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Robert and Thomas Hartley Cromek papers
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Robert Hartley Cromek (1770-1812), engraver and publisher of prints, abandoned law for literary and artistic pursuits. He came to London in 1788 where he studied under Francesco Bartolozzi. He then undertook the engraving of book illustrations, many of which were created by Thomas Stothard and Henry Fuseli. In 1805 Cromek comissioned William Blake to produce designs for an illustrated edition of Blair's Grave for 20 guineas. When Blake submitted a samples, Cromek strongly disapproved of them. Cromek commissioned the Italian Schiavonetti, instead. Cromek travelled extensively to Scotland and the north of England promoting this project by which means he raised some 589 subscribers without any benefit to Blake.
During one of his tours Cromek picked up a volume of Chaucer and suggested to Stothard his famous picture of The Canterbury Pilgrims. According to Sir Leslie Stephen's article in the Dictionary of National Biography (DNB) "This statement was intended as an answer to the far more probable story that Cromek really took the hint from a sight of Blake's design for the same subject. Blake asserted that Cromek gave him a commission for the picture. Cromek replied that Blake must have received the commission 'in a vision'. It seems that on failing to get the design on the same terms as the designs for the Grave he offered Stothard £60 (afterwards raised to £100) to paint the picture without explaining the previous transactions with Blake. Cromek exhibited the picture in several towns, and sold it for £300. He excused himself from paying Stothard in full on the ground of money difficulties. Schiavonetti's death (7 June 1810) delayed the engraving and Cromek was much affected by the disappointment." The article in DNB concludes:"Cromek was a shifty speculator, who incurred the odium attaching to men of business who try to make money by the help of men of genius."
In this assessment Stephen appears to have been guilty of a considerable misjudgment. The new entry for Cromek in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (ODNB) by Dennis M. Read (2008) goes only some way to correcting the picture. There it is stated:"It is not possible to determine definitively whether Cromek or Blake first conceived of painting and engraving this subject." Peter Ackroyd's Blake, (1999) however, goes much further. His account is summarized as follows: In the summer of 1806, Cromek approached Thomas Stothard to produce a painting based on The Canterbury Pilgrims. (Stothard had himself thought of just such a design as early as 1793). Blake, however, always insisted that Cromek had stolen the idea from him. He told the story of how he had trustingly shown Cromek his sketches for the subject and how Cromek had gone away delighted with the idea. Shortly afterwards he learned that Stothard had been commissioned to paint the same picture; it was the clearest proof of Cromek's double-dealings. However there was no evidence that Blake sketched any designs for a Chaucerian fresco before 1810 - a year after Stothard's painting was finished.
The true story is that Blake, piqued by Stothard's and Cromek's success and still smarting from The Grave humiliation, set out, after the event, to produce his own version and outface Stothard. Even in his last years Blake was still accusing Stothard of plagiarism and theft - to such an extent that Stothard, the most peaceable and just of men, eventually refused to have anything to do with him. When Blake did produce his own version the Miller is said to be based on Cromek:"A terrible fellow, such as exists in all times and places, for the trial of men." Blake was paranoid and a fantasist and it is quite possible that he came to believe his own version of events. Certainly Blake focused his disappointments on the figures of Stothard, Schiavonetti and Cromek and when Cromek died he savagely exulted:"Come Artists knock your heads against This stone/For Sorrow that our friend Bob Screwmuch's gone."
The bitter conflict between Blake and Cromek over The Grave and"The Canterbury Pilgrims" came to a head in May 1807 when, in response to a letter from Blake, Cromek wrote a letter back which has become one of the most celebrated documents in Blake literature and which is quoted in full in T.H. Cromek's manuscript account of his father:"When I first called on you, I found you without reputation; I imposed on myself the labour, and a herculean one it has been, to create and establish a reputation for you. I say the labour was herculean, because I had not only to contend with, but I had to battle with a man who had predetermined not to be served. What public reputation you have, the reputation of eccentricity excepted, I have acquired for you... I have some reason to embrace your wild opinion, that to manage genius, and to cause it to produce good things it is absolutely necessary to starve it; indeed, this opinion is considerably heightened by the recollection that your best work, the illustrations of The Grave, was produced when you and Mrs Blake were reduced so low as to be obliged to live on half a guinea a week! Before I conclude this letter, it will be necessary to remark, when I gave you the order for the drawings from the poem The Grave, I paid you far more than I could afford; more in proportion than you were in the habit of receiving, and what you were perfectly satisfied with; though, I must do you the justice to confess, much less than I think is their real value..." Why did you so furiously rage at the success of the little picture of 'The pilgrimage' Three thousand people have now seen it and have approved of it. Believe me, yours is 'the voice of one crying in the wilderness!'" (See Letters of William Blake pages 127-130.)
In 1808 Cromek visited Scotland to collect information about Burns. The result was his Reliques of Burns, consisting chiefly of original letters, poems, and critical observations on Scottish songs, 1808. This was followed by Select Scottish Songs, ancient and modern, with critical observations and biographical notices by Robert Burns edited by R. H. Cromek, 1810. Cromek made a second collecting tour in 1809, and then met Allan Cunningham who provided him with 'old songs', in fact of his own manufacture. Cromek printed these (with perhaps little knowledge of their true nature) in Remains of Nithsdale and Galloway song, with historical and traditional notices relative to the manners and customs of the peasantry, 1810.
In 1810 Cromek, as secretary to the Chalcographic Society, promoted a scheme to sell twenty engravings of British art to 170 subscribers for 100 guineas under the aegis of a Society for the Encouragement of Engraving. Blake derided it and, in response, wrote a vituperative draft"Public address to the Chalcographic Society" in his note book.
Cromek began to show signs of consumption in the winter of 1810, and died of the disease on 14 March 1812 at the age of only 42. In 1813 The Grave was re-issued with lives of Cromek and Schiavonetti. Cromek's widow subsequently made a large sum of money from publishing a print after Stothard which proved a huge success. Cromek's posthumous reputation, as reflected in the article in the DNB, appeared to have been blighted by an acceptance of Blake's version of events. In the early 1860s, his son T. H. Cromek set out to collect materials which would enable him to present a fair account. His manuscript was never published. But the substantial manuscript biography described below and original supporting materials - the major extant archive of Cromek father and son - now provide the detailed evidence for that reassessment.
T.H. Cromek's manuscript collections were not known to G.E. Bentley when he produced Blake Books, (1977). T.H. Cromek does not appear in the index. In 1995 Bentley produced his Blake Books Supplement and here the index does contain a number of references to Cromek junior. Most relevant, on page 255, is a reference to"T.H. Cromek, MS Memorials of the life of R.H. Cromek (1865) p. 9 in the possession of Mr. Wilfred Warrington" which refers to one of the volumes in the present archive. See (1) below. This shows that the existence of the manuscript biography (but not the accompanying volumes?) is now known to Blake scholarship.
Dennis Read (author of the new DNB entry for R.H. Cromek) had sight of T.H. Cromek's Manuscript Biography of his father at some time in the 1980s, while it was owned by Paul Warrington (It is cited as a source). Michael Warrington wrote the ODNB article on T. H. Cromek and he also refers to this manuscript source. In the last decade there has been a scholarly debate between Dennis Read and G.E. Bently Jr about the origins of the"Canterbury Pilgrims" (a central issue in the archive below). Read, relying on"new information" (i.e. these manuscripts?), shows that the idea for the drawing originated with Cromek, not Blake. G.E. Bentley puts counter arguments. (See G.E. Bently Jr Blake Books Supplement page 619). The debate, therefore, is still alive. There can be no doubt that the manuscript biography with the extensive accompanying material described below, almost all of it unpublished, provides in detail the evidence necessary to support the reassessment of Cromek (and Blake) and to support the account given by Holroyd - though, he, apparently, had no knowledge of these manuscripts.
Thomas Hartley Cromek (1809-1873), painter, only son of the engraver and book-illustrator Robert Hartley Cromek. In 1830 he set out for Florence and Rome where he did much drawing and sketching. In 1834 he journeyed to Greece. Arguably this journey to Greece prompted some of his finest drawings which reveal a freshness of colour and an originality of method. Cromek returned to England in 1835 and in January 1836 was received into the Roman Catholic Church. Cromek's biographer, James Fowler, records that by 1836 his reputation as a painter was fully established and at this time he gave lessons to Edward Lear. Between 1840 and 1849 in both Florence and Rome he received a constant flow of commissions and gave lessons to many of the distinguished visitors then flocking to Italy. Back in London in the summer of 1843 he was summoned to Buckingham Palace to show his drawings to the Queen and Prince Albert, both of whom bought pictures. When the artist Peter De Wint heard of this he jealousy remarked that"the Queen has no taste" a comment which, naturally enough terminated his friendship with Cromek. Despite the friendship of Clarkson Stansfield and others Cromek never maintained in England the level of success he had achieved in Rome. By 1861 his health had so deteriorated that he lost the use of his hands and no paintings are recorded after this date. He died in Hatfield Street, Wakefield, Yorkshire, somewhat impoverished, on 10 April 1873. The ODNB article by Michael Warrington who gives, as among his sources,"T. H. Cromek. Reminiscences at home and abroad, 1812-1855. Unpublished MS, priv. coll."
The collection consists of nine bound volumes of papers of Robert and Thomas Hartley Cromek, father and son. It ranges in great detail over large tracts of art history from the early and middle parts of the nineteenth century, with firsthand information on the Cromeks, William Blake, Luigi Schiavonetti, J. M. W. Turner, John Pye, William Mulready, Thomas Bewick, John Constable, Thomas Stothard, and Clarkson Stansfield.
The volumes:
Bewick, Thomas: Album of original letters and manuscripts largely relating to Thomas Bewick. Letters and manuscripts tipped onto album leaves. 52 pages.
Cromek, R. H.: Album of original autograph letters collected by T. H. Cromek in preparation for the biography of his father. Original letters and documents tipped in.
Cromek, Thomas Hartley: A manuscript notebook by T. H. Cromek, in different styles of hand, ca. 150 pages. The first section to page 75 is dated 16 October 1851. With an essay on the origins of Stothard's Canterbury Pilgrims.
Cromek, Thomas Hartley:"Introductory Lessons in Hebrew Grammar." Manuscript. Signed"Thomas H. Cromek, November 6th 1861." 62 pages. THC published A Manual of Hebrew Verbs, 1851.
Cromek, Thomas Hartley:"Memorials of the Life of R.H. Cromek, Engraver, F.A.S. Edinburgh. Editor of the 'Reliques of Burns'; 'Remains of Nithsdale and Galloway Song.' With the unpublished correspondence on those works and other papers relative to his professional and literary career. Collected and edited by his son." Circa 200 pages. Preface dated Wakefield, 23 December 1864.
Cromek, Thomas Hartley: Quarto manuscript notebook. 80 pages. Neatly written. Signed"Thomas H. Cromek, May 1863" and entitled"Recollections of conversations with Mr John Pye, London 1864-4, with other matters relating to men of his time."
Cromek, Thomas Hartley: Extracts from articles and books in THC's autograph, chiefly from Gilchrist' Life of Blake, with THC's critical comments; transcriptions of letters, etc. ca. 115 pages. Dated December 1863.
Cromek, Thomas Hartley: Album of original letters from John Pye to T. H. Cromek. Signed"Thomas H. Cromek, Wakefield Dec. 8th 1864." Contains 22 ALsS from John Pye to T.H. Cromek from 3 September 1862 to 1 August 1866. Relating to R. H. Cromek, Turner, Pye, and the history of engraving.
Cromek, Thomas Hartley: A manuscript notebook in which is entered a formal chronological list of many hundreds of THC's watercolors, with details of titles, subjects, prices and purchasers; from 31 December 1834 to December 1872."Total from December 1834 to December 1872: - 478 pictures sold for £6777.12.0. i.e. average of £14-3-7 each. Maximum £80 (twice) 1847 and 1849." Purchasers include Prince Albert and Queen Victoria and Edward Lear. 61 pages.
