[Captain John Eyre's Map and 12 views of the Defences of London During the Civil War.]
[London: Peter Thompson, 1852.]
15 etchings, each c. 210 x 330mm & map 230 x 290mm, on Whatman paper watermarked 1847.] Tear in map.
Etchings of a collection of drawings of the fortifications proported to have been drawn by 'Captain John Eyre' in 1643. In fact the drawings were forgeries created by the publisher. Thompson crafted a complete biography and genealogy for Captain John Eyre, making Captain John Eyre the descendent of the real fifteenth century Lord Mayor of London, Simon Eyre, and claiming that fictional Captain John Eyre and the real Wenceslaus Hollar (1607-1677) shared an artistic camaraderie, often sketching together. The drawings, exhibited to the Archaeological Association in 1852, are supposed to be sketches from different perspectives of the fortifications erected around London by Parliamentary forces during the Civil War in 1642-3, with a map titled 'Plan of the Fortifications – 1643. There is also 'The Old Walls Of London' and a three-sheet prospect: 'A View of London from the North showing the Fortifications from Whitechapel to Tothill Fields 1642 & 1643'. As the images were actually made by Peter Thompson in the nineteenth century and not by Captain John Eyre in the seventeenth century, the elaborate ramparts depicted in the set of drawings actually bear no resemblance to the hastily constructed earthwork forts built during the Civil War. Beginning in 1853, the public began to question Eyre's existence and Thompson's collection of works by Eyre and Hollar was called into question.
[Ref: 264] £680.00
15 etchings, each c. 210 x 330mm & map 230 x 290mm, on Whatman paper watermarked 1847.] Tear in map.
Etchings of a collection of drawings of the fortifications proported to have been drawn by 'Captain John Eyre' in 1643. In fact the drawings were forgeries created by the publisher. Thompson crafted a complete biography and genealogy for Captain John Eyre, making Captain John Eyre the descendent of the real fifteenth century Lord Mayor of London, Simon Eyre, and claiming that fictional Captain John Eyre and the real Wenceslaus Hollar (1607-1677) shared an artistic camaraderie, often sketching together. The drawings, exhibited to the Archaeological Association in 1852, are supposed to be sketches from different perspectives of the fortifications erected around London by Parliamentary forces during the Civil War in 1642-3, with a map titled 'Plan of the Fortifications – 1643. There is also 'The Old Walls Of London' and a three-sheet prospect: 'A View of London from the North showing the Fortifications from Whitechapel to Tothill Fields 1642 & 1643'. As the images were actually made by Peter Thompson in the nineteenth century and not by Captain John Eyre in the seventeenth century, the elaborate ramparts depicted in the set of drawings actually bear no resemblance to the hastily constructed earthwork forts built during the Civil War. Beginning in 1853, the public began to question Eyre's existence and Thompson's collection of works by Eyre and Hollar was called into question.
[Ref: 264] £680.00