March 2020

Portrait Engravings in stipple by W. Ridley, and his associates, W. Holl & T. Blood. 1796-1822 album cover
45 tipped in stipple engravings (including one proof engraving, number 23)
1796-1822
Assembled c. 1920s-1930s
Baillieu Library Print Collection, The University of Melbourne. Gift of Marcus Bunyan

It’s incredible the number of disparate objects that I have in my collection, assembled mainly from purchases at op shops (in Australia, opportunity shops; in America, thrift stores).

I feel that I am just the custodian of these objects and if possible, I like placing them in a context where they will be appreciated. Such is the case with this album of forty five stipple engravings from 1796-1822 bought recently at an op shop. It’s not really my thing, but the plates are so old, the letter from the British Museum so interesting, that I thought I would rescue it before someone else bought it and broke it up. As so happens with the synchronicity of the world I found from my dear friend Assoc. Professor Alison Inglis, that the University of Melbourne celebrated a 50 year relationship with the British Museum last year. And since I work at the University, nothing could be better than donating the album to the Baillieu Library Print Collection, one of the best print collections in Australia.

Looking at the plates themselves (the engravings adaptations taken from paintings) we observe a mainly patriarchal society, dominated by religious and military figures, the latter well known to each other in the small circle of high-up society figures, forming friendships and enmities along the way. The other societal group well represented are the theatrical performers, whether female or male. Both groups would have been known to each other, often joined through the auspices of the artists who painted their portraits, for example Gainsborough, Joshua Reynolds and Samuel Drummond.

Networks of association can be teased out of the bibliographic information. For example, English novelist, actress, and dramatist Elizabeth Inchbald successful play Lovers’ Vows was a translation of August von Kotzebue’s original piece and was much admired by Jane Austen, both Inchbald and von Kotzebue being represented in the album. Another example is the English portrait painter George Romney whose artistic muse was Emma Hamilton, mistress of Lord Nelson. In the album we find a stipple engraving by William Ridley taken from a painting by George Romney of Sir John Orde, remembered as a professional enemy of Nelson. And so the circle of intrigue, passion, friendship and enmity continues to spiral around the players in this Georgian era.

Of most interest to me are the strong, independent women who, often pulling themselves up from the bootstraps, made outstanding contributions to the society of the time, and the history of female emancipation. Frances Abington began her career as a flower girl and a street singer (and for a short period of time was a prostitute to help her family in the hard times) who went on to be amongst the foremost rank of comic actresses, known for her avant-garde fashion and great beauty. “Her ambition, personal wit and cleverness won her a distinguished position in society, in spite of her humble origin.” Elizabeth Inchbald is the story of an unknown actress who became a celebrated playwright and author. Elizabeth Montagu was a British social reformer, patron of the arts, salonnière, literary critic and writer, who helped to organise and lead the Blue Stockings Society (an informal women’s social and educational movement).

Of most importance is the English writer, philosopher, and advocate of women’s rights, pioneering feminist Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-1797) who is today, “regarded as one of the founding feminist philosophers, and feminists often cite both her life and her works as important influences. During her brief career, she wrote novels, treatises, a travel narrative, a history of the French Revolution, a conduct book, and a children’s book. Wollstonecraft is best known for A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792), in which she argues that women are not naturally inferior to men, but appear to be only because they lack education. She suggests that both men and women should be treated as rational beings and imagines a social order founded on reason.” (Wikipedia) Wollstonecraft married the philosopher William Godwin, one of the forefathers of the anarchist movement but died at the age of 38 giving birth to her second daughter, Mary Shelley, who would become an accomplished writer and author of Frankenstein. After her death her widower published Memoirs of the Author of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman in January 1798 which, “inspired by Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s Confessions, [is] unusually frank for its time. He did not shrink from presenting the parts of Wollstonecraft’s life that late eighteenth-century British society would judge either immoral or in bad taste, such as her close friendship with a woman, her love affairs, her illegitimate child, her suicide attempts and her agonising death.” (Wikipedia) The stipple engraving in this album was published just over a year and half before her death – so, taken “from life” – as she was soon to be.

Truly, this is a human being that I would have liked to have met.

Dr Marcus Bunyan

Many thankx to the Baillieu Library Print Collection for allowing the publication of the images. Please click on the photographs for a larger version of the image.

William Ridley: b. 1764; d. Aug. 15th, 1838, at Addlestone. Worked mostly for periodicals and book-illustrations, and engraved portraits in stipple after Gainsborough, Reynolds etc, etc. See

~ Redgrave: ‘Dictionary of English Artists’ 1878
~ Le Blanc: ‘Manuel de l’Amateur d’Estampes’, Vol. iii
~ Hayden: ‘Chats on Old Prints’, 1909

William Holl, the Elder: b. 1771; d. Dec 1st, 1838. Pupil of Benjamin Smith; engraved, mostly in stipple, after portraits for various publications including Lodge’s ‘Portraits’; also two mythological subjects after Richard Westall. See:

~ Redgrave: ‘Dictionary of English Artists’ 1878
~ Dictionary of National Biography

T. or J. Blood: worked about 1782-1823. Engraved portrait in stipple after Russell, Drummond, et. also worked from the ‘European Magazine’.

