Published by Samuel Seymour and William Strickland, Philadelphia 1811.

Archivally framed.

A composite view including “Market Street, Looking down from Sixth Street,” “Girard College,” “Arch Street. Looking up,” “Philadelphia from Independence Hall, Looking East,” “Chestnut Street Looking up from Independence Hall,” and “Chestnut Street, looking down from Ninth Street.” A finely detailed wood engraving from
Picturesque America, or the Land We Live In
, published in New York by D. Appleton and Company between 1872 and 1874. The text was edited by the notable William Cullen Bryant but the book is best known and most highly valued for its illustrations. The illustrators usually traveled to the sites they were to depict so their engravings were accurate, if somewhat idealized. Picturesque America was a very influential work, proudly displayed on the parlor tables in the homes of the well-to-do across the country.

9 x 12 3/4 inches, sheet.
Hand colored wood engraving.
Very good condition with light overall patina.

In the nineteenth century, before photography became commonplace, newspapers, guidebooks, and periodicals were illustrated with wood engravings. Many of the best artists of the day earned their bread and butter in this manner. They produced beautiful images that are technically superb original nineteenth century prints, invaluable for the historical information they provide. The prints provide glimpses into the daily life of the period and a great deal of information concerning the architectural detail of specific locations and individual buildings.  Gleason’s Pictorial Drawing Room Companion…
was a journal that was published weekly in Boston. It was modeled on the
Illustrated London News
. Contributors included Sylvanus Cobb, T. S. Arthur, and Horatio Alger. Despite the high quality of its illustrations, the Drawing Room Companion was only published for a half dozen years during the 1850’s.

This wonderfully detailed view is surrounded by fascinating text describing the buildings occupying this corner of the city, the cost of their construction and the enterprises they contained including the United states Life Insurance and Trust Company and the Ledger company.

15 ¼ x 11 inches, sheet.
Hand colored wood engraving.
Excellent condition.

The Massachusetts Magazine was the second American magazine to include prints of Philadelphia. It included three engravings by the Philadelphia landscape artist, Jacob Hoffman. In the lower right, the print shows that Samuel Hill was the engraver. It is a pretty bucolic view of the home and property of Samuel Meredith, a well-known merchant and financier who married into the Cadwalader family. Meredith was a major and lieutenant colonel of the Third Battalion of Association known as the “silk stocking battalion because its members came from leading Philadelphia families. Meredith’s skill and bravery in the battles of Trenton, Princeton, Brandywine and Germantown earned his a promotion to brigadier general of the Pennsylvania Militia. He resigned from the army and served three terms in the Pennsylvania Assembly (1778-1783) and was elected to the Confederation Congress. He was a Federalist. (See explorepahistory.com for more) Green Hill was his property near Philadelphia, It is thought to have stood on the east side of Ridge Avenue north of Poplar Street.

Hand colored copperplate engraving.
4 ½ x 7 3/8 inches, sheet.
Excellent condition.

A detailed and artistically rendered compilation of views drawn by C. Upham showing “Old Market Square in 1783”, “Chew House”. “Germantown Avenue – Looking North”, “First Mill in Germantown”, “Building Used as a Hospital During the Revolution”, “Oldest House in Germantown”, and “St. Michael’s Lutheran Church.”

15 3/4 x 11 inches, sheet.
Hand colored Wood engraving.
Excellent condition with overall light patina.

5 3/4 x 9 inches, sheet.
Hand colored steel engraving.
Excellent condition save small stain at title.

A charming original antique lithograph of the park originally bounded by Sixth, Race, Vine and the back lots of Eight streets. In Penn’s original plan the square was described as “North East Publik Squar.” It was renamed Franklin Square as a result of General Lafayette’s tour of the United States and in particular, his return to  Philadelphia which swept the city into a nostalgia for the glory days of the revolutionary era. In 1825, the city councils named the squares around Independence Hall after patriots, Washington, Franklin, Rittenhouse and Logan. In this lithograph by J. T. Bowen, a circle of benches surround the handsome fountains built in 1838, the year before this print was created. Tall trees frame the view and handsomely dressed prosperous citizens enjoy a relaxing stroll. During the 1960’s the creations of roads surrounding the park contributed to its fall into disuse. Fortunately, Historic Philadelphia used a grant from the state of Pennsylvania to restore Franklin Park to its 19
th
century glory.

Hand colored lithograph.
18 ¼ x 21 inches, framed.

Ref: Wainwright,
Philadelphia in the Romantic Age of Lithography
,
59
, 230, Wolf,
Portrait of an American City
, p. 171.