DES BARRES JOSEPH FREDERICK WALLET A View of Boston Taken on

Sale 2464 - Lot 367

Price Realized: $ 6,500

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

Estimate: $ 7,000 - $ 10,000

DES BARRES, JOSEPH FREDERICK WALLET. A View of Boston, Taken on the Road to Dorchester. Fine large-scale engraved view after a drawing by William Pierrie, published in Des Barres' Atlantic Neptune. 22 1/2x31 1/2 inches sheet size, wide margins with deckle lower edge; light toning with a marginal repair, but overall an excellent example. London, 1776

Set Alert for Similar Items

Additional Details

This is the finest depiction of Boston from the eighteenth century, published just after the conflicts between the British and New England militiamen had erupted in the city at the outset of the American Revolution. Taken from a southern vantage point, British officer William Pierre gives the viewer a "sense of Boston's early geography as a peninsula" (Deak.) At left is the imposing mansion of Massachusetts Royal Governor William Shirley built in 1747 which still stands as an historic house in Roxbury today. The city of Boston lies between the water and several large hills in the background. The beacon erected in 1634 to warn inhabitants of danger is visible atop one of the large hills, known today as Beacon Hill. The topography was later modified, reducing these hills to create landfill for Back Bay. Deak, Picturing America, 132.