Featured
1810 John Augustus Atkinson Original Water Colour Art of an English War Skirmish
- Title : (A Civil War Skirmish)
- Ref #: 93444
- Size: 17in x 15in (430mm x 365mm)
- Date : 1810
- Condition: (A+) Fine Condition
Description:
This beautifully executed original pen, pencil and watercolour picture of an English Civil War battle scene was painted by John Augustus Atkinson in ca 1810.
Atkinson was known for his battle scene art works during his time at the St Petersburg Court in Russia as well as his Napoleonic battle scenes from the early 19th century.
Atkinson is held in high esteem as a watercolourist, and was elected as a member of the Society of Painters in Water Colours in 1808. He has works of art held at many prestigious museums in Russia, Europe and the UK, such as the Tate, Royal Watercolour Society, National Maritime Museum and many more listed below. He also sells on the open market with this piece last sold in 2004.
Professionally matted and can be easily removed if required.
General Definitions:
Paper thickness and quality: - Heavy and stable
Paper color : - off white
Age of map color: - Original
Colors used: - Blue, pink, red, green, yellow
General color appearance: - Authentic
Paper size: - 17in x 15in (430mm x 365mm)
Plate size: - 9 3/4in x 8in (247mm x 203mm)
Margins: - Min 0in (0mm)
Imperfections:
Margins: - None
Plate area: - None
Verso: - None
Background:
The English Civil War (1642–1651) was a series of civil wars and political machinations between Parliamentarians (Roundheads) and Royalists (Cavaliers) principally over the manner of Englands governance and part of the wider Wars of the Three Kingdoms. The first (1642–1646) and second (1648–1649) wars pitted the supporters of King Charles I against the supporters of the Long Parliament, while the third (1649–1651) saw fighting between supporters of King Charles II and supporters of the Rump Parliament. The war ended with Parliamentarian victory at the Battle of Worcester on 3 September 1651.
Unlike other civil wars in England, which were mainly fought over who should rule, these conflicts were also concerned with how the three kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland were to be governed. The outcome was threefold: the trial and execution of Charles I (1649); the exile of his son, Charles II (1651); and the replacement of English monarchy with, at first, the Commonwealth of England (1649–1653) and then the Protectorate, which as the Commonwealth of England, Scotland, and Ireland unified the British Isles under the personal rule of Oliver Cromwell (1653–1658) and briefly his son Richard (1658–1659). The execution of Charles I was particularly notable given that an English king had never been executed before. In England, the monopoly of the Church of England on Christian worship was ended, while in Ireland the victors consolidated the established Protestant Ascendancy. Constitutionally, the wars established the precedent that an English monarch cannot govern without Parliaments consent, although the idea of Parliamentary sovereignty was only legally established as part of the Glorious Revolution in 1688.
Atkinson, John Augustus 1775 - 1830
Atkinson was an English artist, engraver and watercolourist.
He was born in London and at the age of 9, in 1784, went to live with his uncle, the famous engraver James Walker, in St Petersburg, Russia. Walker was engraver to the empress Catherine the Great 1729 - 1796 and encouraged Atkinson to study art, seeing a talent in him. Atkinson was well placed in St Petersburg to study art, being surrounded by the many collections of Catherine and the Russian Nobility, the richest in Europe. It is known that Atkinson was encouraged by Catherine herself along with and her son & later Emperor of Russia Paul I 1754 - 1801. Paul later commissioned Atkinson to paint large pieces from Russian history that can be seen in many Museums today around the world.
After the death of Paul in 1801, Atkinson returned to England and in 1803 published A Picturesque Representation of the Manners, Customs, and Amusements of the Russians, in 100 plates, drawn and etched by himself. He also painted in watercolours and in 1808 was elected to the Society of Painters in Water Colours. Many of his works, during the Napoleonic wars, were of naval subjects. He painted many battle scenes including a Battle of Waterloo, which was engraved by John Burnet.
His last contribution to the Royal Academy exhibition was in 1829. He died on 25 March 1830 in London.
