Thomas Rowlandson and Augustus Pugin

The Mint

11 x 9 inches

Aquatint in fine original colour, published in London in 1819.

A view of the interior of The Royal Mint in London, issued as part of the Microcosm of London, published by Ackermann at his Repository of Arts, in London between 1808 - 1810. The series offers an unrivalled view of how London operated as a cultural and administrative centre at the beginning of the nineteenth century.

In each scene the figures were drawn by the caricaturist, Thomas Rowlandson, in his inimitable style and the buildings by the famous architect, Charles Augustus Pugin, before Rowlandson etched the outline onto a copper plate. There was much rivalry between the two and the copper plates went back and forth between the two before agreement could be reached. Pugin complained that Rowlandson's figures cluttered his architectural perspectives and trivialised the whole project. Rowlandson, on the other hand, felt that without his intervention the finished plates were in danger of becoming both anodyne and lifeless. Finally the plate was sent to Ackermann's studio for aquatint to be added by a professional engraver.