Plate 57: Alcove & Summer House, from "A New Book of Chinese Designs"

Plate 57 of 'A New Book of Chinese Designs', consisting of a title page, index, and 120 plates, etched and published in 1754 by the British caricaturist, printseller and ornamental engraver Matthew Darly, in collaboration with George Edwards. The book consists of a variety of ornamental and costume designs of Chinese inspiration, some of them copies of the original works (including the title).

This plate consists of a design for an alcove and a design for a summer house. The alcove, on top, is made up of a platform with stairs on the front, framed by rails with geometric patterns, with a chair with scrolling edges, and a back wall with an octagonal panel with a landscape. The ceiling has scrolling tips and above it is a canopy, also with scrolling tips on the ceiling, and flanked above by a bird with open wings and beak, forming a balcony where a man stands. At the sides of the stairs are two thin trees with bunches of leaves.

The summer house, on the lower part of the print, consists of a central chamber with a hexagonal entrance, flanked above by an octagonal window with a geometric pattern, and to the sides by abstract decorative motifs with scrolls and palmettes. At the sides are two smaller chambers with windows with geometric designs between pairs of columns, surrounded by walls, and with short ceilings with scrolling tips; the wall on the left has a panel with a geometric pattern of stylized triangles; the one on the right has a panel of marble. The ceiling has long, scrolling tips, with hanging bells, and is flanked above by a small canopy, also with ceiling with scrolling tips, with bells hanging on the sides, and with a cat (?) standing on top of two scrolling motifs above it.