Selected Works
• Carriage on Sledges 1803 Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, British Columbia
• A Russian Village 1804 Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, British Columbia
• Golubtza 1804 Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, British Columbia
• Village Amusements 1804 Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, British Columbia
• Scene from Tom Jones Courtauld Institute of Art, London
• The Slack Rope Courtauld Institute of Art, London
• A Belgian Waggon with Four Horses Tate Gallery, London
• Illustrations to Ossian The Huntington Library, California
• Heaving a Lead 1807 National Maritime Museum
• Greenwich Pensioners 1808 National Maritime Museum
• Skating, 1810 Tyne & Wear Museums, England
• Ships of the Reign of King Edward IV 1812 - Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco
• 42nd Highlanders at Waterloo Courtauld Institute of Art, London
• British Sailors Boarding a Man of War 1815 National Maritime Museum
1853 - 1857 Elephant Folio Album w/ 328 Antique Maps & Prints of The Crimea War - Unique
- Title : Crimean War Maps, Prints & Views
- Date : 1853 - 57
- Size: 24in x 18in (610mm x 455mm) Elephant Folio
- Condition: (A) Very Good Condition
- Ref: 35600
Description:
This is a unique and very comprehensive visual record of the Crimean War (1853 - 1856 & 57) in a huge Elephant Folio Album.
The album consists of 163 double pages with 328 original maps, prints and views of the War tipped in chronological order. These are mainly from the Illustrated London News, from the Wars beginning in 1853 to its end in 1856 through to the Coronation of Alexander II in 1857 and some of the first recipients of the Victoria Cross.
My impression is that the album was professionally organised and assembled possibly by a political or historical organisation of the time, in the mid 19th century.
This album is extremely large measuring 28 inches x 18 inches (62cm x 46cm) when closed and weighs approx. 14 Kg.
The Album contains; (in more detail directly below)
- 71 views of various battles during the conflict.
- 94 Portraits & prints of the leaders, generals, & personnel who were in charge and soldiers, sailors who participated in the war.
- 47 views of various cities and towns from the participating countries England, Russia, Crimea, Turkey etc.
- 63 prints of naval fleets, battleships, sea battles, landings & evacuations..
- 15 Maps of various regions and conflicts
- 25 victory scenes in Britain
- 39 prints of portraits and views of the Coronation of Alexander II
- 4 Pages of recipients from both Army & Navy, of the first Victoria Cross.
Battle Views (Battle of Kars, Kinburn, Sebastopol, Malakoff, Tchernaya, Sveaborg, Gheisk, Hango-Head, Narva, Balaclava, Inkerman, Charge of Light Cavalry Balaclava, Alma, Odessa, Crondstat, Citate, Oltenitza, Kalafat)
Prints of leaders, generals and soldiers (British, Russian, Turkish, Greek, French, Austrian, Peace Talks Paris, Congress of Vienna, Allied Naval Command, Marshall Pelissier, Wounded, Hospitals, Sir De Lacy Evans, Nicolas Emperor of Russia, Royal Marines, Lord Raglan, Napoleon III, Commanders of Allied Armies in the East, Sultan of Turkey, Marshal St Arnaud, French Cavalry, French Infantry, British Infantry, British Navy, Sir Charles Napier, Rear Admiral Corry, & Plumridge, British Cavalry & Artillery Officers, Scots Guards, Royal marines, British Cavalry, Coldstream Guards, Grenadier Guards, Omer Pacha, General Prim)
Views of cities & towns (Balaclava, Kars, Sebastopol, Sveaborg, Helsingborg, Kiel, Copenhagen, Crondstat, St Petersberg, Kerch, Inkermann, Eupatoria, Alma, Coast of Crimea, Varna Bay, Odessa and Coast, Constantinople, Oltenitza, Sinope)
Fleets, battleships & sea battles (HMS Wellington, Steamers, British Fleet, Baltic Fleet, Gun Boats, Nystad, Sebastopol, Spithead, Portsmouth, Flying Squadron, Trafalgar and Resolution, landing French Troops at Gallipoli, Duke of Wellingtons Flagship, Turkish Fleet in Biospheres, English & French Fleet in Besika Bay, HMS Neptune)
Maps (Crimea & Black Sea region, Russia-Turkey, Constantinople, Austria-Russia, Spithead review of Fleet, Sea of Azoff, Kerch, River Alma to Balaklava, Plan of Sebastopol, Seat of War in the Crimea, Sebastopol & Balaklava, Picturesque map of the seat of war, Battle of Alma, The Ottoman Empire)
Florence Nightingale (Treating wounded, visiting wounded Balaclava)
Victory Scenes in England (illuminations, Parades, Queen, Brighton, Hyde Park, Awarding Medals, The Guards, Fireworks, Landing in Kalamita Bay)
The Album is huge Elephant Folio measuring 24in x 18in (610mm x 455mm) and weighing about 13kg (29lbs) The contemporary half morocco boards are worn, rubbed and detached from the internals that on the whole are clean and tight with occasional spotting and repairs with no loss.