See Dennis M. Read's R. H. Cromek, Engraver, Editor, and Entrepreneur (Ashgate, 2011) for more information about Cromek and these papers.
By descent from T. H. Cromek. T. H. Cromek's daughter married John Warrington of Newland Hall, Wakefield. He was the father of Austin Warrington, whose son Paul Warrington inherited the Cromek archive and left the archive on his death to his wife, Jeanne Warrington, in 1992, who in turn left the archive to R. H. Cromek's great-great-great grandson Ian Warrington on her death in 2007, who sold the archive at Sothebys London in July 2008.
Purchased from John Hart Books in March 2009 (AM2009-104).
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This collection was processed by John Delaney on April 6, 2009. Finding aid coded by John Delaney on April 7-8, 2009, based on the descriptions of John Hart and Chris Johnson.
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- 2009
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Collection Inventory
1 box
Letters and manuscripts tipped onto album leaves. Morocco. Quarto. pp. 52. Lacking spine, boards detached.
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Original pencil drawing by Thomas Bewick of the poet Allan Cunningham. With a note by THC:"drawn two days before his death by the celebrated Bewick of Newcastle who gave it to my Father in 1808."
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BEWICk (Thomas). ALS to Mr. Davison. Four pages. 8vo. Darlington, 30 January 1864. Evidently THC had written to William Bewick under the misapprehension that he was Thomas Bewick's son. In this ALS William Bewick refers to both T.H. and R.H. Cromek, Thomas Bewick and his son Robert Bewick whom he knew well:"He was very amiable - very shy - and appeared robust and strong in constitution, and it surprised me very much to hear of his death." William Bewick also refers to Turner:"I am one of the few persons who ever saw Turner with his pallette & brushes painting upon one of his large pictures! How curious you would have been to see his colours - his brushes - the size and shape of his pallette - the vehicle he painted with."
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BEWICK (Jane), Thomas Bewick's daughter and editor of a memoir of her father. Three ALS, the first to William Bewick, the other two to THC, dated February 1864, 8vo, seven pages. In the first letter she writes how she is looking forward to meeting THC, mentions his crusade to clear his father's name and refers to the pencil drawing by her father of Cunningham. In the second letter to THC after their meeting, Jane Bewick writes that she would readily comply with requests by THC to see if she has any of his father's letters to Bewick, then refers to their meeting"I believe he [RHC] was on his way to Scotland in furtherance of his publication of Blair's"Grave". . . The portrait of Blake prefixed . . . is admirable." She goes on to sympathize with THC over the ill-treatment meted out to his father in Gilchrist's Life. In the third ALS Jane Bewick writes that her sister has found four letters from Cromek to Bewick and willingly sends them to him.
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CROMEK (R.H.). ALS to Thomas Bewick. Two pages. Quarto. Dated London, 13 August 1808. A fine letter in which Cromek writes that he is sending Bewick a parcel"containing the copies of Blair's Grave for the N.Castle subscribers." "The work has produced a great effect among the best judges here, and I hope it will meet with your approbation." Cromek goes on to ask Bewick to find a man to deliver the books ("I have marked on the back of each what is to pay. If you will collect the money in for me you will do me a great service..."). At the foot of the letter are listed some names and the monies owed. These have been annotated by Bewick himself (so stated by THC in volume one). Cromek then refers to the portrait of Cunningham as not yet being engraved -"It will go into the second edition of the book not into the first." He remarks that he and Stothard will be travelling to Scotland the following year and they hope to visit the Bewicks en route.
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CROMEK (R.H.). ALS Thomas Bewick. One page. Quarto. Dated London, 25 June 1809. Writes how grateful he is over Bewick's exertions on his behalf over the The Grave, then says that he and Stothard are about to set off for Scotland -"he is very curious to spend a day with so celebrated a genius as a certain gentleman I cannot now just name..." Cromek writes that he will bring the portrait of Cunningham with him. As a postscript Cromek writes that he has sorted out a problem of delivery to a subscriber of The Grave.
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CROMEK (R.H.). ALS to Thomas Bewick. One and a quarter pages. Quarto. London, 20 December 1809. Cromek writes how sad that he and Stothard were that their plans to meet Bewick failed - Stothard only spent a week in Scotland, and he, RHC, returned by boat after 13 weeks away. He encloses the portrait of Cunningham, then writes,"Schiavonetti has completed an Etching of the Canterbury Pilgrims, which has produced an Effect among both Painters and Engravers that would be in vain for me to Describe. It really is a Painter's Etching, with an Engraver's skill super added. I long for you to see one." Cromek concludes by a piece of"money-catching." Having given Schiavonetti 300 Guineas (as part of a total payment of 800 guineas), Cromek finds himself in a state of penury and asks Bewick if he has got"a few guineas [from The Grave subscribers] scattered about your town?"
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CROMEK (R.H.). ALS to Thomas Bewick. Three pages. Quarto. London, 24 December 1810. A fine, extensive letter. Cromek writes that he waited to write"till Burns's Remarks on Scottish Song was published, that I might have the pleasure of sending you the two volumes...You will see that I have made my own portrait of Cunningham, which, with the anecdote annexed to it, is admirably calculated to interest all those who have a true relish of poetry. It is engraved on wood by Clennell [artist and wood-engraver once apprenticed to Thomas Bewick]." Cromek also refers to his next publication which contains"a great deal of valuable traditional poetry collected by me, while I was last in Scotland, from the mouths of old women and country girls in the romantic districts of Nithsdale and Galloway." Cromek then refers to the efforts Bewick has made over The Grave - should he have one copy left then could he present it to Bewick's son with Cromek's compliments?
Cromek also refers to fellow-engravers (Clennell, Warren, Bromley -"the latter who is the first Artist in the World since the death of poor Schiavonetti") and discusses the state of the artistic profession, which"is falling into utter Decay, partly by the unfortunate circumstances of the times, but principally from the superabundance of Artists in the profession..." As a postscript Cromek writes that the plate of The Canterbury Pilgrims is advancing, the etching will be finished by Bromley and himself.
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BEWICK (Jane). ALS to T.H. Cromek. Three pages. 8vo. Dated 5 March 1864. Writes about the memoir of his father she edited:"The publication of this volume has been an arduous undertaking for me, and as far as praises go, I may think myself amply rewarded for the anxiety which fell to my share in bringing it before the public." Also refers to a second version of her father's portrait of Cunningham - now lost.
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BEWICK (Jane). ALS T.H. Cromek. Three pages. 8vo. 19 April 1864. Thanking Cromek for a gift of one of his watercolours, asking him if he possesses any letters by her father, referring to the delight her father's"Birds" has given her from infancy.
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BEWICK (Jane). ALS to T.H. Cromek. One page. 8vo. Gateshead, 25 April 1864. Writing that her father never sat to Sir Henry Raeburn in Edinburgh.
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BEWICK (Jane). ALS to T.H. Cromek. Three pages. 8vo. Gateshead, 6 June 1864. Writing that she is enclosing a letter from her father as a souvenir (the text of which is printed in the appendix to her Life) and an example of her brother's handwriting. Also mentions the Raeburn portrait again and suggests that the owner should inquire of the Edinburgh artists who is the sitter.
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Manuscript by Bewick's son, Robert Elliot Bewick, extracted from St. Pierre's Indian Cottage. One page in a calligraphic hand
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BEWICK (Jane). ALS to T.H. Cromek. One and half pages. 8vo. Gateshead, 13 July 1864. Enclosing the original letter by her father which she published in the Memoir of her father.
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BEWICK (Thomas) Autograph letter (not signed) to an unidentified correspondent. One page. Quarto. Dated Newcastle 4 October 1794. A fine letter opening," . . . thank you for the opinion you have given me of America. Before I got the Birds done I have no doubt of matters being brought to such a crisis as will enable me to see clearly what course to steer - my fears are not at what you think will happen to me in America - it is my own much loved country that I fear will be involved in the Anarchy you speak of, for I think there is not virtue enough left in the country Gentlemen to prevent it. I cannot hope for anything good from the violent on either side....a reform of abuses is wanted and I wish that could be done with justice and moderation....but it is because that I don't hope or expect that will take place in the way I wish it that makes me bend my mind towards America."
Jane Bewick has added a note at the foot that she does not know to whom this was written.
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BEWICK (Jane). ALS to T.H. Cromek. Two and a half pages. 8vo. Gateshead, 17 September 1864. Discussing sending carte-de-visites, Cromek's ill health, Raeburn's supposed portrait of her father (which is bothering her).
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BEWICK (Jane). ALS to T.H. Cromek. Three pages. 8vo. Gateshead, 4 April 1865. Extensive letter referring to a gift she was making to T.H. Cromek of her brother's copy of The Grave. As another gift she has inserted in the volume "Mr. Garnett's woodcut impression, which was engraved very many years ago, and would have looked much better if it had been properly printed, I do not know the precise date of its being placed as an advertisement in Mr. Garnett's shop window." She then goes on to lament the loss of a card of mounted drawings by her father"consisting of upwards of twenty coloured birds, unique, valuable." She also copies in her letter the text of a letter from Joseph Ritson, then mentions another letter of his which shows that"my father has furnished the Antiquary with several"Laments" and old Northumbrian or Border ballads. On one of the latter he had made a design which Mr. Ritson expressed himself highly pleased. It is a lamentable fact that that unfortunate man in his delirium made a bonfire in his apartment of all his valuable papers; my father's contribution to ballad lore probably amongst the rest."
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RITSON (Joseph). ALS to John Bewick. One page. Quarto. 13 October 1792. Asking him to proceed with the wood cuts, "which shall be left entirely to his own fancy," but requesting that the size of the figures could be addressed. On the verso are some pencil notes by John Bewick apparently in connection with a debating society, opening"Mr. President," in which he claims that typography is the greatest invention of mankind.
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The engraving referred to by Jane Bewick of her father's trade card for J. Garnett, Druggist, Newcastle, set within a printed advertisement for his wares. In fine condition.
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Engraved memorial card by Thomas Bewick for his brother:"John Bewick, Engraver, who died"Dec. 5, 1795, Aged 35 Years. His Ingenuity as an Artist was only excelled by his Conduct as a Man." Set within an oval frame.
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RAMSAY (James), portrait painter, friend and fellow artist of Thomas Bewick of whom he painted at least three portraits. ALS to Thomas Bewick. Two pages. Quarto. Dated London, 4 August 1828. After referring to the health of his family, Ramsay forwards an order from John and Arthur Arch for a fourth copy of the Vignettes.
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BEWICK (Jane). ALS to Miss Cromek. Two pages. 8vo. Dated Gateshead, 22 March 1867. Concerning T.H. Cromek's and her own ill-health, mentioning the second Cunningham drawing which she has located.
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Proof engraving of George Cuitt of Richmond, Yorks, Landscape Painter, Born 1743, Died February 7th 1818. Engraving by his son George Cuitt the Younger. A striking image noted in pencil by T.H. Cromek as being given to him by Mrs. Cuitt in 1866.
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A lithographic rebus letter by George Cuitt the Younger dated 1827.
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CUITT (George), the Younger, artist and etcher. ALS to John Pye. Three pages. 8vo. Dated 12 July 1842. Thanking Pye for sending him proofs:"My drawings placed by the side of your proofs present the appearance of an artist's first crude thoughts, your work that of the finished picture..."
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CUITT (George). ALS to George Bell. Two pages. 8vo. Dated Masham, 29 October 1848. Concerning the purchase of the copyright of his etchings by Nattali (which were published in 1866 under the title of Wanderings and Pencillings Among the Ruins of Olden Times). Written in some exasperation over Nattali's business dealings.
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Embossed memorial card for George Cuitt of Masham who died July 15th, 1854, aged 74 Years.
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1 box
4to, 85 leaves (some blank), half-morocco. Spine lacking, upper cover and two blank preliminary leaves loose. Original letters and documents tipped in.
Physical Description1 folder
CROMEK (R.H.). ALS to his sister Ann. Two pages. Quarto. From Gravesend (1798). Written just before embarking from Gravesend to Hamburg describing Gravesend and its amenities including a subscription library.
