About this sheet
The great keep rises above a screen of trees in this antique print of Penrhyn Castle, Caernarfonshire, a Welsh country house view from Morris's Picturesque Views of Seats, printed in color by Benjamin Fawcett circa 1870. Only the massive square tower, its smaller flanking turrets and a flag flying from a staff are fully visible.
The lower ranges of the castle show only in fragments of gray stone between the foliage, a deliberate choice that uses the plantation in the park to frame the subject. In the foreground a small flock of sheep grazes and rests on rough grass, and a single seated figure leans against the trunk of a large tree at the right margin, giving a human scale against the keep. Birds are printed in flight across a sky of combed, feathery cloud bands over pale blue, and the sheep, the bark and leaves of the trees and the gray stone all take their modeling from layered flat tints.
The Reverend Francis Orpen Morris (1810 to 1893), best known for his History of British Birds, edited A Series of Picturesque Views of Seats of the Noblemen and Gentlemen of Great Britain and Ireland, published in London by William Mackenzie, with drawings largely by Alexander Francis Lydon, in an issue of circa 1870. Benjamin Fawcett (1808 to 1893) of Driffield, one of the great Victorian color woodblock printers, printed the plates from separate blocks in register, so the color here is printed, not hand colored.
As an original Victorian plate removed from the book, this antique print of Penrhyn Castle, Caernarfonshire, is suitable for framing and popular with admirers of the house, with lovers of Caernarfonshire, and with collectors of country house views of Great Britain and Ireland. Margins are wide, with the title Penrhyn Castle set beneath the image in small capitals.
This antique print is in good condition for its age. The paper shows light toning consistent with age, together with a few small spots in the margins and a line of binding holes along the lower edge, where the plate was once bound into the book. Please review the images for further condition details.
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.
