Books and Manuscripts

(London, ca. 1768). Hand-colored engraving on heavy laid paper. Engraved by Peter Mazell, after a drawing by Thomas Davies. 16 x 21 3/4 in. (406 x 552 mm). Soiling in margins; a few repaired closed tears, bottom left corner, top left edge, and along right edge. In mat and in frame, 22 1/4 x 28 in. (565 x 711 mm).

From Davies's very rare series Six Views of North American Waterfalls Dedicated to His Excellency Lieut. General Sir Jeffrey Amherst (London, 1763-68). Davies (1737-1812), a British army officer during the Seven Year's War, executed numerous drawings and watercolors of the natural landscape in North America while fighting in the northeast, and was one of the earliest Europeans to make first-hand renditions of the region's landscape. Alongside this print his series included images of An East View of the Great Cataract of Niagara, A North View of the Pisaiack Falls, A South East View of the Lower Cataract on the Casconchiagon or Little Seneca's River, A North West View of the Half Moon or Second Fall in the River Casconchiagon on Lake Ontario, and A South East View of the Great Cataract on the Casconchiagon or Little Seneca's River.