Antique Philadelphia Print - Fair Mount Water Works from across the Schuylkill River - Technological Marvel of the Federal Period

Antique Philadelphia Print - Fair Mount Water Works from across the Schuylkill River - Technological Marvel of the Federal PeriodTAP THE IMAGE TO ZOOM IN! Treasures from THE PHILADELPHIA DELAWARE VALLEY COLLECTION at The Willing Mind. By exclusive arrangement with The Grand Review. Print size 20 x 24, and consciously formatted to work with a standard size store bought frame, or custom framed as you see fit. Fair Mount Water Works from across the Schuylkill River. Drawn by Thomas Doughty. Engraved by J. Cone for Cephas Childs. Considered one of the technological wonders of the

TAP THE IMAGE TO ZOOM IN!

Treasures from THE PHILADELPHIA / DELAWARE VALLEY COLLECTION at The Willing Mind. By exclusive arrangement with The Grand Review.

Print size 20 x 24, and consciously formatted to work with a standard size store bought frame, or custom framed as you see fit.

Fair Mount Water Works from across the Schuylkill River. Drawn by Thomas Doughty. Engraved by J. Cone for Cephas Childs.

Considered one of the technological wonders of the world in the early 19th century, our beloved Water Works used water power to pump fresh water up to a reservoir on the plateau just above it, Penn's Fair Mount. The water was then simply gravity fed down into the city which had been in dire need of a reliable clean water supply to accommodate its exploding population.

To safeguard the water supply, the City of Philadelphia acquired all the hilly, scenic lands along both sides of the Schuylkill to keep it from development, especially industrial development and all the disparate effluvia that accompanied the Industrial Revolution. This became and remains the heart of the wondrous and much beloved Fairmount Park.

(Please note that I really was, as much as anything, looking for a good place to use 'disparate effluvia' in a sentence.)

One of the most satisfying projects we ever leapt into was acquiring and restoring a series of early 19th century engravings by Cephas Childs. CHILDS' VIEWS OF PHILADELPHIA are, consistently, my all time favorite look at what had become the most important city in the New World.

Childs employed the best artists and architects of his time, many of them quite famous to this day, to create images that are strong but never static, and inescapably charming, . Greatness that we've come to take for granted had at one time been dreams that we envisioned and brought to fruition, documented by Childs and preserved for our enjoyment and wonder.

We approach all our work with respect, but the Childs engravings took on a special glow in our hearts and minds. I believe the results show that love in action.

• Handmade item
• Materials: Art stock enhanced matte paper, archival ink
• Made to order
• Only ships within United States.

SHIPPING

All prints are shipped in a sturdy mailing tube for $8, which covers postage, tube and S & H.

BUYING MORE THAN ONE PRINT? Add a second print or any number thereafter of this or any other prints in our catalog and shipping is still just $8, total!!!

International shipping is available and reasonable. Please contact us for details.

A NOTE ON OUR PROCESS, OUR CHOICES AND THE QUALITY OF THE GRAPHIC CRAFTSMANSHIP THAT GOES INTO OUR PRINTS.

Every print we deem exciting enough to present to the public via our Etsy store or available here at our studio has gone through a number of steps. The first of those is always discovering and falling in love with an obscure image, always an original that we can hold in our hands. That image is speaking to us, sometime screaming “Don’t leave me here. See what I am, what I was, what I can be, what I SHOULD be!”

There is a real sense of excitement involved, and a great many smiles and knowing grins when we make that deal and bring that ancient print, that battered photo, that scrap of ephemera that contains some scrap of genius from an unknown commercial artist home with us, knowing already how we mean to approach its restoration.

There is the heady promise of a further hunt just as real as what drags a weekend fisherman out of bed at 3AM to work a favorite brook as we start our research, looking for that great backstory, and both ready and willing to tumble down as many rabbit holes as are revealed to us to get that story.

Then there is a meticulous digital restoration that is as often as much fun as riding a vintage Moto Guzzi on a winding coastal road. I don’t care if that sounds crazy, it really is like jumping in the saddle! So many choices, so many chances to take to subtly or spectacularly give new life to otherwise permanently obscure images.

This dedication and the ongoing rush of joy in the accomplishment of it, and the opportunity to share the results in our studio and here on Etsy, is the fire of passion that keeps these engines roaring. We make every effort to ensure our customers are not just satisfied but thrilled, and we happily stand 100% behind our work.