View of a house supposedly near Putney Common, satirically called 'Bear's Den Hall', a rickety house with cracked plaster walls and a chimney-stack with broken brick, and with weeds growing from the cracks and on the roof. A key at the top references many of the features of the scene, including a bear is chained by the front door (B) at the left, birds in flight (K). The property is separated from the road in the foreground by a wicket fence, with a satircial armorial crest along the lower edge with portraits of Charles Christian and Skelton and "Satire on social pretensions: a view of a dilapidated cottage set into a garden behind a wooden fence, with a Greek inscription and mock coat-of-arms at the bottom."--British Museum online catalogue
Description:
Title etched at top of image., Printmaker identified as Charles Christian Reisen in the British Museum online catalogue. An alternative attribution to George Vertue derives from a contemporary marginal note on an impression in the Royal Collection (RCIN 701972)., Approximate date of publication from the British Museum catalogue., Sheet trimmed to plate mark., Charles Christian the engraver and Humphrey Skelton the upholsterer, notorious for their bad tempers lived, perhaps together, in the house, which acquired the name Bear's Den Hall by virtue of their eccentricities., and Titled 'W. prospect of Bears Den Hall, in the county of Surrey.' in the Catalogue of Maps, Prints, Drawings, etc., forming the geographical and topographical collection attached to the Library of his late Majesty King George the third, etc., London, 1829.
Publisher:
publisher not identified
Subject (Geographic):
England, London, and Putney.
Subject (Name):
Reisen, Charles Christian, 1680-1725, and Skelton, Humphrey, active 1720s,
