Swithland Hall, Leicestershire, Antique Morris Woodblock Print, circa 1870

Quiet Georgian symmetry is the subject of this antique print of Swithland Hall, Leicestershire, a color woodblock country house view from Morris's Picturesque Views of Seats, printed by Benjamin Fawcett circa 1870. The plain stone house has a central doorway beneath a small pediment carrying a lettered inscription too small to be read with certainty at this scale.

Regularly spaced sash windows flank the doorway, and tall chimneystacks stand along the roofline. A single female figure walks across the lawn toward the drive at the center, the only figure in a formally balanced scene. Cedar and conifer specimens are planted symmetrically to either side of the house, their dark, dense foliage echoing the chimneystacks above. The sky is worked in warm gold cloud suggesting evening light, and the stone color is laid evenly and cleanly across the large plain wall surface, so that the architecture and its flanking trees carry the sheet.

This is a color woodblock print, or color wood engraving, printed from a series of separate blocks in register by Benjamin Fawcett (1808 to 1893) of Driffield, Yorkshire, one of the finest color woodblock printers of the Victorian period and printer of Morris's bird books. The series, A Series of Picturesque Views of Seats of the Noblemen and Gentlemen of Great Britain and Ireland, was edited by the Reverend Francis Orpen Morris (1810 to 1893) and published in London by William Mackenzie; this plate is from an issue of circa 1870.

This antique print of Swithland Hall, Leicestershire, circa 1870, is an original Victorian plate removed from the book, suitable for framing, and a natural choice for admirers of the house and collectors of English country house views. Margins are full, with the title Swithland Hall set in small capitals beneath the image.

This antique print is in good condition for its age. The paper shows light toning consistent with age, together with a few small spots in the margins and a line of binding holes along the lower edge, where the plate was once bound into the book. Please review the images for further condition details.

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