Keeping the dream alive

View of London, with the Improvements of its Port submitted to the Select Committee of the Honourable House of Commons, by Mr Dance, exhibiting the proposed Double Bridge intended for the passage of Ships. Painted & Engraved by William Daniell, the Picture in the possession of George Dance Esqr.

Author: DANIELL, William

Publication place: London

Publisher: Published as the Act directs for William Daniell No.9 Cleveland Street Fitzroy Square

Publication date: Aug. 15, 1802.

Physical description: Aquatint.

Notes

A further view of George Dance the Younger’s suggestions for the Port of London, suggesting a determination to keep the scheme alive. Dance’s daring plans aroused much public interest, and a painter named R.C. Andrews displayed the design as a painted panorama for view in Sadler’s Wells Theatre.

Daniell produced both prints and a painting (now in the Guildhall Art Gallery), in which the Thames was transformed into a straighter river with uniform buildings lining the bank to the sides of the bridges.

Unfortunately for Dance, his plans were never adopted: estimates of the cost ran to £1,250,000, a spectacular sum. The dedication on this print is to the entire select committee, rather than specifically to Lord Hawkesbury, but it seems to have done him no good. 

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This object is eligible for a Certificate of BADA Provenance

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