Wytham Abbey, Berkshire, Antique Morris Woodblock Print, circa 1870

A castellated tower with a flagstaff rises at the center of this antique print of Wytham Abbey, Berkshire, a color woodblock country house view from Morris's Picturesque Views of Seats, printed by Benjamin Fawcett circa 1870. The entrance front is a gabled Tudor and Gothic manor house in pale stone.

A low stone boundary wall runs along the edge of the lawn in the foreground, separating the pleasure ground from the drive, which curves away to the right past further estate buildings glimpsed among the trees. Trees close the composition at both edges, a dense mass on the left and a more open stand on the right where the drive disappears. The sky is pale blue with fine combed streaks of cloud, keeping the emphasis on the facade, and the window tracery in the gabled bays and the crenellation along the tower are picked out precisely enough that the print reads as a specific building, with stone, wall, drive and trees all sitting cleanly against one another.

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 Wytham Abbey, Berkshire, is suitable for framing and will appeal to admirers of the house, of Berkshire, and of English country house views. Margins are wide and untrimmed, with the title Wytham Abbey set in small capitals below 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 upper margin 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.