.
     


                                            19TH CENTURY
                      SHIP PORTRAITS IN PRINTS: 
            AQUATINTS, LITHOGRAPHS AND 
                                ENGRAVINGS 

                                 SOME OF THE MASTERS

                 THE MEDIA

                AQUATINT is a print making technique, a variant of
             etching.  It is called aquatint because the finished prints
             often resemble watercolours or washed drawings.  The
             technique involves exposing a copper or zinc plate to
             acid through a layer of resin melted by heating the plate. 
             As in engraving a needle can be used to make lines. The
             acid bites the plate in the interstices of the resin which
             leaves an evenly pitted surface when the resin is removed
             and the  plates are used for printing.  

             Aquatint became popular with the illustrators in the
             eighteenth century. Jan van de Velde, the Dutch painter
             and print maker, invented the aquatint technique in
             Amsterdam circa 1650. 

                LITHOGRAPH is a print making process based on the
             immiscibility of grease and water - they don't mix.  The
             technique originally used was an image drawn into a
             coating of wax on a limestone plate as a way to transfer
             ink in the printing process. It is different from other
             gravure technologies where the plate is engraved, etched
             or stippled to score cavities to retain the ink,
             and was cheaper and easier than other techniques.
           
             The process  was discovered in 1798 by Alois Senefelder
             of Munich who used a porous Bavarian limestone for
             his plate. "Lithography" is from the Greek "lithos" for
             stone.  The secret of lithographic printing was closely
             held until 1818 when when Senefelfelder published
             details of the process.

                ENGRAVINGS is a technique for making prints from
             metal plates in which a design has been incised.  The
             technique originated in nortern Italy in the fifteenth
             century.

             (Sources: Wikipedia and Encyclopaedia Britannica)


                 
             INDEX OF SHIP IMAGES DISPLAYED BY NAME IN
                                  ALPHABETIC ORDER .
                          
               ABC-DEF-GHI-JKL-MNO-PQR-STU-VWXYZ


           
             To see other ship portraits:-

              http://www.spurlingandrouxwatercolours  -  watercolours
           by Jack Spurlin of sailing ships and by Antoine Roux and
           his three sons of sailing ships and Mediteranean craft 

              http://www.findboatpics.net  - sailing ships in the  Australia &
              New Zealand trade 1840-1880s

              http://www.findboatpics.com.au   - steamships in the
           Australia and New Zealand trade, 1850s - 1914

              http://www.findboatpics.net.au - steam and motor ships
              in the Australian and New Zealand trade 1918 - 1970s




              I. AQUATINTS - EDWARD DUNCAN
            1803-1881
            AFTER WILLIAM JOHN HUGGINS  
              1761- 1845
            
                          
               WILLIAM JOHN HUGGINS as a young man went
               to sea in the Honourable East India Company's ships.
               He is  believed to have learnt to draw in China. On
               what may have been his last voyage, he was steward
               and assistant purser on the Company ship Perserverance  
               which sailed for Bombay and China in Dec. 1812, and
               returned in Aug. 1814  Shortly after he set up as a
               marine painter near the offices of the East India
               Companyin London specialising in ship portraits.  Many
               of his paintings were engraved as aquatints by his
               son-in-law, Edward Duncan.  Huggins was first exhibited
               at the Royal Academy in 1817 and regularly after that.
               as well as at the British  Institution. In 1836, he was
               appointed official marine painter to King William IV.
               He was a prolific painter and painted ships in action
               or incident rather than in broadside profile.  His
               work was popular with the  public and seafarers.if
               not always with the critics.  

               EDWARD DUNCAN, as an apprentice to Robert
               Havell, trained as an aquatint engraver. He married
               Huggin's daughter and  from 1826 engraved his
               father-law's works. He was also an accomplished
               watercolourist and exhibited at the New
              Watercolour Society and the Royal Academy. In
              1843 he engraved for the Illustrated London News.  
              His focus on marine subjects resulted from his long
              association his father-in-law.

