Object Description
No: 11104
Pair of Queen Anne period Kip Engravings of Boughton Court, seat of Sir Burnham Rider Kt., and Witcombe Park, seat of Sir Michael Hickes.
Circa: 1712 Price: £750-00p.
Width: 29″, 74 cms, Height: 26″, 66 cms Depth: 1″, 2.5 cms.
Sir Barnham Rider (c. 1683 – 21 November 1728), of Boughton Monchelsea Place, Kent, was an English politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1716 to 1727.Rider was the son of Thomas Rider of Covent Garden and his wife Philadelphia Barnham, youngest daughter of Sir Robert Barnham, 1st Baronet of Boughton Monchelsea Place, Kent.[1] His mother brought Boughton Monchelsea Place into the family.
Sir Michael Hick(e)s was given Witcombe Park on his marriage in 1679, and also received some London property and some land at Chigwell. Ruckholt continued to be the 2nd baronet’s principal seat, and was encased in brick and remodelled at considerable expense. A new wing was built at Beverston after a fire in 1691, but there is no evidence that Sir William himself ever used it. This may have been done by, or for the benefit of, tenants. Sir Michael was obviously expected to make his home at Witcombe, but the old house there was really not fit for the purpose, and in the 1690s he pulled most of it down and built a new house, which in due course passed to his son.
Johannes Kip (1653 – 1722) was a Dutch draughtsman, engraver, and print dealer who was active in England after producing works for the court of William of Orange in Amsterdam. Following the Glorious Revolution of 1688, Kip accompanied the Court to England and settled in Westminster where he conducted a thriving print selling business from his house in St. John’s Street. He then travelled around England documenting notable estates. In the late 1600s, important houses fronted the public road and were the focus and pride of the local community. The gradually increasing wish for privacy during the 18th century often involved the re-routing of public roads and the shifting of villages.
These prints were later used in Johannes Kip’s survey of English castles, palaces and country houses during the reign of Queen Anne entitled Britannia Illustrata, or Views of Several of the Queens Palaces in 1708, The Ancient and Present State of Gloucestershire, 1712, and the Principal Seats of the Nobility and Gentry of Great Britain, also published as Nouveau Theatre de la Grande Bretagne: ou description exacte des palais de la Reine, et des Maisons les plus considerables des Seigneurs & des Gentilshommes de la Grande Bretagne in 1715.
Published by Joseph Smith 1709-28 for “Le Nouveau Théâtre de la Grande Bretagne…” A republished and expanded work of “Britannia Illustrata” (1709) or the Illustrata itself by Johannes Kip & Leonard Knyff. Drawn & Engraved by Kip. It was engraved by Johannes Kip. Size 13.4 x 20.7 inches. 34.0 x 52.5 cm. Leendert Knyff and Johannes Kip were responsible for the publication, in 1707, of Britannia Illustrata, an extraordinary collection of engraved ‘birds-eye views’ of English country houses and estates. In the late 1690s Knyff came up with a cunning plan for a ‘subscription publishing project’ which he must have thought would be a financial winner. His idea was to play to the vanity of the British aristocracy, and produce a set of images of English country estates, funding the scheme by signing up the landowners in advance. For his £10 subscription each gentleman would have his house and grounds engraved including his coat of arms as part of the design and ultimately a full set of all the other prints.
Illustration size approximately 45 x 35cm (with centre fold, as were always issued).