Catalogue n°116, Grosvenor Prints

Catalogue n°116, Grosvenor Prints

Grosvenor Prints has the pleasure in sending out our new catalogue of over 230 items.

Highlights include:

Cover image:

Pinchbeck. Isaac Whood pinx.t. J. Faber fecit.[n.d., c.1725.]Mezzotint. 330 x 225mm (13 x 8¾”). Small repaired tear into margin on left. Printer’s crease bottom right in margin. Christopher Pinchbeck (1670?-1732), maker of clocks and automata, here shown holding an open pocket watch. He also invented ‘pinchbeck’, an alloy of copper and zinc that resembled gold, which created a new market for costume jewelry. Among his clients was Louis XIV, for whom he made a music clock. In 1717 he advertised a clock at one thousand guineas (appoximately £140,000 today). From 1721 until his death his address was ‘at the sign of ‘The Astronomico-Musical Clock’ in Fleet Street.CS 289 i/ii. [Ref: 57864] £950.00

[The Humours of the Lilliputians: represented in above fifty comical figures engraved as big as life after the original drawings of Captain Lemuel Gulliver.] [London: Printed and sold by John Bowles at the Black Horse in Cornhill] [c.1780.]12 engravings, each sheet c. 125 x 290mm (5 x 11½”). Trimmed, losing plate numbers, laid on three album sheets. A collection of dwarfish caricature figures, some from John Gay’s ”Beggar’s Opera”, including MacHeath, Polly Peachum and Lucy Locket. but others from other sources including ”Mynheer Van Funk, a Dutch Skipper”, ”Peter Terrible Wingbeard, a Virginia Planter” and ”Hogan-Mogan Long-pipe a Dutch Indian Governor”. The caricatures were printed six to a page, but these have been cut in half horizontally. The Harvard Library example has a title page and ten sheets of six caricatures. Harvard Library Hollis Collection 990056978230203941. See Arents Collection New York.
[Ref: 58032] £3,000.00

 

[19th century scrapbook containing views of Portugal]. [5 Pencil drawings were drawn in 1830 by Lady Ashworth, 14 watercolours in 1816 by Lady Rooke. As per list compiled by Caroline Ashworth (Cameron) c. 1860’s.][C.L. Cameron c. 1865, but contents much earlier.]Book. Folio 485 x 360mm (19 x 16″). Leather spine detached. Some pages missing. Tears. Some time staining. A large scrapbook containing views of Portugal, including a fantastic collection of 14 large watercolours of the Douro by Lady Rooke in 1816 & 5 drawings of Braga & the Douro by Lady Ashworth drawn in 1830 and depicting the areas her husband fought in. Caroline Laura Ashworth was born in Portugal presumably Oporto in 1820. Her father was Major General Charles Ashworth (1784-1832) who fought in the Peninsular War. He married Mary Anne Rooke, daughter of Sir Giles, a judge (1743-1808) & Harriet Rooke and their daughter Emily Marianne (1825-1909) married Prof. Edward Forbes, the famous naturalist & geologist. Caroline married Lt. Col. Alexander Cameron (1781-1850) in 1847, and they had one son Ewan Henry Cameron. Emily’s sister Frances Sophie Rooke (1789) married Lucy Henry Kingston (d.1852). His family were major wine & port traders in London & Oporto hence the major link to all these families. Lucy’s father was a partner in the Oporto firm Lambert Kingston & Egan and was MP for Lymington 1802-14. The family also had links to Cork. Their son was the famous author William Henry Giles Kingston who lived many years in Oporto. This is a rare chance to buy a bit of history of Oporto with vivid illustrations by families with close connections to the area in the 18th & 19th century.
[Ref: 58240] £4,900.00

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