Framed Color Engraving of Banqueting House, Whitehall 1829. This is an original colored engraving of Banqueting House at Whitehall from 1829. It was drawn from an original study by Thomas Hosmer Shepherd and engraved by William Wallis. The Banqueting House is in Westminster in central London and the best-known survivor of banqueting houses, constructed for elaborate entertaining. It was begun in 1619 and designed by Inigo Jones, completed in 1622, 27 years before King Charles I of England was beheaded on a scaffold in front of the site. It is the only surviving structure of the Palace of Whitehall, the residence of English monarchs from 1530 to 1698, and one of the first examples of Palladian architecture applied to an English building. Jones got his ideas for building Banqueting House after he travelled to Italy and saw the buildings of the ancient world, and he decided to recreate something of their effect in rainy London, for King James I. Jones was fascinated by the order and logic of classical buildings, and by the style, shape and color of classical architecture, and he intended to make it look like a piece of ancient Rome, but in Whitehall. Today, the Banqueting House is a national monument, open to the public and used as a venue space. Jones originally built the Banqueting House's facade with three different types of stone, each in different tones. In the 1830's, the outside of the building was re-faced in white Portland Stone by John Soane, some people didn't like the change, but Sloane was careful to preserve the original design in his new stonework. The great height of the Banqueting House also meant that it towered above the rest of Whitehall Palace, and perched on the roof is a huge wrought iron weathervane, installed in 1688 for James II, and the weathervane is still in working order. James II was the last monarch to live at Whitehall, and the weathervane was installed to warn the king of weather conditions which might prove favorable for an invasion. Thomas Homer Shepherd (1793- 1864) was an English watercolor artist well known for his architectural paintings, and he was employed to illustrate architecture in London, and later Edinburgh, Bath and Bristol. His paintings were the basis for steel engravings in many books, and Willam Wallis (11786 - 1855?) was an engraver well versed with steel line engravingsThe paper is a steel lined engraving which was hand-colored after, and it's numbered "172" in the lower left margin, probably as part of Shepherd's "London and its Environs in the Nineteenth Century" series. According to the label on the back side, it was framed in 1939 at Goodspeed's bookshop in Boston, and the frame measures 5 x 7 in. wide,the margins of the engraving are 4 1/4 x 6 1/4 in. wide, the engraving itself measures 3 1/2 to nearly 5 3/4 in. wide, the whole piece is in very good condition, with just a faint water stain in the lower margin near the title of the engraving, and the piece is already wired for hanging. #252