Item Info

On this page are two hand-colored engravings by artist William Russell Birch.  They are two of 20 engraved copper plates published in Birch's The Country Seats of the United States of North America (1809).  After publishing a successful series of engravings in and around Philadelphia, this book features the grand country estates of the wealthy, outside of the rapidly-developing city.

Item 1, top:  This is the first engraving in the above-mentioned publication. Springland was the name of Birch's country estate, four acres along Neshaminy Creek, near Bristol, PA.  The printed caption below the image reads, "The View From Springland."  The added comment in pencil incorrectly places the bridge and tollhouse over the Delaware River, but it is over Neshaminy Creek, about a third of a mile from where it joins the Delaware River.  This two-room tollhouse is said to have served as Birch's studio.  The estate was a pastoral getaway from Philadelphia.  The engraving shows lovely landscaping, footpaths, railings, a boxed lemon tree, and a casually-dressed woman at the edge of the estate.  Hand-colored engraving, 19 x 15.5 cm, 1809.

Item 2, bottom:  The caption for this engraving is, "Devon in Pennsylva. the Seat of Mr. Dallas."  Alexander Dallas was a Philadelphia statesman, and served as US Secretary of the Treasury from 1814-1816. The engraving shows an elegantly-landscaped estate and mansion on the banks of a river, as evidenced by a sailboat and a rowboat on the left foreground. The link below from the Library Company of Philadelphia mentions that the estate was "on the banks of the Delaware River north of Philadelphia."  How the estate got its name isn't explained, but the town of Devon is nowhere near the Delaware River.  Hand-colored engraving, 20 x 16 cm, 1808.

 https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/islandora%3A323589