Illustrated London News
1852 ILN & J. Gilbert Large Antique Print of The Duke of Wellingtons Funeral Car
- Title : Wellingtons Funeral Car...J Gilbert....November 27 1852 - Supplement
- Size: 33in x 22in (840mm x 560mm)
- Condition: (A+) Fine Condition
- Date : 1852
- Ref #: 26373
Description:
This very large original wood-block engraved antique print of the Funeral Car of The Duke of Wellington by Sir John Gilbert, was published as a supplement to The Illustrated London News on the 27th of November 1852.
Sir John Gilbert RA 1817 – 1897 was an English artist, illustrator and engraver.
Gilbert was born in Blackheath, Surrey, and taught himself to paint. His only formal instruction was from George Lance. Skilled in several media, Gilbert gained the nickname, the Scott of painting. He was best known for the illustrations and woodcuts he produced for the Illustrated London News.
Gilbert was initially apprenticed to a firm of estate agents, but taught himself art by copying prints. He was unable to enter the Royal Academy Schools, but mastered watercolour, oils, and other media. From 1836 he exhibited at the Society of British Artists, and at the RA from 1838. The art patron Thomas Sheepshanks and the artist William Mulready suggested that he learn wood engraving. Starting with Punch, he moved on to the Illustrated London News. He produced an impressive number of wood-engravings for that publication and for The London Journal. He also produced very many illustrations for books, including nearly all the important English poets (including his illustrated Shakespeare with almost 750 drawings). He became president of the Royal Watercolour Society in 1871. He exhibited some 400 pictures in watercolour and oil exhibited at the various societies. In 1872 he was knighted. He became an RA in 1876, in the same year as Edward Poynter.
The Gilbert-Garret Competition for Sketching Clubs was started in 1870 at St. Martins School of Art, and named after its first president, John Gilbert.
Gilbert is buried at Brockley and Ladywell Cemeteries.
General Definitions:
Paper thickness and quality: - Heavy and stable
Paper color : - off white
Age of map color: -
Colors used: -
General color appearance: -
Paper size: - 33in x 22in (840mm x 560mm)
Plate size: - 33in x 22in (840mm x 560mm)
Margins: - Min 1/4in (5mm)
Imperfections:
Margins: - Re-joined along horizontal & vertical folds, no loss
Plate area: - Re-joined along horizontal & vertical folds, no loss
Verso: - Re-joined along horizontal & vertical folds, no loss
Background:
Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, KG, GCB, GCH, PC, FRS 1769 – 1852) was an Anglo-Irish soldier and statesman who was one of the leading military and political figures of 19th-century Britain, serving twice as Prime Minister. His victory against Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815 puts him in the first rank of Britain\'s military heroes.
Wellesley was born in Dublin, into the Protestant Ascendancy in Ireland. He was commissioned as an ensign in the British Army in 1787, serving in Ireland as aide-de-camp to two successive Lords Lieutenant of Ireland. He was also elected as a Member of Parliament in the Irish House of Commons. He was a colonel by 1796, and saw action in the Netherlands and in India, where he fought in the Fourth Anglo-Mysore War at the Battle of Seringapatam. He was appointed governor of Seringapatam and Mysore in 1799 and, as a newly appointed major-general (since 1802), won a decisive victory over the Maratha Confederacy at the Battle of Assaye in 1803.
Wellesley rose to prominence as a general during the Peninsular campaign of the Napoleonic Wars, and was promoted to the rank of field marshal after leading the allied forces to victory against the French Empire at the Battle of Vitoria in 1813. Following Napoleon\'s exile in 1814, he served as the ambassador to France and was granted a dukedom. During the Hundred Days in 1815, he commanded the allied army which, together with a Prussian army under Blücher, defeated Napoleon at Waterloo. Wellington\'s battle record is exemplary; he ultimately participated in some 60 battles during the course of his military career.
Wellington is famous for his adaptive defensive style of warfare, resulting in several victories against numerically superior forces while minimising his own losses. He is regarded as one of the greatest defensive commanders of all time, and many of his tactics and battle plans are still studied in military academies around the world.
After the end of his active military career, Wellington returned to politics. He was twice British prime minister as part of the Tory party: from 1828 to 1830, and for a little less than a month in 1834. He oversaw the passage of the Catholic Relief Act 1829, but opposed the Reform Act 1832. He continued as one of the leading figures in the House of Lords until his retirement and remained Commander-in-Chief of the British Army until his death.
Wellington died at Walmer Castle in Deal on 14 September 1852. This was his residence as Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports. Walmer Castle was said to have been his favourite residence. He was found to be unwell on that morning and was aided from his military campaign bed (the same one he used throughout his historic military career) and seated in his chair where he died. His death was recorded as being due to the after-effects of a stroke culminating in a series of seizures. He was aged 83.
Although in life he hated travelling by rail (after witnessing the death of William Huskisson, one of the first railway accident casualties), his body was then taken by train to London, where he was given a state funeral – one of only a handful of British subjects to be honoured in that way (other examples are Lord Nelson and Sir Winston Churchill) – and the last heraldic state funeral to be held in Britain. The funeral took place on 18 November 1852. At his funeral there was hardly any space to stand because of the number of people attending, and the effusive praise given him in Tennyson\'s Ode on the Death of the Duke of Wellington attests to his stature at the time of his death. He was buried in a sarcophagus of luxulyanite in St Pauls Cathedral next to Lord Nelson. A bronze memorial was sculpted by Alfred Stevens, and features two intricate supports: Truth tearing the tongue out of the mouth of False-hood, and Valour trampling Cowardice underfoot. Stevens did not live to see it placed in its home under one of the great arches of the Cathedral.
Wellington\'s casket was decorated with banners which were made for his funeral procession. Originally, there was one from Prussia, which was removed during World War I and never reinstated. In the procession, the Great Banner was carried by General Sir James Charles Chatterton of the 4th Dragoon Guards on the orders of Queen Victoria.
Most of the book A Biographical Sketch of the Military and Political Career of the Late Duke of Wellington by Weymouth newspaper proprietor Joseph Drew is a detailed contemporary account of his death, lying in state and funeral.
After his death, Irish and English newspapers disputed whether Wellington had been born an Irishman or an Englishman. In 2002, he was number 15 in the BBC\'s poll of the 100 Greatest Britons.
Owing to its links with Wellington, as the former commanding officer and colonel of the regiment, the title 33rd (The Duke of Wellington\'s) Regiment was granted to the 33rd Regiment of Foot, on 18 June 1853 (the 38th anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo) by Queen Victoria. Wellington\'s battle record is exemplary; he participated in some 60 battles during the course of his military career.
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.
