Village Church and Spire at Shorwell, Isle of Wight Engraving, 1828

An antique line engraving of Shorwell, Isle of Wight, drawn and engraved by George Brannon and published at Wotton on the second of June 1828. The village church stands at the center with its slender spire lifting clear of a mass of trees, the lane curving in from the right with a solitary figure on it, and cottage roofs and garden walls settled into the hollow below the down. Shorwell lies on the inland side of the island among the chalk, and Brannon has treated it as a quiet pastoral subject, with none of the drama he brings to the cliffs. The sheet is an uncolored impression in fine copper line, the foliage built up in short separate strokes that keep the trees light against the 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.

Shorwell is one of the prettiest of the island's inland villages and still has its medieval church with a notable wall painting, so the plate connects directly to a building a visitor can walk into today. Brannon devoted only a handful of plates in the first series to the inland parishes, the great majority going to the coast, which makes the village subjects the harder ones to find complete. A quiet church and lane view of this kind is easy to live with: it hangs well in a bedroom or on a landing, and it is an obvious choice for anyone married in the parish or connected to it.

Light uneven toning, browner towards the edges. Marked handling soiling along the bottom, right and top 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.