The Architect's Experiences: DARBYSHIRE (Alfred).

PRESENTED TO THE BRASENOSE CLUB

Professional, Artistic, and Theatrical.

Six photographic portrait (including frontispiece), decorative title.

First Edition. 8vo. [232 x 145 x 35 mm]. xv, [i], 351, [1] pp. Bound in the original quarter brown cloth and grey boards with the title reproduced on the front, the spine lettered in gilt, plain endleaves, untrimmed edges. (Spine faded, boards rubbed).
Manchester: J. E. Cornish, 1897.

With the errata slip. A few spots and minor marks. A good copy of a work which was deemed scarce by a bookseller generations ago and remains so. With the signature of the author on the front endleaf, over-written in ink "To the Brasenose Club from Alfred Darbyshire the Second".

Alfred Darbyshire (1839-1908) was born in Salford, Lancashire, and was the nephew of George Bradshaw, the compiler of railway guides. Educated at the Quaker Ackworth School and Manchester School of Art, he established his own architectural practice in Manchester in 1862. Best known for his theatrical architecture, he designed Manchester's Gaiety Theatre and carried out alterations at the Theatre Royal and Prince's Theatre, and at the Lyceum in London. Concerned by the danger of fires, he worked with his friend Henry Irving (to whom this book is dedicated) to develop the Irving-Darbyshire safety plan. He was also involved in the design of several distilleries and factories for the Jameson family, along with the family mansion in Dublin. Besides building theatres, he acted in them and was famous for his extravagant stage productions, often in partnership with Charles Calvert. An art critic for the Manchester Guardian and Manchester Courier, he also wrote A Booke of Old Manchester and Salford (1887), A Chronicle of the Brasenose Club (two volumes

1892-1900), and The Art of Victorian Stage (1907).

The Brasenose Club was formed in Manchester in 1869 "to promote the association of gentlemen of Literary, Scientific or Artistic Professions, Pursuits or Tastes". Among its early members were Sir Charles Halle, Charles A. Duval and Edwin Waugh. In 1892 it moved from its home in Brazennose Street to larger premises at 94 Mosley Street, and it combined with the Union Club in 1962.

Darbyshire was cousin to the American industrialists and philanthropists William Poole Bancroft and Samuel Bancroft, and this copy was bought by their grandson Stephen Clark in 1990 (he paid £65).

Stock no. ebc7910