Steel line-engraved vignettes of Margate

Margate in Maps and Pictures

compiled by Anthony Lee

Click on pictures for a larger image

CONTENTS: J. Harwood Kershaw and Son Rock & Co. John Newman & Co. Local Publishers Unknown Publishers
J. Harwood
The earliest major publisher of steel line-engraved vignettes was J. Harwood of London who between 1841 and 1854 published well over one thousand views in his numbered series Scenery of Great Britain, at least five of which are of Margate; there may be more. Harwood also published fancy stationary, illustrated with engraved vignettes.


Margate [no date]	Jetty, 9 June 1848	Marine Terrace, 15 October 1844	Margate from the Pier, 22 February 1841

Pier and Jetty [no date]
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Kershaw and Son
Kershaw and Sons were active publishers of vignettes in the period betweeb 1845 and 1860, including about 40 of Margate.
Some were published in a collection Twenty Four Views of Margate at a price of 1s.
	Others were published in a collection containing the rather odd number of 16 prints, as Views of Margate.
They also produced fancy notepaper illustrated with engraved vignettes. Some of the prints included in the Kershaw volumes are labelled "J. S. & Co." The relationship between J. S. & Co. and Kershaw and Sons is unclear. None of the Kershaw and Sons prints were dated. However, the print of Clifton Terrace gives the alternative name of Alexandra Road. In 1868 there was a major renaming of the streets of Margate, including a proposal, not carried out, to rename Clifton Terrace as Alexandra Road [Thanet Advertiser, February 29, 1868]. These prints can therefore be dated to the late 1860s.


Albert and Marine Terrace	Athelstan Road	Clifton Baths	Clifton Terrace, Alexandra Road

Cliftonville Hotel	Cliftonville Hotel No. 2	Dalby Square	Drapers Alms Houses

Droit House	Ethelbert Crescent	Ethelbert Road	Ethelbert Terrace

Fort Crescent	Fort Crescent	High Street [Vaughan's Library]	High Street [No name on Library]

High Street	Iron Bridge and Upper Marine Terrace	Kingsgate Castle, near Margate	Light House and Pier Head

Lower Marine Terrace	Magdala Villas	Margate from Hartsdown	Margate from the Pier

Marine Parade	New Landing Place	No Man's Land	Paragon and Fort [no band stand]

Paragon and Fort [with band stand]	Railway Station	Royal Assembly Rooms	Royal Crescent

Royal Sea Bathing Infirmary	St John's Church [Old Church]	St. John's Church, Interior	Trinity Church

Trinity Church Interior (East End)	Trinity Church Interior (West End)	Trinity New Schools	Upper Marine Terrace
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Rock & Co.
The London publishers Rock & Co., founded by William Frederick Rock (1801-1890), were one of the most prolific publishers of steel engraved vignette views. Their views were published in the form of cards, fancy stationery, and books and booklets. Books of steel line-engraved vignettes had disappeared by about 1880, and for a while Rock & Co published Leporello View Albums, as described in the relevant section. Some of the cards published by Rock & Co. had simple red line borders:

Other cards had more elaborate borders.

Their fancy notepaper was printed with vignettes such as this one of Upper and Lower Marine Parade. These vignettes were larger than those published in their books of prints, and could be slightly different, as for the one illustrated here.
Rock & Co. are best known however for their books of prints.
	These could be issued as sets of six bound in card covers, embossed to look like lace, as in Views of Margate & Neighbourhood.
They were also issued in sets of twelve, again bound in card covers embossed to look like lace, with two views printed on each page, as in Views of Margate
	Books of prints from Rock & Co. are most commonly found in hard covers, embossed with the titles 30 Views of Margate or Views and Scenery of Margate. The covers also contain the statement "Published by" or "Sold by" followed by the name of the appropriate shop, in the the example shown here, "Brown, Fort Steps". The books sold for 1s.
Many of these books of prints have now been disbound, and single prints, often with modern hand-colouring, are widely available.


Albert Terrace, 24 June 1868	Buenos Ayres [entry to railway station on left], 20 May 1868	Cliftonville Hotel, 17 June 1868	Cliftonville Hotel and Ethelbert Crescent, 1 October 1872

Droit House, [no date]	Ethelbert Crescent, 17 June 1868	Ethelbert Terrace, 1 July 1868	Fort Crescent, 14 February 1861

Fort, from the Jetty, 27 May 1868	Holy Trinity, Margate [no date]	Jetty, 20 May 1868	Jetty Extension, 16 June 1877

Kingsgate Castle	Lower Marine Parade and Pier, 27 May 1868	Margate, 17 May 1861	Margate from the Pier, 11 May 1861

Margate from Royal Crescent, 22 January 1861	Marine Terrace, 24 June 1868	Marine Terrace [Upper and Lower], 14 February 1861	Marine Terrace [Upper and Lower] [no date]

Market [no date]	New Jetty from East Cliff, 1 March 1861	No Man's Land, 2 April 1853	No Man's Land, 10 July 1868

North Foreland, 2 February 1862	Old Church [St. John's], no date	Paragon, 1 July 1863	Pier and Jetty [no date]

Reculvers, 8 February, 1863	Royal Crescent, 22 January 1861	Royal Sea Bathing Infirmary, 1 March 1861	Royal Sea Bathing Infirmary, 2 April 1875

