Lot 39: * Edmund Walker (British, 1814-1882) The Quadrant, Regent Street; The Treasury, Whitehall; Greenwich Hospital; General Post Office, St. Martin le Grand; Westminster Abbey each 30.5 x 41cm (12 x 16 1/8in.)

Edmund Walker (British, 1814-1882)
The Quadrant, Regent Street; The Treasury, Whitehall; Greenwich Hospital; General Post Office, St. Martin le Grand; Westminster Abbey pencil and watercolour heightened with bodycolour, unframedeach 30.5 x 41cm (12 x 16 1/8in.)together with a lithograph of The New Houses of Parliament, with additions in watercolour. (6)

These are the original studies for a set of lithographs produced in 1852 entitled A Series of Twelve Views of the Principal Buildings in London. The set was engraved by Thomas Picken and published as a volume by Lloyd Bros & Co, 22 Ludgate Hill, London. The titles of the remaining views in the series were: The British Museum; London Bridge from above the Bridge; Buckingham Palace; Royal Exchange and Bank of England; Trafalgar Square with the National Gallery and St. Martin's Church and lastly, St. Paul's Cathedral looking up Ludgate Hill.Edmund Walker is best remembered as a lithographer, few of his original works ever having appeared on the art market, while he is renowned for the large series of lithographs he produced after Joseph Nash and Louis Haghe of the Interior of the Crystal Palace and for lithographing Charles Simpson's Crimean series. In the light of the quality of the present group it is surprising that he did not work in watercolour more often; rare examples are held in the collections of the Victoria & Albert Museum and the Museum of London.