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CROMEK (R.H.). ALS to his sister Ann. Two and a quarter pages. Dated Cuxhaven, 12 May 1798. Quarto. Describing his trip, bad fog, an encounter with French privateers in the Channel . . . ("We heard the Man of War's gun firing"), his leisure:"I divide my time between reading and drawing."
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Autograph Document Signed from William Palmer to his mother-in-law Martha Cromek leaving her a bequest of £40 dated 26 September 1801.
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PALMER (William). ALS to Mrs Cromek. One page. Quarto. Dated 8 October 1801.
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GESSNER (Conrad, (1724-1846), artist. ALS to R. H. Cromek. One page. Quarto. Dated Middlelton, 8 January 1802. Discussing a drawing of Gessner's father's house. In volume one, T.H. Cromek notes that in 1802 R.H. Cromek produced engravings from Stothard's"exquisite illustrations to Gessner's Book." T.H. Cromek conjectures that the view of Gessner's house"was intended to form an additional plate, which however, was not engraved."
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HAYLEY (William), (1745-1820), poet and biographer. ALS to R. H. Cromek dated 15 July 1805. Three pages. Quarto. A fine long letter, initially about the engraving"Cupid and Psyche" by Howard and engraved by R.H. Cromek. Discussing also the engraving by Cromek of the young poet and protege of Hayley, Thomas Romney Robinson, which was published in a volume of his poems in 1806. Also asking Cromek to consider producing an engraving of Dr. Warton of Winchester from Flaxman's sculpture to serve as a frontispiece to a projected collection of his works. Asking him to discuss the matter with Flaxman and discussing the likely costs of producing the engraving. In volume one T.H. Cromek adds notes to the effect that the engraving Cupid and Psyche was published in Rees Cyclopaedia 1803-4 and that the engraving of Warton's monument was published in Woll's Memoir of Revd Joseph Warton (1806) and that although the engraving was not signed, T.H. Cromek believed it to be by his father.
Flaxman had introduced Hayley to Blake and in 1805 commissioned him to produce illustrations to his Ballads founded on anecdotes of animals. But although Hayley and Blake discussed many projects only two were ever completed. Blake proved unreliable and Hayley was actively looking for other engravers. Flaxman recommended Cromek and this letter shows that by 1805 Hayley was already placing considerable confidence in him.
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CROMEK (R.H.). ALS to his mother. Dated Edinburgh, 11 June 1807. Three pages. Quarto. A substantial letter. Written on his first trip to Edinburgh whilst he was showing the original of Stothard's"Pilgrimage to Canterbury" and obtaining subscriptions for Blair's Grave."The booksellers have been giving me great hope about my publication of the Grave. It is a fortunate thing that the poem is a Scotch one for I find the Scottish people even more national than I expected....What Currie will do I not know. I shall advertise here in the Edinburgh Papers. The engraving is exceedingly admired and in consequence of it I was today introduced to Mr Mackenzie the celebrated author of The Man of Feeling. He wished me to engrave his portrait. I have this moment unpacked the picture. It is perfectly safe."
He mentions seeing Walter Scott with whom he was to dine. In a transcription of this letter in volume one an added remark in the original on the cunning and shrewdness of the Scots is omitted.
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CROMEK (R.H.). ALS to William Carey. Dated Wakefield, 21 November 1808. Three pages. Quarto. A substantial letter. On the subject of Carey's subscription to"The Canterbury Pilgrims," Carey's enthusiastic response to the painting and his writing, printing and distribution of a"Critique" of it. In volume one T.H. Cromek adds a page of notes on the background and states"The copy presented by my father to Nollekens, the sculptor, is in my possession." William Paulett Carey published A critical description of the procession of Chaucer's pilgrims to Canterbury, London Cromek 1810. (G. E. Bentley Blake Books Supplement page 431 citing T.H. Cromek's Memorials Volume).
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SMELLIE (Alex). ALS to R.H. Cromek. Dated Edinburgh, 19 December 1808. One page. Quarto. Informing Cromek of his election to the Society of Scottish Antiquarians.
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CROMEK (R.H.). ALS to his daughter Maria Cromek. Dated Bath, 5 February 1809. Two pages. Quarto."Have you seen the Papers lately? If you have, you must have observed the Advertisement announcing what books are to be criticised in the next Edinburgh Review. You will see that your poor father stands the first in the list." Presumably the book in question was The Reliques of Burns (1808).
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RYLANCE (Ralph). ALS to R.H. Cromek. One page. Quarto. Dated 1 June 1809. Remarking on his being disappointed of money:"I was compelled to leave your Chaucer wrapped in my great coat with the Hackney Coachman..." R.H. Cromek has annotated the letter"On the morning of the 5th poor Rylance was conveyed to a private asylum for the reception of lunatics at Hoxton." In volume one T.H. Cromek adds Mr. Eastwick's reminiscence of Rylance:"I recollect Mr Rylance; he lived with his mother in Newman Street. He was a linguist by profession : - an agreeable little man full of conversation, very excitable, and passionately fond of dancing. In those days we had little dances amongst ourselves at which I recollect John Varley, Mrs Varley, Mr Mulready, Mr Rylance, Mr J. Kendrick (Sculptor) and some other artists and professionals." Rylance was also an artist. He helped Mrs. Cromek sell some of her husband's possessions after his death. On the subject of Blake's originals of Blair's Grave, he wrote a letter to William Roscoe announcing that they were for sale.
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CROMEK (R.H.). ALS to his wife. One page. Quarto. Dated 29 January 1809. At sea sailing to Edinburgh asking his wife to"pack up any portraits of Dr. Currie. . . . Let about 12 be sent - two of them proofs." To be sent care of Constables, Edinburgh.
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CROMEK (R.H.). ALS to his mother. Dated Edinburgh, 5 July (1809). Two pages. Quarto. Records his arrival in Edinburgh, describes the trip, remarks that Constable had not yet arrived and mentions seeing Mr Cunningham"who received me with his accustomed cheer."
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CROMEK (R.H.). ALS to his wife. Three pages. Quarto. Postmarked 7 August 1809. A substantial letter. Describing his tour of Scotland with Stothard searching for more material on Robert Burns, later to be published in 1810, in Select Scottish Songs Ancient and Modern.. Discussing meeting Robert Burns's mother (to whom Cromek gave £5)"she is the most delicate and interesting sample of human nature that can be imagined," Stothard's portrait of Gilbert and the old woman and members of the Burns family including Robert Burns." Mentioning Stothard's portrait of Constable"for which he charged 10 guineas." Mention also Schiavonetti, money received for the Grave, discussing the copper of Tam O'shanter and going into considerable detail about how the sketch of Tam by Stothard is to be engraved. Also referring to a sketch to be engraved by Middiman."You will be surprised that Burns has connected himself with a low bookseller in London of the name of Dick (Dirty Dick) to edit a collection of Scots songs including 200 of his father's, many of them the property of Cadell and Davies. Don't mention it."
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Autograph draft dated Haddington July 24th 1809 from R. H. Cromek in the third person to Mrs Burns presenting her with £10"as a small acknowledgement of the pleasure he has received from her sons excellent writings." Mentioning the necessity of"cancelling various parts of the Reliques (of Burns)."
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CUNNINGHAM (Allan), poet. ALS to R. H. Cromek. Dated London, 19 July 1833. One page. Octavo. Enclosing a copy of a letter from William Roscoe dated 21 January 1811."I enclose you a copy of Roscoe's letter to your father respecting the Nithsdale and Galloway Song. It is a remarkable one; there were many more letters on the same vol. from Lord Woodhouselee and others, all praising the work. The last time almost that I had conversation with Mr Cromek he felt a little angry with the world for not perceiving the merits of the vol. and talked of publishing the letters with the opinion of the cleverest men of the age only he said to show the public what a cursed ass it was." Cromek and Stothard met Cunningham in Dumfries in 1809 and over several months Cunningham provided Cromek with the content for the Remains of Nithsdale and Galloway Song, though in fact Cunningham had invented almost all of the songs.
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Copy of a letter in the hand of from Allan Cunningham from William Roscoe to R. H. Cromek. Dated 21 January 1811. Two pages. Quarto. A charming letter of appreciation of the Nithsdale Song with some quizzical soundings about authorship."As to Jean Walker I am positively in love with her and if she be not Robert Burns returned to this earth again in that shape which he loved best I have lost my judgement." Mentioning also prints by Leonardo and Michael Angelo.
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ANDERSON (Robert) (1760-1830), literary scholar and biographer, editor of A Complete Edition of the Poets of Great Britain (1792-5). ALS to R. H. Cromek. Dated 29 January 1810. Four pages. Quarto. Quoting extensively from a letter to him by Ramsay on the subject of an article he had published anonymously on Burns in The Bee in which Ramsay praised Cromek for his industry in collecting the materials. Implying, however, that Burns could be subjected to too much exposure."Everything may be carried too far." Anderson himself closes, thanking Cromek:"I am quite delighted with the success of your poetical tour, and impatient to see your collection."
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HOPE (Thomas) (1769-1832), novelist and art collector. ALS to R. H. Cromek. Dated 13 March 1810. Four pages. Quarto. A substantial letter concerning an engraving project envisaged by Cromek. The plan was to sell 20 engravings to 170 subscribers for 100 guineas. Hope queries the size of the undertaking and compares British engraving very unfavourably to the French school of engraving mentioning David, Didot etc. THC in volume one thought that the project referred to was for a series of illustrations to Burns's work.
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GRAY (James), of the High School, Edinburgh (1770?-1830), friend of Robert Burns, (William Wordsworth's Letter to a Friend of Robert Burns, 1816, was addressed to Gray, who had urged its composition), a poet himself (Cona, or, the Vale of Clwyd, and other Poems (1814). ALS to R.H. Cromek. Four pages. Quarto. Edinburgh, 19 March 1810. Extensive letter in which Grey bemoans his failure to be appointed to the Rectorship of the High School and speaks of the friendship he has found with Cromek. On literary and artistic matters, he writes,"Remember us both to Mr. Stothard. He seems to me to add great simplicity of manner and a most guileless heart to great original genius. I saw Gilbert Burns a few days ago. He was sorry to learn that Jean [Burns's widow] had refused to sit to Stothard. He said, he thought he owed this to Cadell and Davies . . ."
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WEST (Benjamin), 1732-1820, history painter. ALS to RHC. One page. Quarto. Newman Street, 21 June 1810. Asking RHC if he has any information about a painting by Mr. Bird called"The Village Choristers Rehearsing" -"Your information...I am anxious to communicate to the person who has expressed a wish to possess that picture - as will I have a consolation by that picture being in the possession of one whose judgement can so properly appreciate its merit as a work of genius..." In a note in volume one THC writes that the picture was bought by George III.
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GRAHAM (James), 1765-1811, poet, author of The Sabbath (1804). ALS to RHC. Four pages. Quarto. Durham, 6 October 1810. Extensive letter concerning Nithsdale and Galloway Song which Cromek has given to him."I think I had read it all for the first time before I slept. It pleases, agitates, soothes. I know not whether the prose or the verse is fullest of poetry. But it has many faults. Religion as a garnish to love does not always answer. Yet there are passages of this kind, that are beautiful and touching. The book is replenished with gems curiously and fantastically, and often clumsily set..."
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TYTLER (Alexander Fraser), Lord Woodhouselee (1747-1813), historian. ALS to RHC. Four pages. Quarto. Edinburgh, 2 March 1811. Extensive letter written after receiving a copy of Nithsdale and Galloway Song."The Nithsdale Ballads are a valuable present to the public. They open to us a species of Scottish Song of its own peculiar fabric, and with which we, in this part of the country, are very little acquainted. I mean that which exhibits an intimate union of Love and Religion. That this union is founded in Nature we have long known, but we seldom see in it so pleasing, and at the same time, in so blameless a combination as it appears in the ballads.....Your introduction to the N. Ballads is extremely good, and contains just what is necessary in explanation of the local manners alluded to in the ballads..." Fraser Tytler goes on to make a number of"detached remarks" about the ballads, some of them correcting historical references and dates (but without evidently suspecting anything was not quite"right" about the ballads), others praising or criticising particular ballads.
