Landscape designer Humphry Repton created Red Books for clients with cleverly written proposals and hand-illustrated designs for their English countryside estates. He created over 400 of these Red Books, though only about 100 remain. The books get their name from their red Morocco leather binding.
One of the most unique aspects of Humphry Repton’s Red Books are the watercolor illustrations that contain sliding or hinge overlays allowing clients to see a before and after view of the proposed changes. The Attingham Park Red Book was originally prepared for the Right Honorable Lord Berwick in 1798.
The overlay is intact in this image; however, the fragility of these hinges render many extant Red Books without the top layer.