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EARLY AMERICAN BOOK-PLATE ENGRAVERS
ОглавлениеNATHANIEL HURD, who was born in Boston, Feb. 13, 1730, and who died in 1777, was the best of our early engravers of book-plates. Very little is now known of him, the principal source of information being an article in the third volume of “The New England Magazine,” published in Boston in 1832 by J. T. and E. Buckingham. The only known portrait of Hurd, which is copied from an original painting of him by Copley, and which in 1832 was owned by a descendant of Hurd in Medford, Mass., also accompanies this article, and shows him as a young man with smooth face, very pleasing and intelligent features, and wearing a cap, white neck-cloth, and clothes of a pattern which give him a decidedly clerical appearance.
The only book-plate work mentioned in this article is the large plate for Harvard College. It is said that the prints done in red ink were for use in the highly valuable books which the students were not allowed to take from the library. Several brilliant caricatures, a portrait of the Rev.
Dr. Sewell of the Old South Church, done in 1764, and a few other examples of his art are mentioned. He is (probably inaccurately) claimed to be the first person who undertook to engrave on copper in the United States. He was a man of natural talent and real genius, was self-instructed in his art, and was regarded as the foremost seal-cutter and die-engraver of his time, in this country.
The following advertisement from the Boston “Gazette” of April 28, 1760, is of some interest: —
“Nathaniel Hurd Informs his Customers he has remov’d his shop from Maccarty’s Corner on the Exchange to the Back Part of the opposite Brick Building, where Mr. Ezekiel Price kept his Office, where he continues to do all Sorts of Goldsmiths Work. Likewise engraves in Gold, Silver, Copper, Brass, and Steel, in the neatest Manner, and at reasonable Rate.”
Hurd worked principally in the Chippendale style; he made some plates in the Jacobean and a few in the Ribbon and Wreath styles, but he died before the latter was much in use, and the former was really going out when he took up the making of plates. Judging from the appearance of his work, his first attempts were in the Chippendale style, and the few Jacobeans he made were done after he had attained considerable efficiency.
One of his earliest specimens was undoubtedly the plate of Edward Augustus Holyoke, the famous doctor of Boston, who lived to be one hundred years old, and who was but a year or two the senior of Hurd. In this plate he used a design which he evidently believed he could improve upon, and in which he felt there were good features, for we find a number of future plates of very similar design but much better execution. In the Holyoke plate the work is very crude, the lines are stiff, the drawing is poor, and the lettering of the motto and name are not good. An ugly scroll is placed under the name, and the festoon of cloth which is draped at the bottom of the frame and around the motto ribbon is especially poor; the shell at the base of the escutcheon which figures so often in future plates is here used, and the queer little flow of water from it would not be recognized as such were this the only specimen in which it occurs; the arrangement of the rose sprays, the form of the shield, and the employment of the shelly edge show a thorough study of the elements of this style. Very likely this design was copied in great part from some foreign example which had come into his possession.
In the Thomas Dering plate, which is the earliest plate dated and signed by an American engraver, this same design is improved upon; it is more compact in appearance, a little freer in execution, and the drawing is improved. The name is still not very well engraved, and top-heavy flourishes weigh down the capitals.
In the Theodore Atkinson plate the same design is still further improved upon; the flow of water from the scallop shell is here caught in a little bowl, a little additional flowery ornamentation is added, and the heraldic drawing is better. The name is again embellished with graceless flourishes.
The design seems to reach perfection in the Wentworth plate; every feature is markedly better, the water still flows out of the scallop shell, the same shaped shield is used and the motto is placed upon a graceful ribbon with ends which run off into fancy foliations. The name is neat in appearance, but still there are too many scrolls.
In the plate of Robert Hale of Beverly, the old festoon of cloth noticed in the Holyoke plate is seen again, and no motto is given. The name is fairly well engraved.
Later developments of this style are seen in the plates of Henry Marchant, Danforth, Nathaniel Tracy, and John Marston; in these some of the features of the former are wanting, but they are evidently a legitimate progeny in the matter of style.
Another, and without doubt the highest type of the Chippendale plate which Hurd made, is seen in the John Chandler, Jr., the Dana, the Philip Dumeresque, the Vassall, and the Wilson plates. In these the shield becomes larger, the whole scheme of decoration shows more fine detail work, and the effect is lighter, more graceful, and seems at once the work of a master. The names are engraved in large bold type, with a characteristic dash after the last period.