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CROMEK (R.H.). ALS to his sister Ann. Two pages. Quarto. 20 March 1811. Written shortly after his mother's death, RHC makes arrangements for his daughter and his wife, discusses his own state of mind:"I feel very unwell this morning, not bodily so, but my mind and spirit are extremely low and uncomfortable." He goes on to write,"This will be a memorable and trying week for us all, but we must exert our best faculties, and get through it as well as we can...When I recollect the best exertions for her family, of the best of women, my heart is ready to sink within me, What good she has accomplished, what evil averted."
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GRAY (Mrs. Mary) (1767-1829), wife of James Gray, daughter of Alexander Peacock, architect, of Edinburgh, poet and contributor to James Hogg's Spy, confidante of Agnes McLehose, Burns's"Clarinda." ALS to Miss Ann Cromek. Three pages. Quarto. Edinburgh, 29 March 1811. A lengthy letter of condolence on the death of Ann and R.H. Cromek's mother
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ANDERSON (Robert). ALS to RHC. Three pages. Quarto, Windmill Street, 17 May 1811. A concerned letter about Cromek's "drooping health and spirits," suggesting a trip to the mountains of Scotland for the benefit of the air.
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ANDERSON (Robert). ALS to RHC. Three pages. Quarto, Windmill Street, 17 May 1811. A concerned letter about Cromek's "drooping health and spirits," suggesting a trip to the mountains of Scotland for the benefit of the air.
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Eleven ALsS from R.H Cromek to his sister Ann and one to his wife Elizabeth. Dated July - August 1811. Quarto and folio. These letters were written when RHC went to Yorkshire in search of a cure for his worsening tuberculosis. His relationship with his sister Ann was intimate enough for him to describe the details of his illness in all its worst. In the first letter he writes,". . . last night I suffered more acute cutting pain than I ever did before. I could not turn in bed without screaming, the anguish was so great. The waiter was obliged to dress me this morning. I shall be compelled now to go the rest of the journey in a Post Chaise. The coach is too shaking for me." In the other letters RHC describes a modicum of progress, then a setback, the different prognoses offered by the doctors he sees, how he is bled with leeches ("which I hope will remove every apprehension of Danger from that part where Danger is most to be dreaded"), then moments of hope ("for ill as I have been I plainly see that I shall recover, and tho' I shall be left much in the situation of one who has lost his all by shipwreck, yet I hope to live many years and to enjoy many comforts." Later he raises the question where he is to winter, his father wishing him to remain in Yorkshire, but RHC writes that"if I did I would be in my grave early in the spring."
Occasional references in these letters are made to matters apart from family and health. In the letter dated Wakefield 1 August 1811, Cromek refers to engraving work for Mr. Richter:"You may tell Mr. Richter with my respects that it would give me infinite delight to engrave from his exquisite drawing..." and refers to a Committee at Liverpool which is"altogether ignorant of unsophisticated engraving") and asks Ann to tell Mr. Cunningham that he will write an article for his paper as soon as he is better. In a letter dated 23 August Cromek writes with reference to the engraving of The Canterbury Pilgrims:"As to Bromley I have received a second letter from him promising his best exertions...entre nous I shall pay him no money without you or Reinbach seeing the Plate, but I hope my illness will take a turn and enable me to superintend the progress of the plate myself." RHC then refers to the Chalcographic Society (which"meets Thursday next. You will find their books tied up on the second floor") and if Mr. Rylance could write a letter putting off a Lieut. Gray and his volume of poetry.
On the verso of one letter is a letter by RHC to Sarah Hartley concerning a proposal made to her by a Mr. Worthington (possibly the engraver W.H. Worthington who worked on The Canterbury Pilgrims) whose suit RHC considers an advantageous one; another letter also contains a passage written by RHC's wife, Elizabeth.
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GRAY (Mrs. Mary.) Two ALsS to Ann Cromek. Dated 11 June 1811 and 7 October 1811. Four pages. Octavo and quarto. One letter (a fragment only) mentioning Edinburgh citizens including Cockburn and Mr. Gillespie"who wrote the memoir of Lowe for the Nithsdale Ballads which will recommend him to your notice." The content of both letters is very intimate, as between two old friends.
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ROSCOE (William). ALS to RHC. Two pages. Quarto. 8 October 1811. A friendly and generous letter in which Roscoe offers help and advice about financial arrangements for a proposed trip to Madeira for RHC to recover his health.
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ROSCOE (W. Stanley), 1782-1843, eldest son of William Roscoe, also a poet and patron of the arts. ALS to RHC. Two pages. Quarto. 25 October 1811. Suggesting remedies for RHC's ill-heath, then asking if he has"adjusted your plans with Cadell & Davies for the illustration of the Bard?"
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Manuscript receipt signed by Schiavonetti and Cromek for £75 to be paid in two months' hence"on account of The Pilgrimage." Dated 23 November 1809.
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Manuscript receipt signed by Schiavonetti for the sum of £200"in part of 840£ for engraving Stothard's Picture of the Canterbury Pilgrims." Dated 12 December 1809.
Manuscript receipt signed by R.H. Cromek for the sum of Fifteen Guineas from Cadell and Davies for a drawing and engraving of Lord North. dated 5th May 1801.
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Partly printed receipt with manuscript insertions for the sum of £3.3.0 from Mr. Major Barenger for a half subscription for a proof print of Stothard's engraving of Chaucer's Pilgrimage to Canterbury. Signed by R. H. Cromek. Dated 27 March 1807.
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Manuscript account in RHC's hand on a small slip of paper headed"Kearsley - All's Well that Ends Well. March 17 - Copper, March 26 Etching" and ending,"Making etching from Picture by Stothard."
Manuscript account in RHC's hand headed"Expenses attending the completion of the Pilgrims, from the etching as left by Mr. Schiavonetti. The plate was begun on the 20th Sept. 1810." Much importance is given by THC to this account, considering that a careful analysis of the days and the sums proved that his father had the idea of engraving the scene from Chaucer before Blake.
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Printed clippings, including a review of R. H. Cromek's Remains of Nithsdale . . . .
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ACKERMANN (Rudolph), 1764-1834, publisher of the Microcosm of London, ALS to RHC. One page. Quarto. Dated 10 May 1811. Asking RHC for matter for the printer to be getting on with. On the verso are some draft notes by RHC discussing the death-bed scene of a lady as a fine subject for a painting.
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CROMEK (R. H.). Autograph memorandum connected with materials for Select Scottish Songs (1809). One page. Quarto. A few jotted titles and notes.
Receipt For Varnish. Octavo leaf headed in RHC's autograph:"A valuable receipt for varnish copied from Mr. Hoppner's book given to Mrs. Palmer. RHC." A note by THC written on the verso states that Maria Palmer was RHC's younger sister. (She was baptized in Wakefield Church on 6 May 1775 and was killed in a coaching accident on 8 July 1801.)
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A later copy of a letter by RHC to Mr. Davies, Bookseller. Dated 1806. Responding to an attack on his engravings by a Mr. Austin, RHC writes that he approached Flaxman for his opinion which he encloses -"the figures were beautifully Executed: that the person who made the original could do nothing; that Mr. Austin was a dirty fellow."
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Original manuscript"Memorandum of Agreement for the Plates and Copyright of The Pilgrimage To Canterbury between Elizabeth Cromek and Messrs. Moon, Boys, and Grace." One page, folio. Agreement dated 4 February 1829 for the sum of £400 to be paid at intervals for the remaining stock of proofs and prints. Signed by Elizabeth Cromek.
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[Some leaves are blank.] Seven ALsS from members of the Palmer family (RHC's sister's family) addressed to various relatives including Ann Cromek and Elizabeth Cromek. Dated 1800-1801
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Two ALsS from Maria Montgomery Cromek (RHC's daughter). 1. To Miss Irvin, Wakefield. 1822. 2. To her brother T. H. Cromek. Dated 7 August 1823.
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Autograph page in RHC's hand, headed"Sheet of Remarks," quarto. On Robert Burns, opening:"Poor Burns! Had it been thy fate to have found Patrons instead of admirers..."
Transcription by THC of a letter to the Editor of the Sheffield Iris by"E.R." about Burns. Includes verses addressed to Burns.
Transcription by THC of a Poetical Epistle to Robert Burns by John Skinner (1787).
Index to the volume (2 pp.)
Engraving,"Pedestal of the Perseus."
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2 boxes
Approximately 150 pages. Foolscap, half roan, marbled boards, spine worn and boards detached. The first section to page 75 is dated 16 October 1851.
The piece of greatest interest in the notebook is an account of the origins of Stothard's Canterbury Pilgrims (pages 127-137). Headed"Stothard's opinion of Beauty," it discusses Stothard's aesthetics, his initial lack of popularity, the origins of painting, the story of the engraving, Cromek's financial dealings with Stothard and Stothard's letter to Mrs Cromek after her husband's death. Stothard's Canterbury Pilgrims owe their existence to the late Mr Cromek...I first saw the picture at his house, soon after it had returned from Liverpool and Manchester, and other large towns, where it had been exhibited...The celebrated Schiavonetti commenced the engraving of it. He proceeded as far as the sketching, which as all the drawing in this plate depends on it, was a happy circumstance. Stothard spoke in the highest terms of that etching; the Italian artist had preserved all the spirit of the original; but he did not live to go beyond this delicate and introductory part of the task...the plate was beautifully finished by Heath; it became a universal favourite; while the fame of Stothard spread rapidly throughout the country. The engraving was brought out by subscription, it had altogether the most extensive sale of anything of kind published within the last hundred years; and the picture itself, which ultimately was productive of such golden profit, and in so many ways, was sold (so it has been stated in a letter by Stothard) by Mr Cromek for three hundred pounds, to the late Mr Hart Davis, of Bath; but Mr Alfred Stothard says the sum paid for it by the latter was five hundred pounds." Much detail follows relating to a dispute between Stothard's son and Cromek about how much RHC paid for the original. Alfred Stothard states that is was only £60. THC quotes a long letter from Stothard mentioning Mrs Cromek's sale of Blair's Grave for £130 and the finances surrounding The Pilgrimage. THC concludes saying that his father died in very narrow circumstances and that his widow was not in a position to pay Stothard as much as she would have liked.
The volume also contains extensive extracts for works on subjects including the Scriptures, Hebrew character, the Apocalypse ("from the Catholic version of the New Testament. Rheims. 1582"), a conversation between Edmund Burke and Dr. Gibson in 1790, other religious tracts and histories including"Dr. Pusey's perversions of the Spiritual Combat" (THC became a convert to Roman Catholicism in 1836.)
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Autograph manuscript. Signed"Thomas H. Cromek , November 6th 1851." 62 pages. Small 4to. Roan with gilt lettering. Spine worn. THC published A Manual of Hebrew Verbs, 1851.
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Contemporary half morocco, all edges gilt. Quarto. Circa 200 pages. Preface dated"Wakefield, 23 December 1864." Spine and covers rubbed. An unpublished manuscript account by Thomas Hartley Cromek of the life of his father, Robert Hartley Cromek (1770 - 1812). Written in two different styles of hand-writing, the manuscript has been carefully compiled and neatly laid-out and is evidently the result of considerable first-hand research, the aim throughout being to vindicate his much maligned father. Based in part on an anonymous Biographical Sketch that appeared in 1813 and other printed sources, and on conversations with friends and relatives, the main source for the information is based on the considerable unpublished correspondence to or by R.H. Cromek which T.H. Cromek gathered together. These letters (many of the originals in volume two below) served him as the basis of his narrative around which he wrote linking passages and comment. T.H. Cromek's approach was to deal with events chronologically rather than by subject. In the following catalogue summary events have been grouped together to make a clearer narrative.
