Robert King D.D. Stained Glass Pavement by William Fowler

Original hand-coloured acquatint engraving of a stained glass window in Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford, depicting the Bishop Robert King ,the last Abbot of Osney and the first Bishop of Oxford, shown here in front of the Oxford Cathedral. With dedication below the title: ‘Respectfully Inscribed (by Permission) to the REVD the DEAN and CHAPTER, by their obliged & very grateful servt Wm Fowler.’  Drawn, printed and published by English artist William Fowler in 1808.   Image size 25 x 16.3 and in very good condition with original watercolor finish on heavy wove paper and laid down onto heavy card as originally issued. A rare find for the specialist collector as these prints are difficult to find individually.

William Fowler of Winterton, Lincolnshire (1761-1832), was  an architect , builder, printmaker, artist and  publisher who developed an interest in antiquities which he recorded in drawings and self-published prints. In 1796 Fowler made a series of drawings of Roman pavements discovered at Winterton. These were widely admired and Fowler subsequently decided to take his studies to London, so that they could be engraved by his brother-in-law, Mr Hill. He then published three volumes which contained a series of exceptional hand coloured engravings  including twenty-five studies of decorative pavements, thirty-nine subjects from painted glass, five brasses and incised slabs, four fonts, and eight miscellaneous subjects. Fowler’s volumes  are in the collection of the Victoria & Albert Museum in London and the British Museum.