The Thames Embankment, Victorian London, Antique Tinted Lithograph, circa 1880
€ 210
Original antique · The actual sheet photographed · Certificate of authenticity on request · Sold unframed · Worldwide shipping from € 15 (rates)
Date
circa 1880
Mapmaker / artist
Maclure and Macdonald (drawn and lithographed)
Publisher
Cassell's Old and New London, Plate 10
Technique
Tinted lithograph
Coloring
Tinted
Condition
Good
Reference
BG-14391-28
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
Good condition for its age. Light toning, a small nick at the upper left corner and one small spot in the lower left of the image. Please review the images for further condition details.
About this sheet
A broad tinted lithograph view lettered "The Thames Embankment", looking upriver along the new Victoria Embankment toward Westminster. The plate is lettered at lower left "Cassell's Old & New London. Plate 10." and at lower right "Maclure & Macdonald del et lith.", the firm of lithographers who drew it on the stone and printed it.
On the left rise the Houses of Parliament, with the Victoria Tower and the Clock Tower housing Big Ben, and beside them the towers of Westminster Abbey; at the far left Westminster Bridge spans the river. To the right the embankment sweeps around in a long curve, with its granite river wall, its row of lamps and its young plane trees, backed by the grand buildings of Whitehall. On the river a paddle steamer crowded with passengers churns toward the viewer, small steam tugs pull barges and a sailing barge with a dark sail heads downstream.
The Victoria Embankment, built under the direction of the engineer Sir Joseph Bazalgette and opened in 1870, was one of the great public works of Victorian London. It reclaimed a wide strip of the muddy foreshore, carried the main intercepting sewer and the District Railway beneath its roadway, and gave the capital a new riverside avenue. The river steamers shown here were an everyday means of transport for Londoners at the time.
Old and New London, the celebrated illustrated history of the capital by Walter Thornbury and Edward Walford, was published by Cassell, Petter and Galpin in the 1870s and reissued in later editions accompanied by numbered full page plates such as this one. The print is drawn in soft gray and black over a warm tint stone that gives the sky and water an even, atmospheric tone. It will appeal to collectors of Thames and Westminster views and of Victorian engineering, and it makes a strong picture for a study, office or hallway.
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.