A frontispiece of a fine pencil drawing of R.H. Cromek by his son T.H. Cromek after the original by Flaxman.
Preface dated Wakefield 23 December 1864 in which T.H. Cromek outlines his sources and sets out the scope of his work and thanks those who have helped (such as John Pye and Jane and Isabella Bewick). He opens his remarks with the statement,"The following pages are written as a tribute of respect for the memory of my father. I have no personal recollection of him; as his death occurred soon after I had entered upon my second year." The inclusion of family letters"are characteristic of an affectionate son, husband and parent; and they contain records of persons and facts, which will, I hope, interest many of the readers of these pages."
Biographical account of Robert Cromek's early days, his training as an engraver, his marriage to Elizabeth Hartley Charge of Wakefield, the birth of his first child, Maria Montgomery (her godfather was the Sheffield poet James Montgomery), his love of literature ("His collection of books, chiefly poetical, though very small, was one of the most elegant ever formed"), his first commercial engravings, his circle of friends including Godwin, Thomas Campbell, William Hayley, Richard Cumberland and Flaxman. Later in the narrative THC states that he managed to obtain much information about his father from Elizabeth Charge, his mother's daughter by her first marriage. On her visit to London in 1809 she found William Ford the bookseller boarding at the house. Richard Cumberland, the poet, was also"an inmate of their house." THC notes that Ford the bookseller was his godfather.
Blair's Grave:"The first instance in which he [RHC] displayed an union of his literary, with his professional taste, was in an edition of Blair's poem The Grave, with designs by that artist of singular genius, - William Blake, etched by Schiavonetti. The work was nearly complete when Blake advertised for publication, at the same time...a rival engraving of the Canterbury Pilgrims..."
Copied here is the full text of the famous letter from RHC to Blake of May 1807:"I indent here a letter from my father to Blake, which the late Mr. Allan Cunningham told me (in 1833) he regretted not having seen until after his"Life of Blake" was finished. It has since been printed, from a copy with Mr. Cunningham made from the original which I lent to him. Blake was, no doubt, a difficult man to deal with: hence the severity of the style in which my father addressed him."
Later THC transcribes his father's letter to Bewick concerning the distribution in Newcastle by Bewick of Blair's Grave dated 13 August 1808 (see Bewick volume, volume four below, for the original), adding in red the additional words that Bewick wrote in the account of copies sold. THC adds the following information:"Note. The original design for the frontispiece, still in my possession, was suppressed, and one much finer substituted. It is a pen outline, slightly shaded with Indian ink, and blue, & represents a soul rising from the tomb, on which Blake has written, very neatly, [the] title.
" Stothard's The Pilgrimage to Canterbury. Early in the narrative THC deals with the controversy over who, Blake or his father, first thought of such an engraving."It was during my father's visit to Yorkshire, about the time of his marriage, that he was under the necessity of passing a few hours in Halifax...to wile [sic] away the time he resorted to books...and picked up, in a bookseller's shop, a copy of Chaucer...he was so struck with the picturesque description of the Pilgrims that he conceived the ideas of embodying the whole procession in a picture. On his return to London he immediately suggested the design to Mr. Stothard..." Giving further details, THC endeavours to show that the story that he robbed Blake of the idea could not be correct.
THC describes the tours his father made with Stothard's picture to gain subscriptions for both that engraving and for Blair's Grave. These took him to Liverpool where the picture was seen"by the late William Carey, who was so much struck with its merits and beauties, that he prolonged his stay there, on purpose to write his very able"Critique" on the picture [Critical Description of the Procession of Chaucer's Pilgrimage to Canterbury Painted by T. Stothard, 1808]." (THC also transcribes a letter from Carey to Stothard on the subject of the picture). Another city visited was Manchester. These journeys were not without their perils to Stothard's picture. THC relates how his mother told him that in Manchester it was discovered that the picture had been damaged in the coach:"a crack appeared at one end, which, it was thought, might extend the whole length." A carpenter was summoned, who proceeded to split the panel in two to the consternation of RHC:"My feelings on his occasion," said Mr. Cromek to a friend,"can hardly be described: it was like a shock from electricity through my whole frame."
A trip to Edinburgh was to prove fruitful for Cromek for not only did he succeed in gathering subscribers, but he also came upon material which would become another publication. After transcribing a letter from RHC to his wife (original in volume two), THC writes that RHC decided to prolong his stay in Scotland"since his enthusiastic admiration of Burns induced him to make a tour for the purpose of collecting for his private gratification, such fugitive pieces as that great poet had scattered among the lowly, though romantic haunts of his infant genius." THC then quotes from William Roscoe's published account of the printing of the Reliques with its attendant difficulties. THC also includes a transcription of a letter (with RHC's answer) from the Earl of Buchan complaining about the failure to return a drawing of Meg Tannoch which he had been loaned for use in the Reliques. The Earl of Buchan also complains about RHC's failure to have lithographed an original letter from Burns to Buchan which he had been lent.
The Reliques of Burns (1808). In a gloss to the letter RHC wrote to his sister Ann dated August 7th 1809 (see volume two below), THC writes that at one time his father thought of engaging Stothard to make drawings for an illustrated edition of Burns's Works, but which was never brought out:"I have always been inclined to consider this was the project that he submitted to the late Thomas Hope in March of the following year, and which that gentleman discussed in a letter to my father, which I have transcribed."
After transcribing the Hope letter, THC writes that he had seen the portraits discussed in the Hope letter in the years 1833-43:"They were all very highly finished pencil drawings, the heads being about 2 and 1/2 inches long; and at those periods, they were in the possession of a very near relative of my father's, between whom and my mother an estrangement of many years had existed. These drawings, and various other things belonging to my father, were withdrawn from his widow; and thus I had been deprived, most unjustly, of what was mine by inheritance." After an act of reconciliation, THC writes that he managed to retrieve some of his father's drawings and engravings from the relative, but not the portraits, which were still missing.
THC goes on in the same passage to write of RHC's trip to see Robert Burns's widow, Jean, where she gave him the poet's annotated copy of Milton's work given to her husband by Lord Monboddo. THC writes:"These valuable books I have long had in my safe keeping..."Comus" and"Lycidas" have a great number of passage marked by the poet."
Remains of Nithsdale and Galloway Song (1810). THC gives an account of RHC's and Allan Cunningham's search for material:"During this tour he culled many other wild flowers of the lowlands: these he put together in the most tasteful manner...Mr. Allan Cunningham, who was his agreeable companion and guide through these districts, and who assisted him in distinguishing and gathering these flowers...happily described my father's qualification for the task he had undertaken."
Transcriptions of letters in volume two on the Nithsdale and Galloway Song by Allan Cunningham, James Gray, Dr. Robert Anderson, Lord Woodhouselee and William Roscoe, etc., with an account of their publishing. In a later note (page 116) THC writes,"I am well aware that the authenticity of the Nithsdale Ballads was denied by Bishop Percy, Walter Scott...and, also, that after a lapse of some seven years after my Father's death, Allan Cunningham announced himself the author of them." THC goes to defend his father against the charges that he too was aware of the deceit:"Many years later (in 1847) Mr. Peter Cunningham wrote an introduction to a small volume of his father's Songs and Poems, in which he has printed nine letters from Cromek to Allan Cunningham on the subject of the Nithsdale Ballads..." According to THC, various inferences made by Peter Cunningham imply that his father"had connived to impose upon the Public." After defending his father, THC concludes,"I pass over in contemptuous silence, some of the remarks and anecdotes contained in the Preface to Mr. P.C.'s volume, and which he has related in a spirit of uncharitableness, at least, to my father's memory and his honesty of character, attempting to support his views by an endeavour to fix the stigma of positive theft on him." - the last a reference to a letter of Ben Jonson shown to Cromek by Walter Scott and its subsequent disappearance.
Transcription of a lengthy article by RHC on Schiavonetti published in the Examiner, July 1st 1810. THC adds an anecdote related by his father in The Reliques of Burns on the degraded taste prevalent in engraving at the time wherein booksellers would get engravers to alter existing blocks into subjects they were never intended to be. As an example, THC recounts how a certain bookseller got an engraver to alter a plate of the naturalist Buffon contemplating various animals into Daniel in the Lion's Den.
In a passage on the engraving of The Canterbury Pilgrims after Schiavonetti's death. THC writes,"I have not been able to ascertain how long Bromley worked upon the Plate, nor wherefore it was subsequently placed in the hands of James Heath to be finished. Two months after Schiavonetti's death the etching received a beautiful tablet designed by Stothard, and engraved by Bromley, describing it as"Schiavonetti's last great work." Referring to the original receipt for work done on the plate (see volume two), THC writes,"There was an interval of more than three months between the completion of the etching, and the work being resumed; for a memorandum by my father...states that the Plate was resumed by Mr. Engleheart, on the 20th of Sept. 1810, and that he worked upon it till December 31st."
Health:"Towards the close of Autumn 1810, he [RHC] felt the approaches of a consumption, slow in its first progress, and unalarming. He retired for a while to his native air, but the disorder was too deeply seated to be dispelled by the change." In July 1811 RHC accompanied by his daughter set out to Wakefield in an attempt to regain his strength. But he returned to London three months later"worn out by slow-wasting illness." THC recounts the decline of the invalid in detail:"During his last illness, at his house in Newman Street, many friends came to soothe the sufferings, mental and bodily, which exhausted him." The end came on 14 March 1812:"he calmly yielded up his spirit, and without a struggle, expired in the forty-first year of his age....Requiescat in pace!"
After transcribing some of the financial receipts contained in volume two, THC adds a list of engravings delivered by RHC for the month of November 1809, some to booksellers, others as presents to friends such as Stothard, Hoppner, Fuseli and Roscoe. Transcribed from RHC's notebook.
Transcription of a lengthy letter THC wrote to Mrs. Bray in 1854 on publication of her Memoirs of Thomas Stothard, R.A. THC considers that she misrepresented the facts relating to payment for the engraving of The Pilgrimage to Canterbury and wanted to set the record straight. With supporting evidence, i.e. from his father's receipts for the work, THC point by point demolishes her case. After the transcription THC adds the note,"that the price paid by my father to Mr. Stothard for the picture was Sixty Guineas: this I have repeatedly heard from my late mother...That my father would have paid the extra £40 whenever his circumstances would allow him I have not the slightest doubt. His pecuniary difficulties were greatly increased by members of his family on both sides."
List of Cromek's engravings with remarks by THC. A detailed list of the engravings with year of execution; with some additional remarks by THC concerning the originals, proof copies, suppression, ownership, etc. Also a list of doubtful works with a lengthy passage about the portrait of Romney Robinson in Hayley's Life of Romney. Notable is No. 42 in the list:"Medallion Portrait of Thomas William Malkin" (1806). THC writes,"The medallion portrait is in the same unfinished state in Blake's print, and in my father's proof: it was, no doubt, engraved by Robert Cooper. From the fragments of lettering at the edges of Blake's print, it seems clear that Blake not only drew, and engraved the pictures, but even printed it himself, on some piece of waste paper that came to his hand: It is not in the British Museum, and my impression is probably unique." THC later gave this print to the British Museum.
A two page account of the life of the engraver James Hopwood the Elder, 1745-1819, printmaker, a friend of RHC, the information gathered by THC from Hopwood's daughters many years after Hopwood's death. Gives much useful biographical detail and insight into Hopwood's character:"Miss Hopwood told that he [James Hopwood] occasionally received his visitors, with pieces of old carpet thrown about him, and that when in this costume he would frequently accompany them to the street door, and that in that state, would continue to hold conversations with them, notwithstanding the surprise and amusement of the passers-by."
Transcription of two letters from John Pye to THC dated 1862 (see Pye volume, volume five, for the originals) about his knowledge of RHC.
Transcription of family letters from volume two.