Portrait Engravings in stipple by W. Ridley, and his associates, W. Holl & T. Blood. 1796-1822 bill of sale
1979
Baillieu Library Print Collection, The University of Melbourne. Gift of Marcus Bunyan

Portrait Engravings in stipple by W. Ridley, and his associates, W. Holl & T. Blood. 1796-1822 Index
45 tipped in stipple engravings (including one proof engraving, number 23)
1796-1822
Assembled c. 1920s-1930s
Baillieu Library Print Collection, The University of Melbourne. Gift of Marcus Bunyan

Letter from the British Museum dated January 1937 pasted into Portrait Engravings in stipple by W. Ridley, and his associates, W. Holl & T. Blood. 1796-1822
Baillieu Library Print Collection, The University of Melbourne. Gift of Marcus Bunyan

(1) William Ridley (British, 1764-1838) (sculptor)
L. Gold (British) (103, Shoe Lane) (publisher)
Sir John Orde, Bart, Admiral of the White Squadron
1 April 1804
Stipple engraving
Baillieu Library Print Collection, The University of Melbourne. Gift of Marcus Bunyan

George Romney (English, 1734-1802)
Admiral Sir John Orde
18th century
oil on canvas
30 x 24¼ in. (76.1 x 63cm)
Public domain

George Romney

George Romney (26 December 1734 – 15 November 1802) was an English portrait painter. He was the most fashionable artist of his day, painting many leading society figures – including his artistic muse, Emma Hamilton, mistress of Lord Nelson.

For a full biography please see the Wikipedia website.

(2) William Ridley (British, 1764-1838) (sculptor)
Bellamy & Roberts (British) (King Street, Covent Garden) (publisher)
George Colman Esqr
September 1, 1797
Engraved by Ridley from an Original Painting in the possession of Mr Jewell
Pubd for the Proprietors of the Monthly Mirror
Stipple engraving
Baillieu Library Print Collection, The University of Melbourne. Gift of Marcus Bunyan

George Colman

George Colman (21 October 1762 – 17 October 1836), known as “the Younger”, was an English dramatist and miscellaneous writer. He was the son of George Colman the Elder. …

His comedies are a curious mixture of genuine comic force and sentimentality. A collection of them was published (1827) in Paris, with a life of the author, by J. W. Lake.

His first play, The Female Dramatist (1782), for which Smollett’s Roderick Random supplied the materials, was unanimously condemned, but Two to One (1784) was entirely successful. It was followed by Turk and no Turk (1785), a musical comedy; Inkle and Yarico (1787), an opera; Ways and Means (1788); The Battle of Hexham (1793); The Iron Chest (1796), taken from William Godwin’s Adventures of Caleb Williams; The Heir at Law (1797), which enriched the stage with one immortal character, “Dr Pangloss” (borrowed of course from Voltaire’s Candide); The Poor Gentleman (1802); John Bull, or an Englishman’s Fireside (1803), his most successful piece; and numerous other pieces, many of them adapted from the French.

Colman, whose witty conversation made him a favourite, was also the author of a great deal of so-called humorous poetry (mostly coarse, though much of it was popular) – My Night Gown and Slippers (1797), reprinted under the name of Broad Grins, in 1802; and Poetical Vagaries (1812). Some of his writings were published under the assumed name of Arthur Griffinhood of Turnham Green.

Text from the Wikipedia website

(3) William Ridley (British, 1764-1838) (sculptor)
J. Asperne (British) (publisher)
Sir Charles Morice Pole, Bart
1 June 1805
European Magazine
Engraved by Ridley from a Picture, by J. Northcote, R.A.
Published by J. Asperne, at the Bible, Crown & Constitution, Cornhill
Stipple engraving
Baillieu Library Print Collection, The University of Melbourne. Gift of Marcus Bunyan

European Magazine

The European Magazine was a monthly magazine published in London. Eighty-nine semi-annual volumes were published from 1782 until 1826. It was launched as the European Magazine, and London Review in January 1782, promising to offer “the Literature, History, Politics, Arts, Manners, and Amusements of the Age.” It was in direct competition with The Gentleman’s Magazine, and in 1826 was absorbed into the Monthly Magazine.

Soon after launching the European Magazine, its founding editor, James Perry, passed proprietorship to the Shakespearean scholar Isaac Reed and his partners John Sewell and Daniel Braithwaite, who guided the magazine during its first two decades.

The articles and other contributions in the magazine appeared over initials or pseudonyms and have largely remained anonymous. Scholars believe that the contributions include the first published poem by William Wordsworth (1787) and the earliest known printing of “O Sanctissima”, the popular Sicilian Mariners Hymn (1792).

Text from the Wikipedia website

Sir Charles Pole, 1st Baronet

Admiral of the Fleet Sir Charles Morice Pole, 1st Baronet GCB (18 January 1757 – 6 September 1830) was a Royal Navy officer and colonial governor. As a junior officer he saw action at the Siege of Pondicherry in India during the American Revolutionary War. After taking command of the fifth-rate HMS Success he captured and then destroyed the Spanish frigate Santa Catalina in the Strait of Gibraltar in the action of 16 March 1782 later in that War.

