|
||
|
|
|
|
Decorative view of New York, lithographed for Valentine's Manual by G. Hayward, based upon the iconic William Burgis's birdseye view of New York, first published in 1721.
This beautiful view is a fine 19th Century reproduction of William Burgis's A South Prospect of the Flourishing City of New York (circa 1721), considered the most important single view of colonial New York.
The view shows a bustling port city with a population of over 7,000, the capital of the British colonial province of New York. The numbers at the bottom identify 20 important buildings and sites, including 1) The Fort (Fort Amsterdam, first built in 1626); 2) The Chapel in the Fort; 3) the colonial "Secretaries Office" (located inside the fort); 4) The Great Dock with a bridge over it (built in 1659 at the bottom of Moore Street); 5) "Ruines of White Hall built by Governour Duncan [Dongan]"; 10) The Great Flesh Market; 12) The Dutch Church; 14) the City Hall; and 15) The Exchange, amongst others.
Around 1716, the artist William Burgis (fl.1716-36), from the vantage point of the Brooklyn Heights shore, drew the waterfront along the east side of Manhattan, calling it "A South Prospect of the Flourishing City of New York in ye Province of New York in America." The drawing was sent to London to have the British printmaker John Harris (fl. 1686-1740) engrave the design onto four copper plates, which were printed on sheets of paper over six feet long. While undated, we know it was completed by 1721 because " A Curious Prospect of the City of New-York…" was advertised in an edition of The American Weekly Mercury of that year.
The view was greatly admired and reproduced (but in reduced sizes) over the coming decades, notably the "Bakewell reissue" of 1746 and the edition that appeared in the London Magazine (1761). The present lithographed edition, which appeared in Valentine's Manual (1849), is based on the Bakewell edition.