Transcription of a letter from the poet Thomas Campbell, one of RHC's friends, to Miss Mary Peacock (daughter of Peacock the architect, later married to James Gray - see volume two), when Miss Peacock was staying with the Cromeks. Evidently writing to an old friend, Campbell wishes to meet and"talk of old stories, - Jamie Grahame & Mrs. Hay, - my old flame Hannah and the enchanting Grimma." Also present is a transcription of a letter from Mary Peacock in Edinburgh to Miss Cromek:"You are a great favourite with your brother: you know his power of colouring, and he has painted you in such lively tint, that I have often...beheld the family group in Newman Street in the most attractive light." (THC's ascribed dates to these copies are mistaken as Mary Peacock married James Gray in October 1808.)
Physical Description1 folder
Quarto manuscript notebook. 80 pages. Neatly written. Dark red morocco binding. Signed"Thomas H. Cromek, May 1863." The journal consists largely of the transcription by Cromek of the conversations he had on the occasion of numerous visits to John Pye. Added to this are accounts of other visits he made, sometimes with Pye, sometimes on his own, to various galleries and the homes of other artists the whole comprising a diary of Cromek's tour of the London art world with much added memoranda. As seen above T. H. Cromek engaged in a long correspondence with the engraver John Pye as part of his attempt to research a life of his father Robert Cromek. Pye had replied supportively only regretting that he and Cromek could not sit side by side in conversation. Cromek's arrival in London on 6 May1863 provided the opportunity for a face to face meeting which neither of them had previously expected to be possible. The majority of this manuscript is taken up with Cromek's account of what Pye said to him on this and subsequent meetings. The account given in the journal is largely chronological. It covers several areas of considerable interest: Pye himself and his life as an engraver; the history of engraving in the early part of the nineteenth century; Turner and Pye's connection with him; Pye's reminiscences of R. H. Cromek; material relating to William Blake; Pye's comments on other artists he had known including Constable, Mulready and T.H. Cromek's visit to Clarkson Stansfield.
THC's description of Pye: Cromek describes Pye after his first visit:"His appearance is very venerable - long white hair - a very florid complexion, and a most energetic manner of talking, with an equally energetic body very unlike a man in his 81st year (He was born Nov. 7th 1782)...I will put down on paper as much of our conversation as I can remember: he is an excellent conversationalist, and I regret that my memory will not allow more to recollect more than a tithe of all he said. It is moreover, impossible to give an idea of his voice and admirable manner in which he related his anecdotes. This was one of the most delightful days, I think, I have ever spent..."
Pye's enthusiasm for art remained undiminished. He showed Cromek some of the original sketches for the portraits engraved in his book Patronage of British Art and gives him the Cooper original of Hopwood (see above). They look through quantities of old engravings..."These are the things I delight in; that is the right sort of stuff. What daylight! How the eye goes straight to the light! How that Canaletti is all light!..." THC took Pye some of his own paintings of which Pye gave his detailed analysis and criticism. They looked at proof etchings of Landseer -"all exquisite." At the end of the visit"Accompanying me to the door, he directed my attention to the shadow thrown upon his garden wall, by a lilac tree. 'Look now, at that shadow; - what a variety in it is cast upon the local colour of the ground! What lessons do the accidents of nature give us!" Pye's information on R. H. Cromek adds to the fuller account given in the letters. He sums up all he has said on this subject:"I have now given you some insight into the history of the Engravers in this country at the early part of this century: and had you known these facts and how your father fought against the tide of things as they existed, you would have been able to place your father's character in a still stronger light..."
Pye provides a biographical account of his own life as an engraver. He tells Cromek about his going to London aged 18 to work for Heath, and describes the process of engraving for the Pocket Books, the payment he received and the assistance he got from Havell and Cuitt."He showed me his very first attempts at engraving - the traveller lost in the snow - from Thomson's 'Winter'."
Pye was indignant about the liberties which publishers sometimes took with engravings submitted to them. THC was puzzled by Pye's engraving of Barret's 'sunset'."I compared Pye's proof with the finished impression as published. I was surprised and puzzled to make out why the composition had been so evidently, to my mind at least, spoiled, by a portion of the sky, and a tree in the foreground having been cut off. Pye's elaborate reply reveals the cavalier treatment of engravings by editors of magazines, in this case The Amulet. Here the engraving was badly cut down to fit the magazine. Pye published an angry letter on the subject and the reply it elicited from S. C. Hall, the offending editor (both letters and others related are quoted in full). Pye tells Cromek again the story of his first meeting with Turner as described in Pye's earlier letter to him in the album (see above). He shows THC his own collection of paintings, prints and etchings including a fine Turner. Pye tells Cromek the full story of how the chance to engrave for Turner gave him an opportunity to escape his servile situation with the brothers Heath."
Pope's Villa:" He told me that he paid ten guineas to Charles Heath for engraving the figures. After its thorough approval by Turner Mr Pye foresaw a chance of freeing himself at least from the mercenary and grasping hands of the two Heaths. In the year 1817 Mr. Hakewell, who was about to bring out a work on Italy, called upon him to propose that he should engrave some of the plates, in conjunction with Charles Heath, John Landseer and others. Mr Pye was delighted at the idea of engraving some more of Turner's drawings, - but he told Mr Hakewell that he certainly would not accede to his proposal if Charles Heath was also employed; - for said he, Heath will get the sole direction of the work. He showed me Charles Heath's letter (copied in full) to him on the subject of the 'conspiracy' as he termed it, on finding that in consequence of what Pye had said to Hakewell, this gentleman had decided not to employ him at all. I read Mr Pye's answer to the above letter (copied in full): he stated plainly that he would not work with a man who was so grasping, and who issued numbers of plates bearing his name which he had never touched with Etching Needle or burin etc. etc. John Landseer also agreed with Pye's determination. This caused a breach of seven years between them and the Heaths..." Pye tells THC that he does not want any of the details of his break with Charles Heath which he has given him to be published during his lifetime.
Pye showed Cromek"several fine proofs" of work by Turner from his own collection."One, the only one he has, of 'Pope's Villa' - cut down half way through Turner's name and his own, which are slightly etched on the plate. Also an unfinished proof of Ehrenbritten dated 1828 scratched below. We compared it with the fine finished proofs. He directed my attention to the alterations and improvements he had introduced, explaining his reasons, as he proceeded and convincing me that all had been done with the greatest judgement and knowledge of chiaroscuro. I asked whether Turner was not delighted with the plate. 'He was:- but Turner admired most my plate of 'Hardsaw Scar' and always said that it was the finest plate that had ever been engraved.' We looked over his fine subscription copy of Cooke's 'southern Coast' He considers that the plates of Poole - Dorsetshire' and; 'The New Stone Entrance to Plymouth sound' are two of the finest things ever done. The latter he said, is far superior in genius and execution to 'The Bass rock' by Miller. 'William Cook, Sir, was the man for engraving these things ... his brother George was far inferior to him. Turner used to consider William Cooke as mighty giant, and George as his dwarf. Only think that each of the plates for this fine work cost £20! That was the sum paid, Sir." As a contrast to this I told him what I heard the evening previous, from a bookseller - Bell in Fleet St. that the publishers of a periodical 'Good Words' had offered and paid to Millais for drawing of his strange designs on wood, for that work, £1200!!"
Pye and Cromek together looked over a great number of plates from the Liber Studiorum, Pye pointing out the beauties of each and explaining the alterations Turner had made after the first impressions had been struck off. Discussing the difficulties of realising colour effectively in an engraving of black and white. Pye had many anecdotes of Turner to tell including the story of a painting sold by Turner for £12 for which Lord Harewood acquired and was later sold for £600. Another tells of how Turner gave the landlord of a public house a drawing in lieu of his bill. Pye showed Cromek his portrait of Turner:"Did I shew you a portrait of Turner? The one in Thornbury's book? 'No - not that; one done by Count D'Orsay': here it is - and a very good likeness of him. Just like his figure - with a coat that looks as if it had never been made for him.' Turner is standing in Mr Bicknell's drawing room, with a cup and saucer in hand - The figure is remarkably short and his face seen in profile. 'There is another when he was a young man, drawn by George Dance. Turner said that he had never sat for it. It is a fine thoughtful head, and bears a strong resemblance to D'Orsay's."
In addition to numerous visits to his home Cromek went out with Pye including, once to the National Gallery:"I had a very rich treat in hearing Mr Pye's remarks on the pictures - especially those by Turner. He displayed the most thorough knowledge of Turner's principles, and he kindly pointed out their respective merits interspersing occasionally little anecdotes relative to Turner. I was glad to hear him speak so very highly of 'Crossing the Brook' which I told him was the one landscape in the world which I would select, had I the choice."
Pye and THC visited the exhibition in the Graphic Society held in the great room at the London University which included Flaxman's drawings and sketches"all exquisite in design and feeling" and some dozen or so fine drawings by Turner contributed by Henry Vaughan.
Naturally Pye's own collection was rich in things relating to Turner."He showed me a cast in plaster taken from Turner's face after death: the profile fine but the mouth very much fallen in." William Blake was not left out of the discussions. Pye, it seems, shared to some extent THC's reservations about him. The plate of The Canterbury Pilgrims is discussed as is the portrait of Blake:"He said there was no doubt that Bromley was the engraver first selected by my father to engrave it. He remembers seeing Engleheart working upon it, after Schiavonetti's death. He showed me a fine proof of Blake's portrait, and an unfinished one, both on India paper. Blake, he said, was a vulgar looking man; the expression in the eyes, in the print, was an invention. My father had given him a set of proofs of 'The Grave' 'but,' said he, 'I gave them all away, except the portraits, for I must tell you, I never admired them. It is a great mistake to attempt to represent a soul, which one never saw: it may do in poetry - very well.'" On a visit to the Print Department at the British Museum (with Pye?) Cromek admires a portfolio of sketches by Varley and looked at some work by Blake:"I looked over Blake's 'Urizen' a very mad work. It is the first part only, and does not contain the subject which I have by him and which I was told by Mr. Frost A.R.A formed one of the illustrations. The Museum possess two very fine, large drawings by Blake - admirable specimens of his peculiar and strange style. One represents 'The woman in scarlet' of the Apocalypse; - the subject of the second I do not know they are both beautifully drawn and very highly finished." THC of course, had originals by Blake which he inherited from his father. Pye had some Blake materials too:"We looked over a large quantity of pamphlets on art, amongst them was John Varley's 'Astrological Physiology' with plates including two of the Ghost of a flea after Blake. On a visit to Monckton Milnes Cromek had a chance to examine more work by Blake:"I lunched at Mr Monckton Milnes'. I had a great treat looking at his fine collection of Blake's drawings and his printed works - Of the latter he has a copy of Young's 'Night Thoughts' - and 'Job', coloured by Blake. At the beginning of one of these he has inserted Phillips' portrait of Blake a watercolour drawing, the same size as Schiavonetti's engraving. He is in a pale blue coat. This drawing belonged to my father. Mr Milnes is in the possession of some very rare and interesting books which belonged to various celebrated literary men; - the first and suppressed edition of 'Queen Mab'- with an autograph of Shelley. In this book is inserted a leaf from the traveller's book at Chamouni - containing a very long list of names. Shelley's is amongst them and he describes himself as follows: ''I am a democrat and an Atheist' Then follows..'The fool hath said in his heart, there is no God'... Among his manuscripts is...Monk Lewis's commonplace book. I was glad to be able to gratify him with a sight of my three drawings by Blake."
According to these accounts Pye had a proof of the portrait of Blake and Monckton Milnes the original watercolour drawing which, according to THC, had originally been his father's property. This must be the drawing by Thomas Phillips commissioned by R. H. Cromek and engraved by Schiavonetti as a frontispiece to The Grave. Peter Holroyd, in his recent biography of Blake comments:"it is a striking, if somewhat idealised, picture of Blake as the inspired artist. We see what another contemporary noticed with 'his head big and round, his eyes...large and lambent', but is also worth recalling that it was while sitting to Phillips that Blake told the story of the visiting angel who claimed to have been painted by Michelangelo. Perhaps that accounts for what one reviewer of the panting called 'a wildness in the eye'." (Peter Ackroyd Blake page 281). Pye's account, given above, offers a simpler and somewhat bathetic explanation: "Blake, he said, was a vulgar looking man; the expression in the eyes, in the print, was an invention."