After capturing the French privateer Vanneau in June 1793, Pole took part in the Siege of Toulon at an early stage of the French Revolutionary Wars. He went on to be governor and commander-in-chief of Newfoundland and then commanded the Baltic Fleet later in the War. He also served as a Lord Commissioner of the Admiralty on the Admiralty Board led by Viscount Howick during the Napoleonic Wars.

Text from the Wikipedia website

(5) William Ridley (British, 1764-1838) (sculptor)
Bellamy & Roberts (British) (King Street, Covent Garden) (publisher)
Mrs Abington
Dec 30, 1797
Engraved by Ridley from a Picture by Sir Joshua Reynolds
Published as the Act directs by T. Belamy at the Monthly Mirror Office, King Street Covent Garden
Stipple engraving
Baillieu Library Print Collection, The University of Melbourne. Gift of Marcus Bunyan

Frances Barton, Mrs Abington (1737-1815) as ‘Roxalana’ in Isaac Bickerstaff’s ‘The Sultan’ (after Sir Joshua Reynolds PRA)

Monthly Mirror

The Monthly Mirror was an English literary periodical, published from 1795 to 1811, founded by Thomas Bellamy, and later jointly owned by Thomas Hill and John Litchfield. It was published by Vernor & Hood from the second half of 1798.

The Mirror concentrated on theatre, in London and the provinces. The first editor for Hill was Edward Du Bois. From 1812 it was merged into the Theatrical Inquisitor.

Text from the Wikipedia website

Frances Abington

Frances “Fanny” Abington (1737 – 4 March 1815) was a British actress, known not only for her acting, but her sense of fashion. …

Her Shakespearean heroines – Beatrice, Portia, Desdemona and Ophelia – were no less successful than her comic characters – Miss Hoyden, Biddy Tipkin, Lucy Lockit and Miss Prue. Mrs. Abington’s Kitty in “High Life Below Stairs” put her in the foremost rank of comic actresses, making the mob cap she wore in the role the reigning fashion. This cap was soon referred to as the “Abington Cap” and frequently seen on stage as well as in hat shops across Ireland and England. Adoring fans donned copies of this cap and it became an essential part of the well-appointed woman’s wardrobe. The actress soon became known for her avant-garde fashion and she even came up with a way of making the female figure appear taller. She began to wear this tall-hat called a ziggurat complete with long flowing feathers and began to follow the French custom of putting red powder on her hair (Richards).

It was as the last character in Congreve’s Love for Love that Sir Joshua Reynolds painted the best-known of his half-dozen or more portraits of her. In 1782 she left Drury Lane for Covent Garden. After an absence from the stage from 1790 until 1797, she reappeared, quitting it finally in 1799. Her ambition, personal wit and cleverness won her a distinguished position in society, in spite of her humble origin.

Text from the Wikipedia website

Joshua Reynolds (British, 1723-1792)
Portrait of Mrs. Abington (1737-1815)
18th century
Oil on canvas
74cm (29.1″); Width: 61.5cm (24.2″)
Denver Art Museum, Berger Collection
Public domain

(7) William Ridley (British, 1764-1838) (sculptor)
Revd John Yockney, Staines
Nd
Stipple engraving
Baillieu Library Print Collection, The University of Melbourne. Gift of Marcus Bunyan

(8) William Ridley (British, 1764-1838) (sculptor)
Vernor & Hood (British) (31 Poultry) (publisher)
August von Kotzebue
April 30, 1799
Engraved by Ridley from an Original Picture Painted at Berlin
Published as the Act directs by Vernor & Hood, 31 Poultry
Stipple engraving
Baillieu Library Print Collection, The University of Melbourne. Gift of Marcus Bunyan

August von Kotzebue

August Friedrich Ferdinand von Kotzebue (German 1761 – 23 March [O.S. 11 March] 1819) was a German dramatist and writer who also worked as a consul in Russia and Germany.

In 1817, one of Kotzebue’s books was burned during the Wartburg festival. He was murdered in 1819 by Karl Ludwig Sand, a militant member of the Burschenschaften. This murder gave Metternich the pretext to issue the Carlsbad Decrees of 1819, which dissolved the Burschenschaften, cracked down on the liberal press, and seriously restricted academic freedom in the states of the German Confederation.

Text from the Wikipedia website

(9) William Ridley (British, 1764-1838) (sculptor)
J. Sewell (British) (32 Cornhill) (publisher)
General Washington
April 1st 1800
European Magazine
Engraved by Ridley from an Original Picture in the Possession of Saml. Vaughan Esq.
Stipple engraving
Baillieu Library Print Collection, The University of Melbourne. Gift of Marcus Bunyan

This engraving was probably published to memorialise Washington’s death in December 1799

George Washington

George Washington (February 22, 1732 – December 14, 1799) was an American political leader, military general, statesman, and Founding Father who served as the first president of the United States from 1789 to 1797. Previously, he led Patriot forces to victory in the nation’s War for Independence. He presided at the Constitutional Convention of 1787, which established the U.S. Constitution and a federal government. Washington has been called the “Father of His Country” for his manifold leadership in the formative days of the new nation.

Washington received his initial military training and command with the Virginia Regiment during the French and Indian War. He was later elected to the Virginia House of Burgesses and was named a delegate to the Continental Congress, where he was appointed Commanding General of the Continental Army. He commanded American forces, allied with France, in the defeat and surrender of the British during the Siege of Yorktown. He resigned his commission after the Treaty of Paris in 1783.

