A fascinating record of Bournemouth only shortly after it was first developed. Ten of the views relate to Bournemouth and Branksome, with the final two of Poole and Parkstone. William Frederick Rock (1802-90) and Henry Rock (1806-68) were the sons of the shoemaker Henry Rock from Barnstaple, Devon. William Rock began his career working in a bank in the 1820’s and lodged with the printer Thomas De La Rue 1793-1866) whose business flourishes to this day. He then worked for De La Rue eventually becoming a partner until it was dissolved in 1833. That same year the Rock brothers entered partnership as stationers. The firm grew rapidly employing 140 people by 1851. One of their fortes would be topographical prints on pictorial note paper. They produced over 7,000 topographical prints which were numbered on each plate as seen here. Another brother Richard also joined the firm and in 1845 they had been joined by John Payne (as Rock Brothers & Payne) who married their sister, Prudence in 1851 (she and another sister, Ann, ran a stationery shop in Greenwich). William Rock retired in 1883, having outlived his partners, and the extremely successful firm was taken over by John Dickinson who retained the business name. Provenance: New England c.1985; private English collection. Adams (1983) refer nos. 204, 205; Hyde (2002) ‘A Year for Celebrating W. F. Rock’, in ‘Print Quarterly, vol. 19, no. 4, pp. 341-52; Russell (1979) p. 138; Worms & Baynton-Williams (2011).