| Thomas
Bewick
Thomas Bewick,
1753-1828, is best remembered for his wood engravings, especially those
in his two works of Natural History: A General History of Quadrupeds,
and A History of British Birds, Vol.I, Land Birds, Vol.II,
Water Birds. Introduction Bewick was
born in the north of England at Cherryburn, on the south bank of the river
Tyne, twelve miles west of Newcastle upon Tyne. At the age of fourteen
he was apprenticed to Ralph Beilby, a general engraver in Newcastle. Ten
years later he formed a partnership with Beilby. Wood engraving was only
a small part of the business and the majority of the work involved engraving
inscriptions and decorations on a wide variety of objects such as guns,
dog collars, harness, clock faces, rings, cutlery and the engraving of
banknotes, billheads and even bookbinders' tools and letters. Bewick is
best known for his wood engravings in his two works of natural history:
A General History of Quadrupeds and A History of British Birds,
Vol.1 Land Birds, Vol.11 Water Birds. '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. . . . 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 being invited by Mr Constable, the then Owner of Wycliffe, to visit the extensive Museum there, collected by the late Marmaduke Tunstal Esq, and to make drawings of the Birds - I set off from Newcastle on the 16 of July 1791 . . . & remained there, drawing from the stuffed Specimens, nearly two months'.3Bewick wrote to Beilby on 24 August: '. . . I find that Edwards & Buffon are the only Books that will be worth any thing to us - I mean for the figures, which are generally extreemly well done, & indeed I think better to copy than the stuff’d Birds here. I can only pay attention to the Beak & plumage - they are so distorted & unnaturaley stuck up that, as faithfull representations of them as I can do, appear stiff as a poker'.4
'. . . I had not been long thus engaged 'till I found the very great difference between preserved Specimens & those from nature, no regard having been paid at that time to place the former in their proper attitudes, nor to place the different series of the 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 & 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 & engraving tail pieces or Vignettes. My sporting friends however supplied me with Birds as fast as they could, . . .'5Several of these birds can be found listed in the workshop account books. A cash book6 for the period 1792 to 1796, gives the dates birds were received and the amount of carriage paid. Some typical entries from different years are: 3 June 1793: 'Crested Heron from Mr. Trevelyan - 2d.'It appears that Bewick was also keeping birds: 1 February 1794: 'Bird seed 31/2d., Cage of Mrs. Thompson - 2s.'Some birds were not so lucky: 23 September 1796: 'Paid Rich’d Wingate for stuffing the Skua Gull - 3s.'7Others he might not have been so inclined to preserve: 14 June 1798: '3 Birds stinking sent by Mr. Losh'.8Beilby was chiefly responsible for the texts of the Quadrupeds and the Land Birds while Bewick wrote the text for the Water Birds although he was assisted by others, notably Reverend Cotes. The Beilby Bewick partnership was dissolved in 1797 and Bewick was 'obliged, from necessity, not choice, to commence Author'.9 Solomon Hodgson, who had printed the first books, died in 1800, and Bewick engaged Edward Walker, the proprietor of the Newcastle Courant. Walker continued to print all the remaining editions of Quadrupeds and Birds that Bewick saw through the press. By 1826, eight editions of Land Birds and six of Water Birds had been published. From the first editions of 1797 and 1804, to those of 1826, a total of seventy eight new birds were added to the books. All but nineteen of these were engraved after 1816, and appeared in almost equal numbers in the 1821 and 1826 editions of both volumes. The first editions of the books were printed on wooden 'common' presses, subsequent editions on iron presses. In both cases the paper to be printed was dampened beforehand. A soft blanket behind the paper in the tympans of the early presses moulded the dampened sheet around the metal types and wood-blocks, and so alleviated the irregularities of worn or uneven surfaces. This manner of printing led Bewick to develop techniques of engraving on wood that far surpassed the work of his contemporaries. In the areas of his engravings where he wanted delicate lines, and pale, grey tones, he lowered the surfaces of the blocks. This was not a uniform lowering, but varied, and in some areas the surface was gradated, thus affording a completely new range of tones. 'The first difficulty, I felt, as I proceeded, was in getting the cuts I had done, printed so as to look any thing like my drawings, on the blocks of wood, nor in corresponding to the labour, I had bestowed upon the cutting of the designs. - At that time the pressmen were utterly ignorant as to any proper effect that was to be produced - or even if one of them possessed any notions of excellence beyond the common run of Workmen his materials for working were so defective that he could not execute even what he himself wished to accomplish - the common Pelt balls then in use, so daubed the cut & blurred & overlapped its edges, that the impression looked disgusting - to remedy this defect, I was obliged carefully to shave down the edges round about, and this answered the end I had in view - The next difficulty was worse to surmount, and required a long time to get over it, and that was to lower down the surface, on all the parts I wished to appear pale, so as to give the appearance of the required distance10 . . . the same thing holds good with every figure, where different shades of colour is desired . . . After all the parts are thus lowered, a further paring down of the edges, of the various figures, which the cut contains, may be necessary, to prevent their appearing as if surrounded by a white line'.11These techniques, together with Bewick’s complete mastery of the traditional methods, and his artistic ability, resulted in some exquisite engravings. Masterful engraving indeed, but all too frequently the printers of the day had neither the opportunity, time, nor the incentive, to produce fine, sensitive impressions. Today, printing the engravings individually and using a combination of eighteenth and nineteenth century techniques, and twentieth century materials, I was able to produce impressions that I hope go some way towards revealing the full potential of the blocks. As always it was both a privilege and a pleasure to print these wood engravings. © David
Esslemont 1997 References 1
Iain Bain (Ed.), A Memoir of Thomas Bewick (London, 1975)
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