As an appendix Cromek transcribes a long letter from Frederick Tatham (To Pye) from 34 Alpha Road, Regent's Park, dated 11 April 1829, written behalf of William Blake's widow."I have to inform you that her circumstances render her glad to embrace your kind offer for the purchase of some of the works of her departed husband." Tatham eulogises Blake's genius and describes his hardships also praising the devotion of his wife and lamenting her present staightend circumstances. This letter is cited in G. E. Bentley Blake Books Supplement, page 618 .
Other artists known to Pye and mentioned in the conversations include Constable, Mulready and Bewick (for whom he had a high regard.)"Constable was another queer fellow. I never knew a weaker man - clever painter though he was. He had a great weakness to be thought to be rich. He once confided to me a great secret, as he said: I was to be sure not to mention it to any human being: - someone had left him a very large fortune! I happened to be at Colnaghi's a short time afterwards when I was asked if I had heard of Mr Constable's good fortune, which he himself had mentioned...."
William Mulready is mentioned several times in the conversations. Mulready (1786-1863), born in Ireland, was a genre painter, friend of William Godwin for whom he provided illustrations for his series of children's books. In 1805 Godwin, under the pseudonym Theophilus Marcliffe, published a little work entitled The Looking Glass; a true history of the early years of an artist," which was modelled on the first fifteen of Mulready's own life and illustrated by some of his juvenile drawings. He had a close friendship with Pye with whom he worked for 20 years on the Artist's Fund. Pye states that he had in hand enough material for a life of Mulready. He relates that he told to Godwin one of his anecdotes of Mulready's life which Godwin then used (not mentioning Mulready by name) in The Looking Glass."Godwin had a shop at Skinner St. Outside is a statue of Aesop, which the boys have mutilated by throwing stones at it."
"Pye."Mulready is a very curious fellow: he has not a knocker on his door, nor do I believe he ever had a servant. You know he married a sister of John Varley. Strange it is his taste and ideas are low: he could paint a subject like that; (pointing to 'The Wolf and the Lamb') - but Lord bless you - he could never paint a beautiful female figure, as Leslie could. He would always rush into a crowd to see a fight or any row. Cromek. Does he not live in an abject style, and in a hovel of a house? Pye. No. His house is very well furnished - but he never goes to see any body. Neither does he wish anybody to call and see him. You can try if you like."
In addition to Pye the other artist THC visited on more than one occasion during his trip to London was Clarkson Stansfield at his house in Hampstead."After luncheon I accompanied him to his studio, and sat chatting with him while he painted 'A calm in the Medway'...He is now obliged to have a rest for his arm, and it was sad to see how his hand trembled when painting. He afterwards showed my some very fine sketches made at the sketching Society held at his house - by Leslie... and Edwin Landseer." They discuss the amazing prices Stansfield's pictures were fetching:"(Pic Du Midi sold at Bicknell's Sale for 2,500 guineas!)."
The manuscript covers many other subjects and is full of details on the art world. There is even a discussion of the tricks of the picture dealers including an account of the operation of a ring at an auction in which a Landseer was knocked down for £50 and sold within days for £500 - the £450 profit being shared by the three colluding dealers!
Physical Description1 folder
Limp roan. c.115 pages. 4to. Dated December 1863. Lacks spine.
"Extracts from Arnold's"Magazine of the Fine Arts" and his"Library of the Fine Arts" relating to the painting and the engraving of"The Canterbury Pilgrimage." With my notes. Thomas H. Cromek. Dec. 3rd. 1863." THC's notes and comments (about three pages) are mainly concerned with the question when Stothard began his engraving. He also states that, according to his mother, Stothard received sixty guineas for the picture and that his father sold it to Hart Davies for three hundred pounds.
Transcript of a letter from THC to the Athenaeum dated Wakefield, December 21 1863, titled Stothard and Cromek. Written in reply to a letter from Stothard's son, Robert Stothard (original printed cutting included), vigorously pointing out a number of mistakes and misconceptions over the whole Canterbury Pilgrims saga. Importantly, THC contradicts Robert Stothard's assertion that the original picture was exhibited by Cromek in 1805 & 1806:"The commission of the painting was not given to Stothard until 1806. It was exhibited in Newman Street in May 1807, and by a letter from my father, dated Edinbro' Thursday June 11th 1807, I find he had, on that day, unpacked the picture, preparatory to its being unpacked in that city."
"Gilchrist's"Life of William Blake.""A few facts" versus"many slanderous assertions.""Ex uno disci omnes." By Thomas Hartley Cromek. 1864." THC has copied out the relevant passages from Gilchrist's book which concern his father, some 32 pages in all, and written about 9 pages in total of comments refuting Gilchrist. Many of the comments are decidedly acerbic in tone, responding in kind to Gilchrist's unremittingly poor opinion of Cromek and his doings, above all in the matter of Blair's Grave. Some of THC's rebuttals rely on dating, i.e. he comments thus on the engraving work:"As the drawings were not completed until the year 1806, no Prospectus helped by an elaborate opinion in their favour from Fuseli's pen...could have appeared in 1805. My father's advertisement containing the above testimonials is prefixed to the first edition of Blair's"Grave" and bears the date July 1808. In it there is not the slightest appearance that it was ever intended by my father that Blake was to engrave the illustrations: on the contrary it is distinctly stated that Schiavonetti had engraved them." Other passages question Gilchrist's sources. On the story quoted by Gilchrist from evidence by Nollekens Smith that Cromek was in the habit of calling on Blake and one day caught sight of his drawing of The Canterbury Pilgrims, THC writes,"All hearsay evidence - the bare assertions of Nollekens Smith, alias"Anecdote Smith." These transactions happened before I was born, and probably Mr. Gilchrist was very young at the time. Neither he nor I can possibly know anything of the matter. All I can say is: - I have never heard from my mother or my father's sister, or, in fact, from any of my father's contemporary friends, several of whom are still living, as such stories as most of those Mr. Gilchrist attempts to perform, by bare assertion only. How absurd to attempt to get at the truth of events of sixty years ago, when grounded on such a vague and rotten foundation as hearsay assertions!" From other comments by THC, it seems that he harboured grudges of his own against Gilchrist. It is clear that he was in touch via a third party with Gilchrist before publication of the life. As a holder of significant Blake material (he had an engraving of Blake's portrait of Malkin which he considers to have been not only engraved but printed by Blake -"From the fragments of letterpress on each side of the print, it would appear almost certain, that he [Blake] struck off this impression, on a piece of waste paper, that first came to hand") as well as three drawings by Blake including the frontispiece to Blair's Grave) he offered sight of these to Gilchrist, who, it seems, failed to respond. Bitterly, THC concludes,"Perhaps the son of an asserted thief and a filcher of autographs ought not to supposed worthy of possessing any such treasures from the hand of Blake" - a reference to Gilchrist's assertion that RHC stole from Sir Walter Scott an autograph letter by Ben Jonson. Further passages deal with the business of Cunningham and the Remains. In one passage THC refers to the famous letter his father wrote to Blake. In 1833 THC possessed a copy of the letter in his father's hand which he lent to Allan Cunningham. When THC asked for its return,"his answer was, his son Peter had sent the letter to my address in London, a short time previous. I have never seen the letter since: and by way of reply to the above reported 'illustrative anecdote,' I may say almost the same words of Walter Scott but in a stronger form: -"The last person, in whose hands I placed that letter, was Allan Cunningham and I have never seen it since."THC concludes his attack on Gilchrist thus:"Mr. Gilchrist's account of my father's death speaks for itself. May God pardon him, and not reward him according to these works."
Extract from the Westminster Review, January 1864. Part of a review of Gilchrist's book. In this context THC transcribes a letter from William Bewick the artist to him, dated February 18 1864, concerning the character of Nollekens Smith, late of the British Museum print room and author of a life of his ancestor Nollekens, on whom Gilchrist relied, it appears, for much of his material about the business of the stolen Ben Jonson letter. William Bewick writes that Nollekens Smith was a notorious gossip and goes on say, after thoroughly blackening the man's character,"No body cares or believes anything from Nollekens Smith." So strongly did THC feel about the calumnies made in Gilchrist's Life that he wrote an emotional letter to Gilchrist's widow, transcribing the letter here. After raising the subject of her husband's hurtful assertions, he turns to her directly:"How a woman could so far forget the innate tenderness of her sex, as thus knowingly to inflict so deep and lasting a wound on the heart of a son of the slandered victim, - would, until now, have seemed to me, incredible. I make no further comment, save this:-"I pardon you both, from my heart, as I hope to be forgiven."
Transcription of some of the original letters in the manuscript album.
A copy of a letter from Thomas Bewick to a Miss Bailey dated 6 December 1814.
A copy of a letter from Thomas Bewick to a firm of London paper merchants dated 25 April 1820 ordering paper for a new edition of his Birds.
A copy of a letter from the engraver Heath to Dawson Turner presenting a proof etching of The Canterbury Pilgrims.
A copy of a letter from RHC to the Examiner dated 2 September 1810 about The Canterbury Pilgrims; a copy of a letter to the Examiner by G. Testolini dated 22 July 1810 concerning Schiavonetti; copies of family letters from RHC (originals in volume two).
Physical Description1 folder
John Pye (1782-1874), landscape engraver. He was born in Birmingham in 1782, the son of an engraver. He went first as a pupil of Joseph Barber of Birmingham. In 1801 he came to London and became a paid assistant of James Heath (1756-1834) by whom he was employed on engraving works on natural history and illustrations for books. In 1805 Pye was entrusted by Heath with the execution of a plate of Inverary Castle from the drawing by J. M. W. Turner. In 1810 John Britton, who was then publishing The fine arts of the English School, commissioned Pye to engrave for it Turner's picture"Pope's villa at Twickenham," and the plate was such a success that from that time on Pye became Turner's favourite engraver. Pye's plates after Turner include views of Oxford, Venice, Italy, Yorkshire etc."These remarkable works in which for the first time the effects of light and atmosphere were adequately rendered, placed Pye at the head of his profession and entitle him to be regarded as the founder of the modern school of landscape engraving" (DNB.) Pye also executed many other large plates for, amongst others, E. Landseer and D. Roberts.
Throughout his career Pye was largely engaged upon illustrations for the popular annuals and pocket-books. For these he engraved works by Turner, S. Prout and G. Cuitt. His complete mastery of the principles of chiaroscuro in the translation of colour into black and white meant that his services were always much in demand, sometimes in correcting the plates of other engravers.
Pye was the most energetic of the founders of the Artist's Annuity Fund in which he was assisted by his friend William Mulready. It received the royal charter in 1830. He spent much of his time in France and was honored by the French and Russian art establishment. But he never sought or received honours from the Royal Academy, to which he was bitterly hostile, in consequence of its refusal to recognise the claims of engravers to equal treatment with painters and sculptors. In 1836 he gave evidence on behalf of the profession to a select committee of the House of Commons and wrote a good deal on the controversy. In 1845 he published his well-known Patronage of British Art, a work full of valuable information in which he put forward with great ability his arguments against the academy and his demands for its reformation. In 1851 he renewed his attack in a pamphlet A glance at the rise and constitution of the Royal Academy of London and he lived to see some of the changes he had advocated carried out.
The main purpose of the correspondence, of course, was to supply information on R. H. Cromek and here Pye's assessment goes a long way to achieve the purpose which T. H. Cromek intended of providing a corrective to the various hostile commentaries on Cromek (most notably that of William Blake). In addition to the information supplied about R. H. Cromek, this sequence of letters, written when Pye was 80 years old, together with the manuscript account of his conversations with T.H. Cromek (see below) provide new and important first hand information about Pye himself, his relationship with Turner, and the history of British engraving in the early decades of the nineteenth century.
From the outset Pye responded with enthusiasm to Cromek's request for information about his father, a man for whom he had much regard. He admired also, as a sacred duty, THC's desire to do justice to his father's memory.
