Le Port de Plymouth. Vu du cote de l'Ouest. Reduit de la Collection des Ports d'Angleterre dessines par Milton et graves par Suntach l'anne 1788

Print. The following is inscribed at the bottom of the print 'Le Port de Plymouth. Vu du cote de l'Ouest. Reduit de la Collection des Ports d'Angleterre dessines par Milton et graves par Suntach l'anne 1788.' This translates as 'The port of Plymouth seen from the west. Taken from the collection of prints of English ports designed by Milton and engraved by Suntach in the year 1788.' The Milton series was published in the 1750s: Deptford, Woolwich, and Portsmouth in 1753-4; Sheerness, Chatham, and Plymouth (which had shipping attributed to John Clevely the elder) in 1755-6. All were engraved by Pierre Canot, and there is a query over the nature of the involvement of Thomas Milton (1742/3 - 1827). While his name was prominent on them as dedicator/publisher and artist for most he was only a boy at the time, assuming (as usually the case) that he was the son of John Milton (active c.1743-76), whose name (I. Milton) appears on that of Chatham as surveyor and delineator unless this is just a slip by the engraver. The slightly ambiguous inscription here is naming Suntach, who worked in France, as the later copyist from the Milton original.

Object Details

ID: PAD1125
Type: Print
Display location: Not on display
Creator: Suntach, Antonio; Milton, Thomas
Places: Plymouth Dockyard
Date made: 1788
Credit: National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London
Measurements: Mount: 198 mm x 247 mm