English Country House's and Stately Homes Birds-Eye Views for Antique Print Collectors.

​What's your favourite English Country House or Stately Home? Visiting these monuments remains a delight for lovers of history, architecture, formal gardens and the great English landscape. They've starred in everything from period sagas and Jane Austen stories to Star Wars and James Bond thrillers.  Maybe you have a favourite?

Rare antique engraved birds-eye views of such country houses are significantly important as they show the entire estate, grounds and formal gardens in fine detail and accuracy as they were at that time. Here's an example showing a view of Chipstead Place near Westerham Sevenoaks in Kent c1719 showing the house, gardens and the avenues.

Title: Chepsted Place one of ye Seats of David Polhill Esq.... c1719. Excellent View of Chipstead Place, Kent: T. Badslade Delin. I Kip Sculp. (London: D. Midwinter, 1719.) Copper Engraving, very fine impression.

A delightful bird's eye view of Chepsted Place engraved by Johannes Kip showing the house, gardens and the avenues of trees stretching out into the surrounding park. Engraved by Johannes Kip after Thomas Badeslade for John Harris's 'History of Kent in Five Parts'. The title is on a scroll at the top of the plate, along with Polhill's armorial. David Polhill of Chipstead, Kent, was an English landowner and Whig politician who sat in the House of Commons at various times between 1710 and 1754. He was one of the signatories of the Kentish petition in 1701.

Harris was a Doctor of Divinity, author and a Fellow of the Royal Society. For his History, he commissioned Badeslade, an artistically inclined surveyor, to illustrate his work. These drawings were then engraved by Johannes Kip (1652/3-1722), a Dutch draughtsman and engraver who moved to England, and who, together with Leonard Knyff, specialised in engraved views of English country houses.

Birds-eye views are popular with print collectors, if you have a favourite Country House or Stately Home these are worth considering for your collection if you can find the antique engraved print.

Happy Hunting!

You can find out more about this original engraving HERE Chipstead Place