University of Virginia Library

The Journeyman and the Genius: James Parker and His Partner William Blake with a List of Parker's Engravings
by
G. E. Bentley, Jr [*]

In his own time, James Parker was probably as well known an engraver as his old friend and partner William Blake.[3] From the time when the two men were fellow-apprentices under James Basire, their careers were significantly parallel until Parker's early death in 1805. They went on a sailing expedition with Thomas Stothard about 1780 and were arrested as spies; they were married within a few days of one another in 1782; they lived in the same house at 27 Broad Street and shared a print-selling business in 1784 — 85; they made engravings for some of the same works;[4] and in the last year of Parker's life Blake was still consulting him about professional matters. Theirs was clearly a life-long and close professional friendship.

James Parker's career probably conforms a good deal more closely to what Blake's parents hoped for him when they apprenticed him in 1772 than Blake's did. Parker was a quiet, orderly, dependable man,[5] whose engravings

were delivered when he said they would be,[6] and who became a leader among his peers, particularly in helping to found the Society of Engravers in 1802. Flaxman's sketch of him shows a solid, self-confident, prosperous man, whose hair is cut close enough to enable him to wear a wig (see Plate 1). By contrast, Blake was seen as an eccentric solitary, an "insane genius" whose poetry and visions interrupted his proper business of engraving, and whose portrait by Phillips shows him as an artist with a brush rather than as an engraver (see Plate 2). Indeed, so unbusinesslike was Blake that his wife scarcely liked to mention that the cupboard was bare and merely served him at dinner with an empty plate.

An outline of the career of James Parker may help to indicate what William Blake might have become had he been a mere journeyman rather than a genius.

James Parker was born in 1750 and was thus seven years older than William Blake. The earliest record of him is when on 3 August 1773,

Like William Blake, Parker was the son of a London tradesman, and, also like Blake (presumably), he had shown more aptitude for art than for commerce. Like William Blake, who had been bound apprentice to Basire at the same fee just a year earlier, on 4 August 1772,[8] James Parker did not, on the completion of his apprenticeship, take up the freedom of the city which would have entitled him to take apprentices and set up a business of his own — though he was prepared to do the former and did do the latter.

Note that Parker was apprenticed not as an adolescent but as a young man of about twenty-three. The difference in age between sixteen (Blake's age in 1773) and twenty-three is, of course, immense; when (presumably) Parker and Blake first met in 1773, Blake was in the throes of adolescence, writing poetry and envious of his elders, while Parker was a young man. On the other hand, Blake was an artistic genius and had already had a year of training as an engraver when Parker began his apprenticeship. Each may have had something to learn from the other.

When William Blake completed his apprenticeship in 1779, he enrolled at the Royal Academy to study further as an artist, but Parker did not.

It was probably about 1780, when Parker was free of his apprenticeship, that he went with Blake and the rising young artist Thomas Stothard on a sketching expedition sailing up the Medway. Stothard made a sketch of their camp by the riverside, with the sail stretched over the boat for a tent, and with a print of it is a note:

Such shared experiences are likely to have cemented the friendship between the three men. In later years, when Stothard was becoming the most prolific book-illustrator of his time, his designs were often engraved by Blake (more than 30) and Parker (more than 57), and doubtless Stothard occasionally directed commissions to them — on 24 March 1805 Parker wrote that he was "obliged to his friend M.r Stothard, for having 'so often recommended Mr Parker to Mr Du Roveray's notice'" as an engraver (see below).[10]

According to his Marriage Allegation of 17 August 1782, James Parker (aged 25 and up [i.e., 32]), Stationer of the Parish of St Dunstan in the West, was to marry Ann Serjeantson of Long Preston in the County of York (aged 21 and up) at Long Preston.[11] One wonders how he had met a young woman from as far away as Yorkshire. Can there be a connection with Blake's friend John Flaxman, whose family came from Yorkshire?

On 13 August 1782 "William Blake a Batchelor and Catharine Butcher [or Boucher] a Spinster" took out a license so that they "may solemnize Marriage together", and on 18 August they were married in the church of St Mary, Battersea, just south of London.

Ann Serjeantson Parker became of importance to Blake and his wife, for they all four lived together for more than a year — and perhaps their marriages so close together were a deliberate prelude to this household-sharing.

In 1784 the Blakes and the Parkers set up a print-shop together at 27 Broad Street, Golden Square, Westminster, next door to where Blake had been born and where he was brought up until he went to live with Basire's

family when he was fifteen. This was a somewhat bold enterprise, for print-shops were then uncommon. Only twenty-six years later, on 2 July 1800, Blake wrote: "We remember when a Print shop was a rare bird in London", though "There are now [1800], I believe, . . . as many Printshops as of any other trade" [p. 1535].

Blake's father died in July 1784, and Blake may have inherited enough money to pay for his share of the print-shop partnership with James Parker. He probably acquired then the printing-press with which he was still printing in 1800 and indeed 1827, while Parker may have provided prints for their stock-in-trade. At this time Blake was attending the literary salons of Mrs Harriet Mathew, a minor blue-stocking, and her husband the Reverend Anthony Stephen Mathew had joined John Flaxman in paying for the printing of the little collection called Poetical Sketches by W. B. (1783), A. S. Mathew writing the apologetic preface to it. A year or so later, Blake "continued to benefit from Mrs. Mathew's liberality, and was enabled to continue in partnership, as a Printseller, with his fellow-pupil, Parker, in a shop, No. 27, next door to his father's, in Broad-street".[12]

According to records for payments of the Paving Rates for Golden Square Ward, Westminster, in 1784, "Parker & Blake" replaced William Neville in the last house [No. 27] in Broad Street North before it meets Marshall Street East, next door to James Blake's haberdashery shop at 28 Broad Street, and, on the basis of a rent of £16, they paid a Rate of 16s. 8d.;[13] in 1785 "Jas Parker & Wm Blake [on a rent of £] 18 [paid Poor Rates of £]2..2.. — ",[14] but in fact Blake had moved out in the last quarter of the year.[15]

We do not know how the business was run, or indeed much of what they sold, but it seems likely that Parker and Blake made and printed engravings, while their wives ran the shop itself. At any rate, according to an early biography of Blake, "His wife attended to the business, and Blake continued to engrave, and took Robert, his favourite brother, for a pupil. This speculation did not succeed — his brother too sickened and died; he had a dispute with Parker — the shop was relinquished [by Blake]".[16]

The only prints known to have been published by the firm of Parker & Blake were Blake's oval engravings after their friend Stothard of "Zephyrus

and Flora" and "Calisto" (only six copies known of each) which were "Published as the Act directs Decr 17. 1784 by Parker & Blake N° 27 Broad St Golden Square".[17] It seems likely, however, that they sold prints by other engravers and print-sellers, and perhaps Parker too made some engravings for the firm of Parker & Blake.

The print-firm of Parker & Blake apparently lasted only a little more than a year at 27 Broad Street, from early 1784 through late 1785. We do not know the cause of the dissolution of the partnership, but the "dispute", if there was one, apparently did not disrupt the long friendship of Parker and Blake. As both men were keen print-collectors, there may have been some difficulty as to which prints were for sale and which were parts of their private collections.

When the firm was dissolved, Blake probably took with him the printing-press, leaving Parker in the shop-premises at 27 Broad Street and perhaps with the stock of prints they had accumulated.

