(NEW YORK CITY) Bowles Carrington View of Fort George with t

Sale 2232 - Lot 56

Price Realized: $ 7,800

?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price

Estimate: $ 8,000 - $ 12,000

(NEW YORK CITY.) Bowles, Carrington. View of Fort George with the City of New York from the SW. Lovely hand-colored engraved city view, 11 3/4x17 3/4 inches sheet size (300x450 mm), margins trimmed close and just outside the neat line and just beneath the imprint line, slight hints of repairs and overcoloring in upper corner and along edges at several points; archivally corner mounted; matted and framed. London, after 1764

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Additional Details

Appropriately referred to as the Carwitham View after the plate's engraver I. or J. Carwitham. The print is dated after 1764 based on Carrington's succession to the business of Thomas Bowles in 1764. The view captures the City of New York as it appeared sometime between 1731 and prior to 1736 (probably around 1734).
Stokes refers to the view as ". . . one of the most important, interesting, and sought-after prints of Old New York"--Volume 1, page 269. Deak thinks, "One of the most sought-after prints of colonial New York is this attractive view, the earliest taken from the west"--Deak 84. Both appraisals are true, as the view is extremely attractive, is highly sought after by collectors, and very rarely comes to market. The example offered here is an extremely fine one.
The Carwitham view is possibly based on an earlier view by William Burgis, with both views incorporating the dramatic presence of a British man-of-war in the foreground on the Hudson River. The Carwitham view, however, carefully portrays the early skyline with all architectural additions at least up to 1734.
There are various states of the print, identified by the imprint or lack thereof, numerals or letters in the corners or margins, and the presence of reference numbers on the buildings. This copy is in the second state with "V" in the upper right corner.