A new book about Gloucestershire
Three hundred years ago, in 1721, the 'Dutch engraver' Johannes Kip (or John Kip, his anglicised name) dropped down dead in St John’s Street, Westminster, bringing to a sudden end his career in England of more than thirty years as a renowned printmaker.
Gloucestershire owes him a special commemoration in 2021 as the draughtsman and also engraver of sixty-four prints commissioned in the early eighteenth century by Sir Robert Atkyns for The Ancient and Present State of Glostershire.
This book contains high-quality reproductions of all the engravings with a short commentary on each, and has pointers to the details and to the history of the house and the family, including many colour and black and white illustrations.
It offers a remarkable contribution to the history of the county, to knowledge of the gardens, which in many cases still reflect Kip’s engravings, to the unique history of many of the houses which survive three hundred years later, and to the riches of the Gloucestershire countryside.
Johannes Kip: The Gloucestershire Engravings, edited by Dr Anthea Jones, is published in March 2021 with a foreword by Dr Nicholas Kingsley.
It is published by Hobnob Press www.hobnobpress.co.uk in association with Gloucestershire Gardens and Landscape Trust www.gglt.org.
Editors' note: A copy of this book is also available for consultation at Gloucestershire Archives. Congratulations to Dr Anthea Jones on this latest edition which builds on the significant contribution she has already made to research in Gloucestershire through her work on the Lloyd George Land Survey, Gloucestershire Gardens and Landscape Trust documentary research, Victoria County History, Gloucestershire Archives and many more organisations too. We are also pleased to feature it here as it demonstrates a good collaboration with Victoria County History staff and volunteers, and current and former Gloucestershire Archives staff and researchers, and we are always keen to further encourage the 'hubness of the Hub'!