View of a house supposedly near Putney Common, satirically called ‘Bear’s Den Hall’, a rickety house with cracked plaster walls and a chimney-stack with broken brick, and with weeds growing from the cracks and on the roof. A key at the top references many of the features of the scene, including a bear is chained by the front door (B) at the left, birds in flight (K). The property is separated from the road in the foreground by a wicket fence, with a satircial armorial crest along the lower edge with portraits of Charles Christian and Skelton.
Satire on social pretensions: a view of a dilapidated cottage set into a garden behind a wooden fence, with a mock coat-of-arms at the bottom.–From variant state in the British Museum online catalogue.

• Printmaker: Reisen, Charles Christian, 1680-1725, printmaker.
  
• Title: The western prospect of Bears-Den Hall in Co. Surrey [graphic].
  
• Edition: [State without Greek motto at bottom of image].
  
• Publication: [London] : [publisher not identified], [approximately 1720]

Catalog Record

720.00.00.106

Acquired November 2023