Ministry of Works: 19th Century Great Exhibition, 1851 Prints in Original Maple Frame

Pair of 19th century Great Exhibition of 1851 chromolithographic prints in their original maple frames. Dickinson's Comprehensive Pictures of the Great Exhibition of 1851. London: Dickinson Brothers, 1854.

Provenance

Her late Majesty Elizabeth II's Ministry of Works, London. Ministry of Works was dissolved in 1962. Inventory labels to the back. 

Why we like it

We are delighted to offer a stunning chromolithographic prints from Dickinson's Comprehensive Pictures of the Great Exhibition of 1851, an exceptionally rare work produced by the renowned Dickinson Brothers in 1854. Based on original watercolours painted for H.R.H. Prince Albert by esteemed artists Messrs. Nash, Haghe, and Roberts, R.A., these chromolithographs capture the grandeur of the Great Exhibition with vibrant, layered colours. Each colour required a separate lithographic stone, building up layers in a labor-intensive process that demanded precise alignment, or registration, of each plate to achieve the richly coloured final image. Such rare and magnificent prints adorn the walls of Scotland's historic Dumfries House. This works of art offer a rare opportunity to own something of exceptional craftsmanship and historical significance. 

Historical context

"Great Britain's Prince Albert had proposed a trade exhibition like no other before it, truly international, with the work of nearly 14,000 exhibitors from twenty-six nations on view. To house such an event, Joseph Paxton (1803-1865) designed a new type of building, using the latest in cast-iron and glass technology. Sited in London's Hyde Park, the landmark structure, 1848 feet long by 408 feet wide, was visited by more than six million people in the exhibition's five months. Public feeling for the temporary building was so strong that it was re-erected in South London, in enlarged form, the year that these volumes appeared. Fire destroyed the Crystal Palace in 1936. Dickinson's Comprehensive Pictures document the pomp and ritual in this resplendent space, and the exhibits' from European bourgeois furnishings and modern machinery to an Arab tent from Tunis, draped with leopard and lion skins." Columbia University Catalog (Item #765)

Dimensions

Dimensions of the plate: 37 cm / 14.5" x 48 cm / 19" 
Dimensions of the frame: 64 cm / 25.25" x 80 cm / 31"

Slight variations to size and proportions.