Washington played a key role in adopting and ratifying the Constitution and was then elected president (twice) by the Electoral College. He implemented a strong, well-financed national government while remaining impartial in a fierce rivalry between cabinet members Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton. During the French Revolution, he proclaimed a policy of neutrality while sanctioning the Jay Treaty. He set enduring precedents for the office of president, including the title “President of the United States”, and his Farewell Address is widely regarded as a pre-eminent statement on republicanism.

Washington owned slaves, and in order to preserve national unity he supported measures passed by Congress to protect slavery. He later became troubled with the institution of slavery and freed his slaves in a 1799 will. He endeavoured to assimilate Native Americans into Anglo-American culture but combated indigenous resistance during occasions of violent conflict. He was a member of the Anglican Church and the Freemasons, and he urged broad religious freedom in his roles as general and president. Upon his death, he was eulogised as “first in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen”. He has been memorialised by monuments, art, geographical locations, stamps, and currency, and many scholars and polls rank him among the greatest U.S. presidents.

Text from the Wikipedia website

(10) William Ridley (British, 1764-1838) (sculptor)
Bellamy & Roberts (British) (Cornhill) (publisher)
Mr Dignum, of the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane
Jany. 1, 1799
European Magazine
Painted by Drummond
Published by J. Sewell
Stipple engraving
Baillieu Library Print Collection, The University of Melbourne. Gift of Marcus Bunyan

Charles Dignum

Charles Dignum (c. 1765 – 29 March 1827) was a popular tenor singer, actor and composer of English birth and Irish parentage who was active in recital, concert and theatre stage, mainly in London, for about thirty years. …

Dignum and William Shield, Charles Incledon, Charles Bannister, ‘Jack’ Johnstone, Charles Ashley and William Parke (oboeist) in 1793 formed themselves into ‘The Glee Club’, a set which met on Sunday evenings during the season at the Garrick’s Head Coffee House in Bow Street, once a fortnight, for singing among themselves and dining together. A project to erect a bust to Dr Thomas Arne, which this group proposed to fund by charitable performances, was vetoed by the management of Covent Garden.

His obituarist remarked, ‘Dignum, with many ludicrous eccentricities, was an amiable, good-natured, jolly fellow.’ He married Miss Rennett, the daughter of an attorney, whose fortune helped to sustain them. After her death he suffered a period of ‘mental derangement’ in misery at her loss, and also suffered from much unhappiness when his granddaughter was kidnapped for a period, for which the offender was prosecuted and transported. A contemporary of the great Michael Kelly, of Charles Incledon and (latterly) of John Braham, he had to work hard for public favour and to withstand attacks referring to his humble origins, his religion and his physical ungainliness (he became quite fat): but, having obtained respect for his skills and good character, he held his place in the affection of his admirers, made large sums at his benefits in later years, and was able to retire with some fortune. He died of inflammation of the lungs in Gloucester Street, London, aged 62 in 1827.

Text from the Wikipedia website

Samuel Drummond

Samuel Drummond ARA (25 December 1766, London – 6 August 1844, London) was a British painter, especially prolific in portrait and marine genre painting. His works are on display in the National Portrait Gallery, the National Maritime Museum and the Walker Art Gallery.

Drummond was born to Jane Bicknell and James Drummond, a London baker. At about thirteen Drummond was apprenticed to the sea service, working on the Baltic trade routes for six or seven years. After the navy, Drummond worked briefly as a clerk before entering the Royal Academy Schools on 15 July 1791. Drummond started his portraying with crayons and oil and within several years exhibited over three hundred pictures at the Royal Academy. In 1808 he was elected an associate of the Royal Academy.

Among Drummond’s sitters were Walter Scott, Francis Place, Elizabeth Fry and Marc Isambard Brunel. He also painted such persons as Admiral Edward Pellew, Captain William Rogers and Rear-Admiral William Edward Parry. After 1800, Drummond started large oil paintings on maritime history of the United Kingdom (The Battle of the Nile, 1st August 1798, Captain William Rogers Capturing the Jeune Richard, 1 October 1807, Admiral Duncan at the Battle of Camperdown, 11 October 1797 (1827) and a series of paintings on the death of Horatio Nelson.

For some time Drummond was employed by The European Magazine and London Review to make portraits of leading personalities of the day. Among the portraits published in The European Magazine were those of Lord Gerald Lake, Sir John Soane and Friedrich Accum.

Towards the end of the life, despite of continuing his craft, Drummond struggled financially and was frequently supported from the funds of the Royal Academy. Nearly all Drummond’s children from his three marriages became artists (five daughters and one son): Rose Emma from the first, Ellen, Eliza Ann and Jane from the second to Rose Hudson and Rosa Myra and Julian from the third one.

