29. BEWICK (Thomas) and others. [Specimens of Woodblocks]. [Newcastle upon Tyne: George Angus]. [c.1815]. £1595

A collection of 28 sheets with impressions of 239 blocks, sheets 220 x 285mm, on wove paper, 3 sheets watermarked 1815, loose, in very good condition.

A compendium of popular iconography from the stock of successive generations of printers in North East England. The blocks themselves date from the mid-17th century to c.1800 and the watermarked date on these impressions places them in the collection of Newcastle printer and publisher George Angus.

The subjects, many of which would have illustrated chapbooks and ballad sheets, include a set of 26 thumbnail alphabet cuts, 2 children’s games (?by John Bewick), 3 ornamental borders by Thomas Bewick (Hugo 2327 & 2328), a cut for Huttons Mensuration (Hugo 4425), Robinson Crusoe (based on the frontispiece of the 1719 first edition), a portrait of William Markham, at least two series of ‘Fables’ cuts, various trade cuts including a tea merchant, 2 from a series of street cries, biblical scenes, printer's ornaments, fighting cocks (signed R.R.), royal arms, scientific instruments, ships, astrologers, jousting knights, soldiers, a series of six apostles (signed I.T. Isaac Thomson?), a ‘Merry Andrew’ posture maker, medieval and 17th century figures, coats of arms, portraits of Queen Anne, figures in stocks and on gallows, a mermaid, a view of Gravesend and a map of Sumatra. Other cuts by or attributed to Thomas Bewick include “The Hangman, the Pope and the Devil” (Hugo 3539), a Northumbrian Piper (Hugo 4282 & 4283), bell ringers (Hugo 335 & 4285), a crown (Hugo 4259), throne and tent (Hugo 5103) and breeches maker (Hugo 5147).

The early and later history of these and other blocks can be gleaned from contemporary sources and from published accounts by William Dodd (1862) and Edwin Pearson (1867). The core of the collection, or accumulation, was in the possession of John White (1689?-1769) who arrived in Newcastle from York in about 1708 and was established as a printer by 1711. The earliest blocks were probably from the stock of his father, also John White, printer in York (d.1716) and possibly also from that of his York rival Thomas Gent.

John White Jr died in 1769 and his stock of blocks passed to his former partner Thomas Saint, the printer and publisher of some of Thomas Bewick’s earliest cuts. In 1772 he printed “Impressions from Wood Cuts in the Possession of Thomas Saint” with 53 cuts on both sides of 9 leaves. Hugo (4028) attributed at least 14 to Bewick.

A large group of Saint’s blocks then passed to Thomas Angus, founder of the family publishing firm, which was established by 1774. Following the expiry of his apprenticeship with Beilby in October 1774, Bewick spent the winter at Cherryburn: “There I had plenty of work to do, chiefly from Thomas Angus, printer, Newcastle. I continued there, employed by him and others, till the summer of 1776” (‘Memoir’). Thomas Angus became a leading publisher of street literature. He was in partnership with Thomas Robson, 1775-76, and with Lancelot Dinsdale, 1784. He died in 1784 and was succeeded by his widow Margaret who issued “Specimens of Wood Engraving by Thomas and John Bewick” Hugo (4097) in 1798. This had 22 cuts on 11 leaves, with Thomas Bewick’s cut of Mrs Angus’ monogram (Hugo 93, present here) on the title.

By October 1800 she was trading as M. Angus & Son with Thomas Jr until his death in 1808, then with her second son George. She retired in December 1812 and George continued the business, being admitted a Freeman of Newcastle Stationers’ Company in 1813. In 1825 (some 10 years after the watermarked date of the present group) he published “Impressions of a Numerous Collection of Ancient Woodcuts in George Angus’s Printing Office, Newcastle upon Tyne, which have ornamented Old Ballads, Songs, Histories, Wonderful Tales &c”. A few, according to Hugo, were by Thomas Bewick. Later that year George Angus was declared bankrupt and his stock was sold by auction 4 July. His woodblocks were bought by the Newcastle printer Emerson Charnley (1782-1845).

Another group of blocks had remained with Thomas saint until his death in 1788 when his Successors Hall & Elliott of Newcastle acquired them. Following the death of J. Hall in 1795 they were sold to Wilson & Spence, booksellers and publishers in York “who had in their possession, previous to this, numerous other blocks executed by the Bewicks… In 1818 the collection of 1200 blocks were purchased by Emerson Charnley of Newcastle” (Pearson). Charnley had thus reunited the two groups from the stock of Thomas Saint. His son Emerson Charnley II (1820-1887) issued “Specimens of early Wood Engraving”, with impressions of 730 blocks, in an edition of 20 copies for private distribution in 1858. Most if not all the blocks of the present collection appeared here. In 1862 they were republished with additions (a total of 806 blocks) by the Charnleys’ successor and former manager William Dodd in an edition of 100 copies.

By 1866 many of these blocks “including all which were either known or believed to be by Thomas Bewick” had passed through the hands of London book dealer Bohn and the dealer/collector Edwin Pearson in to the celebrated Bewick collection of Thomas Hugo. They first appeared in the 1868 supplement to his published catalogue, indicating the time of their acquisition. Other blocks remained in Pearson’s stock/collection. The group was further dispersed at Hugo’s sale (catalogued by Pearson) in 1877 and at the Sotheby’s sale of Pearson’s own collection of woodblocks in 1895. Items from these and other sales of the period entered the Bewick collection of J.W. Pease.

Provenance: From the collection of John Rayner, author of ‘A Selection of Engravings on Wood by Thomas Bewick’, King Penguin Books, 1947.