Sunday Interiors
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Sunday 24th November 2013 at 11.30am
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JOHN NASH (C. 1826)
The Royal Pavilion at Brighton
hand coloured aquatinted engraving, and thirteen others from the set, the largest 31 x 46cm,
mounted, glazed and framed. (14)
Various dates have been given as to when this work was commenced (and those on the outlines are of publication,
not execution). Part was done in 1818 and 1819, but it was in March 1820 that the work was begun in earnest,
the final plates being engraved in 1825. On publication, the following appeared as the title: The Royal Pavilion at
Brighton, published by the command of and dedicated by permission to the King by His Majesty’s dutiful Sub-
ject and Servant John Nash”. No date is given, but the lettering on the ‘spine’ of a bound volume reads “Views of
the Royal Pavilion, Brighton, Hash, London, 1826”. It is not clear whether Nash published this work as a private
speculation or if it was subsidized by George IV; probably he issued it himself, as the plates were sold after his
death, and the King may have undertaken to purchase a certain number of copies. Nash entrusted the execution
of the plates to Augustus Pugin, father of A. N. Welby Pugin, who employed a number of artists to work under
him. They produced thirty-five illustrations on thirty-one plates, of which fourteen are offered here. Of these
plates, twenty-eight were aquatinted and mounted on a thin, light buff-coloured card, surrounded by a gilt line,
as well as double brown lines, one thicker than the other. The three other plates consisted of outlines only, while
of the twenty-eight plates in aquatint all but four had outlines in addition.
€5000 - 7000