Text from the Wikipedia website

(12) William Ridley (British, 1764-1838) (sculptor)
Bellamy & Roberts (British) (King Street, Covent Garden) (publisher)
Mrs Wollstonecraft
Feb. 1st, 1796
Engraved by Ridley from a Painting by Opie
Pub.d for the Proprietors of the Monthly Mirror by T. Belamy, King St. Covent Garden
Stipple engraving
Baillieu Library Print Collection, The University of Melbourne. Gift of Marcus Bunyan

Mary Wollstonecraft

Mary Wollstonecraft (27 April 1759 – 10 September 1797) was an English writer, philosopher, and advocate of women’s rights. Until the late 20th century, Wollstonecraft’s life, which encompassed several unconventional personal relationships at the time, received more attention than her writing. Today Wollstonecraft is regarded as one of the founding feminist philosophers, and feminists often cite both her life and her works as important influences.

During her brief career, she wrote novels, treatises, a travel narrative, a history of the French Revolution, a conduct book, and a children’s book. Wollstonecraft is best known for A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792), in which she argues that women are not naturally inferior to men, but appear to be only because they lack education. She suggests that both men and women should be treated as rational beings and imagines a social order founded on reason.

After Wollstonecraft’s death, her widower published a Memoir (1798) of her life, revealing her unorthodox lifestyle, which inadvertently destroyed her reputation for almost a century. However, with the emergence of the feminist movement at the turn of the twentieth century, Wollstonecraft’s advocacy of women’s equality and critiques of conventional femininity became increasingly important.

After two ill-fated affairs, with Henry Fuseli and Gilbert Imlay (by whom she had a daughter, Fanny Imlay), Wollstonecraft married the philosopher William Godwin, one of the forefathers of the anarchist movement. Wollstonecraft died at the age of 38 leaving behind several unfinished manuscripts. She died eleven days after giving birth to her second daughter, Mary Shelley, who would become an accomplished writer and author of Frankenstein.

Text from the Wikipedia website

A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792)

A Vindication of the Rights of Woman: with Strictures on Political and Moral Subjects (1792), written by the 18th-century British proto-feminist Mary Wollstonecraft, is one of the earliest works of feminist philosophy. In it, Wollstonecraft responds to those educational and political theorists of the 18th century who did not believe women should receive a rational education. She argues that women ought to have an education commensurate with their position in society, claiming that women are essential to the nation because they educate its children and because they could be “companions” to their husbands, rather than mere wives. Instead of viewing women as ornaments to society or property to be traded in marriage, Wollstonecraft maintains that they are human beings deserving of the same fundamental rights as men.

Wollstonecraft was prompted to write the Rights of Woman after reading Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord’s 1791 report to the French National Assembly, which stated that women should only receive a domestic education; she used her commentary on this specific event to launch a broad attack against sexual double standards and to indict men for encouraging women to indulge in excessive emotion. Wollstonecraft wrote the Rights of Woman hurriedly to respond directly to ongoing events; she intended to write a more thoughtful second volume but died before completing it.

While Wollstonecraft does call for equality between the sexes in particular areas of life, such as morality, she does not explicitly state that men and women are equal. Her ambiguous statements regarding the equality of the sexes have since made it difficult to classify Wollstonecraft as a modern feminist, particularly since the word and the concept were unavailable to her. Although it is commonly assumed now that the Rights of Woman was unfavourably received, this is a modern misconception based on the belief that Wollstonecraft was as reviled during her lifetime as she became after the publication of William Godwin’s Memoirs of the Author of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1798). The Rights of Woman was actually well received when it was first published in 1792. One biographer has called it “perhaps the most original book of [Wollstonecraft’s] century”. Wollstonecraft’s work had a profound impact on advocates for women’s rights in the nineteenth century, in particular on the Declaration of Sentiments, the document written at the Seneca Falls Convention in 1848 that laid out the aims of the suffragette movement in the United States.

Text from the Wikipedia website

John Opie (British, 1761-1807)
Mary Wollstonecraft (Mrs William Godwin)
c. 1790-1791
Oil paint on canvas
Support: 759 × 638 mm
Tate. Purchased 1884
Creative Commons CC-BY-NC-ND (3.0 Unported)

Wollstonecraft was a ground-breaking feminist. This portrait shows her looking directly towards us, temporarily distracted from her studies. Such a pose would more typically be used for a male sitter. Women would normally be presented as more passive, often gazing away from the viewer. The painting dates to around the time she published A Vindication of the Rights of Women (1792). This argued against the idea that women were naturally inferior to men and emphasised the importance of education.

Tate Gallery label, October 2019

A Vindication of the Rights of Woman title page from the first American edition by Mary Wollstonecraft (1792)
Library of Congress
Public domain

Henry Fuseli (Swiss, 1741-1825)
La débutante (The Debutante)
1807
Pencil, ink, watercolour on cardboard
37 × 24cm
Tate
Public domain

The Debutante (1807) by Henry Fuseli; “Woman, the victim of male social conventions, is tied to the wall, made to sew and guarded by governesses. The picture reflects Mary Wollstonecraft’s views in The Rights of Women [sic]”1

1/ Tomory, Peter. The Life and Art of Henry Fuseli. New York: Praeger Publishers, 1972, p. 217.

