View of London on the Thames

The artwork

Right of centre, on the far bank of the Thames, stands a slender column with flames on top: the Monument, 202 feet tall, the same as the distance from its base to the bakery where the Great Fire of London began in 1666. You receive it printed on handmade Amalfi paper, in a handmade frame.

• London in 1739 from the south bank, with old London Bridge and the Monument, in black.
• Along a corridor or above a fireplace, the black engraving suits any style.
• A gift for anyone who has lived in London or goes back whenever they can.

On 2 September 1666 the fire broke out in the bakery of Thomas Farriner, the king's baker, in Pudding Lane, and in four days it took 13,200 houses and 87 churches. To remember it, Robert Hooke and Christopher Wren designed this column, built between 1671 and 1677: 311 steps and, at the top, a gilded urn with flames rising from it. Both were keen astronomers and they made it hollow, so that it could also serve as a telescope pointing straight up at the sky, with a laboratory underground. It never worked well: the column shook in the wind and with the passing carts.

The view looks at London from the south bank: old London Bridge still has houses built along it, and on the left is the dome of St Paul's, rebuilt after the fire. The plate, titled “Londres”, comes from the Atlas de poche, the pocket atlas “for travellers and officers” published in Amsterdam by the bookseller Henri du Sauzet; its volume of views, Profiles ou vues des principales villes de l'Europe, dates from 1739. It is a copper engraving in black, and the original belongs to the David Rumsey Map Collection at Stanford University.

It looks good along a corridor or above a fireplace, and it is a gift for anyone who has lived in London or goes back whenever they can. And next to the bridge, the column still keeps its flames alight.

Unique quality material

Print on handmade Amalfi paper
Sheet size: 29 x 42 cm (11.4 x 16.5 in)
With frame: 31 x 44 cm (12.2 x 17.3 in)
Material: artwork printed on very fine handmade Amalfi paper with deckled edges
Frame: dark brown with gold fillet, handmade, with glass