Striking hand-colored engraving on laid paper, a 1776 vue d'optique or Lantern Print offering a European artist's conception of the Great New York Fire of 1776. The view depicts parts of downtown New York, near Broadway, the original Stock Exchange, the original Kings College, and Trinity Church, fully engulfed in flames. British soldiers, dressed in their signature red coats are savagely beating the city's panicked inhabitants while enslaved Africans carry trunks from the blazing buildings. In overall fine condition within the plate and image; heavily worn around the edges with staining, creasing and small losses, one paper repair to lower left corner. 13.5"h x 17"w; 43.5 x 34.5 cm;

Originally issued as a vue d'optique or lantern print, the drawing was intended to be projected and seen through an optic device and consequently the title, top center, is rendered as a mirror image. For the present printing, French and German text decrying the fire as an act of revolutionary and slave aggression against rightful British hegemony, has been added to the base of the map. It was drawn by the German engraver Franz Xaver Habermann and published in 1776 by L'Academie Imperiale d'Empire des Arts Libereaux, in Augsburg, Germany, as part of the collection of views Collection des Prospects.

The German engraver and artist Franz Xaver Habermann was active in the second half of the 18th century and based in Augsburg where he was a well-respected engraver of urban views. He is particularly known for his views of American cities, most specifically New York and Boston, which though merely artists conceptions and highly fictive, do illustrate the common European perception of the English colonies at the outset of the American Revolutionary War. 

A contemporary witness described the fire:
"… at a little past midnight, September 21, 1776, a fire broke out in a low drinking-place and brothel -a wooden building on the wharf, near White-hall Slip. The wind was brisk from the southwest, and the flames spreaåd rapidly, unchecked, for there were few inhabitants in the city. every building between White-hall and Broad streets up to Beaver Street was consumed, when the wind veered to the southeast and drove the flames towards Broadway. The buildings on each side of Beaver Street to the Bowling Green were burned. The fire crossed Broadway and swept all the buildings on each side as far as Exchange Street, and on the west side to Partition (Fulton) Street, destroying Trinity Church. Every building westward towards the Hudson River perished."

The fire broke out as American Revolutionary forces, under George Washington, and British marines, under Lord Howe, fought for control of the strategically important harbor. The conflagration lasted two days and destroyed nearly 500 buildings, at the time about one third of the city. Both sides immediately accused the other of starting the fire intentionally, and indeed, when it became apparent that wresting control of New York harbor from the entrenched British was unlikely, the Revolutionary leaders did discuss burning the city to the ground, though supposedly the plan was abandoned. Nonetheless, the ramifications were significant, with the British using the fire as an excuse to maintain martial law over the city until finally expelled in 1783.

References:
Cresswell, D. H., The American Revolution in drawings and prints; a checklist of 1765-1790 graphics in the Library of Congress, no. 268. New York Public Library, Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs, The Eno collection of New York City Views, MEZN Eno 38d.