IMAGE
Phillips, Watts, 1825-1874 :A prophecy for A.D. 3000! The New Zealand artist who has come to sketch the ruins of St Paul's / discovers the remains of a Great Ship near Deptford. vide Macaulay. / "Ere the Leviathan can swim a league,/ I'll put a girdle round the earth" / Shakespeare, Mids, Nights Dream, Act 2 Sc. 2 ' Watts Phillips del., J S Clay lith. London, published 1st Septr 1858, by Ackermann & Co., 106, Strand
- Date
- 1858 - 18/03/1908
- By
- Clay, J S, active 1858
- Reference
- B-047-026
- Description
Shows a conjectural drawing of the overgrown wreck of the huge paddlesteamer "Great Eastern", previously named the "Leviathan" in its planning stages. On a rowboat in the right foreground, three tourists survey the wreck. In the sky at top right, an aircraft called "The Aerial Omnibus, from New Zealand direct", hovers, with its passengers viewing the site.
The title refers to Thomas Babington Macaulay's 1840 "Essay on 'The Ecclesiastical and political history of the Popes of Rome', by Leopold von Ranke" where Macaulay described the longevity of the Catholic Church which "may still exist in undiminished vigour when some traveller from New Zealand shall, in the midst of a vast solitude, take his stand on a broken arch of London Bridge to sketch the ruins of St Pauls" (quoted in Ellis' "Early prints of New Zealand", Christchurch, 1978, page 151).
The quotation from Shakespeare may refer to the difficulties the ship had before its launch.
The "Great Eastern" was designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel, and was then the largest ship ever built, with a tonnage of 18,915 tons. The ship was launched on 30 January 1858, and trialled finally on 7 September 1858.
Quantity: 1 colour art print(s).
Physical Description: Hand-coloured lithograph, 340 x 500 mm.
- Access restrictions
- Partly restricted - Please use surrogate in place of original
- Part of
- Phillips, Watts, 1825-1874 :[1. A prophecy for A.D. 3000! The New Zealand artist ...; 2. A suggestion - The Leviathan. Published 1st Septr 1858, by Ackermann & Co., 106, Strand]
- Format
- 1 colour art print(s), Works of art, Lithographs, Marines (Visual works), Hand-coloured lithograph, 340 x 500 mm., Orientation: Horizontal image
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Clay, J S, active 1858. Phillips, Watts, 1825-1874 :A prophecy for A.D. 3000! The New Zealand artist who has come to sketch the ruins of St Paul's / discovers the remains of a Great Ship near Deptford. vide Macaulay. / "Ere the Leviathan can swim a league,/ I'll put a girdle round the earth" / Shakespeare, Mids, Nights Dream, Act 2 Sc. 2 ' Watts Phillips del., J S Clay lith. London, published 1st Septr 1858, by Ackermann & Co., 106, Strand. Phillips, Watts, 1825-1874 :[1. A prophecy for A.D. 3000! The New Zealand artist ...; 2. A suggestion - The Leviathan. Published 1st Septr 1858, by Ackermann & Co., 106, Strand]. Ref: B-047-026. Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, New Zealand. /records/23202146More information can be found in our terms of use.