In the Jacobean style, the earliest of Hurd’s work is undoubtedly the Lewis De Blois. This is crude in workmanship, not very good in drawing, but excellent in design, and faithful to the characteristics of the style; the shield is placed against a frame which is lined with the regulation fish-scale pattern; the sides are richly foliated, the mantling is profuse and very well drawn, and the name is placed upon a fringed curtain which is tied up at the ends with ribbon.
The handsomest Jacobean plates by Hurd are the Robert Jenkins, the Spooner, and the Andrew Tyler. In the former the lining is diapered, the scroll work at the side of the arms is very fine, and at the bottom, under the shield, a small vignette of a ship under full sail is very pretty. At the top of the scrolls on either side two turbanded female heads peer at each other across the crest.
In the Tyler plate the frame is very similar to the Jenkins, the lining is diapered, and the scroll at the side are the same. The little vignette at the bottom, however, is displaced by a sour face with gray hair. The two faces are replaced by urns filled with flowers, and the old cloth festoon is draped below the whole design. The Spooner plate bears no resemblance to the others, and is a more graceful design. The lining is latticed, the Sphinx head under the shield is enclosed within a frame of its own, and at either side are term figures from whose hands depend bouquets of flowers; the crest is overarched with a bit of the old scallop shell, and the motto is on a ribbon, which, wholly unsupported, maintains a curved position under the frame.
The Jacobean plates of Benjamin Greene and Peter R. Livingston are almost identical in design; the small frame which encloses the shield is lined with the fish-scale pattern, the mantling is handsome and profuse, and the motto ribbon is stretched in rather stiff manner below the frame.
Only two examples of the Ribbon and Wreath style are known as Hurd’s work, the John C. Williams and the Jonathan Jackson. These are both signed, and are very similar in design. Garlands of roses depending from rings above follow closely the outline of the heart-shaped shield, and the ribbon for the motto is placed beneath, and is ornamented with fancy ends.
In the “detur” plate for Harvard College Hurd conformed to the English manner and adopted the seal-shaped design. The arms are displayed upon a heart-shaped shield which is enclosed within a circle which bears the name and motto, and this again is enclosed by a wreath of holly branches.
Hurd’s work is the most interesting found in our early days, and a study of it shows him to have been progressive as well as painstaking. The Ribbon and Wreath style did not come into general use in England until about 1770, yet Hurd, who died in 1777, had used it. The colonies could not be expected to adopt the new styles of the old country immediately, and the condition of things from 1770 on to the time of Hurd’s death was not such as to encourage the introduction of “fads” or to allow much time for the development of the fine arts.
A word must be said about the heraldry on Hurd’s book-plates. This science, heraldry, was not held in such general esteem among the New Englanders as it was further south, and while many of the governors and men of high standing in the Northern colonies brought armorial seals with them, a great many who used them did so without strict heraldic authority, and when it became the fashion to use coats-of-arms in various ways, the herald painters of those days, who had but slight knowledge of heraldry and who were possessed of a copy of Guillim or some other writer on the subject, would find therein the arms of some family bearing the name of their prospective customer, and without further research would proceed to produce the coat as described. Not always were these arms so ordered correctly borne; indeed, there is much uncertainty about the arms used after about 1730 when our native engravers and painters took up the work of producing arms upon orders. Such seals as were brought by the colonists from England, and such as were used by their descendants are undoubtedly correct, but the questionable arms are those which, as mentioned above, were looked up in this country only, by means of such heraldic works as were at hand. The presence of the arms then on some book-plates cannot be relied upon as sufficient and indisputable proof of their owners’ right to them.
A list of the book-plates signed by Hurd is appended.
Of James Akin, who signs the Coffin and Browne plates, nothing is learned. The Hector Coffin book-plate is also signed by Francis Kearney, which would seem to indicate that Akin was associated with him. The Browne is a Philadelphia plate, and Akin may have been employed by the firm of Tanner, Vallance, Kearney and Company, which was in successful operation in Philadelphia for some years.
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S. Allardice was apprenticed to Robert Scott, who had been a pupil of Robert Strange, and who, coming to America, was made die-sinker to the Mint. He had previously made the architectural plates for Dobson’s Encyclopædia.
Only one example of the book-plate work of Allardice is now at hand, and that is simply an engraved label for the Library Company of Baltimore. Ornamented with flourishes, and some fancy work, it is yet of no merit as a book-plate or an example of art.
