Surrey Prints

9x7 cm

Durdans near Epsom, Surrey, the seat of Blackman Esq.^r
Drawn & Engraved by I Hassell. 
London. Pub.1.Sep.^r 1816 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 owner of the house at the time of this aquatint, from 1799-1819, was George Blackman (1735-1797), English businessman and a director of the Bank of England. On his marriage to his cousin Mary Harnage in 1821, he changed his name to Harnage so that he could inherit her ancestral home. He was also made a Baronet in 1821.

Some fingermarking esp. to lower edge.