Vernon Captures Portobello in Spanish Panama

Portus Pulchri in Isthmo Panamensi [with] Scenographia Portus Pulchri

This is a plan and view of the successful British attack on the wealthy and strategically important Spanish harbour of Portobello in Panama. Under Admiral Vernon (for whom the Washington family estate Mount Vernon was named), Portobello fell within a day in November 1739. This was one of the early actions of the War of Jenkins’ Ear. 

The Homann firm’s source for this piece was a printed plan based upon an eye-witness sketch by Lieutenant Phillip Durrell, which was brought to London by Captain James Rentone and published in May 1740. 

Johann Baptist Homann (1664-1724), was a self-taught copper engraver who founded the leading German cartographic publishing house of the eighteenth-century. He was appointed cartographer to the Holy Roman Emperor in 1715, and his maps were sold throughout Europe. 

After Homann's death the business was continued by his son, Johann Christoph, and then by the Homann Heirs (his friend Johann Michael Franz and his stepsister's husband, the engraver Johann Georg Ebersberger).

Condition & Materials

Two copper engravings on one sheet, each printed area 24 x 29.5 cm, original hand colour, trivial spotting, blank verso.