              (Sources: "Dictionary of Sea Painters" by
              E.H.H. Archibald and the  "Dictionary of Marine
              Artists" by Dorothy E.R. Brewington)

               EDWARD DUNCAN'S AQUATINTS AFTER 
               WILLIAM JOHN HUGGINS   (IPHD)


               Reefing Topsails
               
                E.Duncan after W.J. Huggins
                Aquatint, 1832
                Royal Museuns Greenwich, London (PW3760)

         
           II. LITHOGRAPHS 

             The Great Tea Clipper Race of 1866: the Clipper Ships
             'Taeping' & 'Ariel' passing the Lizard 6 September 1 on
              their homeward voyage from Foo-Chow-Foo.
            .
            Artist and engraver Thomas Goldworth Dutton 
            Coloured lithograph: 1866
            Royal Museum Greenwich, London (A7187)


             1. THOMAS GOLDWORTH DUTTON (c.1819-1891).
                  Active as an artist and lithographer in the years 1844-1878..
                  In 1844, he described himself  as a "Lithographic artist,
                  marine draughtsman, and draughtsman on wood."  His
                  lithographs appear  to have had their origin in water colours.  
                  He was an engraver but appears to have left the printing
                  and hand colouring to others for much of his work, e,g. to
                  Day & Son, for many years.  His  publisher through most
                  of his career was William Foster who in the later years
                  dedicated some of his work.  He also exhibited at the
                  Suffolk Street Galleries between  1858 and 1859.
                  There are a snall number of lithoraphs engraved by
                  Dutton of paintings by other artists.  There are several
                  displayed in this website, e,g., the steam auxiliary
                  'GREAT BRITAIN'' made in 1852 from a painting by
                  Samuel Walters, the clipper 'SCHOMBERG' which was
                  wrecked.on its maiden voyage in 1855 from a painting by
                  G.H. Andrews., and a painting of  'H.M.S. CALEDONIA
                  120guns, lying in Plymouth Sound' by H.A. Luscombe.
                     .
                 
                  E.H.H.Archibald in his "Dictionary of Sea Painters"
                  describes Dutton  as "not only the finest 19th century
                  lithographer of shipping scenes and ship portraits but
                  happily the most prolific." The lithographs depicted
                  below are mainly of ship portraits which would have
                  been commissioned by ship owners (notablythe Green's
                  Blackwall Line and Anderso, Anderson's Orient Line
                  and ship's captains and are mostly broadside images.  
                 Three in this website stand out - 'SUTLEJ' in a
                  hurricane, 'CONSTANCE' off Kerguelens Land and
                  'LADY MELVILLE'' passing through icebergs.

                   
                  He also made a large number of lithographs of ships
                  of the Royal Navy and naval activities and actions.
                  e.g. the British and French fleets in the Balyic,e.g., the
                  war in the Crimea,  and also a large number of no doubt
                  commissioned  lithographs of yachts and yacht races,

                  (Sources:"Dictionary of Sea Painters" by
                  E.H.H. Archibald  and  "Dictionary of Marine Artists"
                  by Dorothy E.R. Brewington)

                 The author is indebted to the Royal Museum, Greenwich,
                  and the Australian National Library, Canberra, for their
                  assistance in providing most of the images displayed.

                 A. The Blackwall Frigates (LPTGD-BF)
                      Nearly all these ships were in the Indian and
                      Australia/New Zealand trades.
                 
                 B. Other Clippers (LPTGD-OC)

                 D. Steam and Steam Auxiliaries (LPTGD-2)

                 E. Royal Navy Ships (LPTGD-RN)


                 The East Indiaman 'SUTLEJ' in a hurricane.
                 off the Cape of Good Hope on the Morning of
                 April Ist 1848 at 3.30 am.
                   
                T.G. Dutton, artist
                Day & Son
                William Foster
                Coloured lithograph: circa 1848  
                Royal Museums Greenwich, London (0601)
             
      

          2.. JOHN RAPHAEL ISAAC, died 1871 (LPJRI)

              JOHN RAPHAEL ISAAC, draftsman, lithographer and
              painter lived and worked in Liverpool.  Listed in Gore's
              Liverpool Directory in 1839 as anengraver, printer. In
              the same Directory 1841-67, he is listed as a draftsman,
              engraver and lithographer, and in 1867 as a dealer in
           
             
              works of art. (Source: "Dictionary of Marine Artists" by
              Dorothy E.R. Brewington)

              RED JACKET. Inscribed: "Clipper ship Red Jacket
              Captain Reed of the White Star Line of Australian
              packets.  Among ice on her passage  from Melbourne
              to Liverpool ...27th August 1854.".             
             
