Cape of Good Hope

The hand-coloured aquatint depicts a view of the Cape of Good Hope with Table Mountain in the background. Inscribed beneath the image with the title and the publication details: ‘Cape of Good Hope. / Drawn & Engraved by Thos. & Willm. Daniell. / Published by Mess. TS Longman, Hurst, Rees & Orme, Paternoster Row. Feby.1.1809’.

This print was no. 8 in ‘A Picturesque Voyage to India, By the Way of China’, a collection of 50 aquatints depicting places visited by artists Thomas and William Daniell on their various journeys to China and India.

Thomas Daniell had received permission from the East India Company in 1784 to travel to India, accompanied by his nephew, William. The Daniells left England in April 1785 on board the Indiaman ‘Atlas’, travelling via Madeira, the Cape of Good Hope and Java, arriving in Whampoa (Huangpu), China, in August. Several months later, they sailed on to Calcutta. Their illustrations of the journey were published in ‘Oriental Scenery’, issued in ten parts from 1795 to 1808, with further illustrations featuring in ‘A Picturesque Voyage to India, by the Way of China’ in 1810. The album opens with the Indiaman’s departure from Gravesend and includes, among others, depictions of the East Indies and the Straits of Malacca.