An Original
Woodcut Engraving
of
"Ripley Castle"
(Harrogate, Yorkshire)
From
Francis Orpen Morris's Part-Work
"County Seats of the Noblemen and Gentlemen of Great Britain and Ireland"
A series of coloured lithographic views
Produced between 1864-1880
The plates were drawn by Alexander Francis Lydon, and printed using Baxters process by a Baxter licensee, Benjamin Fawcett (1808-1893). A technically advanced process at the time, being colour printed in eight or more overlays from separate wooden blocks from original draughts (drawn on the wood) by Frank Lydon.
This example is in good, clean condition and has been professionally mounted ready for framing.
FORMAT
Overall Size:- 8 1/4" x 11 3/4" approx
Image Size:- 6" x 9 1/2" approx
This is a genuine antique, being over 130 years old - NOT a modern reproduction.
About the subject....
Ripley Castle is situated three miles north of Harrogate on the A61.
Ripley has been the home of the Igilby family since 1308. The first occupant was Thomas, who married the heiress of the estate and only surviving daughter of the Thweng family in the early 1300's. Sir Thomas gained his knighthood for saving King Edward III from attack by an injured boar when hunting together in 1835, he was also granted the right to hold a weekly market at Ripley, beside what was to become Ripley Castle.
The oldest part of the mansion, a Fortified Gatehouse and Great Hall was built by Sir Thomas's descendant Sir John Ingilby around 1450 both as a display of status and for defensive purposes. The present mansion dates from two building phases in the period from 1548 to 1555 by Sir William. In 1783 to 1786 another Sir John Ingilby commissioned John Carr of York to build a new house next to the fortified tower on the site of the original medieval hall. Since that time there have been few changes to the house, but improvements were made to the gardens and the estate village in the 1820's.
Ripley Castle has extensive walled gardens a Regency conservatory and landscape designed by Capability Brown.
About the artist/engraver.....
Alexander Francis Lydon (1836-1917), was an English engraver of natural history. He worked for Benjamin Fawcett the printer, to whom he had been apprenticed from an early age. He collaborated on a large number of works with the Rev. Francis Orpen Morris who wrote the text. Morris wrote the text for books which were financed and printed by Fawcett, and were illustrated by Lydon. Colour printing showed an enormous improvement on the work of Thomas Bewick (1753-1828). At first wood-engraving illustrations were coloured by hand, but later a system of colouring from multiple wood blocks was used, as in this example.
The final work which Fawcett, Morris and Lydon would do together was "The County Seats of the Noblemen and Gentlemen of Great Britain and Ireland". Francis Orpen Morris died on 10 February 1893 and was buried at Nunburnholme. Benjamin Fawcett had died three weeks earlier.
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