Old London Views and Maps by Various - 18th century: Many from William Thornton's New, Complete and Universal History of the City of London, 1784

Scrapbook of copperplate engravings of London views and maps, mostly from the 18th century compiled by a Victorian lady.

Title Old London Views and Maps in manuscript within an engraved border mounted on card, plus 74 views and two maps mounted on card.

An interesting collection of views of famous London sites including St. Paul's Cathedral, Westminster Abbey, Guildhall, Greys Hospital, the statue of a chained lunatic at Bedlam Hospital, a Lambeth pub circa 1830, Charles Hughes' equestrian circus and riding school in Southwark, Dulwich College, actor David Garrick's house with its Temple of Shakespeare, and many more fascinating places.

Many bucolic landscapes of London suburbs along the Thames, taking in Kew, Richmond, Putney, Chelsea, Clapham, Hackney, Deptford and Gravesend.

Large fold-out hand-coloured copperplate map of the city of London and county of Middlesex by Johannes Blaeu from Geographiae Volumen Quintum quo Angliae, Amsterdam, 1662, and another of London in the Anglo-Saxon era, circa 1000 AD, published by William Darton, 58 Holborn Hill, London, 1810.

About 40 copperplate engravings of views of stately homes and landscapes of London from William Thornton's New, Complete and Universal History of the City of London, Alexander Hogg, King's Arms, No. 16 Paternoster Row, London, 1784. A few later steel engravings from unknown publications.

Several 17th century copperplates by Wenceslaus Hollar including Shakespeare's Globe Theatre, the crypt in St. Paul's Cathedral, and St. Marie Over's church (now Southwark Cathedral).

Many views of now demolished or ruined buildings such as Carlton House, Holbein's Gate, Wricklemarsh House, Wanstead House, Hayes Place, Foots Cray Place, Gunnersbury House, Sir Paul Pindar's Tudor house, etc.

Bookplate on front endpaper of Josephine Dockar Drysdale (1841-1921) who inherited Wick Hall, Oxfordshire, from her father William Dockar in 1882. Manuscript poem on blue paper, The Unhappy Lady of Hackney, may be her work.

Green cloth binding with black- and gold-stamped decoration on front cover, most engravings trimmed to within their decorative borders, some scattered foxing and age toning throughout, a few prints with damage, hinged mounts starting to fray.