Parker continued paying the Paving Rates at 27 Broad Street in 1787 — 1794,[18] and he probably continued to sell prints there as well. While he was living there, in 1788, "James Parker N° 27 Broad Street Engraver" voted for Townsend (not Hood),[19] and in 1790 he voted for Fox (not Hood or Tooke) and wasted one of his votes.[20] Note that William Blake did not vote in any election when he was qualified to do so by having paid the rates, though his father and brother did.

During the 1790s, both Blake and Parker were comparatively prosperous; about 1795 Blake received the largest commission he was ever to be given, for a hundred and fifty quarto-size engravings in illustration of Young's Night Thoughts (Part One with 43 plates was published in 1797), and Parker was prosperous enough to think of taking an apprentice. On 27 August 1795 John Flaxman wrote to William Hayley saying that Hayley's friend Weller, a carver (like Flaxman's father), wished to apprentice his son to an engraver. "M:r Sharpe is not inclined to take a pupil", but Flaxman's old friend Parker is; "he is one of those Steady, persevering men, who is constantly advancing in the best pursuits of his art, he is besides, religious, mild & conscientious". He would ask £210 for five years.[21] Notice the size of the premium Parker is asking: exactly four times what he and Blake had paid — and for five years rather than seven. He must indeed have been in a prosperous way if he felt he

had enough engraving work, and enough room in his house, to share them with an apprentice.

During these years, Parker worked on some of the most ambitious illustrated books of that or any other time in England: For Robert Bowyer's magnificent folio edition of Hume's History of England (1793 — 1806) he made thirteen plates from 1795 through 1805, including particularly fine ones of "Balliol Surrendering his Crown to Edward I" after Opie (1799 — see Plate 3) and "Charles II. and Sir William Temple" after Stothard (1805); and for the most splendid of them all, John Boydell's Dramatic Works of Shakspeare (1791 — 1802) he engraved eleven folio plates,[22] including an admirable one after Fuseli for Midsummer-Night's Dream (1799) and, even more impressive, an atlas folio plate of Lady Macbeth with the letter after Westall (1800). However, he engraved no plate for Thomas Macklin's equally magnificent The Old [and New] Testament, Embellished with Engravings, from Pictures and Designs by the Most Eminent English Artists (1791 — 1800), though he did make other engravings for Macklin — and was handsomely paid for them: "Fainasollis Borbar & Fingal" (for which he was paid £80 — see Plate 4) and "The Fall of Agandecca" (£180) after J. Barralet and "Cymbeline" (£80) and "The Merry Wives of Windsor" (£70) after S. Harding;[23] they are listed in Macklin's Poetic Description of Choice and Valuable Prints (1794), and the copper-plates were offered in Macklin's posthumous auction 31 March — 4 April 1808 (Peter Coxe).

During these years William Blake's professional career was changing in direction. He had been commissioned about 1795 by Richard Edwards to make 537 large watercolours for Young's Night Thoughts, 150 of which he was to engrave himself, and in 1799 by Thomas Butts to make fifty watercolour illustrations of the Bible. (So far as we know, James Parker made no original designs, though of course he had to copy designs by others in reduced size in order to engrave them.) Further, in 1800 — 1803, Blake largely withdrew from the London engraving market to live as the protegé of William Hayley in the little sea-side village of Felpham in Sussex, making designs and engravings for Hayley's popular poetry and biographies. When he returned to London, he found that the booksellers ignored him. On 7 October 1803 he wrote to Hayley: "Art in London flourishes. Every Engraver turns away work that he cannot execute from his superabundant Employment, yet no one brings work to me. . . . Yet I laugh & sing for if on Earth neglected I am in heaven a Prince among Princes & even on Earth beloved by the Good as a Good Man . . .". And two years later, on 11 December 1805, he wrote again to Hayley: "I was alive & in health & with the same Talents I now have all the

time of Boydells Macklins Bowyers & other Great Works. I was known by them & was lookd upon by them as Incapable of Employment in those Works . . .". And in a disingenuous little verse he asked: Blake was not employed in those "Great Works" except for one plate for Shakspeare,[24] whereas Parker engraved twenty-four plates for them. In terms of standing with the great illustrated-book publishers of the 1790s, there can be little doubt that James Parker was thought much more reliable than William Blake.

During these difficult years for Blake, he clearly remained on close terms with Parker, for one of the very small number of the complete collection of four Designs to a Series of Ballads (June — August 1802) by William Hayley engraved and published by Blake has on the original blue paper covers the name in old brown ink of "J. Parker".[25]

About 1801 the engravers who were working on the plates after Robert Smirke's designs for The Arabian Nights (1802), including Heath, Fittler, Anker Smith, Neagle, Parker, Warren, Armstrong, and Raimbach, began to meet monthly at one anothers' houses, and from these meetings grew the Society of Engravers.[26] Clearly Parker was a member of the group, and a "SET OF Engraver's PROOFS [was] PRESENTED TO MR. PARKER by his compeers in this beautiful work".[27] Indeed, he became one of the twenty-four Governors of the Society of Engravers[28] and was influential in the conduct of the profession.

During the brief Peace of Amiens of 1802 — 1803, the amateur illustrated-book publisher F. J. Du Roveray proposed that he should employ French engravers for his next book to foster a rivalry between French and English engravers. The implication that their work needed such a stimulus so incensed the English engravers that they refused for a time to work for Du Roveray — and when England renewed the war with France in 1803 the French engravers were no longer accessible to him. Du Roveray appealed to many English engravers, and particularly to James Parker, to make plates for him. On 24 March 1803 Parker replied to him:

This letter exhibits eloquently what his obituary in The Gentleman's Magazine] described as "his equanimity of temper, his suavity of manners, and integrity".

To this Du Roveray drafted a reply:

• 25 March 1803 I should have no objection to leave the point or points at issue to the decision of Mr Stothard, or any other impartial person[.]

Five weeks later Parker responded:

And a year later he wrote again in a letter postmarked 15 June 1804:

About the same time, William Blake was appealing to Parker for his professional opinion. He wrote to Hayley on 22 June 1804 about the prices Hayley should expect to have to pay for engravings in his life of Romney:

And six months later, on 28 December 1804, Blake wrote again to Hayley about the price of his engraving of Romney's "The Shipwreck":

Others too were praising Parker at the time. Bryan Froughton Jr wrote to F. J. Du Roveray on 19 March 1805 that in the print for Pope's Essay on Man in Du Roveray's edition of Pope's Poetical Works (1804),

But Parker's engravings for Pope's Poetical Works were the last he ever engraved for Du Roveray, for "He died after a short illness, aged about forty-five [i.e., 55]".[33] According to the obituary of James Parker, in The Gentleman's Magazine, 75 (June 1805), 586, James Parker, "an eminent portrait and historical engraver", died on 20 May and was buried in St Clement Danes, and his fellow Governors of the Society of Engravers "attended him to the grave". One would like to think that his old fellow-apprentice and partner William Blake was also among those at the graveside.

Both Parker and Blake had been notable collectors of prints, though Parker's were by contemporaries and Blake's were by 16th-Century masters.[34] About two years after Parker's death and presumably on behalf of his widow there was published

Probably no sale since that time has included so many engravings by Parker — or so many copies of the prints Blake had engraved for the firm of Parker & Blake.

