St. Paul's Chapel, Broadway, New York, Drawn by A. J. Davis, circa 1850

This is an original antique steel engraving, uncolored, lettered below the view "ST. PAULS, BROADWAY, N.Y." (the T of St. is engraved as a small raised letter). The upright view shows a stone church with a columned portico under a pediment facing the viewer, a balustraded roofline, and a tall, many staged steeple rising behind it. An iron railing with stone gate piers runs along the street, a tree stands at right, and men and women walk on the pavement in front.

Above the view, the emblem vignette shows a sword laid across a quill pen and a sheet of printed paper on which the letters STA and ACT can be read. Two small scenes are set into the lower corners of the border: at left, a crowd jostling in a street under a hanging lantern, hats in the air, captioned "TUMULTS OCCASIONED BY THE STAMP ACT."; at right, a crowd on a wharf gesturing toward a ship, captioned "SEIZURE OF THE LIBERTY SLOOP AT BOSTON, 1768." The script credit under the lower left corner of the view reads "Drawn by A. J. Davis." The imprint at the foot of the sheet reads "J. & F. TALLIS, LONDON & NEW YORK."

The plate comes from History of the United States of America, edited by John Howard Hinton (1791 to 1873), the English Baptist minister and author, and published by J. and F. Tallis about 1850. J. and F. Tallis were London publishers of illustrated works sold in parts around the middle of the nineteenth century. The plates of this edition set a central steel engraved view inside an engraved ornamental border with small lettered vignettes of episodes from American history, as here. The credit names A. J. Davis, that is Alexander Jackson Davis (1803 to 1892), the New York architect and artist. The Stamp Act was the British tax on printed papers passed in 1765, and the Liberty was John Hancock's sloop, seized by customs officers at Boston in 1768.

The upright format suits a narrow wall.

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