(14) William Ridley (British, 1764-1838) (sculptor)
Bellamy & Roberts (British) (King Street, Covent Garden) (publisher)
Mrs Inchbald
June 1, 1797
Engraved by Ridley from an Original Painting by Drummond
Publish’d for the Proprietors of the Monthly Mirror by T. Belamy, King St. Covent Garden
Stipple engraving
Baillieu Library Print Collection, The University of Melbourne. Gift of Marcus Bunyan

Elizabeth Inchbald

Elizabeth Inchbald (née Simpson) (1753-1821) was an English novelist, actress, and dramatist. Her two novels are still read today. …

Due to success as a playwright, Inchbald did not need the financial support of a husband and did not remarry. Between 1784 and 1805 she had 19 of her comedies, sentimental dramas, and farces (many of them translations from the French) performed at London theatres. Her first play to be performed was A Mogul Tale, in which she played the leading feminine role of Selina. In 1780, she joined the Covent Garden Company and played a breeches role in Philaster as Bellarion. Inchbald had a few of her plays produced such as Appearance is Against Them (1785), Such Things Are (1787), and Everyone Has Fault (1793). Some of her other plays such as A Mogul Tale (1784) and I’ll Tell You What (1785) were produced at the Haymarket Theatre. Eighteen of her plays were published, though she wrote several more; the exact number is in dispute though most recent commentators claim between 21 and 23. Her two novels have been frequently reprinted. She also did considerable editorial and critical work. Her literary start began with writing for The Artist and Edinburgh Review. A four-volume autobiography was destroyed before her death upon the advice of her confessor, but she left some of her diaries. The latter are currently held at the Folger Shakespeare Library and an edition was recently published.

Her play Lovers’ Vows (1798) was featured as a focus of moral controversy by Jane Austen in her novel Mansfield Park.

After her success, she felt she needed to give something back to London society, and decided in 1805 to try being a theatre critic.

A political radical and friend of William Godwin and Thomas Holcroft, her political beliefs can more easily be found in her novels than in her plays, due to the constrictive environment of the patent theatres of Georgian London. “Inchbald’s life was marked by tensions between, on the one hand, political radicalism, a passionate nature evidently attracted to a number of her admirers, and a love of independence, and on the other hand, a desire for social respectability and a strong sense of the emotional attraction of authority figures.” She died on 1 August 1821 in Kensington and is buried in the churchyard of St Mary Abbots. On her gravestone it states, “Whose writings will be cherished while truth, simplicity, and feelings, command public admiration.” In 1833, a two-volume Memoirs of Mrs. Inchbald by James Boaden was published by Richard Bentley.

In recent decades Inchbald has been the subject of increasing critical interest, particularly among scholars investigating women’s writing.

Reception history

The reception history of Elizabeth Inchbald is the story of an unknown actress who became a celebrated playwright and author. As an actress, who at the start of her career was overshadowed by her husband, Inchbald was determined to prove herself to the acting community. Some scholars recognised this describing her as “richly textured with strands of resistance, boldness, and libidinal thrills”. A very important aspect of Inchbald’s reception history is her workplace and professional reputation. Around the theatre she was known for upholding high moral standards. Inchbald described having to defend herself from the sexual advances brought on by stage manager James Dodd and theatre manager John Taylor.

Her writing history began with various plays that Inchbald soon earned a reputation for publishing in times of political scandal. One of the things that separated Inchbald from her competitors at the time was her ability to translate plays from German and French into English works of art. These translations were popular with the public due to Inchbald’s ability to make characters in her writings come to life. The majority of what she translated consisted of farces that received positive feedback from her reading audience. Over the next twenty years, she translated a couple of successful pieces a year, one of these was the very successful play, Lovers’ Vows. In this translation of August von Kotzebues original piece, Inchbald gained complements from Jane Austen, who put the translation in her popular book, Mansfield Park. Although Austen’s book brought more fame to Inchbald, Lovers’ Vows ran for forty-two nights when it was originally performed in 1798. Not only were her plays well liked, but her famous novel A Simple Story always received praise. Terry Castle once referred to it as “the most elegant English fiction of the eighteenth century”. As she ended her career and decided to start critiquing in the theatre, the reception of her work from contemporary critics was low. For example, S. R. Littlewood suggested that Inchbald was ignorant of Shakespearian literature.

Text from the Wikipedia website

(15) William Ridley (British, 1764-1838) (sculptor)
Bellamy & Roberts (British) (King Street, Covent Garden) (publisher)
Sir John Jervis. K.B., Vice Admiral of the White
April 1, 1797
Engraved by Ridley from a Picture in he possession of Mrs Ricketts
Publish’d for the Proprietors of the Monthly Mirror by T. Belamy, King St. Covent Garden
Stipple engraving
Baillieu Library Print Collection, The University of Melbourne. Gift of Marcus Bunyan

Sir John Jervis

Admiral of the Fleet John Jervis, 1st Earl of St Vincent GCB, PC (9 January 1735 – 13 March 1823) was an admiral in the Royal Navy and Member of Parliament in the United Kingdom. Jervis served throughout the latter half of the 18th century and into the 19th, and was an active commander during the Seven Years’ War, American War of Independence, French Revolutionary War and the Napoleonic Wars. He is best known for his victory at the 1797 Battle of Cape Saint Vincent, from which he earned his titles, and as a patron of Horatio Nelson.