It is possible to make some very rough comparisons between the careers of James Parker and William Blake as engravers. In terms of commercial engravings[36] finished in each year, the pattern is:

                                                           

Year	Parker	Blake
unknown	9	--
1780	1	3
1781	1	11
1782	1	19
1783	3	16
1784	1	8
1785	1	1
1786	3	1
1787	2	1
1788	1	5
1789	1	2
1790	--	--
1791	--	17
1792	6	9
Year	Parker	Blake
1793	7+	5
1794	11	6
1795	8[*]	6
1796	12[*]+	25[**]
1797	7[*]+	32[**]
1798	1[*]	--
1799	4[*]	4[*]
1800	3[*]	5
1801	3[*]	1
1802	6[*]+	18
1803	2[*]	6
1804	3[*]	5
1805	31[*]+	8
TOTAL	136+	224

In comparing these totals, however, one must remember in the first place that engravings by Blake have been assiduously sought since 1861, and most of his plates have probably already been discovered, whereas this, the first record of Parker's engravings, is certainly incomplete.

And in the second place, Parker was probably on the average better remunerated than Blake for his engravings. For his octavo plates, Parker was often paid £8.8.0 or £10.10.0 (Hayley, Old Maids [1793], Armstrong, Preserving Health [1795], Green, The Spleen [1796], Somervile, The Chace [1796], and Collins, Poetical Works [1802]), which was probably about what Blake was paid for similar work, and we know that they were paid £5.5.0 for each plate they engraved in outline for Flaxman's Iliad (1805). However, Parker

made a large number of folio plates (1795 — 1802) for Boydell's Shakspeare (1802) and Bowyer's Hume (1806) which were probably very well remunerated. James Heath was paid £420, or a hundred guineas each, for his four folio plates for Boydell's Shakspeare[37] (after Peters for Macbeth, III, i, after Smirke for Much Ado About Nothing, IV, ii, and after Northcote for Richard III, IV, iii, and Romeo and Juliet, V, iii), and Isaac Taylor was paid £500 for his atlas engraving after Stothard for Henry VIII.[38] Other engravers for Boydell and Bowyer were virtually certainly remunerated at similar rates. An engraver could earn enough from a single large line-engraving for Boydell or Bowyer or Macklin to live for a year and more.

On the other hand, Blake made only one plate for the Shakspeare and none at all for Hume. Further, Blake's own great series of folio plates for Young's Night Thoughts (1797) were made chiefly for glory rather than for cash — we do not know what he was paid for his folio Night Thoughts engravings, but for his 537 folio Night Thoughts drawings he was paid only £21.[39] While Parker was being entrusted with more responsible and remunerative folio plates, Blake was largely restricted to plates of smaller dimensions and value — and in 1800 he moved to a country village far from the booksellers who had such commissions in their gift. For most of his commercial folio plates, those for the Night Thoughts, Blake was probably paid only a small fraction of what Parker was receiving for work of similar size.

Of course, the differences between James Parker and William Blake are far more important than the similarities, and Blake had modest sources of income to which Parker had no access. Blake had a small but significant and steady income as a painter in water-colours, and he invented a method of Illuminated Printing in which all his published poetry appeared — though apparently no one else has ever used it — and from it he derived some income, though probably less than his time was worth as a professional engraver. And of course Blake was a genius as a painter and a poet. Not only that, but his greatest accomplishments in engraving, such as his Illustrations of The Book of Job (1826) and Dante, were far beyond anything James Parker achieved or attempted.

Blake was a solitary visionary, who did not join with others, who did not vote, who went his own way, content with his visions and his genius. The only collaboration he attempted with another man, in the firm of Parker & Blake, collapsed after only a few months. By contrast, James Parker worked very well in harness, he was a worthy and reliable member of his profession, and indeed he proved himself to be a leader in the organization of his fellow engravers. The two men were extraordinarily different — but clearly they were good friends. Today, the senior partner of the firm of Parker & Blake is scarcely known, whereas the junior member is famous wherever English is spoken.

The career of James Parker demonstrates what that of William Blake might have been like had he been a steady, reliable workman like Parker — and had he not been a genius.

James Parker's Engravings

Arranged in chronological order of publication. The list is probably incomplete, but it contains all the Parker prints I have encountered. Two abbreviations occur: BL (British Library, London) and GEB (G. E. Bentley, Jr, Toronto).

Year Not Known

View of Claybrook Church, the only aquatint Parker is known to have made; it may have been published by Parker, for the copperplate of it appeared in Parker's sale by Thomas Dodd, 18 February 1807, Lot 236.

Eight plates, including "Edwin and Angelina", also perhaps published by Parker, appeared in the same sale, Lot 235.

1780 — 81

THE | [Gothic:] Protestant's Family Bible. | CONTAINING THE | Old and New Testament, | WITH THE | APOCRYPHA, | ILLUSTRATED BY | EXPLANATORY NOTES. | WITH | A Compleat Concordance, | AND | GENERAL INDEX. | By a Society of Protestant Divines. | [Vignette with IHS] | [Italic:] London: | Printed for Harrison and C.° N.° 18, Paternoster-Row [1780 — 81]. <GEB>

4°; Parker engraved the plate of "Eve presenting the forbidden fruit to Adam" (Genesis iii, 6); there were 58 plates all told, including five by Blake.

1781

See 1784 Seally and Lyons, Geographical Dictionary.

1782

See 1784 Seally and Lyons, Geographical Dictionary.

1783

The large oval plate of "The Pulse. Le Pouls." from "Sterne's Sentimental Journey Vol. I" is signed "J. Northcote Pinxit John Harris excudit Parker sculp" and "Publish'd July 10th 1783, by J. Harris, Sweetings Alley, Cornhill" <Robert N. Essick> (see Plate 5).[40]

Parker sent his print after Barralet for Boydell called "Fainasollis Borbar & Fingal" to the exhibition of the Society of Artists in 1783, when he was living at 19, Little Drury Lane <British Museum Print Room> (see Plate 4). The engraving, "From the Original Drawing in the Collection of Charles Boddam Esq.r ", has no imprint, but apparently it was published by Macklin, who paid Parker £80 for it.

Trade card for: Birchall and Beardmore, | MUSIC & MUSICAL INSTRUMENT SELLERS, | N.° 129 New Bond Street. | [Vignette of Apollo with a harp, J Parker del et sculp] | Sell all sorts of Musical Instruments, | fine Roman Violin and Violoncello Strings, | & every Article in the Musical branch, Wholesale & Retail on the lowest terms. | Piano-Fortes, Harpsichords and Spinets, lent by the Month, Quarter, or Year, & | Tuned in Town or Country on the shortest notice. | NB. Every New Publication as soon as Published [dated in MS 1783][41] [see Plate 6]

A scene from The Merry Wives of Windsor after S. Harding in 1783, according to Dodd. Parker was paid £80 for it by Macklin (see essay above).

