Essex Prints

13x8 cm

Fairlop Oak Essex
Drawn & Engraved by I Hassell.

Aquatint in original hand colour by John Hassell published in a two volume work: Picturesque Rides and Walks, with Excursions by Water, Thirty miles round the Metropolis...London, John Hassell 1817-1818.

John Hassell (1767?-1825) was an English landscape painter, engraver, illustrator writer, publisher, drawing master, friend and biographer of fellow artist George Morland.
The work included 120 aquatint engravings. Aquatint is an etching process using powdered rosin to create tones on the copperplate which, when hand coloured with watercolour washes after printing, gave the effect of a watercolour painting. The small two volume work was expensive to produce and sales were limited, the work and surviving plates are scarce today.

The district of Fairlop in Ilford took its name from a famous old oak tree that stood in Hainault forest, first recorded in 1738 as Fair Lop Tree. Following the popular practice of lighting fires in the cavities of trees during fairs, the tree was badly burnt on 25th June 1805 and by 1820 was gone. The aquatint shows the tree after the fire of 1805.

Fingermarking to lower margin affecting the title.