The Roof-tree

First edition, first impression.  xxvi, [2], 124pp, with monochrome plate frontispiece and numerous further monochrome plate illustrations interleaved in text.  Fawn cloth-covered boards with gilt lettering on brown relief on the spine.  Upper text block edge sprayed red. 8vo. Boards a little rubbed and rounded at spine tips else clean and square,  Upper text block edge a little faded, remaining edges lightly toned.  Gift inscription, dated 1938, neatly inked on the front free endpaper, and some minor pencilled annotations on the front pastedown.  Free endpapers lightly tanned else internally neat, clean and tight.  Original matte dust jacket, roughly price clipped, shelf worn and rubbed and chipped at edges, spine sunned, a few minor marks.

From the blurb: “What a man loves in never commonplace.  Mr Kenward loves English roofs, the walls that have grown up under them, and the doors, stairs, windows and chimneys that go to make up a house.  But because nothing of a house is commonplace, this is more than…another architectural history.  The illustrations are all from Kent but the arguments that the author draws are of universal application”.