In 1767, the trade engraver Ralph Beilby of Newcastle upon Tyne took as his first apprentice a raw country lad with a passion for 'figuring' or drawing. This was the fourteen-year-old Thomas Bewick who in time was to gain national and international renown as the finest wood engraver in the kingdom. However, Bewick's celebrated histories of quadrupeds and birds of 1790, 1797 and 1804 have obscured the immense number of other books of all denominations illustrated in this modest workshop. From its inception in 1765 until its demise in 1849, the workshop provided illustrations to books, pamphlets, periodicals and newspapers. The range of illustrations encompassed natural histories, children's story-books, cookery books, religious tracts, spelling books, mathematical treatises, Bibles, agricultural manuals, local town and county histories, joke and riddle books and even a book of sermons. Generously illustrated and arranged alphabetically this book details some 750 titles, over 450 of which are unrecorded in earlier bibliographies. In addition it provides sections on newspaper mastheads, book cover designs, copy-book covers, maps and large single prints. Whether appealing to the Bewick aficionado, book historian, historian of popular art in the eighteenth century, provincial printing enthusiast or admirer of engraving on wood or on copper, this will be an indispensable work.

The Complete Illustrative Works of Thomas Bewick (3 Volumes)

Tattersfield, Nigel

The British Library

Thomas Bewick: The Complete Illustrative Work

British Library

Because of the acclaim with which his older brother Thomas was greeted for his superlative wood engravings of animals and birds, John Bewick's name was never entirely forgotten. Such was the brilliance of his brother's skill and reputation however, that it has largely obscured recognition of John Bewick's own life and his considerable achievements as a wood engraver.Yet John Bewick was one of the earliest, if not the earliest, designer-engravers in England to make his living almost exclusively by illustrating books; and his popularity resulted in his contributing illustrations and engravings to no less than sixty titles - mostly children's books - during a tragically short working life.Nigel Tattersfield's book is the first to establish John Bewick as an artist-engraver in his own right. It draws upon largely unpublished correspondence which has come to light during the last few years, John Bewick's own ledger of commissions dating from 1791 (previously unidentified) and a painstaking investigation of the extensive collection of Bewick material presented to the British Museum by his niece Isabella Bewick in 1883.Fully illustrated, with a brief but revealing biography and a comprehensive catalogue, this work represents a significant contribution to the history not only of early children's books but also of popular art in the late eighteenth century.

John Bewick: Engraver on Wood, 1760-1795 : An Appreciation of His Life Together With an Annotated Catalogue of His Illustrations and Designs

Bewick, John

Arts & Photography

British Library Board

This work is both a catalogue and a history of this remarkable British bookplate workshop. The author describes several hundred bookplates engraved on copper and wood, executed and printed in the workshop of Beilby & Bewick over a period of 89 years. This work is one of the most extensive and thorough studies on this subject ever undertaken. Tattersfield has taken full advantage of the recently opened archives of the firm to reveal the vast range of their work, from banknotes and inscriptions in silver, to the making of their type punches. The workshop's surviving records are unique in their diversity and quantity. The noted author utilized a brand of careful scholarship to produce a valuable and truly pioneering work on a subject hitherto clouded with speculation and optimistic attribution. Co-published with The British Library.

Bookplates by Beilby & Bewick: A Biographical Dictionary

Reference

Oak Knoll Pr

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