FOLKESTONE FROM THE WEST CLIFF Printed by Day and Son Lithographers to the Queen

Large separately published hand-coloured lithograph. Image size 15 x 12 inches. No artist is acknowledged. There is no publisher's imprint. However it is almost certainly issued by John English who was the pre-eminent bookseller, print-seller and publisher in the Old High Street. A fine example framed and glazed in museum quality material. A very rare large lithograph depicting the newly fashionable town of Folkestone, which had been 'put on the map' by the advent of the South Eastern Railway who had constructed Folkestone Harbour and it was becoming a major Channel port. The view depicts the Leas, Albion Villas, the elegant trio of houses designed by the architect Septimus Bolton, the Parish Church, the Flagstaff from the Bayle Fort, and the Harbour below busy with shipping and the newly constructed Pavilion Hotel and Harbour House with its clock tower. In the foreground is a group of industrial buildings with a chimney, which was Folkestone's first gasworks (demolished in 1866). The Swing Bridge and Terminal Station which opened in 1849 are clearly visible. Large separately published lithographs such as this are exceptionally rare due to their very high mortality rate.…