was a British architect
known as a founder of the Arts and Crafts
movement and also a key member of the Pre-
Raphaelite circle. He was an important fgure in
the literary and artistic world of the late-nineteenth
century. Webb had a long association, both
professionally and personally, with William Morris
and his family as well as becoming treasurer of
Morriss revolutionary Socialist League. They frst
met as trainees in the same architects practice and
remained collaborators throughout their lifetimes.
Webb was responsible for the design of the hugely
infuential Red House, the Morris familys frst
home. It was through Morris that Webb became
connected with Dante Gabriel Rossetti and Edward
Burne-Jones, amongst others. Webb and Morris
were also joint founders of the Society for the
Protection of Ancient Buildings (SPAB), the frst
organization to promote conservation rather than
intrusive restoration.
This comprehensive selection from Webbs
surviving letters includes many important and
previously unpublished letters to some of his
closest associates. They reveal the wide range of his
professional and personal interests. The volumes
will be of interest to art and architecture historians,
scholars of Victorian history in general and of
William Morris and the wider Pre-Raphaelite and
Arts and Crafts movements in particular.
Contains over 900 letters
All correspondence has been newly
transcribed
Correspondents include William Morris,
John Ruskin, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, George
Frederic Watts and Charles Fairfax Murray
Archives consulted include the British Library,
The Courtauld Institute, The William Morris
Gallery, The Huntington Library and a private
collection
Editorial apparatus includes a general
introduction, volume introductions and
explanatory notes
A consolidated index appears in the fnal
volume
PICKERING & CHATTO
PUBLISHERS
Detail from Philip Speakman Webb,
by Charles Fairfax Murray (1873)
National Portrait Gallery, London
North or South America
Ashgate Publishing Company
PO Box 2225
Williston VT 05495-2225, USA
Telephone toll-free (US & Canada):
(800) 535 9544
Other enquiries: (802) 276 3162
Fax: (802) 864 7626
email: ash.orders@aidcvt.com
Rest of World
Turpin Distribution Ltd
Stratton Business Park
Pegasus Drive
Biggleswade, Bedfordshire
SG18 8TQ, UK
Telephone: +44 (0) 1767 604 951
Fax: +44 (0) 1767 601 640
email: books@turpin-distribution.com
Order Information
Correspondents include:
Constance and Gertrude Astley, Louisa Macdonald Baldwin, Hugh Bell, Lowthian Bell, Detmar
Blow, Wilfrid Scawen Blunt, Giacomo Boni, George Price Boyce, William Butterfeld, Sydney
Cockerell, Margaret Dickinson, Bella Duffy, Charles Faulkner, Kate Faulkner, Lucy Faulkner
Orrinsmith, Lady Fitzhardinge, Mrs Wickham Flower, William Greenwell, John Hebb, George
Howard, Charles Augustus Howell, Constantine Ionides, George Washington Jack, Edith
Crosby Lethaby, W R (Richard) Lethaby, Jack Mackail, Jane Morris, Jenny Morris, May Morris,
William Morris, Charles Fairfax Murray, Emma Morris Oldham, Augustus Pitt-Rivers, Alfred
Powell, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, William Michael Rossetti, Alice Knewstub Rothenstein, William
Rothenstein, John Ruskin, George Gilbert Scott, George Edmund Street, George Warington
Taylor, Hugh Thackeray Turner, Emery Walker, Mary Jones Walker, George Wardle, George
Frederic Watts, William Weir, William Hale White (Mark Rutherford), Percy Wyndham and
many letters to clients and contractors, as well as letters written on behalf of the SPAB.
Sample pages can be found at www.pickeringchatto.com/webb
Letters sourced from:
Bedford Public Library
The British Library
Cheltenham Art Gallery and Museum
The Courtauld Institute of Art Library
The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge
Emery Walker house, 7 Hammersmith Terrace
Harry Ransom Center, Texas
Houghton Library, Harvard University
The Huntington Library
International Institute of Social History,
Amsterdam
SPAB (The Society for the Protection of Ancient
Buildings) Archive
University of British Columbia Library
Victoria and Albert Museum & Archive
West Sussex County Council Local
Studies Archive
The William Morris Gallery