Birkenhead Church from the Potteries, South Shore

Richard Sebastian Bond was born in Liverpool where he studied painting under Samuel Austin. He lived most of his life in the city until he finally settled in Betws-y-Coed in North Wales. His principal subjects were landscape and coastal scenes. Bond exhibited at the Royal Academy and elsewhere between 1846 - 1872, but the majority of his works were shown in Liverpool and Midland towns. This is an early work, looking towards Birkenhead, with the bottle-shaped kilns on the right belonging to Herculaneum Pottery, a factory that produced blue printed ware and china. The figure sketching in the foreground may be the artist.