The Victorians were quite fond of wraparound porches, dormers, gables and turrets, stained glass windows, and other architectural embellishments. Even the smallest cottages boasted unusual elements such as gingerbread fretwork and arched windows. This handsome collection of ready-to-color drawings serves as a delightful introduction to the many distinctive styles of authentic Victorian-era homes.
Twenty-nine meticulously rendered illustrations depict steep-roofed Gothic Revival villas with spacious "piazzas," or porches, and stained glass windows; a Queen Anne structure with turrets, bay windows, and hipped roofs; a Richardson Romanesque dwelling, distinguished by rounded arches and stone and brick facing; and an Italianate "palazzo," with tall, narrow windows and porches.
Other homes include a seaside cottage in the "stick style"; an Italianate San Francisco residence of the 1880s; the John Anderton House -- with its attractive mansard roof -- in Chicopee Falls, Massachusetts; the Russell-Cooper House in Mount Vernon, Ohio, an 1890 Victorian renovation of a house originally built in 1829; the unusual Octagon House in Ottawa, Illinois (1856); a Moorish-styled urban residence in Baltimore (1886), designed by W. C. Frederic (1886); and the elegant "Vinland," a Newport, Rhode Island, residence (1882-1884).
A wonderful opportunity for coloring book fans to apply their own ideas of color and hue to these residences, this book will also delight architecture buffs and lovers of nostalgia and all things Victorian.