Sands, Margate, 10 July 1868	Warrier Crescent & Ethelbert Square, Cliftonville, 1 October 1872	Margate from the Pier

The case of the Aquarium and Marine Polytechnic
In an attempt to keep their prints up to dat, Rock would sometimes modify their existing plates, as they did in the late 1870s in the light of plans to build an Aquarium and Marine Polytechnique on reclaimed land under the cliffs at Margate, on a site that, until recently, was the Rendezvous Car Park.
The proposed building underwent a number of changes of design and name, but in 1877 a design by Alfred Bedborough was published in The Builder [The Builder, Sept. 8 1877] by which time the building was known as the “Margate Skating Rink, Baths, and Aquarium.”
Rock obviously believed that the building would actually be built, and modifed their prints of The Fort from the Jetty and The Jetty to show the new building, without changing the date on the prints.


Fort from the Jetty, 27 May 1868	The Jetty, 20 May 1868
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John Newman & Co.
John Newman and Co. were a London firm of engravers and publishers of topographical views. Their views of Margate date to between 1871 and 1880, just before viognettes ceased to be published, and are of significantly lower quality than those published at earlier dates.
They published a collection Thirty Two Views of Margate and Neighbourhood and also included a number of the vignettes in a larger collection, "Views in Kent".
	They also published lithographs, such as The Paragon and Fort Crescent, Margate, shown here.


Cliftonville Hotel, February 1873	Dent de Lion, Westgate on Sea [no date]	Ethelbert Crescent, Cliftonville, 4 December, 1877	Harbour [no date]

Margate and Sands [no date]	Margate Jetty Extension, 20 August 1878	Margate from the Jetty [no date]	Margate from the Jetty [no date]

Margate 12 July 1879	Margate as it is, November 1880	New Jetty, 11 December 1877	New Landing Place and Pier [no date]

North Foreland Lighthouse near Broadstairs, February 1871	Paragon and Fort Crescent [no date]	Paragon and Fort Crescent [no date]	Reculvers, Near Herne Bay, March 1871

Royal Crescent, 6 January 1873	Sands Margate [no date]	Sands Margate [no date]	Sands and Jetty, 27 January 1875

Sea Bathing Infirmary, 7 January 1875	Warrior Crescent, 7 December 1877	White Hart Hotel, Parade, 2 May 1877	Newman Iron Bridge and Lower Marine Terrace
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Local Publishers
Steel line-engraved vignettes were produced by a number of the Margate libraries and printers.
Probably the most prolific local publisher of this kind of print was William Perry. William Perry is listed as a drawing master, living at 1 ½ Broad Street, in the Post Office Directory for Kent of 1851 and as a Bookseller and Stationer at 4 Broad Street in the Post Office Directory for Kent of 1855.
His Perry's Twelve Views in Margate contains views of Margate drawn and published by himself, in the middle to late 1850s.
	The back page of this booklet is an advertisment for his Circulating Library at 16, High Street and 4, Broad Street. As well as the library he sold a variety of fancy stationary and artists' materials, including "Drawings lent to copy".
Six of these vignettes were published as coloured prints in Perry's Coloured Views in Margate, and several others were published as separate coloured views.
Although the prints in Perry's Twelve Views in Margate are undated, versions of the prints issued separately, or in Perry's New Guide of Margate and Ramsgate, or in Perry's Coloured Views in Margate* are dated, allowing the dating of some of these prints, as given here.*


Church Field House [no date]	Fort from the New Landing, 6 July 1857	Fort Crescent and Paragon, 2 June 1855	Margate from the Railway Station [no date]

Marine Parade from the Pier, 6 July 1857	Marine Terrace and Buenos Ayres, 25 May 1854	New Landing Place and Pier, 10 November 1853	New Landing Place and Pier [no date]

Paragon and Fort Crescent [no date]	Royal Crescent [no date]	Sands [no date]	St John's Church [no date]

Thanet Collegiate School [no date]

Fort from the New Landing, 6 July 1857	Fort Crescent and Paragon, 2 June 1855	Marine Parade Margate from the Pier, 6 July 1857	Marine Terrace and Buenos Ayres, 25 May 1854

New Landing Place and Pier, 10 November 1853	New Landing Place and Pier [no date]	Paragon and Fort Crescent [no date]	Royal Crescent, June 1858
A small number of vignettes were also published by other Margate Libraries, some as fancy notepaper and others probably as single sheets. Those so far identified include prints by: W. C. Brasier, of the High Street; Robert Chappell Osborne, a bookseller and printer in the High Street; I. Denne; and T. H. Keeble, also in the High Street and the publisher of the long-running series of Kebble's Penny Guides to Margate.

W. C. Brasier, Trinity Church	R. C. Osborne: Landing Place, Droit and Pier Office	T. H. Keeble: Margate [engraved by J. Newman]	T. H. Keeble: S.W. View of Margate Pier and Harbour

W. C. Brasier, Margate Pier	I. Denne, Marine Parade	I. Denne, Trinity Church
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Unknown Publishers

Upper and Lower Marine Terrace [probably from fancy notepaper]	Levys Bazaar	Margate Mills	Dandelion [Langley and Belch]

Old Gateway at Dandelion
[END]
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