Click main image below to view enlargements and captions.

View, England, Kent, Fredville Park, Ancient Oak Tree, Antique Print, 1830s

$450

John George Wood (1768-1838) (after)
William Green (1760-1823) (engraver)
Fredville in Kent — The Seat of John Plumptre Esq.
England, c. 1830s
Color-printed aquatint on paper watermarked WHATMAN 1830
Provenance: Kennedy Galleries, Inc.
15 x 17 inches platemark
17.75 x 23.25 inches overall
$450

A country house landscape view of Fredville Park in Kent, England. In this fine aquatint print, the house is shown in a bucolic setting, showing prominently the ancient tree variously known as the Fredville Oak, Great Oak, or Majesty Oak. It is described below the title: “The Great Oak Measures 32 feet in the smallest girth.” This tree now has a girth of roughly 12 meters (40 feet); when both girth and height are considered, it is currently the largest standard oak in the British Isles. As the title also indicates the house was the seat of John Plumptre, a member of a prominent land-owning family in British history, who had been residents of Nottingham since the reign of Edward I (1239-1307).  John Plumptre, Esquire, (1712-91) lived in both Fredville and Nottingham.

Product Description Continues Below

Description

John George Wood was a British engraver and publisher based in London. Primarily a watercolorist, he exhibited at the Royal Academy from 1793 to 1811 and also published works on perspective. William Green was a British painter and engraver who began his career as a surveyor in Manchester. He studied with the prominent painter Landseer and went on to produce mainly aquatints, usually of his own watercolors and drawings. A friend of the poets Wordsworth and Coleridge, he published a series of views of the Lake District and North of England between 1794 and 1822. Green also exhibited at the Royal Academy. Wood and Green collaborated on the colorplate book “Views of the Noblemen’s and Gentlemen’s Seats of Kent.” This print might have been issued in that set, though we have not been able to verify this.

Condition: Generally very good with the usual light toning, wear, handling, soft creases.  Few short marginal tears restored verso and with the print’s large margins will be easily matted out for framing.

Additional information

Century

18th Century