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Alexander Anderson, who was the first American wood-engraver, was born in the city of New York, April 21, 1775, and lived to the advanced age of ninety-five years, dying, in 1870, in Jersey City, N.J., on the 17th of February.
At the age of twelve, with the spring of a pocket-knife, sharpened for the purpose, he tried to engrave on copper pennies rolled thin. In this way he made his first plate, which was a head of Paul Jones; and his first impression from it was made in red oil paint by a rude kind of a press of his own contrivance. With tools made by a blacksmith, he went on to cut little ships and houses on type metal for the newspapers. Being in some way led to take an interest in certain medical works, he copied many of the plates, and his father, feeling that this was a true sign of his fitness for the profession of medicine, and not discerning the talent for engraving, placed him with Dr. Joseph Young, as a student of medicine.
This step was taken with great reluctance by the youth; but he found time for both the cares of his new study, and for the pleasures of his old pastime. Various successes encouraged him, and in 1793 he cut a tobacco-stamp on wood, which appears to have been his first use of that material. Soon after this, he obtained a copy of Bewick’s “Quadrupeds,” and with the cuts found therein he was delighted. They had a strong influence upon his later work, and he has been well called the “American Bewick,” for his small wood-cuts closely resemble those of the English master in design, and his prominence in this country was equal to Bewick’s in England.
A life of Dr. Anderson has lately (1893) been issued in New York; but, to the disappointment of book-plate collectors, not a word is said of his making book-plates.
Of the seven plates by Anderson known at present, four are on wood, and three are on copper.
Only one of those on wood is signed. The Lot Tripp and Josh. Russell plates are simple labels, and the Typographical Society of New York and the John Pintard, LL.D., which is signed, are pictorial. In the former, the emblems and implements of the printing trade are prominent, and in the Pintard, which is a fine example
of Anderson’s best work on wood, the shield of arms is shown with a landscape for background.
The plates on copper are the Anderson, which is a Chippendale, the Apprentices’ Library, and the Columbia College, which are allegorical.
All the above will be found described in the List.
There is a plate of the Apprentices’ Library Company of Philadelphia which strongly resembles the wood-cut work of Anderson, but as it is not signed it is not safely attributed to him. In the plate of A. Griggs of Philadelphia, an even more marked resemblance to his little designs on wood is seen, but this, too, is not signed.
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Annin and Smith. This firm consisted of W. B. Annin and George C. Smith, and they were established in Boston from 1820 to 1837. Annin died in 1839, in Boston, and Smith, who lived to quite an advanced age, died in 1878. They engraved a number of plates for the “Token,” and for other annuals so popular sixty years ago.
The plates of Richard Taylor Auchmuty, A. L. Peirson, William H. Prescott, John Lowell, Jr., and an armorial plate for the Boylston Medical Library are signed by them, and will be found described in the List.
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Abel Bowen, whose name appears on one of the plates of Harvard College, was the first wood-engraver in Boston. He was born in New York state in 1790, and he took up engraving before he was of age. In 1812 he was a printer in Boston, probably attracted thither by his uncle, who was the proprietor of the Columbian
Museum. Nathaniel Dearborn claims to be the first engraver on wood in Boston, but the honor is usually accorded to Bowen. He issued, in 1816, the “Naval Monument,” and in 1817 was associated with Dearborn in engraving for Shaw’s “History of Boston.” In 1834 Bowen, with others, founded “The Boston Bewick Company,” which was an association of engravers. In the following year they issued a map of Boston, and undertook the publishing of the “American Magazine.” They were burned out in this same year. Bowen died in 1850.
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John Boyd, who engraved the plate of Samuel Chase, which is taken to be the plate of the signer of the Declaration, was a Philadelphia engraver. This is the only specimen of his work on book-plates which we have, and it is a very pretty Chippendale design, delicately engraved.
In Dunlap, a J. Boyd is simply mentioned, who was engraving in Philadelphia in 1812. This, if the engraver of the Chase plate, would make him rather young at the time of doing it, and it is very good work, and not the experiment of a novice. Whether this is the same engraver, I do not know.
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Joseph Callender was born in Boston, May 6, 1751. Very little is known about him, but he is reported to have acquired the plates of Peter Pelham, who was presumably the first to engrave on copper in America, and to have destroyed them. Callender made most of the dies for the second Massachusetts Mint, at a cost of £1 4s. each. This was considered an exorbitant price by the superintendent, who made a contract with a Newburyport artisan, Jacob Perkins. Callender received £48 12s. for making thirty-nine dies, and repairing three others, while Perkins received but £3 18s. 10d. for his work. Callender died in Boston, Nov. 10, 1821, and was buried in the Granary Burying Ground.