Also included with the album is the following loose prints, maps and newspaper clippings;
- 47 prints and views from ILN on the British Expedition into Abyssinia in 1868.
- 39 prints, views and maps from the ILN and The Graphic on the 1882 Anglo-Egyptian War.
- 60 Newspaper clipping from 1882 of The Times, Evening Standard, Daily News and other papers again on the Anglo Egyptian War.
General Definitions:
Paper thickness and quality: - Heavy and stable.
Paper color : - off white
Age of map color: -
Colors used: -
General color appearance: -
Paper size: - 24in x 18in (610mm x 455mm) each
Plate size: - 24in x 18in (610mm x 455mm) each
Margins: - Min 1in (25mm)
Imperfections:
External Boards: - Worn, slit spine, scuffing detached from internals
Internal pages: - Overall clean, some spotting, light offsetting to some pages, several small repairs without loss
Background: The Crimean War was fought from October 1853 to February 1856 between the Russian Empire and an ultimately victorious alliance of the Ottoman Empire, France, the United Kingdom, and Sardinia-Piedmont.
Geopolitical causes of the war included the decline of the Ottoman Empire (the "Eastern Question"), the expansion of the Russian Empire in the preceding Russo-Turkish Wars, and the British and French preference to preserve the Ottoman Empire to maintain the balance of power in the Concert of Europe. The flashpoint was a disagreement over the rights of Christian minorities in Palestine, then part of the Ottoman Empire, with the French promoting the rights of Roman Catholics, and Russia promoting those of the Eastern Orthodox Church.
The churches worked out their differences with the Ottomans and came to an agreement, but both the French Emperor Napoleon III and the Russian Tsar Nicholas I refused to back down. Nicholas issued an ultimatum that demanded the Orthodox subjects of the Ottoman Empire be placed under his protection. Britain attempted to mediate and arranged a compromise to which Nicholas agreed. When the Ottomans demanded changes to the agreement, Nicholas recanted and prepared for war.
In July 1853, Russian troops occupied the Danubian Principalities (now part of Romania but then under Ottoman suzerainty). On 16 October 1853, having obtained promises of support from France and Britain, the Ottomans declared war on Russia. Led by Omar Pasha, the Ottomans fought a strong defensive campaign and stopped the Russian advance at Silistra (now in Bulgaria). A separate action on the fort town of Kars, in the Ottoman Empire, led to a siege, and an Ottoman attempt to reinforce the garrison was destroyed by a Russian fleet at the Battle of Sinop in November 1853.
Fearing the growth of influence of the Russian Empire, the British and French fleets entered the Black Sea in January 1854. They moved north to Varna in June 1854 and arrived just in time for the Russians to abandon Silistra. In the Baltic, near the Russian capital of Saint Petersburg, an Anglo-French fleet instituted a naval blockade and bottled up the outnumbered Russian Baltic Fleet, causing economic damage to Russia by blockading trade while also forcing the Russians to keep a large army guarding St. Petersburg from a potential allied attack.
After a minor skirmish at Köstence (now Constanța), the allied commanders decided to attack Russia's main naval base in the Black Sea, Sevastopol, in Crimea. After extended preparations, allied forces landed on the peninsula in September 1854 and marched their way to a point south of Sevastopol after they had won the Battle of the Alma on 20 September 1854. The Russians counterattacked on 25 October in what became the Battle of Balaclava and were repulsed, but the British Army's forces were seriously depleted as a result. A second Russian counterattack at Inkerman ended in a stalemate.
