BIRCH, William R. (1755-1834); Thomas BIRCH (1779-1851)

South East Corner of Third, and Market Streets

Pennsylvania: W. Birch, Springland Cot, near Neshaminy Bridge on the Bristol Road, 1799. Hand-coloured copper engraving on laid paper. Sheet size: 13 7/8 x 17 inches.

Plate 8 from the very rare first American colour-plate book, with views that are "uniquely valuable among American historical prints" (Martin Snyder).

This plate is especially rich as a record of commercial Philadelphia during the city's decade as the national capital. The scene centers on the building known as "Cooke's Folly," erected about 1792 by the goldsmith and jeweller Joseph Cooke, with shops below and apartments above. Its elaborate urban façade, here shown beside humbler market activity, made it one of Birch's most memorable depictions of Philadelphia's built environment. The building gradually declined and was demolished about 1838. The human detail gives the print much of its historical value. Market Street vendors sell meat, produce, and other goods outside the formal market sheds, while figures of different classes move through the foreground. Birch's view does not simply isolate architecture; it records the texture of daily life around one of the city's principal commercial intersections. This plate is taken from the first and one of the most important of all American color plate books, the first book to be entirely produced and published in the United States. William Russell Birch, who conceived this splendid celebration of the city of Philadelphia, then the largest city in the United States, was a native of England. When he arrived in America in 1794, he brought with him a strong academic training in art which he used to found an engraving firm. Birch hoped that his carefully planned and executed portfolio would serve as an advertisement "by which an idea of the improvements of the country could be conveyed to Europe, to promote and encourage settlers to the establishment of trade and commerce."

Martin P. Snyder, "William Birch: His Philadelphia Views," in Pennsylvania Magazine of History, Vol. 73, No. 3, July 1949 (Snyder 8).

Item #42952

Price: $2,400.00