A framed and mounted, hand coloured engraving showing the Thames valley looking west over Richmond and Twickenham from a position besides the famous Star and Garter hotel at the top of Richmond Hill.

 

“Charles Grignion the elder was born in London; the son of a watchmaker. He briefly studied in Paris, under French engraver and draftsman Jacques Philippe Le Bas, before continuing his training at Gravelot’s drawing school in Covent Garden. He later worked mainly as a historical engraver and book illustrator. In 1748 he made the earliest engraving of a cricket match ‘from a Picture painted by Mr. Hayman’. He also produced architectural plates for William Chambers’s ‘Designs for Chinese Buildings’ (published 1757) and for James Stuart and Nicholas Revett’s ‘Antiquities of Athens’ (published 1762). In 1765 he became a member of the committee of the Society of Artists. Grignion worked into his late eighties, but died in poverty in Kentish Town.”

“German chaser, draughtsman and etcher of topographical views Augustin Heckel was born in Augsburg; the son of a chaser, who worked in gold and silver. (Chasers form designs by pressing into metal.) He too worked as a chaser in many of the major cities of Germany, enjoying success in that profession, before travelling to Paris and then moving to England. He also produced topographical views in watercolour, some of which were issued by publishers Thomas Bowles and Robert Sayer, including eight small plates of Richmond and its environs. He died at Richmond in 1770. His sister is also known to have engraved bible illustrations.”

H.M. Government Art Collection.