SHEAN CASTLE, QUEEN'S COUNTY, LAOIS, IRELAND - Rare 1793 Antique Engraving Print

FRANCIS GROSE [1731-1791] : FINE ANTIQUE COPPER  ENGRAVING OF SHEAN CASTLE. QUEEN'S COUNTY, (Co. LAOIS), IRELAND.

London: S. Hooper, [1793].  An attractive antique eighteenth century copper engraving entitled Shean Castle, Queen's County, (Co. Laois), Ireland.  Originally produced for Grose's famous and historical work "Antiquities of Ireland" posthumously published by Samuel Hooper, his nephew Daniel (also an accomplished draughtsman) and antiquarian Dr.Edward Ledwich completing the project in 1796.  Plate size 155mm x 205mm (approx. 6.in x 8.in) titled and dated underneath image, with excellent wide margins for mounting and framing.  A fine bright and clean impression. Please note the actual engraving is much more clearer and vibrant than that shown in the illustration.  I can send a much higher resolution jpeg to show this if required.
 

FRANCIS GROSE, an eminent English antiquary was born in 1731, and having a taste for heraldry and antiquities, his father procured him a place in the college of arms, which, however, he resigned in 1763. By his father he was left an independent fortune, which he was not of a disposition to add to or even to preserve. He early entered into the Surrey militia....(Rising to rank of Captain, but still had very little skill in handling money) 

...His losses on this occasion roused his latent talents: with a good classical education he united a fine taste for drawing, which he now began to cultivate; and encouraged by his friends, he undertook the work from which he derived both profit and reputation: his Views of Antiquities in England and Wales, which he first began to publish in numbers in 1773, and finished in 1776. The next year he added two more volumes to his English views, in which he included the islands of Guernsey and Jersey, which were completed in 1787. This work, which was executed with accuracy and elegance, soon became a favourite with the public at large, ... (A volume on Scotland soon followed).  Before he had concluded this work, he proceeded to Ireland, intending to furnish that kingdom with views and descriptions of her antiquities, in the same manner he had executed those of Great Britain; but soon after  his arrival in Dublin, being at the house of Mr. Hone there, he suddenly was seized at table with an apoplectic fit, on the 6th May 1791, and died immediately. He was interred in Dublin. 

His literary history,” says a friend, “respectable as it is, was exceeded by his good-humour, conviviality, and friendship... He was the butt for other men to shoot at, but it always rebounded with a double force...He could eat with Sancho, and drink with the knight. In simplicity, probity, and a compassionate heart, he was wholly of the Pança breed; his jocularity could have pleased a prince. In the “St. James's Evening Post,” the following was proposed as an epitaph for him:

                                      ”here lies FRANCIS GROSE.

On Thursday, May 21, 1791

Death put an end to his

Views and prospects.”
 

GUARANTEED GENUINE ANTIQUE ENGRAVING FROM THE 1790's.

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