A Couple of Victorian Prints

Some people are just too sophisticated to go in shops like Oxfam and Cancer Research. It’s just as well then that Michelle’s not as snotty nosed as they are, otherwise she wouldn’t have stumbled across two antique prints at the Trinity Hospice shop in Bispham a few weeks ago. Admittedly, when she first brought them home, they looked as though they’d gone twelve rounds with a sheep suffering from a stomach upset. But after some T.L.C. (involving a putty rubber, a scalpel, and a slightly damp flannel) they polished up a treat.
And, on closer inspection, it turned out that not only were they both the genuine article (almost 200 years old) but they were also hand-tinted with a degree of craftsmanship rarely witnessed in such enterprises.

Here’s the first one, showing the seafront at Blackpool circa 1830 to 1840. (I’m not going to bother telling you to click on the thumbnail for the larger version, because I must have explained how to do it a hundred times before on this board, and if you can’t be bothered paying attention then it’s not my fault).Good, isn’t it? The building right on the edge of the cliffs (or to put it another way, on the far left of the picture) if memory serves was known as Forshaws. (Not that I was around in the 1840s to remember it being there…I just mean ‘if memory serves from what I’ve read’.) Nowadays, in case you haven’t got your bearings yet, it’s the Metropole.

It’s also intriguing to see how many people are ‘partaking of the waters’ in the illustration. Nowadays, of course, you’d be taking your health into your own hands if you did the same thing. The chances are you wouldn’t be able to break the crust anyway.
Here’s the other one, instantly recognisable as the Mount in Fleetwood, of course, looking towards Rossall Point.

That’s the original Mount pavilion; the one designed by Decimus Burton. It was replaced just over a century ago by a building that resembles a cross between Bella Emberg and a Dalek. The flagpole’s still the same though (even if they did chop the top off last year for reasons best left to the flagpole decapitation experts).
We have another copy of this print. We bought it off Bill Curtis when she still alive and, because presumably she was responsible for the colouring-in (which is considerably different in our ‘new’ version) she owned the copyright on it. So we could never reproduce it anywhere, which seemed a pity.
Well she doesn’t own the copyright on this particular version, and we’re not in it for the money, so feel free to download either of these mini-masterpieces for whatever personal purposes you feel fit.
In the distance you can see the landmark. This structure was rebuilt several times over the centuries, as an aid to navigation for the ships. Nowadays it’s just a ring of stumps on the beach.
It’s also interesting to note the absence of the Edwardian seafront gardens, today skirted on the inland side by the revetment..ed…remains of the cliffs shown in the etching.
Anyhow, we’re pretty chuffed about spotting these two local antique oddities. Not bad for £1.50, eh? I reckon we’ll be shopping at the Trinity Hospice shop again at some point in the near future.