1784

Seally, John, & Israel Lyons. A COMPLETE | Geographical Dictionary, | OR | UNIVERSAL GAZETTEER; | OF | ANCIENT and MODERN GEOGRAPHY: | CONTAINING A FULL, PARTICULAR, AND ACCURATE | Description of the known World; | IN | EUROPE, ASIA, AFRICA, and AMERICA; COMPRISING | A COMPLETE SYSTEM OF GEOGRAPHY, | ILLUSTRATED WITH CORRECT MAPS AND BEAUTIFUL VIEWS OF THE PRINCIPAL CITIES, &c. | AND CHRONOLOGICAL TABLES OF THE SOVEREIGNS OF EUROPE. | — — | THE GEOGRAPHICAL PARTS | By JOHN SEALLY, A.M. | MEMBER OF THE ROMAN ACADEMY; AUTHOR OF THE HISTOIRE CHRONOLOGIQUE, SACRÉE ET PROFANE; | ELEMENTS OF GEOGRAPHY AND ASTRONOMY, &c. &c. | Interspersed with Extracts from the private Manuscripts of one of the Officers who accompanied Captain Cook in his Voyage to the | SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE. | THE ASTRONOMICAL PARTS FROM THE PAPERS | Of the late Mr. ISRAEL LYONS, of Cambridge; | ASTRONOMER IN LORD MULGRAVE'S VOYAGE TO THE NORTHERN HEMISPHERE. | — — | VOL. I [ — II]. — — | By the King's Royal License and Authority. | — — | LONDON: | Printed for JOHN FIELDING, Numb. 23, Pater-noster-Row. [?1781 — 84] <Yale University>

4°; J. Parker engraved two of the sixty-six plates, of "Burgos" (16 Oct 1781) and "Dantzick" (9 Feb 1782), and Blake engraved three others.

The work was re-issued in 1787 <BL; GEB>, as The New Geographical Magazine (?1793) <Library Company of Philadelphia), and as The New Royal System of Universal Geography (?1794) <Library of Congress>.

"The Birth of American Liberty" after S. Harding in 1784, according to Dodd.

1786

"Sterne [i.e., Yorick] Conducting Maria into Moulines" after James Northcote published by John Harris 17 February 1786.[42]

A trade card for: Savage, | Coach & Harness Maker | TO HIS Neopolitan Majesty, | N.dg 3 Great Queen Street | Lincolns Inn Fields, | London Parker Sculp Oxford Street [dated in MS 1786][43]

He also engraved an undated card for: W. Henshaw, | Gun Maker, N:° 181 near | Norfolk-Street, London, | London. | Where the Nobility, Gentry, | Merchants, Captains of Ships, | and others may be supplied | with every article in the above | business, Wholesale or Retail, | on the shortest notice, in | the best manner, & most | reasonable terms. | J. Parker sc. | [with a hunting scene][44]

1787

"The Ticket" and "The Novel" after James Northcote, apparently for Sterne's Sentimental Journey (see 1785, 1786, 1791), according to Thomas Dodd.

1789

James Parker's engraving of "Sterne [i.e., Yorick] in the Glove Shop" after Northcote was published by John Harris in 1789.[45]

1790

The Times for 23 November 1788 carried an advertisement for "A CAPITAL ENGRAVING from a Picture [24” x 19”] by JAMES NORTHCOTE of the Prince and Princess of Orange [William and Mary] being offered the crown of England; Subscriptions are received by the Publisher John Harris, No. 3. Sweeting's Alley, Royal-Exchange; and by the Engraver James Parker, No. 27, Broad Street, Golden Square; at which Places an etched proof may be seen".[46] According to Dodd, this plate (he calls it "The Revolution of 1688") and Northcote's "The Landing of the Prince of Orange at Torbay", published in 1790, were among Parker's most distinguished line-engravings. They would have been especially appropriate for the celebrations of the centenary of the Glorious Revolution in 1788. Apparently the copperplates were acquired by John Boydell and reprinted in 1801.[47]

1792

Goldsmith, Oliver. THE | VICAR | OF | WAKEFIELD. | — — | A | TALE. | — — | IN TWO VOLUMES. | — — | BY DR. GOLDSMITH. | — — | Sperate Miseri, cavete Felices. | — — | LONDON: | PRINTED BY SAMMELLS AND RITCHIE, | FOR | R. HARDING, FLEET-STREET; AND J. GOOD, NEW BOND-STREET. | — — | MDCCXCII [1792]. <GEB; Bodley: 246 e 13432>

12°; J. Parker engraved the six plates after Stothard dated 1 March and 1 June 1792.

1793

Hamilton, Antoine. MÉMOIRES | DU | COMTE DE GRAMMONT, | PAR LE C. ANTOINE HAMILTON. | EDITION ORNÉE DE LXXII PORTRAITS, GRAVÉS D'APRES | LES TABLEAUX ORIGINAUX. | A LONDRES: | CHEZ EDWARDS, N.° 78, PALL MALL [1793]. <Bodley: Arch Antiq A I 32 and Hanson Papers; BL: 683 h 18 (LP) and G 1716 (LP) and 134 c 15 (LP); GEB (watermarked 1801); Huntington: 28400 (folio); Virginia State Library>

4°, with copies on Large Paper and folio (5); the 79 plates (published 1792 — 93 by E. & S. Harding) after copies (chiefly by S. Harding) of original paintings were signed by sixteen engravers, two of them by J. Parker.

Hamilton, A. MEMOIRS | OF | COUNT GRAMMONT, | BY COUNT A. HAMILTON. | A NEW TRANSLATION, | WITH NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. | EMBELLISHED WITH SEVENTY-SIX PORTRAITS, | OF THE | PRINCIPAL CHARACTERS MENTIONED IN THE WORK. | [Vignette] | LONDON: | PRINTED FOR S. AND E. HARDING, NO. 102, PALL-MALL [1793]. <Bodley: Sutherland Press 65 — 66>

4°; the same plates were used in both the French and English editions.

[Hayley, William] A Philosophical, Historical and Moral Essay on Old Maids. By a Friend to the Sisterhood. The Third [i.e., second] Edition, With Corrections and Additions (London: T. Cadell, 1793). <Bodley, BL, Cambridge, Huntington>

Parker engraved one of the five plates (four of them after Stothard), according to his receipt from 27 Broad St to Cadell & Davies, 2 February 1793 for £8.8.0 (in the Free Library of Philadelphia). The first edition (1785, re-issued with a new titlepage in 1786) had no plate.

Shakespeare, William. SHAKESPEARE | ILLUSTRATED | BY AN ASSEMBLAGE OF | PORTRAITS AND VIEWS; | WITH | BIOGRAPHICAL ANECDOTES | . . . | Arranged with Directions for their Insertion in any Edition | . . . | London: | Printed

by G. SIDNEY, Black Horse Court, Fleet Street. | — — | Price Six Guineas in Boards.

[Engraved titlepage:] Shakespeare Illustrated, | By an Assemblage | OF | Portraits and Views, | Adapted to the whole series of that Authors Historical Dramas; | to which are added | Portraits of Actors, Editors, &c; | LONDON, | Published according to the act of Parliament, | BY | S. & E. Harding, Ndg 102, Pall Mall. | 1793. <Bodley: M. Adds. 103 e 3 — 4; BL: 831 C 6>

Thomas Dodd (1771 — 1850) included James Parker in his manuscript "Memorials of Engravers that have exercised the art in Great Britain", saying that he was "An engraver of Portraits and Subjects of History. . . . His earliest productions are in the stippled method and consist of some few portraits [i.e., 6] of the Series of illustrations of Shakespeare, published by Messrs E. & G. Harding about the year 1791; he rose to become eminent in the history of engraving".[48]

According to DNB, Parker engraved "some portraits for Harding's 'Shakespeare Illustrated'", but I did not notice them in the copies I saw. The work was issued in parts, probably in 1790 — 93. The plates were printed on paper of various sizes, and after 700 copies had been printed the plates were destroyed (according to James Edwards' Catalogues of 1794 and 1796, #290).