Jervis was also recognised by both political and military contemporaries as a fine administrator and naval reformer. As Commander-in-chief of the Mediterranean, between 1795 and 1799 he introduced a series of severe standing orders to avert mutiny. He applied those orders to both seamen and officers alike, a policy that made him a controversial figure. He took his disciplinarian system of command with him when he took command of the Channel Fleet in 1799. In 1801, as First Lord of the Admiralty he introduced a number of reforms that, though unpopular at the time, made the Navy more efficient and more self-sufficient. He introduced innovations including block making machinery at Portsmouth Royal Dockyard. St Vincent was known for his generosity to officers he considered worthy of reward and his swift and often harsh punishment of those he felt deserved it.

Jervis’ entry in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography by P. K. Crimmin describes his contribution to history: “His importance lies in his being the organiser of victories; the creator of well-equipped, highly efficient fleets; and in training a school of officers as professional, energetic, and devoted to the service as himself.”

Text from the Wikipedia website

(17) William Ridley (British, 1764-1838) (sculptor)
Bellamy & Roberts (British) (King Street, Covent Garden) (publisher)
Mrs Montagu
Septemr 30th, 1798
Engraved by Ridley from a Picture by Sir Joshua Reynolds
Published as the Act directs by T. Belamy at the Monthly Mirror Office, King Street Covent Garden
Stipple engraving
Baillieu Library Print Collection, The University of Melbourne. Gift of Marcus Bunyan

Elizabeth Montagu

Elizabeth Montagu (née Robinson; 2 October 1718 – 25 August 1800) was a British social reformer, patron of the arts, salonnière, literary critic and writer, who helped to organise and lead the Blue Stockings Society. Her parents were both from wealthy families with strong ties to the British peerage and learned life. She was sister to Sarah Scott, author of A Description of Millenium Hall and the Country Adjacent. She married Edward Montagu, a man with extensive landholdings, to become one of the richer women of her era. She devoted this fortune to fostering English and Scottish literature and to the relief of the poor.

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(18) William Ridley (British, 1764-1838) (sculptor)
T. Chapman (British) (Fleet Street) (publisher)
Mr. Saml. Turner, late Missionary Surgeon
Mar 1, 1801
Evangelical Magazine
Stipple engraving
Baillieu Library Print Collection, The University of Melbourne. Gift of Marcus Bunyan

Evangelical Magazine

The Evangelical Magazine was a monthly magazine published in London from 1793 to 1904, and aimed at Calvinist Christians. It was supported by evangelical members of the Church of England, and by nonconformists with similar beliefs. Its editorial line included a strong interest in missionary work.

John Eyre, an Anglican, played a significant role in founding the Evangelical Magazine, and as its editor, to 1802. Robert Culbertson was involved in the early times, and was an editor. William Kingsbury contributed from the start. John Townsend (1757-1826) was a supporter; Edward Williams was another founder and editor.

In 1802 the Christian Observer began publication. It catered for evangelical Anglicans, and from this point the Evangelical Magazine came into the hands of Congregationalists.

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Samuel Turner, Convict Ship Surgeon

Samuel Turner was appointed Surgeon to the convict ship Royal Admiral transporting 300 prisoners to New South Wales in 1800. Gaol fever (typhus) raged on the voyage and 43 prisoners died as well as four seamen, a convict’s wife and a convict’s child. Samuel Turner also succumbed to the disease. He was only twenty-six of age.

Extracts from the Journal of the Royal Admiral. May 24, 1800

The Surgeon, Mr. Turner, very ill

26th. Dr. Turner is in a very dangerous fever; we are much alarmed at the increase of this epidemical disease. To-day there are fifteen convicts in the hospital taken ill of that fever, which is exactly described by Buchan in his Domestic Medicine

One of the births in our study being given to Dr. Turner at the beginning of his illness, consequently he was continually attended by the brethren; and for some nights we have sat up with him. Now he grows delirious! but at times he enjoys his senses; and last night at intervals expressed an earnest desire to be clothed with the righteousness of Christ.

June 1st. In the afternoon held a Prayer Meeting in behalf of our brother Turner, he seems to be considerably worse since yesterday forenoon.

Monday 2d. Since last Saturday morning Dr. Turner spoke but little. To-day he was quite speechless. Almost through his illness he had some expectation of getting better, though for some time past we had not the least hopes of his recovery. This day perceiving his dissolution drawing near, some of the brethren engaged in prayer (as we have done several times before) on his behalf.

Just as they concluded, about forty minutes past three in the afternoon, his soul being freed from his earthly tabernacle, departed to be with Christ. His body was put in a coffin, and at half past six deposited in the great deep; till the time when the sea shall give up its dead.

J. Youl read the burial service. All that were present behaved decently; some were much affected, especially the brethren that had been with him in the Duff. Thus ended the life of our brother Turner, after an illness of fourteen days, which he bore with patience. His death was regretted by all on board, as he was much esteemed both as a Surgeon and as a Christian.

