40. George Bickham Jr. (ca. 1705-1758) after Hubert-François
d’Anville, called Gravelot (1699-1773)

The Invitation to Mira, Requesting Her Company to VauxHall Garden

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Bickham, Invitation to Mira

The Invitation to Mira, Requesting Her Company to VauxHall Garden

Engraving, 1738, from Bickham’s Musical Entertainer, 327 x 198 mm. Fine impression of the full sheet, with the words and music, on laid paper; a few nicks and tears in the margins only. The vignette includes the statue of George Frideric Handel by Roubiliac, erected in Vaux Hall Gardens during the composer’s lifetime, and one of the all-too-rare such tributes to a living composer. Bickham's volumes kept people abreast of the hits of the day and the vignettes frequently showed where those hits were originally sung. People had to entertain themselves in those days.