Rathhaus, Mannheim

J. J. Stevenson

c. 1880

Signed with initials lower left

Source: Stevenson’s House Architecture, I, 274

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“A feature of German architecture which strikes an Englishman at first as strange, are the bulbous protuberances formed of copper which occasionally occur on the roofs. The tower of the Rathhaus at Mannheim terminates in one of these; the lower part of this roof, where the square gathers into the octagon, is of slate. The tower itself is late Classic, not unpicturesque. Much more marked examples are to be found; small spires blossoming into a string of them, like tulip bulbs stuck at intervals on a stick. They are not a peculiarly German feature: we all know the remarkable specimens on the Cathedral of Antwerp. They may not be correct architecture, probably they are not ; but they are quaint and interesting and picturesque, and the green colour of the copper is always beautiful.”

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