Memoir of Samuel Turner – Evangelical Magazine

(21) William Ridley (British, 1764-1838) (sculptor)
J. Sewell (British) (Cornhill) (publisher)
Sir Charles Grey, K.B.
Jany. 1, 1797
European Magazine
Engraved by Ridley from an original Miniature
Stipple engraving
Baillieu Library Print Collection, The University of Melbourne. Gift of Marcus Bunyan

Charles Grey, 1st Earl Grey

Charles Grey, 1st Earl Grey, KB, PC (circa 23 October 1729 – 14 November 1807) served as a British general in the 18th century. A distinguished soldier in a generation of exceptionally capable military and naval personnel, he served in the Seven Years’ War of 1756-1763, taking part in the defeat of France. He later served in the American War of Independence (1775-1783) and in the early campaigns against France during the French Revolutionary War. Following the Battle of Paoli in Pennsylvania in 1777 he became known as “No-flint Grey” for, reputedly, ordering his men to extract the flints from their muskets during a night approach and to fight with the bayonet only.

Text from the Wikipedia website

(22) William Ridley (British, 1764-1838) (sculptor)
J. Sewell (British) (Cornhill) (publisher)
Sir James Saumarez Bart., K.B., Rear Admiral of the Blue Squadron
Jany. 1, 1797
European Magazine
Stipple engraving
Baillieu Library Print Collection, The University of Melbourne. Gift of Marcus Bunyan

Admiral James Saumarez, 1st Baron de Saumarez (or Sausmarez), GCB (11 March 1757 – 9 October 1836) was an admiral of the British Royal Navy, notable for his victory at the Second Battle of Algeciras.

Stipple engraving

Stipple engraving is a technique used to create tone in an intaglio print by distributing a pattern of dots of various sizes and densities across the image. The pattern is created on the printing plate either in engraving by gouging out the dots with a burin, or through an etching process. Stippling was used as an adjunct to conventional line engraving and etching for over two centuries, before being developed as a distinct technique in the mid-18th century. The technique allows for subtle tonal variations and is especially suitable for reproducing chalk drawings. …

The process of stipple engraving is described in T.H. Fielding’s Art of Engraving (1841). To begin with an etching “ground” is laid on the plate, which is a waxy coating that makes the plate resistant to acid. The outline is drawn out in small dots with an etching needle, and the darker areas of the image shaded with a pattern of close dots. As in mezzotint use was made of roulettes, and a mattoir to produce large numbers of dots relatively quickly. Then the plate is bitten with acid, and the etching ground removed. The lighter areas of shade are then laid in with a drypoint or a stipple graver; Fielding describes the latter as “resembling the common kind, except that the blade bends down instead of up, thereby allowing the engraver greater facility in forming the small holes or dots in the copper”. The etched middle and dark tones would also be deepened where appropriate with the graver. …

In England the technique was used for “furniture prints” with a similar purpose, and became very popular, though regarded with disdain by producers of the portrait mezzotints that dominated the English portrait print market. Stipple competed with mezzotint as a tonal method of printmaking, and while it lacked the rich depth of tone of mezzotint, it had the great advantage that far more impressions could be taken from a plate.

Text from the Wikipedia website

(23) William Ridley (British, 1764-1838) (sculptor)
Williams & Smith (British) (Stationess Court) (publisher)
Revd. Mr Wilkins of Abington
1 Sept 1809
Pubd. by Williams & Smith, Stationess Court
Proof stipple engraving
Baillieu Library Print Collection, The University of Melbourne. Gift of Marcus Bunyan

(25) William Ridley (British, 1764-1838) (sculptor)
Bellamy & Roberts (British) (King St., Covt. Garden) (publisher)
Mr. Elliston
Oct. 1st, 1796
Engraved by Ridley from a Picture by Drummond
Publish’d for the Proprietors of the Monthly Mirror by T. Belamy, King St., Covt. Garden
Stipple engraving
Baillieu Library Print Collection, The University of Melbourne. Gift of Marcus Bunyan

Robert William Elliston

Robert William Elliston (7 April 1774 – 7 July 1831) was an English actor and theatre manager. He was born in London, the son of a watchmaker. He was educated at St Paul’s School, but ran away from home and made his first appearance on the stage as Tressel in Richard III at the Old Orchard Street Theatre in Bath in 1791. There he was later seen as Romeo, and in other leading parts, both comic and tragic, and he repeated his successes in London from 1796. In the same year he married Elizabeth, the sister of Mary Ann Rundall, and they would in time have ten children.

He acted at Drury Lane from 1804 to 1809, and again from 1812. From 1819 he was the lessee of the house, presenting Edmund Kean, Mme Vestris, and Macready.

He bought the Olympic Theatre in 1813 and also had an interest in a patent theatre, the Theatre Royal, Birmingham. Ill-health and misfortune culminated in his bankruptcy in 1826, when he made his last appearance at Drury Lane as Falstaff. As the lessee of the Surrey Theatre, he acted almost up to his death in 1831, which was hastened by alcoholism. At the Surrey, where he was the lessee first from 1806-1814 and then again beginning in 1827, to avoid the patent restrictions on drama outside the West End, he presented Shakespeare and other plays accompanied by ballet music.

Leigh Hunt compared him favourably as an actor with David Garrick; Lord Byron thought him inimitable in high comedy; and Macready praised his versatility.

Elliston was the author of The Venetian Outlaw (1805), and, with Francis Godolphin Waldron, of No Prelude (1803), in both of which plays he appeared.

Text from the Wikipedia website

Baillieu Library Print Collection, The University of Melbourne

William Ridley engravings on Wikipedia

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