WITH ARGUABLY THE EARLIEST ENGLISH INDUSTRIAL SCENE. A curious separately published print with 101 small engravings in rows. Lower right is the comment ‘This designe is to illustrate Cambdens Britannia that where he mentions such places the curious may see them, which is the endeavour by Gods assistance of Y[our] S[ervant] Daniell King’. Daniel King (fl.1656-61) was born in Chester around 1615 and became an engraver and draughtsman. He went to London briefly in the 1650s. His best-known works are for the ‘Vale- Royall of England: or the county Palatine of Chester Illustrated’, 1656 and the ‘Monasticon Anglicanum or the Cathedrall and Conventuall Churches of England and Wales’, in the same year by William Dugdale. Russell states that he ‘worked in a similar manner to Hollar and may have learnt the craft of etching from him’.

During the Interregnum, printsellers were very active. The likes of Peter Stent (1613?-65), Robert Walton (1618-88) and Thomas Jenner (fl. 1621-72) sold a wide range of loose engravings. With this print, King endeavoured to enable the buyer to tie in the image with a description of it found in one of the most common books of the day, William Camden’s ‘Britannia’, the last edition of which was in 1637. ‘His work often the only extant record of buildings now lost’ (Worms & Baynton-Williams). Griffiths stated, ‘If the print looks backwards, it also looks forward to the practice of extra-illustration’. It is unsigned but Pennington identified the plate as being the work of Wenceslaus Hollar (1607-77). He was one of the first to record in such detail and quantity the English way of life in the seventeenth century.

Subjects illustrated include cathedrals, churches, country houses, castles, ruins, a series of bridges and an image of Lampton Collery in Durham. This is claimed by Russell to be ‘a very early – if not the very earliest – picture of an English industrial site’. Campbell wrote that it ‘antedates by some ten years Peter Hartover’s painting of the same site, described by Klingender (p. 5) as probably the earliest view of an English industrial landscape’. Other places of interest include Theobalds, Woodstock and Liverpool Castle, all of which have disappeared. It was first available around 1660 and following King’s death in 1664 was acquired by John Overton who also acquired the stock of Stent on his death. For this second state he added his imprint lower right. Presumably acquired by Overton after King’s death. Although Pennington stated that it was likely issued by Overton at the time of the 1695 edition of Camden’s ‘Britannia’, it is in fact found advertised by Overton in 1673. Pennington cites only the example in the Royal Library at Windsor of the first state. An example of the second state is found in the King’s Topographical Collection in the British Library (K.Top.6.61). Their catalogue entry details each view. A fascinating link may be found at https://viaeregiae.org/index.php/hollar-1660/ which locates every image on an interactive map.

Private English collection since c.1985. Baynton-Williams (2006); Campbell, Tony (1977) Weinreb & Douwma catalogue 17, no. 77; not in the ESTC; Globe (1985) p. 229 (K487); Griffiths (1998) no. 128, pp. 191-2; ODNB; Pennington (1982) 906A; Priestley (1972); Russell (1979) p. 24; Worms & Baynton-Williams (2011).