| Two
Large Prints |
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1.
The Chillingham Bull, 1789, single sheet print.
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[From Thomas Bewick My Life, edited
by Iain Bain, p. 128 (spelling and punctuation as given
in the original manuscript)]
... and on Easter Sunday
1789, I set off on foot to Chillingham [about 45 miles north
of Newcastle] accompanied by my acquaintance William Preston,
the printer, on this business. [...] We took up our abode
with my old kind friend John Bailey and spent a cheerfull
evening with him after our fatigues, and next day he accompanied
us to the park for the purpose of seeing the wild cattle.
This however, did not answer my purpose, for I could make
no drawing of the bull, while he, along with the rest of
the herd were wheeling about and then fronting us, in the
manner as described in the History of Quadrupeds
[pp.25-28]. I was therefore obliged to endeavour to see
one which had been conquered by his rival and driven to
seek shelter alone in the quarry holes and in the woods
- and in order to get a good look at one of this description,
I was under the necessity of creeping on my hands and knees,
to leward and out of his sight - and I thus got my sketch
or memorandum, from which I made my drawing on the wood.
I was sorry my figure was made from one before he got furnished
out with his curled or shaggy neck and mane.
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2. Waiting
for Death, 1828 (publ. 1832), single sheet print.
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[From the descriptive text written by Bewick
to accompany the print Waiting for Death. The full
text is in Robert Robinson, Thomas Bewick: His Life and
Times, p. 163-4.]
In the morning of his days he was handsome -
sleek as a raven, sprightly and spirited, and was then much
caressed and happy. [...] It was once his hard lot to fall
into the hands of Skinflint, a horse-keeper - an authorised
wholesale and retail dealer in cruelty - who employed him
alternately, but closely, as a hack, both in the chaise and
for the saddle; for when the traces and trappings used in
the former had peeled the skin from off his breast, shoulders,
and sides, he was then, as his back was whole, thought fit
for the latter [...] He was always, late and early, made ready
for action - he was never allowed to rest.[...] It is amazing
to think upon the vicissitudes of his life. [...] But his
days and nights of misery are now drawing to an end; so that,
after having faithfully dedicated the whole of his powers
and his time to the service of unfeeling man, he is at last
turned out, unsheltered and unprotected, to starve of hunger
and of cold.
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| A
General History of Quadrupeds |
A
small selection of figures:
1. The
Giraffe, p. 91.
2. The
Stag, p. 105.
3. The
Elephant, p. 151.
4. The
Tiger, p. 171
5. The
Domestic Cat, p. 192
6. The
Fox Hound, p. 301.
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[From Thomas Bewick My Life, edited by Iain Bain,
p. 124-5 (spelling and punctuation as given in the original
manuscript)]
Having from the time that I was a school boy, been displeased
with most of the cuts in children's books, and particularly
with those of the 'Three hundred Animals' the figures of
which even at that time I thought I could depicture much
better than those in that book [...] I at last came to the
determination of commencing the attempt.[...] In this, my
only reward besides, was the great pleasure I felt in imitating
nature.[...] Such animals as I knew, I drew from memory
upon the wood; others which I did not know, were copied
from Dr Smellie's abridgement of Buffon and from other naturalists,
and also from the animals which were from time to time exhibited
in shows. I made sketches, first from memory, and then corrected
and finished the drawings upon the wood, from a second examination
of the different subjects. I begun this business of cutting
the blocks, with the figure of the Dromidary on the 15 of
November 1785 (the day on which my father died). I then
proceeded in copying such figures (as above named) as I
did not hope to see alive.[...] The greater part of these
wood cuts were drawn and engraved at nights, after the day's
work of the shop was over.
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| A
History of British Birds, Volume I (Land Birds) |
|
A
small selection of figures:
1.
The Tawney Owl, p. 92.
2.
The Magpie, p. 110.
3.
The Skylark, p. 195.
4.
The Robin, p. 217.
5.
The Cockerel, p. 281.
6.
The Peacock, p. 293.
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[From Thomas Bewick My Life, edited by Iain Bain,
p. 133-4, 138 (spelling and punctuation as given in the
original manuscript)]
While the sale of the Quadrupeds was going on, edition
after edition with great success, I turned my thoughts to
the History of British Birds.[...]Pennant's Works
[...] opened out the largest field of information, and on
his works I bestowed the most attention. [...] As soon as
it was spread abroad that we were engaged with the history
of birds and their figures, I was, in consequence, led into
a seemingly endless correspondence with friends and amateurs.[...]
