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London 1753 - SAVE 50%!

London 1753 - SAVE 50%!

by Sheila O'Connell
With contributions by Celina Fox, Ralph Hyde, Roy Porter

$30.00 USD
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Format

Product Details

Godine

Hardcover
ISBN: 978-1-56792-247-9
Pages: 325
Size: 8.78" x 11.18"
Published: November 2003
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In 1753, London was the largest metropolis in the world, a city of extremes: poverty and wealth, innovation and tradition. It was the city of Johnson, Pope, Kent, and Hogarth, and opulent displays and burgeoning industry. It also harbored abject poverty, social prejudices and Tory inclinations—a mindset that would lead to both the American and the Industrial Revolutions, and, within seventy-five years, to fundamental changes in how people were governed, information conveyed and children educated. In this scholarly, extensively illustrated book, published to accompany a major exhibition celebrating the 250th birthday of the British Museum, we see the city's life through its objects; through prints and coins, paintings and trade cards, pub signs and drawings. We see London bursting with energy and confidence, twenty times larger than the nearest provincial rival, home to 11 percent of Britain's population: in every way an imperial city.

Three essays by Porter, Fox, and Hyde are coupled with extensive captions to the illustrations of the objects themselves, as we move across the city, from east to west, exploring the characteristics and idiosyncrasies of its discrete quarters—Westminster, Chelsea, Knightsbridge, Mayfair, and the West End. Trade cards and elaborate engravings advertise the skills of the tradesmen; satirical prints provide insight into social attitudes and political policies; topographical engravings and drawings display London under construction and the vibrancy and variety of its neighborhoods.

Illustrated with thirty color images and over 325 black and white illustrations, this visual feast captures the excitement, vitality, topography, iconography, and sociology of this great metropolis as it approached the peak of its power and influence. It provides a fundamental text for understanding both England and her "wonder city" at a pivotal moment in their history.

Sheila O'Connell
Sheila O'Connell is a curator of British prints before 1880 at the British Museum. She has also curated prints and drawings at the Yale Center of British Art, the Bar Convent Museum, and the Kenwood House. O'Connell is a member of the Council of the London Topographical Society and editor of their annual publications, a trustee of the William Hogarth Trust, and a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries. In addition to her two books, she has written for Print Quarterly, Publishing History, and The Burlington Magazine, among others.
Celina Fox
Dr Celina Fox, M.A., D.Phil., F.S.A. trained as a historian at Cambridge, Harvard and Oxford. She was keeper of art collections at the Museum of London where in 1982 she organized an exhibition with Professor Aileen Ribeiro on the eighteenth-century masquerade. In 1992 she organised the Metropole London exhibition staged at the Kulturstiftung Ruhr, Villa Hügel, Essen, the largest British loan exhibition ever staged in Germany. She also edited and was the main contributor to the catalogue of the exhibition, published in English the same year as London World City 1800–1840 by Yale University Press. She has served as a member of the Heritage Lottery Fund’s expert panel for museums, libraries, and archives and as vice chair of English Heritage’s Blue Plaque Panel. She has worked on museum developments in Russia and Germany and written articles and reviews for many publications.
Ralph Hyde
Ralph Hyde was an authority on the historical urban development of London. He drew his findings primarily from historical maps and prints of London, artifacts of which he served as keeper at Guildhall Library from 1975 to 1999. Within the field of maps and landscape prints, he was recognized as the foremost expert on panoramas, wide-format prints of landscapes that were popular in the nineteenth century. He prepared several exhibitions and publications on this medium, the most recent of which was published weeks before his death in 2015.
Roy Porter
Roy Porter was an astonishingly prolific scholar, with over one hundred books to his name. He specialized in the social history of the eighteenth century, especially the history of medicine. A native of South London, he attended Cambridge University on scholarship, where he later became Dean of Studies in History. He also served as the Director of the Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine until his retirement in 2001. He received numerous honors for his work, including the Leo Gershoy Award of the American Historical Association.