Silbury Hill 180
Image by photobabe
Silbury Hill

A prospect of Silbury hill

Littlestone L
Littlestone Sep 20, 2005 10:10:45
Replying to nigelswift

>On a lot of the pics I've seen, the steep Silbury was deliberate, as other features weren't distorted.<

Yes, <b>Silbury Hill</b> by Sir Richard Colt Hoare shows the same exaggerated steepness* although everything else looks normal. I think I've also seen early illustrations of the Pyramids exaggerated in the same way - as if the artist is trying to 'impress'.

I still like Ishmael's info though that Stukeley instructed his engravers to squash an illustration so fitted the page. Any way of posting up an original Stukeley illustration of Silbury so it can be compared with the printed version?

* http://www.themodernantiquarian.com/img_fullsize/35062.jpg

N nigelswift
nigelswift Sep 20, 2005 10:31:34
Replying to Littlestone

Tsk! That picture should have been posted under the Silbaby section Littlestone!
;)

I Ishmael
Ishmael Sep 20, 2005 10:59:34
Replying to Littlestone

>Any way of posting up an original Stukeley illustration of Silbury so it can be compared with the printed version?

The woodcuts and engravings are out of copyright but the original drawings in the Bodlean are copyrighted and they charge £47 per image for one time publication per year.
Some have notes at the bottom to the engraver to make them longer or shorter, some of his prospects of Avebury are bunched up at the sides with hugely exagerrated banks whch he told the engraver to stretch.
Plate 44 has of Avebury Revisited shows one example.

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