By 1855, the Italian Kingdom of Sardinia sent an expeditionary force to Crimea, siding with France, Britain and the Ottoman Empire. The front settled into the Siege of Sevastopol, involving brutal conditions for troops on both sides. Smaller military actions took place in the Caucasus (1853–1855), the White Sea (July–August 1854) and the North Pacific (1854–1855).
Sevastopol finally fell after eleven months, after the French assaulted Fort Malakoff. Isolated and facing a bleak prospect of invasion by the West if the war continued, Russia sued for peace in March 1856. France and Britain welcomed the development, owing to the conflict's domestic unpopularity. The Treaty of Paris, signed on 30 March 1856, ended the war. It forbade Russia to base warships in the Black Sea. The Ottoman vassal states of Wallachia and Moldavia became largely independent. Christians in the Ottoman Empire gained a degree of official equality, and the Orthodox Church regained control of the Christian churches in dispute.
The Crimean War was one of the first conflicts in which military forces used modern technologies such as explosive naval shells, railways and telegraphs. The war was also one of the first to be documented extensively in written reports and in photographs. The war quickly became a symbol of logistical, medical and tactical failures and of mismanagement. The reaction in Britain led to a demand for the professionalisation of medicine, most famously achieved by Florence Nightingale, who gained worldwide attention for pioneering modern nursing while she treated the wounded.
The Crimean War marked a turning point for the Russian Empire. The war weakened the Imperial Russian Army, drained the treasury and undermined Russia's influence in Europe. The empire would take decades to recover. Russia's humiliation forced its educated elites to identify its problems and recognise the need for fundamental reforms. They saw rapid modernisation as the sole way to recover the empire's status as a European power. The war thus became a catalyst for reforms of Russia's social institutions, including the abolition of serfdom and overhauls in the justice system, local self-government, education and military service. (Ref: Tooley; M&B)
The Illustrated London News (ILN)
In 1842, Herbert Ingram, a young printer and newsagent from Nottingham, arrived in London. As a newsagent he noticed that when on the rare occasions that newspapers included woodcuts, their sales increased. He therefore came to the conclusion that it would be possible to make a good profit from a magazine that included a large number of illustrations.
Herbert Ingram discussed the proposal with his friend, Mark Lemon, the editor of Punch magazine. With Lemon as his chief adviser, the first edition of the Illustrated London News appeared on 14th May 1842. Costing sixpence, the magazine had sixteen pages and thirty-two woodcuts. The first edition included pictures of the war in Afghanistan, a train crash in France, a steamboat explosion in Canada and a fancy dress ball at Buckingham Palace.
Ingram was a staunch Liberal who favored social reform. He announced in the London Illustrated News that the concern of the magazine would be \\\"with the English poor\\\" and the \\\"three essential elements of discussion with us will be the poor laws, the factory laws, and the working of the mining system\\\". Later Herbert Ingram was to become MP for Boston and until his death in 1860 continued his campaign for social reform in the House of Commons.
The London Illustrated News was an immediate success and the first edition sold 26,000 copies. Within a few months it was selling over 65,000 copies a week. Special events were important to the success of the London Illustrated News. The magazine did very well during the Exhibition 1851 and over 150,000 copies were sold of the edition that reported the funeral of the Duke of Wellington. The Crimean War caused a further boast to sales and by 1863 it was selling over 300,000 copies a week. This was far higher than other journals. For example, newspapers such as the Daily News only sold 6,000 copies at this time, and even the largest selling newspaper, The Times only sold 70,000 copies. In the Christmas Number of The Illustrated London News, 1855, the first pictures in color were published.
In the year 1879, The ILLUSTRATED LONDON NEWS claimed to be the fastest woodcut-printing establishment in the world. The Ingram Rotary machine had been invented. It printed both sides of the paper at once and turned out 6,500 copies per hour. It required only four men to operate it, whereas thirty men and five machines were needed previously
 The ILN held a commanding position in the market place. It was seriously challenged by The GRAPHIC in 1870. Although it never reached the circulation of the ILN. it did take a good market share until the turn of the century.
Please note all items auctioned are genuine, we do not sell reproductions. A Certificate of Authenticity (COA) can be issued on request.