The only Chippendale plate by Callender is a copy of the Atkinson plate by Hurd, and is for a member of the same family. As compared with its model, this plate shows very little difference, it is so close a copy, but the motto ribbon which is added is more graceful than those of Hurd usually were, the heraldic drawing is quite as good, and the lettering of the name is better. Callender, of course, would not have begun to engrave much before Hurd’s death; indeed, the preponderance of the Ribbon and Wreath style in his designs goes to show that his work dated towards the close of the century.
His plates in this style are very light and graceful, with no overloading; and a faithful use of the usual features of the style is apparent.
In the Russell plate he was again a copyist, using for his model the Joseph Barrell plate. The plates for the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and for the Massachusetts Medical Society are practically alike; the curtain, and the
ribbon and festooning are very similar, while the view within the oval frame is, of course, adapted to the use of the books of the respective societies. Callender would seem by these signs to have been a lazy engraver, or to have considered his designs so perfect as to call for no further effort.
Cephas G. Childs, who engraved the plate of Henry D. Gilpin, was born in Pennsylvania, in 1793. In the years 1827 to 1830, he published a set of views of the city of Philadelphia and its vicinity (Baker).
Henry Dawkins was an engraver of but few original ideas, if we may judge him rightly by his book-plate work. In this he was very largely a copyist. Working altogether in the Chippendale style, his designs for the most part are variations of one general plan, which seems to have been borrowed from an English-made plate. In his plates we see “Chippendalism run wild.” Here are introduced the love-sick swains who play upon the flute; the dandy shepherds in stiff clothes of the most fashionable cut, flowing curls, and large felt hats; the flirting young damsels in very low-cut bodices, who play at being shepherdesses for the sake of following the above-mentioned gentle keeper of sheep. Here are the music-loving Cupids, the scantily clad females who are attended by the Cupids, and who are far from home among the trees of the wood. In the James Duane plate we find a fountain is fixed to the side of the frame, and is spouting water from the mouth of a man’s head.
But the plates of Samuel Jones, Samuel Stringer, and Peter W. Yates are proof that Dawkins could confine himself to the legitimate features of good Chippendale plates. In these no outside objects are introduced, and the design is good.
We do not know much about Dawkins. Dunlap says he was probably from England, and that he was first noticed in New York. Originally he was an ornamenter of buttons and other small bits of metal, but in America he worked at anything that offered, “suiting himself to the poverty of the arts at the time.” Dunlap dates him about 1774, evidently on the strength of the word of Dr. Anderson, who remembered to have seen “shop-bills and coats-of-arms for books,” done by him previous to 1775. However, in 1761, he engraved music for a book of Psalm Tunes published in that year in Philadelphia. His earliest dated book-plate is that of John Burnet (1754). He was skilful enough to make counterfeit Continental currency, but not to avoid arrest; and in 1776 we find him suffering for this misdeed. Some time later, he forwarded the following unique petition to the Committee of Safety: —
“May it please Your Honours, – The subscriber humbly relying on the known goodness and humanity of this honourable house, begs leave to lay his complaint before them, which is briefly as follows. That your petitioner was about six months past taken upon Long Island for a trespass which this house is thoroughly acquainted as by Israel Youngs he was led away to perform an action of which he has sincerely repented and your petitioner was torn away from an only son who was left among strangers without any support, or protection during the inclemency of the approaching winter, as his unhappy father hath since the first day he was taken had but one shirt and one pair of stockings to shift himself, and hath been affected during his imprisonment at White Plains with that worst of enemies hunger, and a nauseous stench of a small room where some twenty persons were confined together which hath introduced a sickness on your distressed subscriber which with the fatigue of travelling hath reduced your unhappy petitioner to a state of despondency – he therefore being weary of such a miserable life as his misconduct has thrown him into begs for a termination by death to be inflicted upon him in what manner the honourable House may see fit. The kind compliance of this honourable House will ever lay an obligation on your distressed humble servent
Henry Dawkins.”
