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History of Science Museum

Four Copper Printing Plates for Engravings of Aston Hall, Birmingham, Probably 19th Century

Inventory Number 13173


Item type
Object
Provenance
Probably part of the archive and collection relating to James Watt, assembled by his 19th-century biographer J. P. Muirhead and given to the Museum in 1940 by Mrs C. E. F. Thomas.
Primary inscriptions
Engraved caption on one plate only: 'Aston Hall'.
Physical material
Copper Alloy
Object type
Printing block
Dimensions
Height: 181mm Width: 229mm
Inventory No
13173

Description

Four copper plates with engraved images (same) of a Jacobean country house, with deer in right foreground, one of them captioned 'Aston Hall', the other not captioned. The former is rather crudely engraved, the uncaptioned version much finer. The plates are approximately 7 x 9 inches. Aston Hall, Birmingham, was the home of James Watt junior in the early 19th century, so the plate is probably part of the illustrative material assembled by J. P. Muirhead for his monumental biography of James Watt (see 11901, and also 11768).