[Scrapbook of prints]
Title
[Scrapbook of prints]
Description
Scrapbook containing predominantly clipped book and periodical illustrations, including a number of vignettes engraved by W. E. Tucker after the work of Thomas Birch, showing European and American landscapes and landmarks, animal portraiture, and genre and Biblical scenes. Landscape and landmark views mainly depict the Eastern United States and Great Britain. Titles include Passaic Falls; Bandit's Home; The Woodlands, near Philadelphia-Seat of J. Lisle Esq.; Philadelphia from the Elm Tree, Kensington; The Prison at Venice; Abbey Gate of St. Edmundsbury, Suffolk; The Little Irish Girl; The City of Pompeii; The Deluge; The Three Maries at the Tomb of Christ; The Residence of Samuel Breck Esq. on the Schuylkill; Barlborough Hall, Derbyshire; Church Street, St Paul's Church & the Cemetery Gate of St. Augustine's Monastery, Canterbury; The Happy Family; and Plate XV from a 1782 edition of Don Quixote. Several of the views contain persons on foot, images of estates or rural life, farm animals, and modes of transportation on land or sea. Animal portraitures depict birds, sheep, goats, cows, and a wolf. Scrapbook also contains early European landscape lithographs designed by J. Rothmuller and G. Englemann; a lithograph signed with the monogram JPL; illustrated title pages from Oliver Goldsmith's "The Traveler" and William Shenstone's "The School Mistress"; a portrait of Elizabeth Fry; cutouts depicting a tiger and a Moses-like figure; watercolor and gouache drawings of flowers, a butterfly and a ruins; a pressed feather; and three newspaper clippings referring to poets M. LaMartine, Lady Flora Hastings, and Felicia Hemans., Title supplied by cataloger., Label pasted on inside front cover: A. R. Poole, Fancy Stationer, 66 Chestnut St., Philada., Some pages contain paste marks from removed items., Various artists, including T. Doughty, T. Birch, J. V. Barber, P. Dewint, B. K. Fox, L. T. Lee, J. Martin, J. Rothmuller, Charles Barber, Joseph Fussell, R. Westall, G. S. Newton, A. Mosses, B. West, Geo. Shepherd, John Boaden, and Stothard., Various engravers, including W. E. Tucker, W. Miller, C. G. Childs, J. Lybrand, Hall, Charles Pye, Robert Brandard, Mottram, J. W. Steel, J. B. Longacre, E. Smith, J. Neagle, H. Adlard, Hamilton, and William Blake., Various printers and publishers, including Engelmann, Whittaker & Co., Joyce Gold, Pendleton, and Harrison & Co., Cataloging funded by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (PW-506-19-10), 2010-2012., Binding in poor condition., Mary Rebecca Darby Smith (1814-1886) was the daughter of Philadelphia Quakers Hannah Logan Fisher (1777-1846) and James Smith (d. 1826) and great great granddaughter of scholar and William Penn's secretary James Logan. Smith, known as an eccentric, never married and traveled widely from the mid to late 19th century. Between 1859 and 1886, she resided in Washington, D.C (1859-1861) and traveled to Europe (1860-1870; 1874-1876; 1880-1886), including the British Isles, Rome, Venice, Paris and St. Petersburg. She was also an autograph collector, author, poet, and socialite. Smith died and was buried in London in November 1886. Her estate was valued at over $30,000 and she left several bequests, including to the Library Company, Historical Society of Pennsylvania, and friends throughout the East coast of the United States, Europe, and Russia.
Creator
Smith, Mary Rebecca Darby
Date
ca. 1782-ca. 1835
Location
Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare 4-Alcove 2 [Is 6 1536.Q, vol. 1]
[Scrapbook of prints and clippings]
Title
[Scrapbook of prints and clippings]
Description
Scrapbook containing primarily clipped book and periodical illustrations, as well as newspaper clippings from the 1820s to circa 1840. Illustrations predominantly depict portraits of prominent figures, including Capt. Nicholas Biddle and Gen. Anthony Wayne; landscapes, including Fairmount Water Works, Paris, and Italy; European dwellings; and genre, sentimental, and allegorical scenes, including depictions of children with animals, scenes of courtship, amusement, and solemnity; literary allusions; and a "Hen Humming Bird with her Nest of Eggs." Clippings, a number from the National Gazette, contain poems, parables, obituaries, biographical sketches, and literary references. Other topics include advice to save costs from the hardship of winter in Philadelphia, including lessening wages for servants and purchasing less butter at market; the importance of medical testimony; and a positive review of the recitation of a George A. Boker poem of war by Smith. Scrapbook also contains a silhouette of a soldier on horseback and tipped-in printed works, including the program for the wedding of Queen Victoria in 1840; ca. 1887 trade cards for the Au Bon Marche Paris department store; the 1857 illustrated songsheet "Come Whoam To thi Childer An Me"; and an 1845 newspaper clipping of an excerpt of "The Diary of a Young Mother" by Lady Willoughby, Title supplied by cataloger., Pasted on first page: Illustrated title page of edition of "Ladies Album. Published by R. De Silver, No. 110 Walnut Street, Philadelphia. Illustration shows a young man playing a trumpet near a young woman reading, with her dog, along a riverbank., Manuscript notes in blue ink on first page: Rebecca D. Smith; The Injured and Persecuted One., Few pages contain paste marks from removed items., Various artists, including T. Birch, John Trumbull, F. Nash, C. Fielding, W. Brockedon, Strickland, J. C., T. Doughty; B. K. Fox, W. G. Wall, W. D. Fellows, and Richd. R. Smith., Various engravers, including P. Kearny, J. Warr, Jr., Edwin, C. G. Childs, Leney, Fairman & Childs, Tiebout, Porlier, G.B. Ellis, W. Woodruff, J. Lybrand, Peter Maverick, J. Hill, and Langton., Various printers and publishers, including Edwd. Parker, William Allen, F. Kearny, and Testu & Massin., Cataloging funded by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (PW-506-19-10), 2010-2012., Binding in poor condition.