             J.R. Isaac, artist, engraver & publisher
             Coloured lithograph 
             Royal Museums Greenwich, London (PY8538)

           
         3. NATHANIEL CURRIER 1813-1888  
                 
            Nathaniel Currier was born inRoxbury, Massachusetts. His
            father died when he was aged twelve, and at the age of fifteen 
            he was apprenticed in a Boston lithography shop.  In 1833 at
            twenty years of age he moved to Philadelphia to do contract
            work for an engraver and printer. In 1834, he entered a
            partnership with a New York print maker, and a year later
            ended the partnership and worked alone as "N.Currier,
            Lithographer".  In  1835,  he created a lithograph of a fire
            in the New York business district of which he sold thousnda
            of copies.  He produced other prints
            of disasters and local and national events and gained attention
            as a lithographer. In 1840, he produced a lithograph of a fire
            on the steam boat LEXINGTON in Long Island Sound which
            led to the offer of a weekly insert in the New York Sun. As
            result, Currier's firm began a move from job printing to
            independent publishing.
                
           The firm of CURRIER & IVES was established in 1857 when
            Currier invited his company's bookkeeper and accontant,
            JAMES MERRITT IVES 1824- 1895 to become his partner.   
            Ives became General Manager of the firrm handling the
            financies.  He also had flair for discerning popular interests
            and participated in the choice of images for publication.   Some
            7,000 lithographs were published in the firms 72 year history.  
            Artists produced two to three new images every week for 64  
            years (1834-1895) and produced more than a million prints by
            hand-coloured  lithography.  Many celebrated artists of the
            day were employed or their works used. Lithographs were
            produced on lithographic limestone printing plates on which the
            drawing was done by hand. These drawungs were made by the
            artists who are  described on the lithographs as "Delineators"
            or "Del." for short on the prints. Early lithographs were
            printed in black   Prints were then hand-coloured by a dozen or
            more women working in assembly line fashion, one colour per
            worker, who received $6 for every hundred prints.

            Currier died in 1888,  Ives remained with the firm until his
            death in 1895.  Both Currier's and Ives' sons entered the
            business which was liquidated in 1907. Public demand for
            lithographs was diminishing as photography and other
            techniques of  printing were developed.  
 
            (Source: Wikipedia)

            A. Clipper Ships and Other Sail - (LPCI-1)

            B. Early Steamships - (LPCI-2)

            The author's thanks to Ms Vanessa Rudisill Stern's public
            service website:
                         Gallery of Currier & Ives Lithographs
            (http://freepages.rootsweb.ancestry.com/-vstern.index.html) 
            for  permission to include a number of images of hard to come
            by Currier & Ives lithographs on this website.
            

            RED JACKET -Clipper Ship
            "In the ice off Cape Horn in her Passage
            from Australia to Lverpool"      .
           .
            Published by Currier & Ives C1166 G1282
            Vanessa Rudisill Stern's Gallery of Currier & Ives Lithographs


           
           IV. ENGRAVINGS

           Illistrated London News -  A Selection.

           The Illustrated London News which began publication in 1842
           was the world's first fully illustrated weekly newspaper.  Its
           illustrations were obtained from wood engravings and the
           popularity of the weekly attracted artists and engravers such
           as T.G. Duttonand Edward Duncan above who both did work
           for the weekly.  In the age when photography was in its
           infancy the many ship portrayals in the weekly are a valuable
           record of vessels like the Great Britain in its many early
           phases, Marco Polo, JamesBaines and some of the other
           Amerian and Canadian built ships of the eighteen forties and
           fifties.  Also, often more accurate than the paintings of them
           which were done of them. The engravings of early steam ships
           are of particular value as the only pictorial record of many of
          them..   
         
                 A. Sail (lPILN-1)
                 
                 B. Steam (lPILN-2)

          The author is indebted to the Mary Evans Picture Library,
          London (http://www.maryevans.com) for permission to publish
          images of engravings from the Illustrated London News of the
          19th century in the database of the Gale News Vault in this
          website.

         
           GREAT BRITAIN -after her !852 refit
           
            ILN, Vol.20. 1852(Jan-Jun), pg165
            Mary Evans Picture Library

           THANKS

           This project would not have been possible without the help of:
            a.  the Image Library of the Royal Museums Greenwich, London,
                 with many images of aquatints of Edward Duncan after
                 William John Huggins and lithographs of Thomas Goldworth
                 Dutton and John Raphael Isaac;
             b. the Mary Evans Picture Library for the use of engravings from
                 the Illustrated London News going back to the eighteen fortie;
                 and
             c. Vanessa Rudisill Stern's Gallery of Currier & Ive lithographs  
                 for  access to many hard to find images of their lithographs.
           
                The author also wishes to thank Josephine Hennock for
          her assistance in the fashioning and editing of this website
          and his wife Janette for her advice, encouragement and
          interest while this website was being put together.  


           CONTACT
           The author would welcome correction of mistakes and as
         well as comments.  He can be contacted by email at:
                         
                roy@19thCenturyShipPortraitsInPrints.com