page_title: William Halfpenny
section_title: Publications
hierarchical_section_title: William Halfpenny / Publications
caption_attribution_description: Illustration
context_page_description: William Halfpenny was an English architect and builder in the first half of the 18th century, and prolific author of builder's pattern books. In some of his publications he described himself as "architect and carpenter", and his books concentrate on the practical information a builder would need, as well as addressing "gentleman draughtsmen" designing their own houses. They were a popular alternative to the very expensive architectural treatises by British authors such as Colen Campbell and James Gibbs, or foreigners such as Serlio or Palladio. He also wrote under the name of Michael Hoare.
  Little is known for certain of his life, but he seems to have been based in Richmond, then in Surrey, and nearby London, perhaps also spending a period based in Bristol. He also worked in Ireland. Few buildings can certainly be ascribed to him, and no major ones; then and now his main importance lies in his books, which were often reprinted, and copied by other authors. They reached British North America and were also influential there. He wrote and probably built in collaboration with his son John Halfpenny in the later years of his career.
context_section_description: His books deal almost entirely with domestic architecture, and especially with country houses in the neo-Gothic and Chinoiserie fashions which were so greatly in vogue in the middle of the 18th century. His most important publications from the point of view of their effect upon taste, all of them published in London and many reprinted during Halfpenny's lifetime, were:
  Practical Architecture, or a sure guide to the true working according to the rules of that science (ca 1724)
  (As 'Michael Hoare') The Builder's Pocket Companion (1728, 1731 etc.)
  The Art of Sound Building, demonstrated in Geometrical Problems (1732, 2nd ed. 1736, etc.)
  A New And Complete System of Architecture Delineated; (1749, 1759 etc.)
  (with John Halfpenny) New Designs for Chinese Temples, in four parts (1750–52)
  Rural Architecture in the Chinese Taste (1750). This book is believed to have introduced the word "gazebo" to the English language.
  Rural Architecture in the Gothick Taste (1752). This is essentially an expansion of Rural Architecture in the Chinese Taste
  Chinese and Gothic Architecture Properly Ornamented (1752)
  (with John Halfpenny) The Country Builder's Pocket Companion and Builder's assistant for Rural Decoraytive Architecture (1753, 1756)
  Several books were produced in collaboration with his son John Halfpenny. New Designs for Chinese Temples was a volume of some significance in the history of furniture, since, having been published some years before the books of Thomas Chippendale and Sir William Chambers, it disproved the statement so often made that those designers introduced the Chinese taste into Britain. Halfpenny stated distinctly that "the Chinese manner" had been "already introduced here with success."
  Halfpenny's books were often the source for design details in 18th-century American houses as well, including Mount Clare in Baltimore County, Maryland, and the Chase–Lloyd House in Annapolis, Maryland.
caption: Illustration from critique of Halfpenny's Perspectiva facilitata published in 1734 Acta Eruditorum
exif: {"Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "150", "Image YResolution": "150", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop CS Windows", "Image DateTime": "2011:10:20 09:30:28", "Image Artist": "Zeutschel Omniscan 11", "Image ExifOffset": "196", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "334", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "3783", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "1796", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "1188"}