STEEL ENGRAVING – “THE LAST OF ENGLAND” from the original painting by Ford Madox Brown, engraved by H. Bourne, published in 1878.  This oval engraving is in very good condition.  The engraving measures 9 ¼” x 8 3/8’, and is matted to 11” x 14” for easy framing.

      Leaving one’s native land, possibly forever, might well call up a feeling of sadness in the stoutest heart.  Many citizens of America can recall the pang with which they watched their native shores recede from view, as the ship, which bore them plowed her way through the waves of the mighty Atlantic.  The dearly loved home of their youth is every moment becoming more distant, while the future is unknown.  The bright hopes that filled their minds of a happy and prosperous life in a new land, freed from many of the burdens which weighed so heavily in the old country, have lost their cheerful influence and as the well-remembered land-marks sink into the dim gray horizon, the full grief of parting forever from the land of their birth is for the first time completely realized.

     Such emotions as these may be supposed to fill the minds of the couple who occupy the foreground of this engraving.  They are unmistakably English, and are sitting near the stern of a departing emigrant ship, silently watching the white cliffs of their native land as they gradually disappear in the distance.  The fair young wife, with one hand clasping that of her husband, while the other has hold of her infant sheltered beneath her shawl, seems to find comfort in the loving trust she has in her companion.  Her dearest possessions are with her, and this knowledge tempers the grief she feels at parting from friends and country, for to her the dearest spot must always be where her husband and children are to be found.  An altogether different feeling seems to animate one of their fellow-passengers, who is shaking his fist in derision at the land of his birth.  It is a spirited conception, and its parts are very dexterously put together.

     Ford Madox Brown, who is generally classed among the Pre-Raphaelite School of painters, was born at Calais, France, of English parents, in 1821.  He first began to exhibit in England in 1844, and from that date has exhibited a very large number of paintings.  His “Chaucer at the Court of Edward the Third.” exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1851, is considered one of his best works, and it was afterwards selected by the British Government for the Paris Exhibition in 1855.  His name he became very well known in connection with those of Holman Hunt, Millais, and other leaders of the Pre-Raphaelite School.

IMPORTANT TO NOTE

Antique prints, etchings, engravings, and lithographs are printing processes, which use steel, copper, stone or wood blocks or plates to produce a picture on paper.

Most antique prints and engravings, which are seen on the internet today, are bookplates.  Because they are pages from a book, there are multiple copies in existence.  This does not, however, mean that they are "reproductions" that have been printed recently.  Because they were, at some point, part of books, some have been preserved in excellent condition, while others show signs of age, as yellow spots or darkness on the edge of the page from being handled.

Engravings, and lithographs are high quality pieces of art, as it took a highly trained artist many hours of work to produce one.  Although there may be multiple copies still in existence, the date of the item should be stated, thus giving the buyer an idea of its age.

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