Hertfordshire Prints

9x7 cm

Sopewell Nunery, Herts
Drawn & Engraved by I Hassell.
London: Pub.1.April 1817 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.

Sopwell Priory was a Benedictine Nunnery founded around 1140 on the site of an ancient hermitage in Sopwell. The ruins, in Cottonmill Lane, are now managed by St Albans Museum.

Poor condition: Small top margin, fingermarking to egdes, pinholes to lower margin, one just inside the image.