Advertisements from the 1800s are usually visually striking, but this one is really something else – from the loopy lettering to the drama of the scene depicted in fields of shadow and dark, swirling water. Will the ship make it? Can the lighthouse maintain its struggle against the forces of night and the unseen?
This lovely piece is one of the first images in The engineer’s sketch-book of mechanical movements, devices, appliances, contrivances and details : employed in the design and construction of machinery for every purpose : classified and arranged for reference for the use of engineers, mechanical draughtsmen, managers, mechanics, inventors, patent agents, and all engaged in the mechanical arts, with nearly two thousand illustrations, descriptive notes and memoranda, a sort of reference for Victorian machine parts which I found on archive.org.