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[Custos, Dominic]: : Lunden

Copper engraving, 27 x 32 cms, black and white as issued, two areas of paper thinning strengthened on verso, which is blank.

A seventeenth-century German broadsheet depicting a bird's-eye panorama of Stuart London taken from Southwark and surmounted by three engraved vignettes concerning the proposed ‘Spanish match’ of 1623 between the future Charles I and the infanta Maria of Spain. Charles travelled in person to Madrid to make his case but the marriage was extremely controversial and did not take place. A couple of years later Charles married Henrietta Maria of France. The topical nature of the plate suggests that it was printed close to events, although the signs of wear to the copper-plate itself (such as the crack, centre) which show up after printing, suggest that it was a popular piece. The three images at the top of the sheet appear to show scenes from English court life, with the king praying or giving audience from beneath a canopy, dining at table with his precious plate displayed behind him, and in procession.