An EXTREMELY RARE WORK and the greatest English topographical work of lithography in the 1820s. The publishers Rodwell and Martin had planned an English work to emulate the ‘Voyages Pittoresque et Romantiques dans l’ancienne France’ which began two years earlier. It was to “cover the whole of the Great Britain county by county; but only twenty-five plates for this first volume on Kent were ever published” (Twyman). There were five parts published between February 1822 and September 1823, each containing five plates. Rodwell and Martin had announced in one of their publication lists and elsewhere that Kent would be issued in eight numbers with five plates each, so it appears that not even the first volume was completed. It is not clear why the project failed although a clue may be found in the publishers whose imprint is only found in the first four parts, the last part bears the imprint of Rudolph Ackermann.

The work is a collaborative one featuring some the most capable people of the day. “One advantage of lithography was that the original artists could not only draw the picture but could transfer it on to the stone himself … the substantial ‘Britannia Delineata’ published with text in both English and French in 1822-3 and with plates by the leading practitioners in the craft” (Russell). All of the plates were printed by Charles Hullmandel who supplied eleven illustrations, James Duffield Harding (1797-1863) supplied eight and Samuel Prout (1783-1852) and William Westall (1781-1850) three each. Prout was one of the first proponents of lithography supplying his first for Ackermann’s ‘Repository of Arts’ in April 1817. Many lithographers were topographical artists and Prout was no exception. Born in Plymouth he began with coastal views and then became most famous for his architectural drawings of continental towns. John Ruskin particularly enjoyed his works. Twyman describes one particular view of Prout’s thus: “Prout did on occasions follow Hullmandel’s advice by building up a preparatory all-over tint with the dabbers, as he did in his lithograph of ‘Sandgate’ for ‘Britannia Delineata’ in order to give it unity and richness of tone.” The same applies to the plate of ‘Interior of Dover Harbour’

Westall is less well known for his lithographs and better known for his aquatints. It is his delicacy in handling these which can be seen in the lithographs, especially ‘The Valley of Maidstone’. The best known of the artists to work with lithograph was James Duffield Harding (1797-1863) who “dominated the field of topographical lithography in England for twenty years” (Twyman). He was mostly a water-colour artist and trained in part with Prout. Unlike him however his preference was more for landscape than architecture. He became a teacher and amongst his pupils was Ruskin. Twyman states “from the beginning Harding showed himself to be in complete control of the techniques of drawing for lithography, and he mastered each of the new methods evolved by Hullmandel. In ‘Britannia Delineata’ he far outstripped the other contributors as a lithographic draughtsman, even though he was relatively new to the process. Most of the tonal areas in his eight plates for this work were produced by a system of chalk-hatching similar to that later recommended by Hullmandel, but there was also considerable us of the dabber to unify tonal areas and for cloud effects and other soft tints. Particularly good use was made of these techniques in the lithograph of ‘Folkstone’ with its stormy, threatening sky.” That of ‘Maidstone’ is of similar quality. These plates he produced for this work are considered the most important he produced in the 1820s.

A search of Copac revealed only the following 7 examples: British Library 650.a.19; Ashmolean Museum Library, Bodleian Library and Johnson Collection, Oxford University; Cambridge University Library; Victoria & Albert Museum; a further example located at the Kent County Library, Maidstone. Provenance: Russell Book Fair 2007; private English collection. Not in Abbey; Not in Anderson; Lowndes p. 2879; Russell (1979) pp. 104-5; Twyman (1970) pp. 192-200.