London in all its gore and glory before the Great Fire
A 400-year-old panoramic engraving of London that depicts the cityscape before it was ravaged by the Great Fire has sold for £106,000 (NZ$211,000) at auction.
The seven-foot long picture from the South Bank features the old St Paul’s Cathedral and London Bridge, which has the gruesome sight of dozens of heads on spikes on its southern gate. Both landmarks were rebuilt after the fire in 1666.
The Dutch engraver and cartographer Claes Jansz Visscher produced the piece in 1625 despite never having visited London.
The scenes include people trying to watch performances through the windows of Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre, a royal fleet of boats taking King Charles I west along the Thames and the spire of Bow church. The Tower of London is depicted with domes in the style of onions.
The panorama is one of only two copies known to exist, with the other one residing in the Folger Library in Washington DC.
It is likely to have been made for a Dutch merchant, with trade growing between London and Amsterdam at the beginning of the 17th century.
The panorama was put up for sale with the auctioneers Christie’s by a European private collector and the creases indicate that it had been folded over and tucked away throughout its existence.
The work went under the hammer for £85,000, but with fees for the auction house added on the overall sum paid by the winning bidder, a private collector, was £106,250.