The West India Docks in the Isle of Dogs, 1804

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This antique London engraving, lettered "The West India Docks in the Isle of Dogs, with Greenwich Hospital in the Foreground", … Read more This antique London engraving, lettered "The West India Docks in the Isle of Dogs, with Greenwich Hospital in the Foreground", shows the new West India Docks on the Isle of Dogs seen across the river with the ranges of Greenwich Hospital in the foreground, a long panorama of masts and warehouse roofs; a second line of lettering records that the view was drawn in the camera obscura of the Royal Observatory. It is an original copper plate from the 1804 quarto Modern London, and the sheet carries its own engraved title beneath the image together with the credit recording that it was drawn by Edward Pugh and engraved by Reeve. The plate was issued in Modern London; being the History and Present State of the British Metropolis, printed for Richard Phillips of 71 Saint Paul's Church Yard and published in 1804. Phillips was one of the most energetic London publishers of the period, and the book set out to describe the capital as it actually was in the first years of the nineteenth century rather than as antiquarian tradition remembered it. The topographical plates were drawn by Edward Pugh, a Welsh painter and miniaturist working in London, and engraved on copper by a group of accomplished specialists including James Fittler, Samuel Rawle, Isaac Taylor and John Pass, each of whom signed his own plate. What gives these plates their value now is the date. They record London in the year of the invasion scare, before gas lighting, before the Regent Street improvements and before the fire of 1834 took the old Palace of Westminster, and several of them are among the last views taken of interiors that no longer exist. The engraving is fine and even, printed with good contrast on heavy laid paper, and a single sheet frames handsomely on its own. A group of them makes an unusually coherent wall for anyone with a connection to the city. All four corners are present and read as complete. The four edges follow a straight line with no nick or chip of any consequence. The paper is lightly and unevenly toned, a little browner towards the edges. Scattered small brown spots are present in the blank margin, consistent with light foxing. There is also one larger brown mark in the margin. This report was measured from the full resolution scan of the front of the sheet, reading each corner and each edge at its own pixels rather than from a reduced copy. The back of the sheet has not been examined, nor has the sheet been seen out of the scanner under raking light. Please review the images for further condition details. This is an original antique print, not a modern reproduction. This item is sold unframed. Any framed or interior images are shown for presentation and inspiration only, unless the listing explicitly states that the item is sold framed. See less