Selected Prints from Edward Hasted's, The History and Topographical Survey of the County of Kent, vols. 1-3

Selected Prints from Edward Hasted's, The History and Topographical Survey of the County of Kent, vols. 1-3

John Bayly

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

A group of thirty etchings, lacking title page, bound in decorated paper boards, with the front cover detached. The plates were made to illustrate a four volume work by Edward Hasted (1732-1812), "The History and Topographical Survey of the County of Kent: containing the ancient and present State of it, Civil and Ecclesiastical; collected from public Records, and other the Authorities, both Manuscript and printed; and illustrated with Maps and Views of Antiquities, Seats of the Nobility and Gentry, in four Volumes printed for the author by Simmons and Kirkby, 1778-99. Those assembled here come from vols. 1, 2 and 3. In total, the four volumes contain about 170 prints, including maps.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Selected Prints from Edward Hasted's, The History and Topographical Survey of the County of Kent, vols. 1-3Selected Prints from Edward Hasted's, The History and Topographical Survey of the County of Kent, vols. 1-3Selected Prints from Edward Hasted's, The History and Topographical Survey of the County of Kent, vols. 1-3Selected Prints from Edward Hasted's, The History and Topographical Survey of the County of Kent, vols. 1-3Selected Prints from Edward Hasted's, The History and Topographical Survey of the County of Kent, vols. 1-3

The Department’s vast collection of works on paper comprises approximately 21,000 drawings, 1.2 million prints, and 12,000 illustrated books created in Europe and the Americas from about 1400 to the present day. Since its foundation in 1916, the Department has been committed to collecting a wide range of works on paper, which includes both pieces that are incredibly rare and lauded for their aesthetic appeal, as well as material that is more popular, functional, and ephemeral. The broad scope of the department’s collecting encourages questions of connoisseurship as well as those pertaining to function and context, and demonstrates the vital role that prints, drawings, and illustrated books have played throughout history.