On offer: an original (i.e. not a later reproduction) antique print "Belvidere (Belvedere) House, Kent.", now considered part of London.
DATE PRINTED: 1794 (dated on print).
SIZE: The printed area including titles is approximately 16.5 x 12 cm , 6.5 x 4.75 inches (medium) plus margins with a blank back .
ARTIST/CARTOGRAPHER/ENGRAVER: Engraved by Middiman from an original drawing by Corbould. Richard Corbould (1757 – 1831) was an English artist, sometimes misspelt "Corbold" . He was a painter, in oil and watercolour, of portraits, landscape, and occasionally history; of porcelain, and miniatures on ivory, and enamels; and was furthermore an important illustrator of books renowned for his Napoleonic sketches of Ships, and a follower of the old masters. From 1777 to 1811 he was a constant contributor to the Royal Academy. He died at Highgate, north London, in 1831.
PROVENANCE: This print was published in Walker's "The Copper-Plate Magazine, or Monthly Cabinet of Picturesque Prints" (London : 1792-1802). The plates were later re-issued by Walker in "The Itinerant: A select collection of interesting and picturesque views, in Great Britain and Ireland" in 1818. This is a sought after example from the earlier copper plate magazine.
TYPE: Antique copper plate engraving printed on paper.
VERSO: There is nothing printed on the reverse side, which is blank.
CONDITION: Good; suitable for framing. Please check the scan for any blemishes prior to making your purchase. Virtually all antiquarian maps and prints are subject to some normal aging due to use and time which is not significant unless otherwise stated. I offer a no questions asked return policy.
AUTHENTICITY: This is an authentic antique print, published at the date stated above. I do not offer reproductions. It is not a modern copy. The term 'original' when applied to a print means that it was printed at the first or original date of publication; it does not imply that the item is unique.
RETURNS POLICY: I offer a no questions returns policy. All I ask is that you pay return shipping and mail back to me in original condition.
POSTAGE / SHIPPING COSTS: I only charge postage for the first print ordered. There is no additional postage charge if you order more than one print.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION: The word Belvedere means "beautiful view" in Italian. When settlement began on top of hill to the west of Erith the view down towards the River Thames and over it to Essex and beyond must indeed have been very beautiful. The origins of the town owe much to the presence of an ancient estate. The Belvedere estate was first recorded in 1654. Thomas Cawstin, a wheelwright of Welling who owned property in Bexley as well as in Erith, bought two fields called Great and Little Brights, and two houses next to one of them and near the road "from the marshes to Lessness Heath", in a place known as Blinks Hill. By 1689 one of the two houses had been demolished. In the early 1700s Thomas Hayley bought the lease, demolished the second house and built another, although not on the same site. The new house was also mostly demolished in the 1760s, when the last Belvedere house was built. It became home to such luminaries as Sir Sampson Gideon MP (a fabulously wealthy financier), Lord Say and Sele (a leading Whig politician) and Sir Culling Eardley (a religious reformer and philanthropist) before the estate was broken up in 1864 and the house sold to the Shipwrecked Mariners' Society as a seamen's home. The house was pulled down in 1959.
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