Signed"Thomas H. Cromek, Wakefield Dec. 8th 1864." Contains 22 ALsS from John Pye to T.H. Cromek from 3 September 1862 to 1 August 1866. Numbered 1-21 (+ 1 unnumbered). 66 pages, 8vo. With a title page in T.H. Cromek's handwriting:"The following interesting correspondence with Mr John Pye, was elicited by a letter that I addressed to him on 11th Septr 1862, requesting him to furnish me with any facts relating to my late Father's life. Mr Pye's kindness of heart is thoroughly evinced by his prompt acquiescence to my wish, and the great amount of artistic information which he has given to me, kindly and willingly supplied in his letters, induce me thus carefully to preserve, as most valuable documents, all his letters to me. Thomas H. Cromek Wakefield Dec. 8th 1864." Contents laid onto or tipped onto the leaves of a quarto album. With morocco label"Letters etc. from John Pye Esq. to T. H. Cromek, 1862-3." An important unpublished sequence throwing much light on R. H. Cromek, Turner, the history of engraving, and of the life and career of John Pye himself.
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Original portrait of James Hopwood by Abraham Cooper on page 1. On the third and fourth pages of the album are an engraving of Hopwood's head and the original drawing for it. T.H. Cromek notes:"Sketch by Abraham Cooper R.A. given to me by Mr John Pye. May 6th 1863. Mr Mulready made use of it for his portrait given in 'The Patronage of British Art'." This is the original portrait of Hopwood mentioned in DNB."A portrait of Hopwood, from a drawing by A. Cooper, R.A. will be found in Pye's Patronage of British Art (p. 335)." James Hopwood (1752-1819) engraver, born at Beverely in Yorkshire. At the age of 45 took up engraving to support his family. He travelled to London where he worked under James Heath. Cromek refers to Hopwood as"my friend" in a letter to James Montgomery, 17 April 1807, printed in Letters of William Blake, page 124.
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"12th Sept. 1862 Dear Sir, Your letter of yesterday has awakened to my memory, day dreams of sixty years ago, of which, were you now beside me, I could talk to you much more effectively than I can write for the most perfect of them seems to be more mythology than fact, and it is only by looking at them from different points of view, again and again, that they assume anything like a reliable form. I will however, endeavour to tell you with my pen, the leading features of the vision which you have placed before me..." He relates how he first met Cromek in 1801 when he himself was only 18 years of age."I thought him a shrewd, clear headed, north country man...nominally an engraver, but his tastes and sympathies lay in another direction. In evidence of that proposition's truthfulness I must affirm as my belief that he he would never engrave anything that he could get done by assistants." Describing in detail Cromek's various speculations,"Stothard's plate of the Canterbury Pilgrims," and his rambles to the north to collect the"non-recorded" songs of Burns and others. After detail about his early relationship with Cromek, Pye concludes that though"having written to you as a stranger" it is"with the feelings of an old friend."
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."I should be glad if I could reply to each one of the crowd of ideas which your letter of yesterday has suggested to me..." Pye retraces the course of his own early life from the time when he was enrolled as a pupil of James Heath."You enquire of me what year did old Mr Hopwood come to London to study under Mr James Heath" Giving details of Hopwood who is described as"unique" and as odd in character as he was in appearance. Mr Warren (the engraver) in the warmth of debate, called him"an refined savage.""Mr Hopwood acknowledged the compliment by saying that it was the most flattering event in his whole life!" Continuing with a description of Cromek's own family:"Now a word as to your own family." Concluding"my brother engraved occasionally for your Father. I recollect his working on the plate Cupid and Psyche mentioned by you in your list of your father's works."
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More on Hopwood."I enquire whether you are acquainted with a likeness of him in one of a series of designs made by made by Mr Richard Cook to illustrate the poem of the Lady of the Lake. - He is therein represented (if my memory does not deceive me) in the character of Brian denouncing all those of the Clan who may be unfaithful to Roderic Dhu. The edition of Scott's Poems in which this design will be found was published by Longman and Co 1811. The plate was engraved by C. Warren and is (in my opinion) one of the works of art which confers honourable distinction on Great Britain..." Mentioning Varley. Going on to discuss at length the"plate engraved by your father of Cupid and Psyche." Concluding with a long discussion on the state of engraving in the first decade of the nineteenth century: "Your father was some ten years older than me, and consequently he had, when I made his acquaintance, acquired some knowledge in advance of me, as to the degraded state of the profession he was destined to pursue. Previously to the French Revolution (1789) England had an extensive export trade in Engraving. This the war that ensued, entirely destroyed. When your father entered upon his professional career, Book embellishments were the only sources of employment for engravers, and the remuneration which resulted from the speculative publishers of embellished works, enabled Bachelor engravers only to live, in humble lodgings and on modest fare. All this your father knew, and hence he displayed the daring that characterised his speculations (the Grave) and the Canterbury Pilgrimage. I am of the opinion they were the earliest speculations of their kind that were entered into after the failure of Boydell and the commencement of the War. I am of opinion also that your father's tastes and sympathies were controlled by circumstances; and that under other circumstances he would not have abandoned the art to travel about the country to obtain subscribers to his projects. Nor were the adverse circumstances mentioned, the only evils of which engravers in London had to complain for the Royal Academy had by its laws of exclusion, placed its ban before them. It received into its body Flower painters, enamel painters, and die sinkers, while it marked engravers with degradation. These adverse circumstances your father contended against in a way that did him honour, and it is not impossible that the mental friction they occasioned him was more than his constitution could bear."
Proof Engraving. Scene from Lady of the Lake. Painted by Richard Cook. Engraved by Charles Warren. Longmans, March 20 1811. This is the engraving mentioned in Letter 4 above where the central figure, a long-haired wild-looking old man, is said by Pye to be based on the engraver James Hopwood.
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A long letter mostly on the engraving Cupid and Psyche, mentioned in earlier letters. Pye had attempted to supplement his memory by researches in the Reading Room of the British Museum looking for engraved examples of it. Pye gives permission for THC to insert information supplied by him into his projected life of his father insisting only on the right to read the proofs and correct them in case of factual error citing his bad experience in the use made of information he supplied to Thornbury for his Life of Turner."You allude to Thornbury's life of Turner. That work was a good lesson of caution to me. For the use he made of my name therein placed me in a false position from which I could only extricate myself by means of the press." Here he refers Cromek to the printed exchange of letters in The Athenaeum - an exchange which, according to Pye, caused a swift retreat by Thornbury. Concluding with a reaffirmation of his desire to help THC in any way possible with his endeavours:"I must be allowed to tell you frankly, that nothing you could give me would add to the desire, with which your first letter animated me, to aid your endeavour to do honour and justice to your father's memory."
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Further extensive discussion of the origins and circumstances surrounding the engraving Cupid and Psyche. Regretting that he cannot assist in providing anything"which enables me to explain the various versions of the connection that existed between your father and Mr Blake."
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Discussing his book Patronage."You tell me that you have read my Book (Patronage) But do you remember its contents? It has become a Book of reference, a sort of Dictionary of matters relating to Printing and Engraving in Great Britain; and I have continually before me evidence of its being referred to by authors as an authority. The Academy Royal did not send me a piece of plate for the trouble taken by me to record in the work the merits of that Establishment; - but they could not avoid giving a place to the work in their Library. Continuing to discuss the plate of Brian, for which Hopwood was the model, mentioned in the letter above. There is much further discussion again of the plate Cupid and Psyche and also of Pye's run in with Thornbury about his references to Pye in his Life of Turner.
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Largely concerned with the Pye/Thornbury dispute over the Life of Turner. Sending THC a copy of one of his own letters to Thornbury and a cutting from the Athenaeum:"I have cut them out and added to them a MS copy of the first letter written by me to Mr Thornbury respecting the Turner work...I am of opinion that the letters are somewhat instructive to reflective men, for they seem to represent to view a sad picture of the State of Biographical Literature in Great Britain in the middle of the nineteenth century." This letter is followed by two enclosures: the manuscript copy of Pye's first letter to Thornbury and two pages of cuttings from The Athenaeum.
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Concerning Stothard's outline portrait of R. H. Cromek and Pye's memory of his appearance:"The copy of Stothard's outline of your father's head is excellent and I should have thought that the deference generally entertained for the perceptive facility of that celebrated artist would have left you no room to doubt as to the truthfulness of the resemblance of the sketch to your father as he appeared at the period of his life when it was taken. It recalls your father to my mind...He had hair nearly black, perhaps quite so: and a complexion florid - His mouth was also remarkable by reason of his having lost a tooth in the centre of the upper part..." The letter concludes with an account of, and Pye's delight in, being elected a Correspondent of the Academy of Fine Arts of Paris, an honour of which he is the more proud from not having sought or solicited it - something"which has always prevented me becoming a candidate for academic honours at home."
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Discusses the possibility that THC and Pye can meet when Cromek comes up to London.
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Discusses a volume of original drawings sent by THC to Pye.
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Looks forward to Cromek's visit to"this great city of good and evil." Fixing the visit for the following day. Giving directions to his house No 10 St. Mark's Crescent, Regent's Park.
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Possibly the most important letter in the sequence. Five closely written pages in which Pye recalls his early work as an engraver, his first meeting with Turner, and of the work he did for him."The mention you made in your letter...of my engravings for Peacock's Pocket Book i.e. Polite Repository, has recalled to my mind my early connection with that work - its influence on my professional life - and also, the place it acquired in the History of British Book Embellishment; and knowing that you have a taste for collecting historical knowledge and also that no record has yet been made by me of the matter in question, I now proceed to jot down such features of that period of my life as are professional, and which your letter recalled to me. In 1809:10 the result of my professional endeavours was a commission given to me to engrave a plate for Mr. Turner's celebrated Picture of 'Pope's Villa'. At that time no engraving after Turner represented the aerial tints and magnitude of nature which characterised his work. When my endeavours had recorded on the plate the extent of my power and animated me with reverence for the learning and taste displayed by the painter in the picture, I proceeded to carry and submit to his judgment in all humility my humble effort. How well do I recollect knocking at the door of his house and his servant saying, in reply to my enquiry - 'He is not at Home' Yes! and how well do I recollect feeling on hearing this report, the sensation natural to a convict that has obtained a reprieve! Thus animated, a few days passed away, when Mr Turner called upon me - he was on Horseback (we were strangers to each other) he dismounted, stood beside me, and my listening ear heard him say say while looking with his Eagle Eye - 'You left a proof at my House for, a Plate you have engraved of my Picture of Pope's Villa. I have called to tell you that, I like it very much! Had I known any body in the country capable of producing such a work I would have had it done years ago - the only regret I have is that it is not larger'! This event established me as an engraver of landscape. From this time Turner always sought me to engrave ?(for) him: but engraving after Turner being with me matter of Sturdy, professional pride, and pleasure (all good things in their way) and being obliged to live by my profession, in 1813, I accepted a proposition made to me to engrave annually, Peacock's Polite Repository: and hence I engraved only occasionally after the great man for I saw around me among the engravers nothing better than genteel beggary, begging and pauperism!! Peacock's Polite Repository had, when I entered upon it, been some years before the world - there were other similar works published in London, but that had taken the lead and had a large sale and its popularity became so extreme that for many years previously to the introduction of engraving on steel, these sets of plates (copper) were requisite to supply the demand. This work preserved its vitality in spite of the more modern annuals and having outlived them and my necessities for further professional labour, I retired from it all at the close of 1858, having then engraved the plates for 1859, and having been professionally connected with it during forty-five years." Concluding with discussion of an unique set of proofs of the plates he had engraved for the magazine.
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In further letters Pye discusses the Chalcographic Society"For which I never had much respect," his life, family, and numerous other matters.
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Covers the period from 31 December 1834 to December 1872."Total from December 1834 to December 1872: - 478 pictures sold for £6777.12.0. i.e. average of £14-3-7 each. Maximum £80 (twice) 1847 and 1849." Purchasers include Prince Albert and Queen Victoria and Edward Lear. 61 pages. 8vo. Roan.
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