16th Sep, 2026 12:00
London | Ancient & Modern
2
BRITISH SCHOOL (19TH CENTURY)
THE THAMES AT LAMBETH, circa 1847-60
watercolour and gouache on paper with coloured foil and natural matter
44 x 63cm (54.5 x 72.5cm framed)
This is an object of unusual charm and documentary value: recording a working stretch of the Lambeth foreshore, not by someone with an eye to the picturesque, but by a tradesman advertising himself, preserving in the process a vanished commercial riverside. The present diorama can be dated to a satisfyingly narrow window. Andrew Gotleip Wentzell — trading as Wencell — took the Ship Tavern and traded as a boatbuilder under his own name after the bankruptcy of his former partner Cownden in 1847, and by 1852 he had entered a fresh partnership with a Mr Law. Even allowing for the possibility that the painted name was never amended, the absence of the new Lambeth Bridge, constructed between 1860 and 1862, places the scene firmly between 1847 and 1860.
Dioramas had existed since the eighteenth century, but it was Louis Daguerre and Charles-Marie Bouton who made them a public sensation in the 1820s. Miniature dioramas of the present type came later, and served an entirely different purpose. Too small for the crowd, they were made for private display or for modest exhibition, and were at this date a novelty and given the content it is most probable that this was a particularly exotic form of marketing. The form is now so thoroughly domesticated by the world's museums that it takes an effort to recall how new, and how faintly magical, it once appeared.
The bridges tell the larger story. Until 1750, London Bridge was the city's only river crossing; Westminster, Blackfriars, Vauxhall, Waterloo, Southwark and Hungerford followed in rapid succession. Lambeth Bridge of 1862 was built on the site of the horse ferry (Horseferry Road in Westminster nods to this heritage), an ancient perquisite of the Archbishops of Canterbury, and its opening extinguished the crossing at a stroke. Moreover the paddle steamers seemingly advertised here had enjoyed the peak of their celebrity by the start of 1840s, slowly replaced by the rapidly expanding train network.
THE THAMES AT LAMBETH, circa 1847-60
watercolour and gouache on paper with coloured foil and natural matter
44 x 63cm (54.5 x 72.5cm framed)
This is an object of unusual charm and documentary value: recording a working stretch of the Lambeth foreshore, not by someone with an eye to the picturesque, but by a tradesman advertising himself, preserving in the process a vanished commercial riverside. The present diorama can be dated to a satisfyingly narrow window. Andrew Gotleip Wentzell — trading as Wencell — took the Ship Tavern and traded as a boatbuilder under his own name after the bankruptcy of his former partner Cownden in 1847, and by 1852 he had entered a fresh partnership with a Mr Law. Even allowing for the possibility that the painted name was never amended, the absence of the new Lambeth Bridge, constructed between 1860 and 1862, places the scene firmly between 1847 and 1860.
Dioramas had existed since the eighteenth century, but it was Louis Daguerre and Charles-Marie Bouton who made them a public sensation in the 1820s. Miniature dioramas of the present type came later, and served an entirely different purpose. Too small for the crowd, they were made for private display or for modest exhibition, and were at this date a novelty and given the content it is most probable that this was a particularly exotic form of marketing. The form is now so thoroughly domesticated by the world's museums that it takes an effort to recall how new, and how faintly magical, it once appeared.
The bridges tell the larger story. Until 1750, London Bridge was the city's only river crossing; Westminster, Blackfriars, Vauxhall, Waterloo, Southwark and Hungerford followed in rapid succession. Lambeth Bridge of 1862 was built on the site of the horse ferry (Horseferry Road in Westminster nods to this heritage), an ancient perquisite of the Archbishops of Canterbury, and its opening extinguished the crossing at a stroke. Moreover the paddle steamers seemingly advertised here had enjoyed the peak of their celebrity by the start of 1840s, slowly replaced by the rapidly expanding train network.
Auction: London | Ancient & Modern, 16th Sep, 2026
London is a city which has had a greater impact on culture around the world than almost any other, and it has never been more important than now to shine a light on its remarkable citizens and history. From Magna Carta to the television London has, again and again, been the source from which progress has radiated. The present sale takes us from a medieval spur found under Cannon Street station, to a medal minted to commemorate the Millennium, from prints and paintings, to clocks and pistols. This sale is a sensational opportunity to acquire a small piece of this incomparable place. Olympia is a proudly London-based auction house and we are thrilled to be offering the inaugural instalment of this sale.
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PUBLIC EXHIBITION:
Sunday 13th September: 12pm to 4pm
Monday 14th September: 10am to 8.00pm (Drinks from 5pm)
Tuesday 15th September: 10am to 5pm
