Featured Looking for THIS print - London Highbury

Hi all,

I recently bought a print from eBay, that I was so happy I found. It's of my street in London, and has our house in it.

But the print unbelievably got lost in the mail!! I never received it.

Now I am obsessed by finding another one like it. Does anyone here have any idea of where I should start my search? (Besides hunting for it on ebay of course)

There is not much information about the print from the seller. I am attaching what I have below:

An original hand-coloured print showing HIGHBURY CRESCENT in Islington.
This was in a collection with another local print, which was dated 1829 and published by Jones and Co, Finsbury Square, so it's likely this is from the same time. As it's been cut down over the years, this information has been removed.

Print with borders approximately 15cm by 11cm.

Image alone is 12.5cm x 9cm.

 

OMG! How utterly infuriating! The only place I can think of to ask would be the British Museum -- they have troodles of drawers full of such things.

Or, you might ask at Sir John Soane's Museum...

I feel your pain. The very FIRST item I bought from eBay was a good-sized, antique Hudson River print of an engraving.

It was quite old, and relatively brittle, and the seller (may he rest on pointed rocks), FOLDED the print in thirds, so as to fit it in an envelope he had lying about!

 

Oh, what a shame. As Silverthwaite said, there are museums that are amassing images of prints and sometimes it's possible to purchase a copy and/or download the file.

Silver, I would have been furious. Some of my early purchases on eBay were old paper items as well, and I was pretty disappointed with the packing done by some sellers. I bought a large group of book plates from one seller with the thought of reselling them, and the package wasn't rigid so bent in half during transit. Made the whole bunch unsaleable!

 

You could contact Gillmark Gallery. They had a copy at one time. Don't know if they still do.

http://www.gillmark.com/images_CMS/products/1089/12868163955067_1089_main.jpg

 

sniped by davey.

 

OMG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
What an a**wipe!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

A lot of the lines in the clouds are very similar. It might be the difference in how the color was applied, toning in the paper, maybe the plate was re-engraved.

I searched Gillmark using Highbury Crescent as a title and it returned no results, so maybe they no longer have it.

 

Davey, I also found that Gillmark has the print, but for the life of me I can't find it through their search engine as moreoverstuff experienced. The actual image file for it on that website is
http://www.gillmark.com/images_CMS/products/1089/12868163955067_1089_main.jpg

I have searched and searched and searched using a good dozen keywords such as Highbury Crescent, Islington, etc... on their search engine with absolutely no luck. I suspect it is somewhere on that site under Prints> Topographical > London. I could only locate the actual image file on that site via google reverse image search. Just the image file doesn't have any info about the print or how much Gillmark is selling it for. Here's Gillmark's folder with the picture. Scroll down to 1089.

http://www.gillmark.com/images_CMS/products/
http://www.gillmark.com/images_CMS/products/1089/

--- Susan

 

Hi everyone. Wow!
I'm very impressed. You tracked it down in no time. I will have a look at gillmark and see if I can contact them about it.
The picture on ebay was £10, but I fear a gallery won't be charging that exactly...
I really can't believe the bad luck in this transaction. Or maybe the guy just changed his mind about selling.
In addition to my ebay search, I'll also add a google alert for "highbury crescent print" maybe that will eventually pick something up.
I really appreciate your help, and please if you have other ideas or would come across this somewhere let me know!

Chris

 

Oh, and also: Would this be a postcard? Or where could this print come from? Not a book I suppose?

 

What a bunch of brainiacs you all are!
Glad you got help, Chris.

 

hehehee Davey!

 

So, you're saying your lost print is roughly 4.5" x roughly 6"???? I don't know that much about printing, but the Gillmark print looks like the paper is either different or the 'die' is worn or the print is over-saturated.....I took the liberty of trying to match the print you bought.....by sharpening, cleaning it up a bit and de-saturating the image somewhat, and it appears to be the same image with some changes in the clouds, but the one you paid for is far, far superior!!!! AND, since you paid for it, I know it won't be the same, but if ALL ELSE FAILS, why not at least print the image you obviously have and posted here, on a fine linen paper and frame THAT!!!! Better than nothing!!!!! BTW, here's what I did to the over-saturated image.....it just doesn't compare......

 

HA!!!!!! Thanks MOS.....Plate was the word I was looking for and my brain just couldn't find!!!!!

 

I'm just noticing.....this was posted Monday......I'm on everyday!!!! Wondering why I'm only seeing it for the first time today....FRIDAY?????

 

It's difficult to tell print quality from online photos. Choose any famous painting and look it up on Google images; the differences in color and tonality from photo to photo are remarkable.

 

MOS, so true. Plus every monitor displays color differently.

Chris, "continental" postcards are about 4" x 6", but it also could be from a small antique book. I have a 19th century book about that size that was basically a travelogue, with a different print on each page depicting a scene in a different European location.

Did the seller show the back of the image or say what the back was like?

 

Hi everyone,

Some interesting updates.

Gillmark had sold the image last year. The only thing they said was that the coloring was carried out by them, and that it was a steel engraving.

Then I contacted the London Metropolitan Archives. And received this - quite impressive response:



London Metropolitan Archives reference: 2016/01455

Dear Mr Maluszynski

Thank you for your recent email.

We have checked our image database online (htttp:collage.cityoflondon.gov.uk) and another internal prints database and could not find this image of Highbury Crescent in our collections.


We thought that the image was c.1850s so we then looked in Bernard Adams book, 'London Illustrated 1604-1851'. A reference was found to it appearing in the printed book, 'Tallis's Illustrated London (1851-2) on p218. This book can be viewed online at:


https://archive.org/stream/tallissillustrat12gasp#page/n323/mode/1up


We have been unable to discover who the artist or engraver was, only that it was published by John Tallis. On Collage (htttp:collage.cityoflondon.gov.uk) you will see under record no. 30914, a plan relating to Tallis's illustrated study of London:


TALLIS'S Illustrated Plan of LONDON AND ITS ENVIRONS, IN COMMEMORATION OF THE GREAT EXHIBITION OF ALL NATIONS, 1851 / PUBLISHED BY JOHN TALLIS & COMPANY, LONDON 7 NEW YORK. The Illustrations Drawn & Engraved by H. Lacey. The Plan Drawn & Engraved by J. Rapkin. The map is enclosed in an ornamental border containing title and arms of London, Westminster and Southwark t.c. and 48 views of London Buildings c.1 3/4" square and view of Exhibition building 1 3/4" x 4 3/4" b.c. with imprint. Map and view steel engraved and coloured.


We could not identify the print of Highbury Crescent in the border but it may be that the artists mentioned above could have been the producers of the print that you have.


You may also wish to try contacting the local studies centre for Islington which covers Highbury via their website at:


http://www.islington.gov.uk/islington/history-heritage/Pages/default.aspx?extra=7


We hope this information has been useful.

Yours Sincerely

Miss C. Hopkins on behalf of London Metropolitan Archives

Replies to:
Email: ask.lma@cityoflondon.gov.uk
Tel: 020 7332 3820
Address: 40 Northampton Road, London, EC1R 0HB


So. The image is from a book - explaining the small size.

I do agree with Aquitaine, that the colors in the image I bought and never received were much nicer.

I'll probably go looking for the book now as it will be easier to find than another print I'm guessing. But I won't get the nice old coloring in the print I initially bought. (agh - it drives me nuts everytime I think about it)