An Illustration of the Architecture and Scuplture of the Cathedral Church of Worcester.

Charles Wild

An Illustration of the Architecture and Scuplture of the Cathedral Church of Worcester.

London

printed by W. Nicol

1823

This large-format plate book provides a glimpse of the great cathedral church at Worcester in the English Midlands, first founded in the year 679. A magnificent work of English gothic, and once the home of a Benedictine monastery, the church also houses the tombs of King John, and of Prince Arthur, short-lived elder brother of the future Henry VIII. The introductory essay is finely printed, but the real point of the book is the illustrations, with 11 finely engraved plates in all. Charles Wild (1781-1835) was a watercolourist by training, who issued a range of books on cathedrals in both England and France, at a time when cultivated taste was becoming seriously interested in medieval buildings. These interior views at Worcester are especially interesting, showing the church as it was before it was heavily ‘restored’ later in the nineteenth century.

From the collection of Mark Purcell