COWES, ISLE OF WIGHT HARBOR MARINA SAILBOATS SHIPS ~ 1840 Art Print Engraving

Description: COWES Artist: T. Creswick ____________ Engraver: H. Griffiths Note: the title in the table above is printed below the engraving CLICK HERE TO SEE MORE TOPOGRAPHICAL VIEWS OF ENGLISH COAST SCENERY LIKE THIS ONE!! AN ANTIQUE STEEL ENGRAVING PRINTED IN THE EARLY 1840s!! VERY OLD WORLD! INCREDIBLE DETAIL! East and West Cowes, in the Isle of Wight, lie on opposite sides, and near the mouth of the river Medina, which rises on the southern side of the island, and after passing Newport, discharges itself into the strait-usually called the Solent Sea -that separates the Isle of Wight from the main land. The view of the harbour in the engraving is taken from West Cowes. In the reign of Henry VIII., two castles were built at the mouth of the river Medina to defend the passage to Newport. The old castle at West Cowes is still standing, but that of East Cowes has long been demolished. The castellated building seen in the engraving is a gentleman's seat, and is of modern erection, combining the interior comforts of modern civilization with the exterior grandeur of a baronial residence of the middle ages; but whether such a combination is lawful, admits of a doubt. Beheld from the sea, with its towers and battlements rising above the luxuriant plantations around it, has a fine and imposing effect. The grounds are extensive and well designed, possessing at once the scenery of a park and the cultivated beauty of a pleasure-ground. Cowes harbour is spacious and commodious; and the roads off the mouth of the river, which afford excellent anchorage, used frequently to be crowded, in time of war, with merchant-vessels waiting for convoy; and the towns derived great advantage from supplying ships, while thus detained, with provisions and small stores. The loss of a great part of this trade, on the termination of the war, has perhaps been more than compensated by Gowes having become the rendezvous of the Royal Yacht Squadron, which was first established under the name of the Yacht Club, in 1815. The number of vessels belonging to the squadron is about a hundred, and their aggregate tonnage Is nearly 9,000 tons. The members have a club-house at Cowes; and at the annual regatta, which generally takes place about the last week in August, there are usually upwards of two hundred vessels assembled in the roads, to witness the sailing for the different prizes. The town of West Cowes is situated on the declivity, and at the base of a hill, on the summit of which stands the church. The streets are mostly narrow, and irregularly built; but recently the town and its vicinity have been much improved by the erection of several large houses and beautiful villas. There is a regular communica,tion between Cowes and Southampton, by a team-boats, which, in summer, leave each place twice a day. East Cowes is a much smaller place tha,n West Cowes; but, like the latter, it has been greatly enlarged within the last twenty years. In the vicinity of East Cowes is situated Osborne House, the marine residence of her Majesty and the royal family, for whose accommodation great additions and improvements have been made to the house and grounds, and what was formerly the seat of a private gentleman, has now been rendered a palace worthy of the royalty of England. The brief limits to which our notices are confined preclude us from entering upon a description of an edifice to which we could do but very imperfect justice, and which, after all, must derive its chief interest from the illustrious family who occupy its walls, and avail themselves of its peculiarly advantageous situation as the starting point for those marine excursions in which the Queen and her Consort so frequently indulge. The presence of royalty in its neighbourhood has rendered Cowes one of the most fashionable, as nature had previously made it one of the most beautiful, of the watering places on our southern coast, while the facilities afforded by the competing lines of the London and South Western, and London and South Coast Railways, render it at all times easy of access from the metropolis. PRINT DATE: This lithograph was printed in 1840; it is not a modern reproduction in any way. PRINT SIZE: Overall print dimensions are 7 inches by 10 inches including a white border of approximately one inch on each side (not shown). PRINT CONDITION: Condition is fine. Bright and clean. Blank on reverse. BIOGRAPHY OF ARTIST: Thomas Creswick (1811 - 1869) was an English landscape-painter, who was born at Sheffield, and educated at Hazelwood, near Birmingham. At Birmingham he first began to paint. His earliest appearance as an exhibitor was in 1827, at the Society of British Artists in London; in the ensuing year he sent to the Royal Academy the two pictures named "Llyn Gwynant, Morning," and " Carnarvon Castle." About the same time he settled in London; and in 1836 he took a house in Bayswater. He soon attracted some attention as a landscape-painter, and had a career of uniform and encouraging though not signal success. In 1842 he was elected an associate, and in 1850 a full member of the Royal Academy, which, for several years before his death, numbered hardly any other full members representing this branch of art. In his early practice he set an example, then too much needed, of diligent study of nature out of doors, painting on the spot all the substantial part of several of his pictures. English and Welsh streams may be said' to have formed his favorite subjects, and generally British rural scenery, mostly under its cheerful, calm and pleasurable aspects, in open daylight. This he rendered with elegant and equable skill, color rather gray in tint, especially in his later years, and more than average technical accomplishment; his works have little to excite, but would, in most conditions of public taste, retain their power to attract. Creswick was industrious and extremely prolific; he produced, besides a 'steady outpouring of paintings, numerous illustrations for books. He was personally genial-a dark, bulky man, somewhat heavy and graceless in aspect in his later years. He died at his house in Bayswater, Linden Grove, on the 28th of December 1869, after a few years of declining health. Among his principal works' may be named " England" (1847); "Home by the Sands, and a Squally Day" (1848); "Passing Showers" (1849); "The Wind on. Shore, a First Glimpse of the Sea, and Old Trees" (1850); "A Mountain Lake, Moonrise" (1852); " Changeable Weather" (1865); also the "London Road, a Hundred Years ago "; "The Weald of Kent "; the Valley Mill" (a Cornish subject); a " Shady Glen "; the " Windings of a River "; the "Shade of the Beech Trees"; the " Course of the Greta" ; the " Wharfe "; " Glendalough," and other Irish subjects, 1836 to 1840; the " Forest Farm." Frith for figures, and Ansdell for animals, occasionally worked in collaboration with Creswick. SHIPPING:Buyers to pay shipping/handling, domestic orders receives priority mail, international orders receive regular mail. We pack properly to protect your item! Please note: the terms used in our auctions for engraving, heliogravure, lithograph, print, plate, photogravure etc. are ALL prints on paper, NOT blocks of steel or wood. "ENGRAVINGS", the term commonly used for these paper prints, were the most common method in the 1700s and 1800s for illustrating old books, and these paper prints or "engravings" were inserted into the book with a tissue guard frontis, usually on much thicker quality rag stock paper, although many were also printed and issued as loose stand alone prints. So this auction is for an antique paper print(s), probably from an old book, of very high quality and usually on very thick rag stock paper. EXTREMELY RARE IN THIS EXCELLENT CONDITION!

Price: 5.59 USD

Location: New Providence, New Jersey

End Time: 2025-01-27T19:28:45.000Z

Shipping Cost: 7.95 USD