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Mr. Philip D. Burden
P.O. Box 863,
Chalfont St. Giles, Bucks HP6 9HD,
UNITED KINGDOM
Tel: +44 (0) 1494 76 33 13
Email: [email protected]
A wonderful Georgian work illustrating the villages surrounding London. It was produced by Jean Baptiste Claude Chatelain (1710-71) who was a French artist and engraver specialising in landscapes and decorative subjects who worked at one point for John Boydell. This charming book was first published in 1750. This issue was published around 1770 by Robert Sayer. Although undated, we know this as it is listed in Sayer’s catalogue for 1775, but the title page lacks the name of his partner John Bennett, who joined him in 1774. Sayer’s business was one of the largest suppliers of prints and maps in London at the time.
Robert Sayer (1725?-94) was born in Sunderland to a lawyer, James Sayer, and his wife Thomasine. In 1747 his elder brother James married Mary Overton, the widow of prominent mapmaker Philip Overton and the proprietor of his shop following his death. Mary continued the business for roughly a year after her marriage and then, in 1748, it passed to Robert. He became a freeman of the Stationers’ Company later that year; his first advertisement as an independent publisher was released in December. In 1754 he married Dorothy Carlos, ‘an agreeable young lady with a handsome fortune’!
For Sayer’s edition plate numbers were added to each engraving. The work consists of eight ‘Numbers’, each offered in the catalogue for 6d. each. The first plate in each now bears the imprint of Sayer. Each part contains views of a region around London started in the southwest with ‘The South East View of Chelsea Church’. With a total of 50 views, it then works its way clockwise around London to include places like Wandsworth, Battersea, Fulham, Kew, Barnes, Mortlake, Kensington, Highgate, Hampstead, and St Pancras. Each is engraved by James Roberts (1725-1799), possibly related to its publisher around 1750 Henry Roberts.
The nature of sale by Sayer in smaller ‘Numbers’ explains its rarity and the lack of examples recorded with a title page. Institutional examples could only be located at Cambridge University, the Folger Shakespeare Library, the New York Historical Society; and the Yale Institute of British Art. Provenance: acquired in a German auction 1982 for a private English collection. Not in Adams (1983); Anderson (1966) p. 211; Mackenzie (1998) p. 120; Sayer & Bennett (1970) p. 125; refer Upcott p. 925 no. VI.
Robert Sayer (1725?-94) was born in Sunderland to a lawyer, James Sayer, and his wife Thomasine. In 1747 his elder brother James married Mary Overton, the widow of prominent mapmaker Philip Overton and the proprietor of his shop following his death. Mary continued the business for roughly a year after her marriage and then, in 1748, it passed to Robert. He became a freeman of the Stationers’ Company later that year; his first advertisement as an independent publisher was released in December. In 1754 he married Dorothy Carlos, ‘an agreeable young lady with a handsome fortune’!
For Sayer’s edition plate numbers were added to each engraving. The work consists of eight ‘Numbers’, each offered in the catalogue for 6d. each. The first plate in each now bears the imprint of Sayer. Each part contains views of a region around London started in the southwest with ‘The South East View of Chelsea Church’. With a total of 50 views, it then works its way clockwise around London to include places like Wandsworth, Battersea, Fulham, Kew, Barnes, Mortlake, Kensington, Highgate, Hampstead, and St Pancras. Each is engraved by James Roberts (1725-1799), possibly related to its publisher around 1750 Henry Roberts.
The nature of sale by Sayer in smaller ‘Numbers’ explains its rarity and the lack of examples recorded with a title page. Institutional examples could only be located at Cambridge University, the Folger Shakespeare Library, the New York Historical Society; and the Yale Institute of British Art. Provenance: acquired in a German auction 1982 for a private English collection. Not in Adams (1983); Anderson (1966) p. 211; Mackenzie (1998) p. 120; Sayer & Bennett (1970) p. 125; refer Upcott p. 925 no. VI.
CHATELAIN, Jean Baptiste Claude
(Fifty Views of Villages, & c. Drawn by the Celebrated M. Chatelaine, From the most agreeable prospects near London)
Robt. Sayers, Map & Printseller, at the Golden Buck near Serjeants Inn Fleet Street, London, c.1770
VERY RARE EARLY PLATE BOOK ON LONDON’S SUBURBS. Oblong octavo (130 x 190 mm.,), with recent paper wrappers, in a half blue morocco box with cloth boards, gilt ruled, spine with gilt ruled raised bands, gilt titles. With 50 copperplate engravings, lacks title, light wear to first and last plates, final plate with margin replacement, otherwise in good condition.
Stock number: 11880
£ 2,950