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Rare and highly important engraving of a log cabin and rural farming scene in the British Colonies, sketched by Thomas Pownall, painted by Paul Sanby and engraved by James Peake.

Pownall's Design . . . of an American Settlment or Farm was the inspiration for one of the most important symbols of the American experience, the Log Cabin. As noted by Gilborn,

The origin of the log cabin as a symbol of the American experience may be said to begin with this engraving of 1761 after a design by Thomas Pownall . . . A Design to represent the beginning and completion of an American Settlement or Farm -- traces the rags-to-riches myth in which the pioneer's sacrifice will be rewarded by a fine mansion and farm like the one in the distance.

As noted in the on-line description of Boston Rare Maps:

The Design… of an American Settlment or Farm is a lovely "before and after" image . . . At left is a small cabin in a clearing recently hacked out of the wilderness and still shrouded in forest gloom. For all that, the settlers' industry is evident: a small field is being plowed, a waterwheel and small sawmill have been established, and a large pile of sawn planks sits beside a stream awaiting shipment. One's eye then moves toward the right across a stream to encounter a Georgian manor house surrounded by orderly fields and bathed in sunlight, with a small vessel docked on the shore to receive and/or offload goods.

In 1761, the view was issued as one of six views included in Six Remarkable Views in the Provinces of New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, comprising the views originally sketched by Pownall. In 1768 these prints were incorporated into Scenographia Americana, a portfolio containing twenty-eight prints by Pownall and other artists. As noted on the Philadelphia Print Shop website:

The engraving of the prints in these series is superb, with texture, lighting, and motion all conveyed with remarkable vividness. It is interesting to note that these prints appear to have been issued only in black & white, thus allowing the full appreciation of the engraving technique.

Thomas Pownall, born in England in 1722, served in North America in various official positions between 1753 and 1760, including Governor of Massachusetts and South Carolina. During this time, Pownall travelled throughout the colonies, keeping a journal and making sketches of the sites he visited. Upon his return to England, Pownall hired Paul Sandby, the drawing master at the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich, England, to work with him on producing a set of engraved scenes based upon Pownall's sketches. Pownall held liberal views on the connection of England with its colonies, and was a staunch friend to the American provinces. He explained his sentiments in his famous work on The Administration of the Colonies, 1764, stating that his object was to fuse all these Atlantic and American possessions into one Dominion.

Scenographia Americana is one of the rarest and most highly coveted of all Illustrated works on America, with no complete copies of the work appearing on the market in the past 30 years.