Lot Essay
This cast-iron girder bridge was made up of 16 separate castings laid in courses like brickwork and bolted together with flanges on each casting with provision for wrought-iron trussing. It was one of a number of attempts to build a long-span cast-iron girder railway bridge before wrought iron proved itself to be the more effective material for railway purposes with the construction of Robert Stephenson's Britannia and Conway tubular bridges.
The Grissells' bridge was intended to carry the Wisbech branch of the Great Eastern Railway over the River Nene and although it was not used it is known to have been erected in the Grissell's Regents Canal Iron Works which is no doubt where Dodgson drew it. The bridge attracted some interest at the time and this drawing was later published as a coloured lithograph (now very rare) with some variations. It was also reproduced in Edwin Clark's book The Britannia and Conway Tubular Bridges, 1850 because of its 'peculiar resemblance in principle to the wrought-iron tube, and as an example of the tendency of Mr. Stephenson's mind towards this principle of construction'.
Dodgson was an assistant to George Stephenson, before becoming an artist, and prepared the plans for the Whitby & Pickering Railway, opened 1836. He is best known for his drawings in Illustrations of the Scenery on the line of the Whitby and Pickering Railway, 1836.
A similar drawing by Dodgson of the bowstring girder bridge on the London & Birmingham Railway at Camden Town, also cast at the Regents Canal Iron Works was included in a sale in these Rooms, 16 December 1986, lot 70.
The Grissells' bridge was intended to carry the Wisbech branch of the Great Eastern Railway over the River Nene and although it was not used it is known to have been erected in the Grissell's Regents Canal Iron Works which is no doubt where Dodgson drew it. The bridge attracted some interest at the time and this drawing was later published as a coloured lithograph (now very rare) with some variations. It was also reproduced in Edwin Clark's book The Britannia and Conway Tubular Bridges, 1850 because of its 'peculiar resemblance in principle to the wrought-iron tube, and as an example of the tendency of Mr. Stephenson's mind towards this principle of construction'.
Dodgson was an assistant to George Stephenson, before becoming an artist, and prepared the plans for the Whitby & Pickering Railway, opened 1836. He is best known for his drawings in Illustrations of the Scenery on the line of the Whitby and Pickering Railway, 1836.
A similar drawing by Dodgson of the bowstring girder bridge on the London & Birmingham Railway at Camden Town, also cast at the Regents Canal Iron Works was included in a sale in these Rooms, 16 December 1986, lot 70.