Ryde Church and Spire above a New Regency Terrace, Brannon Plate, 1828

An uncolored line engraving of Ryde, Isle of Wight, taken inland from the water and centered on the church with its tall slender spire, drawn and engraved by George Brannon and published at Wotton on the eleventh of June 1828. Mature trees frame the churchyard, a terrace of new houses runs along the right with railings and areas down to the pavement, and figures walk and stand in conversation on the road. This is the second of two Ryde subjects in the series and the quieter of the pair, showing the residential town that grew up behind the seafront rather than the shipping. Brannon's handling of foliage is at its best here, the leaves built up in short flicked burin strokes against the white of the open sky.

This sheet is one of the plates of Vectis Scenery, the island views that George Brannon drew, engraved and published from his own house at Wotton Common in the Isle of Wight, the 1829 issue. Brannon worked without an intermediary: he made the drawing on the spot, cut the copper himself and sold the result through the island booksellers, which is unusual and is part of why the series ran for more than fifty years. The plates carry their own earlier publication dates because each view was first issued on its own. The technique is copper-plate line engraving. The views were issued uncolored, as line engravings on white paper, and this impression is uncolored.

Ryde in 1828 was a speculative new town of terraces and villas laid out for visitors, and this plate shows that building boom while it was still fresh, with the spire of the church as its focal point. For anyone who knows the town today the interest lies in matching the terrace and the churchyard to the modern street. Views of Ryde are less often found than the chines and the cliffs, since buyers kept the dramatic coastal plates together and dispersed the townscapes. Framed in a plain dark molding it works well in a group of English street and church views.

Even age toning. Marked handling soiling along the bottom, right and top edges. Scattered light foxing in the margin. All four corners complete. Minor edge wear, shallow nicks along the left.

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