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18
Samuel Gedge Ltd
VIEWS AROUND EIGHTEENTH CENTURY LONDON
18. CHATELAIN, John-Baptist Claude. Fifty views of villages, &c. Drawn by the celebrated
M. Chatelaine, from the most agreeable prospects near London, and engraved in
the best manner.
London, printed for Robt. Sayer, map and printseller, at the Golden Buck near Serjeants Inn Fleet Street. [c.1755.]
Oblong 8vo (12.7 x 19.5; plate marks approx. 8.7 x 13.3cm) Engraved title-leaf and 50 engraved views, uncut,
very good, stab-sewn as issued retaining front flyleaf and blue paper rear wrapper.
An excellent, complete copy of this scarce series of engraved views depicting “the most agreeable
prospects near London” in 1750. The landscape engraver James Roberts (1725-1799) produced the
plates from drawings by the London Huguenot John-Baptist Claude Chatelain (1710-1758), one of the
leading topographical draughtsmen at work in England in the middle of the eighteenth century. Among
the locations depicted are Chelsea, Battersea, Wandsworth, Chiswick, Putney, Hammersmith, Barnes,
Mortlake, Kew, Ealing, Paddington, Hampstead, Highgate, Islington, Tottenham, Camberwell and
Hackney. The views offer an insight into the largely rural appearance of these villages, then located
“near” London in contrast with their appearance today now that they have been absorbed into the
sprawling mass of “Greater London”. This edition of these plates was produced c.1755 and followed a
first printing of 1750 under the title Fifty small original, and elegant views of the most splendid churches, villages,
rural prospects, and masterly pieces of architecture adjacent to London … Both versions are scarce, particularly
in good, complete condition as here.
Not in Adams. OCLC lists 5 copies only (Folger; New York Historical Society; Glasgow University;
Toronto University; Bibliotheek Wageningen).
£4500