Creator
Smith, Mary Rebecca Darby
Date
[ca. 1784-ca. 1887]
Location
Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare 4-Alcove 2 [Is 6 1536.Q, vol. 2]
Engravings by William Humphrys
Title
Engravings by William Humphrys
Description
Scrapbook of print specimens and proofs engraved by Philadelphia and London engraver William Humphrys. Contents include postage stamp proofs, book and periodical illustrations, tile pages, portrait prints, advertisements, and cut outs of banknote and certificate vignettes. Majority of graphics depict allegorical imagery or illustrations of genre, religious, sentimental, and literary scenes, some from the plays of Shakespeare. Illustrations include scenes of courtship; female friendship; children with animals; a ghoulish-looking woman with a torch; a European man smoking a hookah; Jesus Christ; Adam & Eve; and imagery from Edmund Spencer's "Faery Queen", John Milton's "Palemon's Story," and John Gay's "Thursday: or The Spell." Allegorical works depict the figures of Columbia, Minerva, Mercury, Neptune, Bounty, Agriculture, Commerce, Justice, Hope, and Apollo, as well as scenes with the American eagle; caducei for the "Liverpool Apothecaries Company"; citizens fighting a fire; cherubs charting a globe; Native Americans; a family; sailing ships; and symbols of farming, trade, and industry. Vignettes also show a portrait of Benjamin Franklin; Pocahontas saving John Smith; and a female warrior slaying a man of royalty captioned "Sic Semper Tyranus.", Portrait prints, some probably from the British periodical "Fraser's Magazine for Town and Country," depict Israel Putnam; George Washington; Gustavus Adolphus; Mrs. Sloman, of Covent Garden Theatre in the Character of Baltimore; Thomas Carlyle; William Dunlop; Letitia Elizabeth Landon; D. M. Moir; and Henry Purcell. Scrapbook also contains an 1844 banknote specimen of "La Provincia de Buenos Aires" illustrated with vignettes of ostriches; ca. 1845 postage stamp proof depicting Queen Victoria after the Chalon portrait; a full-length portait of an unidentified man, possibly Humphrys; and an advertisement for the Philadelphia artist Joshua Shaw showing a man leading his horse down a bucolic path, as well as engravings after his work of a landscape and an advertisement for Cohen's Lottery Exchange Office, Baltimore., Title from stamp on spine., Morocco binding., Various American and British artists, including W. Chatfield, John Opie, Joshua Shaw, Robert Smirke, C. R. Leslie, Charles L. Eastlake, W. E. West, George Smithard, Carlo Dola, A.E. Chalon, J. Wood, J. Stephanoff, Pastorini, Alfred Croquis (i.e., Daniel Maclise), A. F. Tireggi, John James Barralet, J. Banks, J. M. Wright, Thomas Stothard, P. Williams, Camille Roqueplan, and R. Westall., Various American and British printers and publishers, including H. S. Singleton, J. P. Davis, and James Fraser., Manuscript letter by Humphry completed January 10, 1865 to Anna Holloway pasted on opening page to scrapbook. Letter details his ill health, which in spite of, he still appreciates "the brightness of the sun, the greeness of the earth, and the beauty of extreme nature.", Some scrapbook pages contain manuscript notes identifying the genre of the specimen., Cataloging funded by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (PW-506-19-10), 2010-2012., Lib. Company. Annual report, 1967, p. 55., William Humphrys (1795-1865), born in Dublin, immigrated to the United States early in his life and studied engraving under George Murray in Philadelphia. He worked as an engraver in the city circa 1815-1823 producing book illustrations, advertisements, and banknote and certificate vignettes. He also served as secretary for the Association of American Artists. Relocating to England, he produced similar work before returning to the United States in 1843. In 1845, he moved to Dublin to engrave "The Reading Magdalene" for the Royal Irish Art Union before returning to England where he worked as an engraver for the firm Perkin, Bacon, and Co. During this employ, he was noted for his re-engraving of the head of Queen Victoria for the 1 d postage stamp. Humphrys retired from engraving in his later years and worked as an accountant for the printing firm Novello & Co. He died at the Novellos' Genoa villa on January 21, 1865.
Creator
Humphrys, William, 1795-1865
Date
[ca. 1817-ca. 1845]
Location
Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department albums - Humphrys [7607.F]