WHITTLE (R.P.)
Four Lithographic Views of Gillingham Church. Drawn from Nature & on Stone.
AN UNRECORDED SUITE OF PROVINCIAL LITHOGRAPHS
UNRECORDED. We have been unable to locate any other examples of this publication. Medway Council (Kent) have a single “Lithographic print of a sketch of Gillingham church” [probably the first print here] with James Gome recorded as publisher (Object number: A5129). Richard Whittle of Gillingham Kent is listed as “Artist” in the 1841 UK census. There is also a grave in the churchyard at St Mary Magdalene Gillingham (the church depicted here) for Richard Phillips Whittle (born 1807 and died September 1846).
A previously unknown series of lithograph views of the ancient St Mary Magdalene Church in Gillingham Kent.
According to the Church website the oldest parts date back to the late 13th or early 14th centuries with much of the stonework from the 15th. The church has strong links with the Royal Navy due to its proximity to Chatham docks. These lithographs show the church in its countryside location in the first half of the 19th-century with cows and sheep roaming around amongst the graves while country folk and well-attired parishioners stroll past. Whittle describes himself on the upper wrapper as “Miniature Painter and Drawing Master” and this series of views may have been intended as an advertisement for his artistic skills.
