American Book-Plates

In the Russell plate he was again a copyist, using for his model the Joseph Barrell plate. The plates for the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and for the Massachusetts Medical Society are practically alike; the curtain, and the

ribbon and festooning are very similar, while the view within the oval frame is, of course, adapted to the use of the books of the respective societies. Callender would seem by these signs to have been a lazy engraver, or to have considered his designs so perfect as to call for no further effort.

Cephas G. Childs, who engraved the plate of Henry D. Gilpin, was born in Pennsylvania, in 1793. In the years 1827 to 1830, he published a set of views of the city of Philadelphia and its vicinity (Baker).

Henry Dawkins was an engraver of but few original ideas, if we may judge him rightly by his book-plate work. In this he was very largely a copyist. Working altogether in the Chippendale style, his designs for the most part are variations of one general plan, which seems to have been borrowed from an English-made plate. In his plates we see “Chippendalism run wild.” Here are introduced the love-sick swains who play upon the flute; the dandy shepherds in stiff clothes of the most fashionable cut, flowing curls, and large felt hats; the flirting young damsels in very low-cut bodices, who play at being shepherdesses for the sake of following the above-mentioned gentle keeper of sheep. Here are the music-loving Cupids, the scantily clad females who are attended by the Cupids, and who are far from home among the trees of the wood. In the James Duane plate we find a fountain is fixed to the side of the frame, and is spouting water from the mouth of a man’s head.

But the plates of Samuel Jones, Samuel Stringer, and Peter W. Yates are proof that Dawkins could confine himself to the legitimate features of good Chippendale plates. In these no outside objects are introduced, and the design is good.

We do not know much about Dawkins. Dunlap says he was probably from England, and that he was first noticed in New York. Originally he was an ornamenter of buttons and other small bits of metal, but in America he worked at anything that offered, “suiting himself to the poverty of the arts at the time.” Dunlap dates him about 1774, evidently on the strength of the word of Dr. Anderson, who remembered to have seen “shop-bills and coats-of-arms for books,” done by him previous to 1775. However, in 1761, he engraved music for a book of Psalm Tunes published in that year in Philadelphia. His earliest dated book-plate is that of John Burnet (1754). He was skilful enough to make counterfeit Continental currency, but not to avoid arrest; and in 1776 we find him suffering for this misdeed. Some time later, he forwarded the following unique petition to the Committee of Safety: —

“May it please Your Honours, – The subscriber humbly relying on the known goodness and humanity of this honourable house, begs leave to lay his complaint before them, which is briefly as follows. That your petitioner was about six months past taken upon Long Island for a trespass which this house is thoroughly acquainted as by Israel Youngs he was led away to perform an action of which he has sincerely repented and your petitioner was torn away from an only son who was left among strangers without any support, or protection during the inclemency of the approaching winter, as his unhappy father hath since the first day he was taken had but one shirt and one pair of stockings to shift himself, and hath been affected during his imprisonment at White Plains with that worst of enemies hunger, and a nauseous stench of a small room where some twenty persons were confined together which hath introduced a sickness on your distressed subscriber which with the fatigue of travelling hath reduced your unhappy petitioner to a state of despondency – he therefore being weary of such a miserable life as his misconduct has thrown him into begs for a termination by death to be inflicted upon him in what manner the honourable House may see fit. The kind compliance of this honourable House will ever lay an obligation on your distressed humble servent

    Henry Dawkins.”

We do not know in what manner the honorable house received this extraordinary petition; but, as book-plates are in existence in his later style, probably it was not granted. Dawkins used three distinct varieties of the Chippendale style. The plates of Benjamin Kissam, the Ludlow and Roome plates, the Whitehead Hicks and the James Duane are examples of the debased

Chippendale. He had also a style which is illustrated by the Hopkinson, Samuels, and Tomlinson plates, which is closely allied to the style of the Bushrod Washington. The same hissing dragon, the same tilt to the whole design, and the similarity in detail and execution have led to the question of his being the engraver of the latter plate. It is not a question easy to decide, and collectors are divided over the question. This style of plate came originally from England, we can be sure; and as Dawkins is seen to be a copyist, it is quite as likely that he copied from the Bushrod Washington plate, as that he designed it. He always used a squarer copper than the Washington plate is engraved upon; but this has evidences of having been cut down after engraving. The present writer does not think the plate can be safely attributed to Dawkins. The Child and Jones plates exemplify the third style.

The debased Chippendale plates which Dawkins made were apparently copied from an English example he had seen.

The plates of Cornelius Low and Lambert Moore, although not signed, are attributed to Dawkins.

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Nathaniel Dearborn was born in 1786, and was the son of Benjamin Dearborn, a man of attainments in science. Nathaniel was one of the first wood-engravers in Boston, and was associated with Abel Bowen for a time.

The only armorial book-plate signed by Dearborn is the Charles Beck, which is a peculiar design, following no particular style, but making a pretty plate.

A second plate signed by Dearborn is the simple engraved verse for Isaac Child.

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Amos Doolittle, who was born in 1754, was one of the first engravers of historical scenes in America. In Barber’s “History and Antiquities of New Haven,” published in 1831, is an advertisement of “four different views of the Battle of Lexington, Concord, etc. on the 19 April 1775.” A list of the plates follows, and it is remarked that they were “neatly engraved on copper from original paintings taken on the spot.” In a note which follows, it is further remarked that the pictures were first drawn by Mr. Earl, who was a portrait painter, and who with Mr. Doolittle was a member of the Governor’s Guard which went to Cambridge and the scene of action under the command of Arnold.