Thomson, James. THE | SEASONS, | BY | JAMES THOMSON. | — — | TO WHICH IS PREFIXED | The LIFE OF THE AUTHOR, | BY PATRICK MURDOCH, D.D. F.R.S. | — — | LONDON: | PRINTED FOR T. LONGMAN, B. LAW AND SON, H. BALD-|WIN, G.G.J. AND J. ROBINSON, T. CADELL, R. BALD-|WIN, F. AND C. RIVINGTON, G. AND T. WILKIE, | W. GOLDSMITH, T. PAYNE, JUN. SCATCHERD AND | WHITAKER, W. LOWNDES, OGILBY AND SPEARE, | W. BENT, AND HOOKHAM AND CARPENTER. | — — | MDCCXCIII [1793]. <GEB (2 copies)>

12°; Parker engraved the four plates dated April, May, and June 1793 after Corbould.

According to T. H. Cromek: "I have a copy of the book [Thomson, The Seasons (n.d. given)], and a set of the prints: they have my father's name as the engraver; but M.r Frost, however, has a set of proofs with the name of Parker. Which of the two really did engrave them, I cannot decide. As far as external evidence goes, they might be the work of either of them".[49]

The Seasons (London: R. Baldwin, &c., 1803) <GEB> does indeed have plates after Corbould by Cromek which are identical in design to those engraved by Parker in 1793. I compared them minutely and found them disconcertingly similar except that (1) in all the imprint beneath the design is entirely different, (2) in 1803 the head with floral swags above the oval design is gone, and (3) the hatching of the surround between the oval design and the rectangular frame is quite different. In the comparisons below, I only examined the prints far enough to persuade myself that they are different plates, though the principal figures are astonishingly similar:

• 1 "Spring": numerous small details of foliage, e.g., on the river-bank and by the man's left elbow are significantly different; in 1793 the man's sleeves are cross-hatched, but in 1803 they are not;
• 2 "Summer": The right shoe is cross hatched in 1793 but not in 1803; ankle lines different;

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• 3 "Autumn": Foliage and bottom left tree are different;
• 4 "Winter": Spinning wheel has horizontal bands in 1793, vertical ones in 1803.

1794

THE BOOK OF | COMMON PRAYER, | and administration of | THE SACRAMENTS, | AND | OTHER RITES AND CEREMONIES | OF | [Gothic:] The Church, | ACCORDING TO THE USE OF THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND: | together with the | PSALTER or PSALMS | OF | DAVID, | POINTED AS THEY ARE TO BE SUNG OR SAID IN CHURCHES. | — — | LONDON: | Printed by Millar Ritchies, | FOR | J. GOOD, BOND STREET, AND E. HARDING, PALL MALL. | — — | 1794. <GEB (2 copies); BL: 682 h 1>

4°, 2 vols.; J. Parker engraved two plates (6 Oct 1791, 25 Aug 1792) of the seventeen after Stothard.

This "Magnificent Edition" was advertised in [Robert Dodsley], The Œconomy of Human Life (London: S. & E Harding, 1795) <GEB> with plates after Stothard "by Mr. Bartolozzi, Mr. Parker, &c." in quarto (£4.16.0 with 15 plates), octavo (£1.15.0, with 14 plates), in twelves (12s., with 10 plates), and in 18s (10s, with 10 plates).

Ibid. (1794), 80, including both Parker plates. <GEB>

Ibid. (London: Crosby & Letterman, 1800). <BL: 12519 f 35>

Marmontel, Jean François. BELISARIUS. | BY | M. MARMONTEL, | Member of the French Academy. | TO WHICH ARE ADDED, FRAGMENTS | OF | MORAL PHILOSOPHY, | BY THE SAME AUTHOR, | In Three Essays, never before translated: | I. OF GLORY. | II. OF THE GREAT. | III. OF GRANDEUR. | — — | [2-line Latin motto from] SENECA DE PROVID. | — — | LONDON: | PRINTED FOR E. HARDING, PALL MALL. | M DCC XCIV [1794]. <Bodley: Fic 2752 e 90>

12°; J. Parker engraved the six plates after Stothard dated 1 Nov 1794.

The same plates, now much worn, appeared in the edition published by Crosby and Letterman, 1800 <Bodley: Vet A 5 e 4680>.

There was an edition in French Ornée de Six Estampes d'après des Desseins de STOTHARD, R.A. (Londres: Chez Isaac Herbert, Vernor et Hood, et M. Stace, 1796), but the only copy I have seen <Bodley: Fic 27524 e 91> has no plate.

James Parker engraved for Thomas Macklin by 1794 "Fainasollis Borbar & Fingal" (for which he was paid £80) (see 1783 — and Plate 4) and "The Fall of Agandecca" (£180) after J. Barralet and "Cymbeline" (£80) after S. Harding; they are listed with "The Merry Wives of Windsor" (1783) after S. Harding (£70) in Macklin's Poetic Description (1794) (see essay above).

1795

Akenside, Mark. THE | PLEASURES | OF | IMAGINATION. | By MARK AKENSIDE, M.D. | TO WHICH IS PREFIXED | A CRITICAL ESSAY ON THE POEM, | By Mrs. BARBAULD. | London: | PRINTED FOR T. CADELL, JUN. AND W. DAVIES, | (SUCCESSORS TO MR. CADELL), IN THE STRAND. | M DCC XCV [1795]. <BL: 238 F 40; Huntington: 113850>

12°; J. Parker engraved one of four plates after Stothard published by Cadell & Davies 1 Nov 1794.

The same plates appear in the editions of 1796 <GEB (2 copies)> and 1803 <Huntington: 434549>.

Armstrong, John. THE | ART | OF | PRESERVING HEALTH. | By JOHN ARMSTRONG, M.D. | TO WHICH IS PREFIXED | A CRITICAL ESSAY ON THE POEM, | By J. AIKIN, M.D. | LONDON: | PRINTED FOR T. CADELL, JUN. AND W. DAVIES, | (SUCCESSORS TO MR. CADELL) IN THE STRAND. | M DCC XCV [1795]. <GEB; BL: 11631 b 3 plus 238 f 44>

12°; J. Parker engraved one of four plates after Stothard published by Cadell &

Davies, for which he was paid £8.8.0, according to his receipt of 6 September 1794 (in the Free Library of Philadelphia). There were later Cadell & Davies editions in 1796 <BL: 11632 aaa 1; Huntington: 432402> and 1803 <11631 aaa 2>.

Fenelon. THE | ADVENTURES | OF | TELEMACHUS, | THE | SON OF ULYSSES. | FROM THE FRENCH OF | SALIGNAC DE LA MOTHE-FENELON, | ARCHBISHOP OF CAMBRAY, | BY THE LATE | JOHN HAWKESWORTH, LL.D. | CORRECTED AND REVISED BY | G. GREGORY, D.D. | JOINT EVENING PREACHER AT THE FOUNDLING HOSPITAL, AND AUTHOR OF | ESSAYS, HISTORICAL AND MORAL, &c. | WITH | A LIFE OF THE AUTHOR, AND A COMPLETE INDEX, HISTORICAL AND GEOGRAPHICAL, | EMBELLISHED WITH TWELVE ELEGANT ENGRAVINGS. | IN TWO VOLUMES. | VOL. I [II]. | — — | LONDON: | PRINTED FOR C. AND G. KEARSLEY, FLEETSTREET. | — — | 1795. <GEB (2 copies, one colour-printed); BL: 87 1 12; Huntington: 292917>

4°; J. Parker engraved two plates (dated 1 Jan and 1 July 1794) of the 12 after Stothard.

