Steephill and Earl Dysart's Imbowered Cottage, Ventnor Cove Beyond, 1821

An uncolored copper engraving of Steephill, Isle of Wight, drawn and engraved by George Brannon and published in December 1821. The printed caption explains the view: "On the left is the charming imbowered Cottage of the late Earl Dysart; on the right, the garden chair placed on the point of an abrupt Hill, beneath is the Flag Staff over the Cavern in the Cliff; with Ventnor Cove in the perspective." All of it is there in the engraving: the thatched cottage half buried in trees, the seat set out on the headland, the staff marking the cave below, the cove opening beyond. Few plates in the series reward close looking as well, because Brannon has engraved a caption and then delivered every single item in it.

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.

Steephill lies in the Undercliff just west of Ventnor, and the cottage shown here was the retreat of the Earl of Dysart; the site was later taken for Steephill Castle, a large Victorian house itself demolished in 1964, so this landscape has twice been remade. The garden chair on the point is the detail that dates the plate: a Regency viewing seat placed exactly where a visitor was expected to sit and admire. A sheet like this belongs in a group of Undercliff views, or on its own in a garden room, where the planting in the engraving answers the planting outside the window.

Even age toning. Marked handling soiling along all four edges. Scattered foxing in the margin. All four corners complete.

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