PAPWORTH'S SELECT VIEWS OF LONDON 1816 - TEXT Series 117 as catalogued in London Illustrated 1604-1851 by Bernard Adams

Rudolph Ackermann, the fine art publisher, book and printseller, started trading at 101 Strand on the site of old Worcester House in 1796 and named his establishment, which combined shop, art library and drawing-school, The Repository of the Arts. From here, on 2 January 1809, he launched a monthly periodical entitled The Repository of Arts, Literature, Commerce, Manufactures, Fashions and Politics. In March Frederic Shoberl was appointed editor and continued in that capacity until publication ceased some 20 years later, by which time it had run through three series, 40 volumes and 240 monthly Parts. Its aim was to provide, at 3s 6d per issue, a more attractive and fashion-conscious version of the long-established Gentleman's Magazine and European Magazine which would publish notices of current art exhibitions and books, reviews and fashion pages, with literary contributions by William Combe and others.

Its undoubted success, which quickly gained it some 3000 subscribers, must surely be attributed to an abundance of illustrations superior in quality and charm to those of its rivals, which were embellished chiefly with explanatory figures in line, staid views, portraits on copper or blurred woodcuts. Ackermann, on the other hand, introduced every form of engraving available: line, stipple, aquatint, wood and, eventually, lithographic. Moreover he made use of the team of colourists employed on publications such as The Microcosm of London (Series 99) to apply colour washes both to the aquatint and etched views and to the elegant fashion plates in line—with the latter even including small patterns of the materials used in the garments shown.

Among Ackermann's contributors was John Papworth, the architect responsible for the design of his showroom at 101 Strand. The son of an Office of Works stuccoist, his talents were observed by Sir William Chambers. By the age of 18 he had already learned to draw in perspective, served an apprenticeship to a builder and picked up the rudiments of interior design during a year spent with a well-known firm of furnishers and decorators. He started showing his drawings at the Royal Academy in 1791 and was soon in command of a busy practice, specializing in remodelling houses, laying out gardens and designing furniture and trophies. It was for his design of a Waterloo trophy that his friends acclaimed him a second Michelangelo and led him to adopt Buonarroti as his second name.

Before this, however, he had been writing a regular series of architectural notes for the Repository illustrated by coloured aquatints, and in 1816 Ackermann decided to reprint in volume form those that described aspects of contemporary London; the book was issued in paper boards labelled on the spine 'Ackermann's Select Views of London. 76 Plates. £3.13. 6d.'

Select Views of London; with historical and descriptive sketches of some of the most interesting of its Public Buildings. Compiled and arranged by John B. Papworth. Architect, Author of an Essay on the Dry Rot, &c &c. London: Printed for R. Ackermann, 101, Strand, by J. Diggens, St. Ann's Lane. 1816.

Octavo,265 x 185mm. 1816

COLLATION Title-page; introduction (4pp); contents (2pp), pp 1-159, Select Views.

Introducing the reprint Papworth speaks of 'the patronage which a portion of this Work received when it was laid before the Public as "Views of London" in the Repository of Arts, and which induced a republication in the present form encreased by several new Plates: those which had previously appeared having been under the hands of the Engraver for improvement and higher finish'. The claim of an increase of 'several new plates' is not borne out by a comparison with the illustrations published in the 14 volumes of the Repository ofArts (first series) and the second volume of the second series; only pl.51, 'The Guildhall', is additional. Conversely nine London plates which had appeared in the Repository to date were not reissued: vol. 1, p1. 2, 7, 12, 17, 22; vol.2, p1. 10; vol.9, p1. 28. They were all showroom interiors of firms selling furniture, pottery, china, glass, drapery and books, by way of advertisement, the first and last being of Ackermann's own establishment; in addition vol.6, p1. 25, 'An old house at Newington', and vol.7, p1. 24, 'Southwark Bridge', did not reappear. Thus the original quota of 84 was reduced to 76 plates, wholly aquatinted or line-engraved with aquatinted skies, coloured by hand in pale, transparent washes, as in the Repository

The views are classified in two 'Divisions': the first depicting the places of worship, residence and entertainment of fashionable society and the second the temples of the financial and mercantile City. Of particular topographical interest is the set of views of West End squares, not published systematically on this modest scale since Overton's Prospects (Series 26) of nearly 100 years earlier. Select Views anticipates the compilation of another architect, James Elmes's Metropolitan Improvements (Series 154), in its illustration of the work of contemporaries (items 27-8, 31, 36, 63, 65, 72) and topically records the ephemeral structures which appeared in the parks to celebrate the Peace of 1814.

Only two plates retain their original publication-lines (items 7 and 8) and these are the only ones with credits. It should be noted, however, that John Phillips, who has made a close study of drawings and etchings by the Shepherd family (Shepherd's London, 1976), has established that Thomas Hosmer Shepherd's earliest work was for the Repository and that he and his father George contributed no fewer than 35 of the London views; moreover it would appear that Thomas Hosmer himself etched the plates. Locations are given for their drawings for this work in the British Museum, Guildhall Library, London Metropolitan Archive (formerly the GLC) and Westminster Public Library.

In the list that follows the caption lettering as it appears in Select Views, engraved in voided capitals, has been transcribed and the page opposite which each plate is bound has been noted. After the dimensions are added the dates from the burnished out Repository publication-lines and also the volume and plate number which were engraved tr on each view in the Repository of Arts (abbreviated RA).