Book Illustration, Designs of Chinese Buildings, Furniture, Dresses, Machines, and Utensils; Pagoda design

Sir William Chambers, a Swedish-born architect of Scottish descent, worked in England beginning in 1755. Though he worked in many architectural styles, Chambers promoted Chinese motifs and buildings inspired by Chinese design when he traveled to China as an employee of the Swedish East India Company in the 1740s. Chambers’ 1757 publication, which includes more than 20 pages of drawings of buildings, furniture, dresses, and utensils, was the key pattern book of its time for illustrating Chinese patterns and designs. This engraving illustrates Chambers’ designs for a multi-tiered pagoda—an architectural form found throughout East Asia, traditionally used as a place of worship and for housing relics and sacred texts. It is the pagoda’s sculptural form and secular use as ornament in gardens that appealed to Chambers and other landscape designers.