Freshwater Bay and Cavern Entrances, Brannon's Earliest Plate, 1820

An original Brannon engraving of Freshwater Bay, Isle of Wight, with a perspective view of the entrances into Freshwater Cavern, drawn from nature and published in London on the fifteenth of November 1820. This is the earliest dated plate in the whole volume. The view takes in the chalk stacks and arches standing out of the beach at the mouth of the bay, the cliffs closing on either side, the dark openings of the cavern in the rock face, and a single standing figure on the shingle to give the scale. Brannon lettered the sheet as drawn from nature, and it has the directness of a plate made on the spot, with the water worked in long level lines and the chalk left almost white.

Vectis Scenery was George Brannon's life's work, a series of Isle of Wight views drawn and engraved by him and published from Wotton Common on the island, this volume in 1829. The title promised the picturesque beauties, local peculiarities and places of particular interest of the island, and the book served visitors as both a guide and a keepsake. Brannon's own advertisement leaf sets the first series at twenty-eight views and a map. Each plate is a line engraving on copper, taken from a drawing made in front of the subject. The views were issued uncolored, as line engravings on white paper, and this impression is uncolored.

Being the first plate of the series, this sheet is where Vectis Scenery begins: Brannon issued it singly in 1820 and went on adding views for nine more years until the complete first series appeared in 1829. Collectors who care about the making of the book look for this date above all the others. The subject is also the best known stretch of the island's coast, painted by Victorian artists and photographed ever since, and the stacks drawn here have been cut back by the sea. A single strong coastal view of this kind carries a narrow wall or an entrance hall by itself.

Even age toning. Handling soiling along the bottom, right and top edges. A few small foxing spots in the margin. All four corners complete.

This is an original antique print, not a modern reproduction. This item is sold unframed.