Taymouth Castle, Perthshire, Antique Morris Woodblock Print, circa 1870

Highland drama defines this antique print of Taymouth Castle, Perthshire, a Scottish country house view printed in color by Benjamin Fawcett for Morris's Picturesque Views of Seats, circa 1870. A high, densely wooded mountainside rises directly behind the castle and fills most of the sheet, so that the battlemented house, though shown at reasonable size in the middle distance, reads as small against the hill.

Sunlight is suggested moving across the slope in patches of lighter and darker green, a painterly treatment built from overlapping green and brown tones graded in strength. The castle, with its corner towers and long castellated front, is worked in pale stone tones against the deep green of the hill. Autumn-colored shrubs and trees, printed in ochre, orange and brown, mass across the immediate foreground and frame the view, which has no figures or animals in it, leaving the setting itself as the subject.

The plate comes from A Series of Picturesque Views of Seats of the Noblemen and Gentlemen of Great Britain and Ireland, edited by the Reverend Francis Orpen Morris (1810 to 1893), the naturalist and clergyman best known for his History of British Birds, and published in London by William Mackenzie; this issue dates from circa 1870. Benjamin Fawcett (1808 to 1893) of Driffield, Yorkshire, one of the finest Victorian color woodblock printers, printed it from a series of separate blocks in register, so the color is printed, not hand colored.

An original Victorian plate removed from the book, this antique print of Taymouth Castle, Perthshire, is suitable for framing and will appeal to admirers of the house, of Perthshire, and of country house views of Great Britain and Ireland. The sheet carries its full margins, with the title Taymouth Castle 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 faint 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.