About this sheet
This antique engraving of Northumberland House shows the great Jacobean mansion of the Dukes of Northumberland at Charing Cross, with the famous Percy lion standing on the parapet, the equestrian statue of King Charles I in the foreground and carriages passing in the street. The plate is lettered "Northumberland House" and "Cassell's Old and New London, Plate 26", and is printed on toned paper.
Northumberland House was the last of the great aristocratic palaces that once lined the Strand between the City and Westminster. Built in the early seventeenth century, it was sold to the Metropolitan Board of Works and demolished in 1874 to make way for Northumberland Avenue, a loss that was widely regretted at the time. The lion with its outstretched tail, the crest of the Percy family, was saved and moved to Syon House, where it still stands. The statue of Charles I by Hubert Le Sueur, seen here, remains at Charing Cross today, looking down Whitehall.
The plate comes from Cassell's Old and New London, the celebrated illustrated history of the capital begun by Walter Thornbury and completed by Edward Walford, first issued in parts by Cassell, Petter and Galpin in the 1870s and reissued in several editions. The separate full page plates, lettered with their plate numbers, were published with the work from circa 1879 to 1885, and this impression belongs to that series. Because the house had already been demolished, this view of Northumberland House was included as a record of the London that Thornbury and Walford were so keen to document.
The print is an uncoloured engraving on warm toned paper, clearly printed, with good detail in the facade, the lion and the traffic. It will appeal to collectors of lost London buildings, of Trafalgar Square and of Victorian street life, and would make an attractive picture for a study, hallway or office, framed with a cream mount and a simple dark frame.
The sheet is in good condition for its age, with even toning and a few small spots in the margins; the image itself is clean and strong.
This is an original antique print, not a modern reproduction. This item is sold unframed. Any framed or interior images are shown for presentation and inspiration only, unless the listing explicitly states that the item is sold framed.