As a maker of book-plates, Doolittle was fond of the allegorical style. He made two plates for the Societies of Yale College, and one for the village library of Wethersfield. The latter is an ornamental label only, but the former are quite elaborate examples of the allegorical. The plates of Benjamin S. Brooks, in the Ribbon and Wreath style, and Charles H. Wetmore, which is a copy of one of Maverick’s favorite designs, complete the number of his signed examples. The Guilford Library and George Goodwin plates, which have some features in common with the Wethersfield Library, are confidently attributed to him.

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Gideon Fairman, whose signature is on one of the plates of Henry McMurtrie and one of the Linonian Society of Yale College, was born in Connecticut in 1774. He showed an early fondness for engraving, and made rude attempts which showed undoubted talent. In 1810, having made himself a master of his art, he went into partnership with Murray, Draper, and others, in Philadelphia. He made considerable money, and went over to England with Jacob Perkins, where, with Charles Heath for a third partner, they were successful but for a short time, the extravagance of Murray proving their ruin.

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John Mason Furnass was the nephew of Hurd, to whom the latter left his engraving tools by will, as the young man showed so much ability in the art practised by his widely known uncle.

He was also a painter of portraits, and he had a studio in Boston, which was also used by Trumbull.

The only plate signed by this engraver, which the present writer has seen, is the Eli Forbes. This plate shows but few traces of the influence of Hurd. It is a Chippendale design, but

is not in either of the characteristic modes of Hurd. It is an ambitious plate, and was meant to be very fine, evidently. It is full of flourishes, and the little spiral flourish at the lower right-hand side is wholly out of place; the robin picking rose leaves at the side is an innovation. The scrolls under the name are somewhat in the manner of Hurd. The heraldic drawing is poor, and the bunch of arrows between the shield and the crest must be in allusion to the occupation of the owner, who was a missionary to the Indians.

There is said to be a plate by Furnass owned in Boston, by the name of Foster, but no definite knowledge of it has been obtained.

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E. Gallaudet, who signed the plate for the New York Society Library and the plate of John Chambers, was one Elisha Gallaudet, who practised his art in New York City towards the end of the last century.

Edward Gallaudet, a relative of the above, was superior to him as an engraver, and the Gallaudet plate mentioned in the List is by him. He was of the present century.

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Abraham Godwin was born in New Jersey in 1763. He was intended for the profession of the law, and was placed in the office of his brother, at Fishkill, in New York state. Both men joined the army, however; and when Abraham returned to his home, it was to take up the art of engraving, towards which he had had an inclination from boyhood, when he made his first attempts on the silver plate of his friends, with a graver made by a blacksmith.

The only example of his book-plate work is a plate fully described under the heading, “Unidentified,” in the List. Most unfortunately, the only example known has the family name torn out. The first name is John. The plate is rather rudely engraved, but is quite ambitious, showing the interior of a large room, which might be either a school-room or a library.

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S. Harris, who engraved the pictorial plates of Henry Andrews and the anonymous Williams, was a New England engraver, who was in Boston about 1798.

Charles P. Harrison, who signed the plain armorial book-plates of William Betts and David Paul Brown, was a son of William Harrison, an English engraver, who came to New York in 1794, and was for a time an instructor of Peter Maverick the second.

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Samuel Hill was a copper-plate engraver in Boston, about 1790, and his work consisted mostly of portraits and book work.

The following are examples of his work: —

Also the plate of Saml. Hill, which is of a literary flavor, is probably the engraver’s own plate.

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S. S. Jocelyn, of New Haven, who made a very handsome plate for the Brothers in Unity of Yale College, became an engraver of vignettes for bank-notes.

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Thomas Johnson was born in Boston in 1708. He was buried in King’s Chapel Burying-ground, May 8, 1767. He engraved Psalm Tune plates

for the Tate and Brady edition of 1760, and did some commendable work as a herald painter. In the inventory of his estate, fifteen copper plates are appraised at 40s.

Only one specimen of his book-plate work is authenticated, and that is the Joseph Tyler, which is signed in full, —Johnson.

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Thomas Johnston signs the very beautiful Jacobean plate of William P. Smith, A.M., and the rougher Chippendale of Samuel Willis. Whether this is the same engraver as the above is uncertain; the difference in the spelling of the name would not disprove the claim, as in those days such differences were frequent. The Willis plate bears strong resemblance to the work and designs of Hurd. If this is the same engraver as the above, these two plates are likely to be the earliest signed plates by an American, as Johnson was born some twenty years before Hurd. The Willis plate is quite inferior to the Smith, which latter is a striking example of the Jacobean style.

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Francis Kearney, who signs the plate of Henry McMurtrie and Hector Coffin, was born in 1780. He was a pupil of Peter R. Maverick, who received two hundred and fifty dollars for instructing him for three years. The advantage was all with Maverick. Soon after the opening of the century, he was engaged with Anderson, the younger Maverick, Boyd, and others, in engraving plates for a quarto Bible published by Mr. Collins, of New York.