Nathaniel Whittock

Nathaniel Whittock (26 January 1791 – 12 August 1860)[1] was a Victorian topographical engraver, who published bird's-eye views, e.g. of York (1856), Oxford (1834), Melbourne, Australia (1854), Hull (1855), and London (1845, 1849, 1859).

The 1841 census shows him living at 34 Richard Street in Islington with his young nephew Henry Hyde: both were described as engravers.

Whittock was "a prolific writer of instruction books",[9][10] on drawing and other subjects, such as The decorative painters' and glaziers' guide (1828), On the construction and decoration of the shop fronts of London (1840), and The complete book of trades, or the parents' guide and youths' instructor (1837).

The full title of the first of these was: The decorative painters' and glaziers' guide: containing the most approved methods of imitating oak, mahogany, maple, rose, cedar, coral, and every other kind of fancy wood, Verd Antique, Dove, Sienna, Porphry, white-veined and other marbles, in oil or distemper colour; designs for decorating apartments, in accordance with the various styles of architecture; with directions for stencilling, and process for destroying damp in walls; also a complete body of information on the art of staining and painting on glass; plans for the erection of apparatus for annealing it, and the method for joining figures together by leading, with examples from ancient windows.

[11] As the full title shows, the work was very comprehensive, and the preface "rails against trade secrecy" which the book was intended to dispel.

Section from a 19th-century engraving by Nathaniel Whittock from a drawing by Antony van den Wyngaerde (ca 1543–50), which shows the towers and spires of many of the churches mentioned in the rhyme Oranges and Lemons .