See 1796 Coombe, 1802 Shakspeare (2), and 1806 Hume.

1796

[Coombe, William] An History of the River Thames. 2 vols. (London: Printed by W. Bulmer and Co. for John and Josiah Boydell, 1794 [i.e., 1796]).

2°; among the 76 plates (mostly after Joseph Farington), the frontispiece of the god of the Thames, after [Anne Seymour] Damer's bust [on Henley Bridge (1785)], is signed by J. Parker and dated 1 Jan 1796, but presumably it was finished long before this, for four months earlier he signed a receipt for his completed work: "Received Augt 31: 1795 of Mess.rs Boydell Four Guineas for an Engraving of The Thames | £4. — 4. — James Parker".[50]

Falconer, William. THE | SHIPWRECK. | BY | WILLIAM FALCONER. | — — | [3-line motto] | — — | THE NINTH EDITION. | — — | LONDON: | PRINTED FOR T. CADELL, JUN. AND W. DAVIES, | (SUCCESSORS TO MR. CADELL) STRAND. | — — | 1796. <BL: 238 f 43>

J. Parker engraved one of four plates after Stothard which were published 1 May 1795 by Cadell & Davies.

The same plates appear in THE TENTH EDITION. | . . . DAVIES, IN THE STRAND. | — — | 1800. | (R. Noble, Printer, Old Bailey.) <BL: 1507 / 631>

Green, Matthew. THE | SPLEEN, | AND OTHER | POEMS, By MATTHEW GREEN. | WITH A PREFATORY ESSAY, | By J. AIKIN, M.D. | LONDON: | PRINTED FOR T. CADELL, jun.r AND W. DAVIES, | (SUCCESSORS TO T. CADELL) IN THE STRAND. | MDCCXCVI [1796]. <GEB; Huntington: 349619>

12°; T. (i.e., J.) Parker engraved one of the three plates after Stothard dated 1 December 1795, for which, according to Parker's receipt to Cadell & Davies of 3 December 1795, he was paid £10.10.0 (MS in the Free Library of Philadelphia). One represents fox-hunters at a pub.

Somervile, William. THE | CHACE, | A | POEM. | BY WILLIAM SOMERVILE, ESQ. | A NEW EDITION. | TO WHICH IS PREFIXED | A CRITICAL ESSAY, | BY J. AIKEN, M.D. | — — | LONDON: | PRINTED FOR CADELL, JUN. AND W. DAVIES, | (SUCCESSORS TO MR. CADELL), STRAND. | — — | 1796. <GEB (2 copies); BL: 11633 b 50>

12°; J. Parker engraved two of the six plates after Stothard dated 1 August 1796, for which Cadell & Davies paid him £10.10.0 each, according to his receipts of 6 June 1796 and 26 July 1796 (MSS in the Free Library of Philadelphia).

Johnson, Samuel, The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abyssinia (London: J. & E. Harding, 1796).

J. Parker engraved five plates after Stothard.[51]

See 1802 Shakspeare and 1806 Hume.

1797

Collins, William. THE | POETICAL WORKS | OF | Mr. WILLIAM COLLINS. | WITH A | PREFATORY ESSAY, | BY Mrs. BARBAULD. | — — | LONDON: | PRINTED FOR T. CADELL, JUN. AND W. DAVIES, | IN THE STRAND. | — — | 1797. <BL: 991 c 34; Huntington: 286944>

12°; J. Parker engraved one of the four plates after Stothard with the imprint of 1 September 1797, for which he was paid £10.10.0, according to an undated receipt in the Free Library of Philadelphia.

The work with the same four plates was PRINTED FOR T. CADELL, JUN. AND W. DAVIES, | IN THE STRAND, | BY W. FLINT, OLD BAILEY. | — — | 1802 <GEB>.

Parker engraved Smirke's "Commemoration of 1797".[52]

See 1802 Shakspeare and 1806 Hume.

1798

Cowper, William. POEMS | BY | WILLIAM COWPER, | OF THE INNER TEMPLE, ESQ. | IN TWO VOLUMES. | VOL. I [II]. | — — | [4 lines from Virgil, then translated] | — — | A NEW EDITION. | — — | LONDON: | PRINTED FOR J. JOHNSON, ST. PAUL'S | CHURCH-YARD. | — — | 1798. <GEB; Huntington: 120952>

12°; Parker engraved one of ten plates after Stothard dated 1 February 1798.

The same plates were used in The Poetical Works of William Cowper In Two Volumes, A New Edition (London: J. Johnson, 1800) <BL: 11633 e 7>.

See 1802 Shakspeare (2) and 1806 Hume.

1799

See 1802 Shakspeare (2) and 1806 Hume (2).

1800

Parker engraved a portrait of the Right Hon. Henry Addington, Viscount Sidmouth (Prime Minister 1801 — 4) after Beechey for Boydell in 1800.[53] Perhaps this was the work for which Messrs. Boydell paid him £10.10.0 on account (according to his receipt of 6 March 1800 in the Free Library of Philadelphia).

See 1802 Shakspeare and 1803 Shakespeare.

1801

See 1802 Shakspeare.

1802

THE | ARABIAN NIGHTS, | IN FIVE VOLUMES, | TRANSLATED | BY | THE REVEREND EDWARD FORSTER. | WITH ENGRAVINGS, FROM PICTURES | BY ROBERT SMIRKE, R.A. | — — | VOL. I [ — V]. | — — | LONDON: | PRINTED FOR WILLIAM MILTON, | OLD BOND-STREET, | BY W. BULMER AND CO. CLEVELAND-ROW, | ST. JAMES'S. 1802. <Bodley>

8°; Parker engraved at least one plate.

The translator remarks that Smirke "has taken the trouble, not only to point out the different engravers, whose talents he thought best suited to the different pictures, but even to attend to the progress of their labours, and with the happiest consequences" (I, vii).

The engravers of the work, including Heath, Fittler, Anker Smith, Neagle, Parker, Warren, Armstrong, and Raimbach, began to meet monthly at one anothers' houses, and from these meetings grew the Society of Engravers.[54]

The "SET OF Engraver's PROOFS PRESENTED TO MR. PARKER by his compeers in this beautiful work" were offered in the Sotheby sale (of Robert Balmanno) 4 — 12 May 1830, Lot 692.

Milton, John. MILTON'S | PARADISE LOST. | A NEW EDITION. | — — | ADORNED WITH PLATES. | — — | VOL. I [II]. | LONDON: | [Gothic:] Printed by T. Bensley, Bolt Court, Fleet Street; | FOR F. J. DU ROVERAY. | SOLD BY R. DUTTON, B. CROSBY AND CO. | E. LLOYD, AND J. BELL. | 1802. <GEB>

80; the thirteen plates in the ordinary issue include none by Parker,[55] but the Sotheby catalogue of Rare and Valuable Engravings of A Collector (Robert Balmanno), 4 — 12 May 1830, Lot 689, included "The set of Engravings for Du Roveray's Edition of Milton . . . and an additional plate of great rarity by Parker, after Smirke, for the Penseroso, 'The Story of Cambuscan Bold,' INDIA PROOFS before any letters", which I have never seen.

