Inscribed on original border: Village of Biscot near Luton in Bedfordshire
Watercolour over traces of pencil
243 x 373 mm., 9 ½ x 14 ½ in.
Provenance
Sir
Gregory Osborne Page-Turner, Bt. of Battlesden, Bedfordshire
By
descent to Emily Page-Turner, purchased from her Executors in 1885
By
descent until sold at Sotheby’s, 12th June 1980, lot 25
Private
Collection, UK
The old village of Biscot was absorbed into the town
of Luton in the early 20th century and little survives today.
Recorded in the Domesday Book, the manor of Biscot was sold to John Crawley in
1724 and remained in the Crawley family until the 20th century.
Fisher’s
work was little known until a sale of 78 of his watercolours at Sotheby’s in
1980 brought him into the limelight. He was bought in Rochester, Kent where his
father was a printer and bookseller. In 1786 he entered the India Office as a
clerk and moved to Gloucester Terrace, Hoxton where he lived for most of his
life. At India House, he met Henry Humphrey Goodhall, a geologist and antiquary
from Bromham, Bedfordshire who alongside with the Rev. Thomas Orlebar Marsh
encouraged Fisher to record the topography of Bedfordshire which had never been
done before. He published two illustrated histories of the county and found a
number of local patrons, including Sir Gregory Page-Turner, who owned the present
watercolour, as well as the Duke of Bedford at Woburn.
Inscribed on border: Ampthill, Bedfordshire
Watercolour over pencil heightened with bodycolour
282 x 410 mm., 11 by 16 in.
Provenance
Sir
Gregory Osborne Page-Turner, Bt. of Battlesden, Bedfordshire
By
descent to Emily Page-Turner, purchased from her Executors in 1885
By
descent until sold at Sotheby’s, 12th June 1980, lot 48
Private
Collection, UK
Ampthill
is a town located between Luton and Bedford, to the north of London. This
is a view looking down Church Street, towards the town centre. In the distance
is the wooden clock tower, or Moot Hall, presented to the town by the 2nd
Earl of Upper Ossory, who lived at Ampthill Park, in 1787, during a campaign to improve the
town centre. He also created the current market place and erected a new water
pump. In 1852, it was rebuilt by the Duke of Bedford and incorporated into a
Jacobean style building. The gates to the right, at no. 28 Church Street, are
still there and were removed from Houghton House for which they had been
designed by William Chambers. Houghton House, at nearby Houghton Conquest,
belonged to the Dukes of Bedford but was abandoned in 1794 but the ruins still
exist today.