We do not know in what manner the honorable house received this extraordinary petition; but, as book-plates are in existence in his later style, probably it was not granted. Dawkins used three distinct varieties of the Chippendale style. The plates of Benjamin Kissam, the Ludlow and Roome plates, the Whitehead Hicks and the James Duane are examples of the debased
Chippendale. He had also a style which is illustrated by the Hopkinson, Samuels, and Tomlinson plates, which is closely allied to the style of the Bushrod Washington. The same hissing dragon, the same tilt to the whole design, and the similarity in detail and execution have led to the question of his being the engraver of the latter plate. It is not a question easy to decide, and collectors are divided over the question. This style of plate came originally from England, we can be sure; and as Dawkins is seen to be a copyist, it is quite as likely that he copied from the Bushrod Washington plate, as that he designed it. He always used a squarer copper than the Washington plate is engraved upon; but this has evidences of having been cut down after engraving. The present writer does not think the plate can be safely attributed to Dawkins. The Child and Jones plates exemplify the third style.
The debased Chippendale plates which Dawkins made were apparently copied from an English example he had seen.
The plates of Cornelius Low and Lambert Moore, although not signed, are attributed to Dawkins.
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Nathaniel Dearborn was born in 1786, and was the son of Benjamin Dearborn, a man of attainments in science. Nathaniel was one of the first wood-engravers in Boston, and was associated with Abel Bowen for a time.
The only armorial book-plate signed by Dearborn is the Charles Beck, which is a peculiar design, following no particular style, but making a pretty plate.
A second plate signed by Dearborn is the simple engraved verse for Isaac Child.
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Amos Doolittle, who was born in 1754, was one of the first engravers of historical scenes in America. In Barber’s “History and Antiquities of New Haven,” published in 1831, is an advertisement of “four different views of the Battle of Lexington, Concord, etc. on the 19 April 1775.” A list of the plates follows, and it is remarked that they were “neatly engraved on copper from original paintings taken on the spot.” In a note which follows, it is further remarked that the pictures were first drawn by Mr. Earl, who was a portrait painter, and who with Mr. Doolittle was a member of the Governor’s Guard which went to Cambridge and the scene of action under the command of Arnold.
As a maker of book-plates, Doolittle was fond of the allegorical style. He made two plates for the Societies of Yale College, and one for the village library of Wethersfield. The latter is an ornamental label only, but the former are quite elaborate examples of the allegorical. The plates of Benjamin S. Brooks, in the Ribbon and Wreath style, and Charles H. Wetmore, which is a copy of one of Maverick’s favorite designs, complete the number of his signed examples. The Guilford Library and George Goodwin plates, which have some features in common with the Wethersfield Library, are confidently attributed to him.
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Gideon Fairman, whose signature is on one of the plates of Henry McMurtrie and one of the Linonian Society of Yale College, was born in Connecticut in 1774. He showed an early fondness for engraving, and made rude attempts which showed undoubted talent. In 1810, having made himself a master of his art, he went into partnership with Murray, Draper, and others, in Philadelphia. He made considerable money, and went over to England with Jacob Perkins, where, with Charles Heath for a third partner, they were successful but for a short time, the extravagance of Murray proving their ruin.
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John Mason Furnass was the nephew of Hurd, to whom the latter left his engraving tools by will, as the young man showed so much ability in the art practised by his widely known uncle.
He was also a painter of portraits, and he had a studio in Boston, which was also used by Trumbull.
The only plate signed by this engraver, which the present writer has seen, is the Eli Forbes. This plate shows but few traces of the influence of Hurd. It is a Chippendale design, but
is not in either of the characteristic modes of Hurd. It is an ambitious plate, and was meant to be very fine, evidently. It is full of flourishes, and the little spiral flourish at the lower right-hand side is wholly out of place; the robin picking rose leaves at the side is an innovation. The scrolls under the name are somewhat in the manner of Hurd. The heraldic drawing is poor, and the bunch of arrows between the shield and the crest must be in allusion to the occupation of the owner, who was a missionary to the Indians.
There is said to be a plate by Furnass owned in Boston, by the name of Foster, but no definite knowledge of it has been obtained.
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E. Gallaudet, who signed the plate for the New York Society Library and the plate of John Chambers, was one Elisha Gallaudet, who practised his art in New York City towards the end of the last century.
Edward Gallaudet, a relative of the above, was superior to him as an engraver, and the Gallaudet plate mentioned in the List is by him. He was of the present century.
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Abraham Godwin was born in New Jersey in 1763. He was intended for the profession of the law, and was placed in the office of his brother, at Fishkill, in New York state. Both men joined the army, however; and when Abraham returned to his home, it was to take up the art of engraving, towards which he had had an inclination from boyhood, when he made his first attempts on the silver plate of his friends, with a graver made by a blacksmith.