Rogers, Samuel. THE | PLEASURES | OF | MEMORY, | WITH OTHER | POEMS. | By SAMUEL ROGERS, Esq. | A NEW EDITION. | [Gothic:] London: | PRINTED BY THOMAS BENSLEY, | BOLT-COURT, FLEET-STREET, | FOR T. CADELL, JUN. AND W. DAVIES, | IN THE STRAND, | 1802. <R. N. Essick>

Parker engraved two of the four plates after Stothard, and the same plates appear, much worn, in the edition of 1806 (R. N. Essick). According to A. C. Coxhead, Thomas Stothard, R.A. (1906), 120 — 121, there was an edition of 1801 with fifteen plates, but I have not seen this. James Parker was paid £8.8.0 for "retouching two plates for the poems of Mr Rogers", according to his receipt to Cadell & Davies of 13 July 1803 (in the Free Library of Philadelphia).

Shakspeare, William. THE | DRAMATIC WORKS | OF | SHAKSPEARE. | REVISED | BY GEORGE STEEVENS. | VOL. I [ — IX]. | LONDON: | PRINTED BY W. BULMER AND CO. | [Gothic:] Shakspeare Printing=Office, | FOR JOHN AND JOSIAH BOYDELL, GEORGE AND W. NICOL: | FROM THE TYPES OF W. MARTIN. | MDCCCII [1802, i.e., 1791 — 1803] <GEB et al>

2°; James Parker engraved 11 plates:

• 1 W. Hamilton, "Prospero, Miranda & Ariel" ["Prospero Dismisses Ariel", V],[56] Tempest, I, ii (23 April 1798), good; a proof with Miranda in outline only, a later one before letters "Etched by J. Parker", and the final version "Engraved by Jas Parker" are in the Turner Shakespeare <Huntington>, Vol. VI, at p. 2.

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• 2 H. Fuseli, "A Wood — Puck" ["Puck Descending from his Excursion", XXV], Midsummer-Nights Dream, II, ii (29 Sept 1799), fine; a very early proof marked "Etched by J. Parker" plus the finished versions "Engraved by Ja.s Parker" are in the Turner Shakespeare <Huntington>, Vol. XIII, at p. 14.
• 3 R. Westall, "Shylock, Salanio, Antonio & Gaoler" ["Shylock consigning Antonio to Prison", XXVIII], Merchant of Venice, III, iii (1 Dec 1795).
• 4 R. Westall, "A Room of state in the Palace — Macbeth, Lady Macbeth, Ross, Lennox, Ghost, &c" ["Banquo appears to Macbeth", XLIV], Macbeth, III, iv (1 Aug 1799).
• 5 Willm Hamilton, "The Coast of Wales, King Richard, Aumerle, Salisbury, Bishop of Carlisle, & Soldiers ["Richard lands in Ireland", XLVIII], Richard II, III, ii (4 June 1800); a proof in outline before letters plus the watercolor are in the Turner Shakespeare <Huntington>, Vol. XXIII.
• 6 R. Westall, "Katherine, Griffith, and Patience" ["Queen Katherine's last Illness", LXX], Henry VIII, IV, 2 [The "Descriptive Index" gives V, 1] (29 Sept 1796) — good;[57] an early proof and an almost finished proof before letters are in the Turner Shakespeare <Huntington>.
• 7 R. K. Porter, "Aufidius and Coriolanus" ["Meeting of Coriolanus", LXXIII], Coriolanus, IV, 5 (4 June 1801); a proof mostly in outline and a more finished version "Etched by J. Parker" are in the Turner Shakespeare <Huntington>, Vol. XXXIII, at p. 104.
• 8 R. Westall, "[Marc] Antony and the [dead] Body of Caesar" [LXXIV], Julius Caesar, III, i (21 Dec 1802).
• 9 Rob. [i.e., Richard] Westall, "Imogen in Boy's Clothes entering into the Cave" ["Imogen, disguised, enters Bellario's Cave", LXXXVII], Cymbeline, III, vi (29 Sept 1795); a proof before letters is in the Turner Shakespeare <Huntington>, Vol. XXXIX.
• 10. R. Smirke, "Juliet and Nurse" [Juliet intreating her Nurse, XCII], Romeo and Juliet, II, v (29 Sept 1797);[58] a proof in outline before letters is in the Turner Shakespeare <Huntington>, Vol. XLI, at p. 48.
• 11 R. Westall, "Ophelia" ["Ophelia's Death", XCVIII], Hamlet, IV, 7 (23 April 1798), good; two proof states "Etched by J. Parker" are in the Turner Shakespeare <Huntington>, Vol. XLII, at p. 124.

The plates appeared with the Fascicles as they were issued from 1791 onward. Blake also engraved a plate for the edition.

In an undated letter to John Boydell, "J Parker presents his Respects to Mr Alderman Boydell & will be obliged to Mr Harrison if [he] will send by the Bearer a Plate for the W Shakspeare for the Picture [by Westall] representing the Death of Julius Caesar".[59]

The work was reprinted in Boydell's Graphic Illustrations of Shakspeare (?1803) <GEB et al> and The Dramatic Works of William Shakspeare (1832) <Folger>.

See 1806 Hume.

1803

Shakespeare, William. COLLECTION OF PRINTS | FROM PICTURES PAINTED FOR THE PURPOSE OF ILLUSTRATING | THE | DRAMATIC WORKS | OF | SHAKSPEARE, | BY THE | ARTISTS OF GREAT-BRITAIN. | [Vignette] | VOLUME I [II]. | — — | LONDON: | PUBLISHED BY JOHN AND JOSIAH BOYDELL, | SHAKSPEARE GALLERY, PALL-MALL, AND NO. 90, CHEAPSIDE. | PRINTED BY W. BULMER AND CO. CLEVELAND ROW. ST. JAMES'S. |

MDCCCIII [1803]. <Boston Public, Detroit Public, Folger (proofs and etchings), Huntington (2 copies), Pierpont Morgan, Royal Academy (2)>

Atlas 2° (68.5 cm high); Parker's plate of "Lady Macbeth with a Letter" after Westall bears the date of 4 June 1800.

[Addison, Joseph, and Richard Steele.] THE | SPECTATOR, | VOLUME THE FIRST [-THIRD]. | Printed by C. WHITTINGHAM, Dean Str. | Published by JOHN SHARPE, Piccadilly. | 1803. <BL: 243 b 24; 1456 h 5 — 12 (in 8 vols.)>

12°; the title-page is engraved; the half-titles of the three volumes call it "The British Classics Vol. Fifth [ — Seventh]. 1803."

Parker engraved one of the 17 rather fine plates (his is after Stothard's "The Rival Beauties", dated 20 Aug 1803), for which he was paid £26.5.0.[60]

An 80 set in 8 volumes <BL: 1456 h 5 — 12> has a similar title-page and the same plates, dated 1803, but the half-title of the first volume (on laid, unwatermarked paper) calls it "The British Classics: Volume the Fifth Containing the First Volume of the Spectator. 1812", though subsequent volumes substitute "1812".

