Steedman Treasure: A. W. N. Pugin's prototype for Contrasts

A. W. N. Pugin's book Contrasts, self-published in 1836, had a profound impact on the development of architectural and decorative taste of the nineteenth century.

The text of the book is Pugin's passionate indictment of what he saw as the failings and inappropriate uses of the Neo-classic style, and was his first salvo in a lifelong campaign of championing the medieval design forms of Britain's Catholic past.  The final chapter is entitled "The Wretched State of Architecture at the Present Day."

The illustrations Pugin used were literally a series of contrasts. He presented one image of a building or object in the Neo-classic style, in his mind depleted and inappropriate.  Next to it he drew an image of the same type of structure, but designed in his idea of a proper, honest, and high Gothic design.

The Steedman sketchbook for this book is an early version (1833) of the drawings that Pugin was considering using, and does not include any text, only a series of beautifully drawn images of 15 "Contrasts".   The book that was eventually published in 1836 does not include any of these generic drawings; Pugin chose instead to use real buildings as his examples.