FOBO - The Antiquities of England and Wales Vol I (page 4/8)

The Antiquities of England and Wales Vol I (page 4/8)

details...

[picture: Front Cover, Grose's Antiquities of England and Wales, Vol I]

Francis Grose, Esq., FAS., The Antiquities of England and Wales, Being a Collection of Views of the Most remarkable Ruins and antient Buildings, Accurately drawn on the spot. To each view is added An Historical Accounf of its Situation, when and by whom built, with every interesting Circumstance relating thereto. Collected from the best authorities.
London, Printed by C. Clarke, for S. Hooper, No. 212 High Holborn, opposite Southampton Street, Bloomsbury Square, M.DCC.LXXXIII [1783]

My copy of Volume I is falling apart, but that at least means I don’t have to worry about damaging the binding when I scan the pictures. I took a photograph of this book open to the title page.

I wish I had more volumes of this series. I also obtained volume 3, but it came without the maps, unfortunately. The perils of eBay!

The maps in this series of books were originally engraved in about 1694 for John Seller’s Anglia Contracta. John Seller was a noted map maker and publisher of the second half of the 17th century, known especially for his sea charts. Years later Francis Grose got hold of the engraved plates for the maps and used them in this popular series of Antiquities, removing the John Seller cartouche. The colour in the maps would have been added by hand after printing.

There is a short biography of Francis Grose from 1814.

Captain Francis Grose is also known for compiling dictionaries. I have a copy of his Provincial Glossary. He also wrote a dictionary of slang; Project Gutenberg has made a text version of an 1811 version of this (I have a fac simile edition) and I have used this as a starting point, corrected many errors, and put it online as the 1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue.

There is also an entry in the Nuttall Encyclopædia for Captain Francis Grose.

Title: The Antiquities of England and Wales Vol I

Author: Grose, Francis

Published by: C. Clarke, for S. Hooper

City: London

Date: 1783

Total items: 53

Out of copyright (called public domain in the USA), hence royalty-free for all purposes usage credit requested, or as marked.

Catapulta [Catapult]

The lettered parts are explained in the text of the book. This is taken from Machines of War. [more...] [$]

Architecture (full page print)

The characteristic marks of this [early Norman] style are these: The walls are very thick, generally without buttresses; the arches, both within and without, as well as those over [...]sic] by very solid, or rather clumsy columns, with a kind of regular base and capital: in short, plainness and solidity constitute the striking features of this method of building. nevertheless, the architects of those days sometimes deviated from this rule: their capitals were adorned with carvings of foliage, and even animals’ and their massive columns decorated with small half columns united to them, and their surfaces ornamented with spirals, squares, lozenge network and other figures, either engraved, or in relievo: various instances of these may be seen in the cathedral of Canterbury, particularly the undercroft, the monastaty at Lindisfarne or Holy Island, the cathedral at Durham, and the ruined choir at Orford in Suffolk. (p. 112) [more...] [$]

The grand Door of Barfreston Church in Kent.

On some of these arches is commonly over the key-stone represented God the Father, or our Saviour surrounded with angels; and below a melange of foliage, animals, often ludicrous, and sometimes even indecent subjects. Partly of this sort is the great [...] [more...] [$]

Printer’s ornament with birds

Two birds touch beaks, perhaps a mother feeding a baby, in this printer’s ornament, used as a tailpiece (tail-piece) at the end of a chapter. The design includes a harp, [...] [more...] [$]

Ornament: Cornucopia

This antique typographic ornament was used as a chapter tail-piece at the end of a section of the preface. You could also [more...] [$]

Druidical Antiquities

Published by S. Hooper April 16, 1784; the illustration is signed Goodnight Sculpt. [more...] [$]

No. 1 from the Druidical Antiquities

The caption for this engraving of an obelisk just says Nº1. [more...] [$]

Carne or Carnedd, from the Druidical Antiquities plate

A cairn is a pile of stones or rocks used to mark a place, perhaps a burial. [more...] [$]

Note: If you got here from a search engine and don’t see what you were looking for, it might have moved onto a different page within this gallery.