1803 — 1804

[Addison, Joseph, and Richard Steele.] THE | TATLER. | VOLUME THE FIRST [ — FOURTH]. | [Bust] | Printed by C. WHITTINGHAM, Dean Street. | Published by JOHN SHARPE, Piccadilly. | 1803. <BL: 243 b 21>

12°; the title-page is engraved; the half-titles call it "The British Classics Vol. I [ — IV]. 1803", though Vol. III — IV are dated 1804. It seems likely that there was also an 80 edition, as there was for the Spectator (above).

Parker engraved one of the 18 plates.

1804

THE | POETICAL WORKS | OF | ALEXANDER POPE. | A NEW EDITION. | — — | ADORNED WITH PLATES. | VOLUME I [ — VI]. | — — | [Gothic:] London: | PRINTED FOR F.J. DU ROVERAY, | By T.Bensley, Bolt Court; | AND SOLD BY J. AND R. ARCH, CORNHILL; AND | E. LLOYD, HARLEY STREET. | 1804. <GEB (Large Paper), Boston Athenaeum (Large Paper), Cornell (Large Paper), Harvard (Large Paper), Huntington: 134289>

8°; Jas Parker engraved one of the twenty plates dated 1 October 1804.

The work was reprinted "WITH ENGRAVINGS, FROM PAINTINGS AND DESIGNS OF HOWARD, STOTHARD, WESTALL, &c. &c." (London: Sharpe and Hailes, 1811) <GEB>.[61]

Rees, Abraham. THE | CYCLOPÆDIA; | OR, | UNIVERSAL DICTIONARY | OF | Arts, Sciences, and Literature. | BY | ABRAHAM REES, D.D. F.R.S. F.L.S. S. Amer. Soc. | WITH THE ASSISTANCE OF | EMINENT PROFESSIONAL GENTLEMEN. | — — | ILLUSTRATED WITH NUMEROUS ENGRAVINGS, | BY THE MOST DISTINGUISHED ARTISTS. | — — | PLATES. | VOL. II. | BASSO-RELIEVO-HOROLOGY. | — — | LONDON: | Printed for LONGMAN, HURST, REES, ORME, & BROWN [and forty-two other booksellers] . . . | 1820. <Bodley, BL (3), Chicago, et al>

4°, thirty-nine volumes plus six volumes of plates; J. Parker engraved one plate after Flaxman dated 2 January 1804 for the Fascicle with the essay on "Basso Relievo"

which was issued on 1 February 1804.[62] Blake made seven plates for the same edition, including one for "Basso Relievo" (1818).

See 1806 Hume.

1805

Flaxman, John. THE | ILIAD OF HOMER | ENGRAVED FROM THE COMPOSITIONS | OF IOHN FLAXMAN R.A. SCVLPTOR, | LONDON. | [Vignette] | LONDON: | Printed for LONGMAN, HURST, REES AND ORME, Paternoster Row, R.H. EVANS, Pall Mall, W. MILLER, Albemarle Street, & I & A. ARCH, Cornhill, March 1. 1805. <GEB [4], BL, British Museum Print Room, Bodley, et al>

Oblong 4°; Parker engraved two of the five plates added in 1805,[63] and William Blake engraved the other three. On 11 March 1808 Flaxman told William Hayley: "M.r Longman paid 5 Guineas each one with another to Mess.rs Blake, Parker &c for the plates they engraved for the Homer and with which those Artists were highly contented — ".[64]

Flaxman, John. THE | ODYSSEY OF HOMER | ENGRAVED FROM THE COMPOSITIONS | OF IOHN FLAXMAN R.A. SCVLPTOR, | LONDON. | [Head of Homer within a wreath.] | LONDON: Printed for LONGMAN, HURST, REES & ORME, Paternoster Row, R.H. EVANS, Pall Mall, W. MILLER, Albemarle Street, & I & A. ARCH, Cornhill, March. 1st 1805. <Aberdeen, Auckland, Bayerische Staats-bibliothek (Munich), GEB (4 copies), Bodley (1707 b 5), Bombay, Boston Athenaeum (2 copies), Boston Public, California (Los Angeles), Clark Library (Los Angeles), Dalhousie, Durham Cathedral, Gennadius Library (American School of Classical Studies, Athens), Glasgow, Indiana, Kansas, Liverpool Public, Manchester Public, Metropolitan Museum (N.Y.), Mitchell Library (Sidney), National Library of Ireland, New South Wales State Library (Sydney), Newberry Library, Royal Academy, Sir John Soane Museum, Sydney, Toronto, Trinity College (Cambridge; 2 copies), Trinity College (Hartford, Connecticut), Victoria State Library (Melbourne), Victoria & Albert Museum, Victoria University (Victoria, British Columbia), Whitworth Art Gallery>

Oblong 4°; Flaxman made designs for The Iliad and The Odyssey in Rome in 1793, Piroli engraved two sets of plates for them, one for publication on the Continent and one for publication in England. The Odyssey plates were lost at sea, and in 1805 new copies were engraved by Parker (20) and Neagle (14).

See 1806 Hume (5).

1806

Hume, David. THE | HISTORY | OF | ENGLAND, | FROM | THE INVASION OF JULIUS CAESAR | TO | THE REVOLUTION IN 1688. | — — | BY DAVID HUME, ESQ. [5 vols. in 9. London: R. Bowyer, 1793 — 1806] <BL; Bodley>

2°; Parker engraved 13 of the 199 plates, mostly after Stothard. Those for Chapter-headings consist of a summary of the contents (presumably executed by the writing-engraver), with a vignette at the top by Parker.

• 1 Chapters XXVII — XXXIII, Stothard, "Suppression of the Monasteries" (Aug 1795).
• 2 Chapters XXXIV — XXXV, Stothard, "Edward VI. Granting the Charter for Hospitals" (Nov 1796).
• 3 Chapters XLV — XLIX and Appendix, Stothard, "The Entry of James I. into London" (March 1797).
• 4 Chapters L — LIX, Stothard, "The Battle of Edge Hill" (March 1798).

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• 5 Chapters LXIII — LXIX, Stothard, "Lady Mary Presented to the Prince of Orange" (Jan 1799).
• 6 R. Smirke, "Sir T. Windham Admonishing His Sons to Preserve their Loyalty to the King" (1 May 1802).
• 7 Chapters LXX — LXXI, Stothard, "Flight of James 2.d" (Sept 1804).
• 8 J. Opie, "Balliol Surrendering his Crown to Edward I" (March 1799), fine (see Plate 3).
• 9 Stothard, "Q. Elizabeth at Tilbury" (1 Jan 1805).
• 10 Chapter XXIII, Stothard, "Murder of Edward V & of the Duke of York" (May 1805).
• 11 Chapters XV — XVI, Stothard "Origin of the Installation of the Garter" (1 June 1805).
• 12 Stothard, "Charles II. and Sir William Temple" (1 June 1805), fine.
• 13 Chapters XXXVIII — XLIII, Stothard, "Admiral Drake Knighted by Queen Elizabeth" (1 Oct 1805).

The plates for June and October 1805 (and perhaps others) were post-dated, for Parker died on 20 May 1805.

The plates were reprinted in A Series of One Hundred and Ninety-Six Engravings, (in the Line Manner,) by the First Artists in the Country, Illustrative of The History of England (London: R. Bowyer, 1812) <GEB>.

1809

Le Sage, David. Gil Blas de Santillane, 4 vols. (London: Longman, 1809).

8°; Parker engraved at least one of the 24 plates after Smirke.[65] Parker's work must of course have been finished at least four years earlier.

Notes