Description

Of all the mapping projects with which Wenceslaus Hollar was associated, the one with which he was most closely involved was that for the mapping of London.

Hollar was evidently not impressed by the large map of London surveyed by Richard Newcourt and engraved by Hollar’s friend and one-time landlord William Faithorne in 1658. In about 1660 he published this proposal to create a large etched plan of the City, perhaps influenced by his former master, Matthias Merian's (1593–1650) bird’s-eye view of Paris published in 1615. In order to encourage subscriptions, he created a trial plate showing the Covent Garden area, then the most fashionable part of London where many of his proposed patrons would have lived, to accompany this printed appeal.  Only one example survives of his etching, now in the British Museum.