At the beginning of this undertaking, I made up my mind
to copy nothing from the works of others but to stick to
nature as closely as I could. And for this purpose, I was
invited by Mr Constable, the then owner of Wycliffe [in
North Yorkshire near Barnard Castle], to visit the extensive
museum there, collected by the late Marmaduke Tunstall Esqre
[the same as had commissioned The Chillingham Bull
in 1789], to make drawings of the birds. I set off from
Newcastle on 16 of July 1791 (the day on which my friend
Dr Bailes died) and remained there, drawing from the stuffed
specimens, nearly two months. [...] As soon as I arrived
in Newcastle, I immediately began to engrave from the drawings
of the birds I had made at Wycliffe, but I had not been
long thus engaged 'till I found the very great difference
between preserved specimens and those from nature, no regard
having been paid at that time to place the former in their
proper attitudes, nor to place the different seeries of
feathers, so as to fall properly upon each other. This has
always given me a great deal of trouble to get at the markings
of the dishevelled plumage, and when done with every pains,
I never felt satisfied with them. I was on this account
driven to wait for birds newly shot, or brought to me alive,
and in the intervals employed my time in designing and engraving
tail pieces or vignettes.[...] After working many a late
hour upon the cuts, the first volume of the book was, at
length, finished at press in September 1797.
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| A
History of British Birds, Volume II (Water Birds) |
A
small selection of figures:
1. The
Stork, p. 45.
2. The
Curlew, p. 64.
3. The
Coot, p. 129.
4. The
Grebe, p. 137.
5. The
Puffin, p. 197.
6. The
Mute Swan, p. 252
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[From Thomas Bewick My Life, edited by Iain Bain,
p. 142-3 (spelling and punctuation as given in the original
manuscript)]
As soon as each bird was finished on the wood, I set about
describing it from my specimen - and at the same time consulted
every authority I could meet with to know what had been
said, and this together with what I knew from my own knowledge,
were then compared, and in this way, I finished, as truely
as I could, the second volume of the History of British
Birds. I also examined the first volume with a view
to correct its errors, and also to add many new figures
and descriptions of them to it. Although all this of thus
taking the whole upon me, could not be done, but by close
and indeed severe confinement and application, yet I was
supported under these by the extreme pleasure I felt in
depicturing and describing these beautiful and very interesting
aerial wanderers of the British Isles. I also hoped that
my labours might perhaps have the effect of inveigling my
youthfull countrymen, as far as I could, to be smitten with
the charms which this branch - and indeed every other department
of natural history imparts, and these endless pleasures
they afford to all who wish to trace nature up to Nature's
God. [...]
While I was engaged with the figures of the Water Birds
and the vignettes, and writing the history, this business
was greatly retarded by my being obliged often to lay that
work aside and to do various other jobs in the wood engraving,
and also the work of the shop for my customers in the town,
but particularly, writing engraving...
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| The
Fables of Aesop and Others |
|
A small
selection of figures:
1. Hercules
and the Carter, p. 37
2. The
Crow and the Pitcher, p. 63.
3. The
Dog in the Manger, p. 77.
4. The
Fox and the Grapes, p. 167.
5. The
Hare and the Tortoise, p. 221.
6. The
Ant and the Fly, p. 269.
|
[From Thomas Bewick My Life, edited by Iain Bain,
p. 146-7 (spelling and punctuation as given in the original
manuscript)]
During a severe illness, with which I was visited in April
1812, [...] I determined, if I did recover, to go on with
a publication of Esop's Fables [...] As soon as I was
so far recovered as to be able to sit at the window at home,
I immediately began to draw designs upon the wood of the fables
and vignettes, and to me this was a delightfull task. In impatiently
pushing forward to get to press with the publication, I availed
myself of the help of my pupils, (my son [Robert], William
Harvey and William Temple) who were also eager to do their
utmost to forward me in the engraving business and in my struggles
to get the book ushered into the world. Notwithstanding the
pleasurable business of bringing out this publication, I felt
it also an arduous undertaking. The execution of the fine
work of the cuts, during the day light, was very trying to
the eyes, and the compiling or writing the book by candle
light in my evenings at home, together injured the optic nerve
and that put the rest of the nerves out of tune, so
that I was obliged for a short time, to leave off this intense
application untill I somewhat recovered the proper tone of
memory and sight again. I found in this book more difficulties
to conquer than I had experienced with either the Quadrupeds
or the Birds. The book was finished at press on the
1st October 1818 and was not so well printed as I expected
and wished - the ink for such fine work being much too strong,
black and thick. I am pleased to find the second edition,
December 1823, better printed and better managed in other
respects.
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