The only example of his book-plate work is a plate fully described under the heading, “Unidentified,” in the List. Most unfortunately, the only example known has the family name torn out. The first name is John. The plate is rather rudely engraved, but is quite ambitious, showing the interior of a large room, which might be either a school-room or a library.
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S. Harris, who engraved the pictorial plates of Henry Andrews and the anonymous Williams, was a New England engraver, who was in Boston about 1798.
Charles P. Harrison, who signed the plain armorial book-plates of William Betts and David Paul Brown, was a son of William Harrison, an English engraver, who came to New York in 1794, and was for a time an instructor of Peter Maverick the second.
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Samuel Hill was a copper-plate engraver in Boston, about 1790, and his work consisted mostly of portraits and book work.
The following are examples of his work: —
Also the plate of Saml. Hill, which is of a literary flavor, is probably the engraver’s own plate.
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S. S. Jocelyn, of New Haven, who made a very handsome plate for the Brothers in Unity of Yale College, became an engraver of vignettes for bank-notes.
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Thomas Johnson was born in Boston in 1708. He was buried in King’s Chapel Burying-ground, May 8, 1767. He engraved Psalm Tune plates
for the Tate and Brady edition of 1760, and did some commendable work as a herald painter. In the inventory of his estate, fifteen copper plates are appraised at 40s.
Only one specimen of his book-plate work is authenticated, and that is the Joseph Tyler, which is signed in full, —Johnson.
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Thomas Johnston signs the very beautiful Jacobean plate of William P. Smith, A.M., and the rougher Chippendale of Samuel Willis. Whether this is the same engraver as the above is uncertain; the difference in the spelling of the name would not disprove the claim, as in those days such differences were frequent. The Willis plate bears strong resemblance to the work and designs of Hurd. If this is the same engraver as the above, these two plates are likely to be the earliest signed plates by an American, as Johnson was born some twenty years before Hurd. The Willis plate is quite inferior to the Smith, which latter is a striking example of the Jacobean style.
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Francis Kearney, who signs the plate of Henry McMurtrie and Hector Coffin, was born in 1780. He was a pupil of Peter R. Maverick, who received two hundred and fifty dollars for instructing him for three years. The advantage was all with Maverick. Soon after the opening of the century, he was engaged with Anderson, the younger Maverick, Boyd, and others, in engraving plates for a quarto Bible published by Mr. Collins, of New York.
In 1810 he removed to Philadelphia, as that city was far ahead of New York in the publishing of books, etc. He was in that city for over twenty years. His greatest work is the engraving of Leonardo da Vinci’s picture of the “Last Supper.”
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Peter Rushton Maverick was born in England, April 11, 1755, and came to America about 1774. He was originally a silversmith, and came of a family whose members were for several generations well known as engravers, and who made the art their occupation. He was an energetic worker, getting most of his practical knowledge by his own endeavors. He was the teacher of William Dunlap and of Francis Kearney, as well as of his own son, who ultimately became a more proficient engraver than his father, and, who after instructing A. B. Durand for five years, took him into partnership.
Peter R. Maverick died in New York, about 1807, and his son Peter whose partnership with Durand resulted disastrously, died in 1831.
As a designer and engraver of book-plates, Maverick was the most prolific of all the early engravers. It is presumed that all the plates signed either P. R. Maverick, or simply Maverick, were by the same hand, as a large collection of
Weigh well each thought, each sentence freely scan,
In Reason’s balance try the works of man:
Be bias’d not by those who praise or blame.
Nor, Servile, Yield opinion to a Name.
proofs from his plates which furnishes examples of both ways of signing is now in the possession of the New York Historical Society, and the librarian informs me that all of the plates in that collection were done in 1789 by the elder Maverick. This collection consists of sixty-five plates, of which thirty-eight different ones are signed by Maverick. There are also others which are undoubtedly his work, although not signed, and there are examples by Dawkins, Hutt, and Child. Quite a number of the plates are duplicated, too. This very interesting collection of proofs, kept by Maverick himself, and sewed together roughly, was in the library of his friend, John Allan. By far the greater part of Maverick’s plates are of the Ribbon and Wreath style, but he made a few Jacobeans, a few Chippendales, and one or two pictorial and allegorical designs. He used the same features over and over in his plates, and seems to have been a rapid worker. The plates in the following list marked * are by the younger Maverick.