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