The Society of Arts Distributing Its Premiums, London, 1804
€ 290
Original antique · The actual sheet photographed · Certificate of authenticity on request · Sold unframed · Worldwide shipping from € 15 (rates)
Date
1804
Mapmaker / artist
After Edward Pugh; engraved by Isaac Taylor
Publisher
Richard Phillips, London
Technique
Copper Engraving
Coloring
Uncolored
Condition
Good
Reference
BG-12935-20
What the condition grades mean
Excellent
Bright and clean, with no faults worth mentioning.
Very good
Only light signs of age, such as faint toning.
Good
Normal signs of age for a sheet of this period: toning, some foxing, small marks or neat old repairs.
Fair
Clear faults such as staining, tears or repairs, priced to match.
Every fault we see is written in the condition note, and the whole sheet is shown uncropped in the photos.
Condition
Age toning; handling soiling along the edges and foxing with some brown staining in the margins. Printed image clean.
About this sheet
This is an original antique copper engraving, uncolored, lettered "The Society of Arts distributing its premiums." The view shows the Society's great room during a prize giving. The president sits at a desk on a raised platform at the left, with officers beside him, while a large audience, many of them women in white gowns and bonnets, fills curved tiers of benches across the room. Above the audience the walls are covered with large painted compositions, including a river god and a crowded classical procession, with smaller framed pictures hung beneath them.
The title is engraved in script below the image. The artist's credit "Pugh del." is at lower left and the engraver's credit "Engraved by Isaac Taylor" at lower right. Beneath the title is the imprint "Published Augt 11-1804 by Richard Phillips, 71 St Paul's Church Yard."
The plate comes from Modern London; Being the History and Present State of the British Metropolis, printed for Richard Phillips, No. 71, St. Paul's Church-Yard, by C. Mercier and Co., Northumberland-court, Strand, in 1804, and "illustrated with numerous copper plates." Many of its topographical views were drawn by Edward Pugh, a Welsh painter working in London, and engraved on copper by several London engravers, each of whom signed his own plate. The Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce awarded premiums for inventions and improvements, and its great room in the Adelphi was decorated with the series of large paintings by James Barry seen on the walls.
Of particular interest to anyone connected with the Royal Society of Arts or with the history of design and invention.
Condition: Age toning; handling soiling along the edges and foxing with some brown staining in the margins. Printed image clean.
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.
