Sandby’s importance lies in his adoption of aquatint. His ‘XII Views in South Wales’ are the first printed in England. In 1753 he took up lodging with his brother in Windsor Park and began a career as a drawing master, painter and engraver to the nobility. He quickly gained the attention of Sir Joseph Banks who became one of his most important patrons, and that of the Royal family. Much of his early work is of Windsor and surrounding countryside. This is from one of his early series on Windsor and Eton. It has been stated that “This essentially social quality of Sandby’s work, which directs our attention less to the physical environment than to people who occupy it, is a precedent that would be passed on to Sandby’s student Michael ‘Angelo’ Rooker and, through Rooker, to J.M.W. Turner”. Lower left is the name of ‘P… Daschkaw. 1780’, this is likely the Princess Yekaterina Romanovna Vorontsova-Dashkova who left Russia after falling out with Catherine the Great and toured Europe from 1768 to 1782. MacKenzie (1998) p. 300; Russell (1979) p. 38; Potter, N, ‘British Topographical Prints’ in ‘The Map Collector’ no. 23 p. 5.