The career of John Pine encompasses much of 18th-century London life. As an apprentice silversmith and a young engraver, he learnt how to make a living from art in the commercial life of London, then the largest and wealthiest city in the world. His engravings appeared in some of the best-selling books of the time, such as Robinson Crusoe, and with his friend William Hogarth he struggled to improve the status of British artists. Pine cut a rambunctious figure in London’s newly fashionable coffee houses but he also achieved respectability as a Herald at the College of Arms and held royal office as Engraver of the King’s Signets and Seals. In 1747 Pine’s London was recorded in the famous maps of John Rocque, the precursor of today’s A-Z, and it was Pine’s engraving skills which enabled Rocque’s maps to be brought to the public.

Pine was a freemason at an exciting and turbulent time in the history of freemasonry, and some of his most charming work was undertaken for the new Grand Lodge. Pine’s masonic contacts helped him in obtaining patronage for his larger artistic projects at the Palace of Westminster and elsewhere. The production of Rocque’s map was also assisted by such masonic figures as the Grand Master Martin Foulkes, President of the Royal Society.

This exhibition uses Pine’s life and works as a means of exploring the city in which he lived and worked, and which he helped record. We visit some of the places which featured in Pine’s life and meet some of the people with whom he worked and we learn how freemasonry ran like a thread through the London life of the time.