Fishing-boat on shore, a man with oars and ships visible in distance
Print
1803 (made), 1806-7 (printed)
1803 (made), 1806-7 (printed)
| Artist/Maker | |
| Place of origin |
A polyautograph is an early form of lithograph.
Object details
| Object type | |
| Title | Fishing-boat on shore, a man with oars and ships visible in distance (assigned by artist) |
| Materials and techniques | Pen lithograph |
| Brief description | Lithograph by J. T. Serres from the second edition of 'Specimens of Polyautography'. Great Britain, 1803-7. |
| Object history | This print is among the first lithographs ever created and published in Britain. The process was invented in Germany in 1796 by Alois Senefelder. |
| Summary | A polyautograph is an early form of lithograph. |
| Bibliographic reference | The following excerpts are from Pennell, Joseph, and Elizabeth Robins Pennell. Lithography and Lithographers Some Chapters in the History of the Art. T. Fischer Unwin, 1898:
'It is curious that for several years in England, the country to which Senefelder first came to protect his patents [in 1800], and to whose artists he looked rather than to those of his native land to take up and practise the art he had invented, hardly any lithographs were made, save a few prints by the French refugees living in London and two albums of 'Polyautography' as lithography at that time was called.
On April 30, 1803, a volume containing twelve prints was issued by His Majesty's Royal Letters Patent, entitled 'Specimens of Polyautography, Consisting of Impressions taken from the Original Drawings made purposely for this Work...'. The prints were by Stothard, Warwick, Delamotte, R. Corbould, R. Cooper, Hearne, Fuseli, Barry, Sir R. K. Porter, Barker, and Benjamin West. They were republished in 1806 by G.J. Vollweiler under the title 'Specimens of Polyautography, Consisting of Impressions taken from the Original Drawings, Made on Stone, purposely for this Work'. The new publisher even copied the yellow mounts of the first publication.
The South Kensington Museum possesses a portfolio, not however in the original cover, to which someone has affixed the title: 'Polyautographic Society, Examples of Forty Original Drawings'. The 12 drawings of the original portfolio reappear in this collection...The dates of these drawings range from 1802 to 1816. Several bear at the foot the inscription : London, Printed from a Pen and Ink Drawing on Stone at the Polyautographic Office, No 9 Buckingham Place, Fitzroy Square. The South Kensington title is incorrect. Three drawings of boats by Cornelius Varley in this portfolio are dated 1809...and as others come as late as 1816, one begins to wonder whether the collection at South Kensington has not had at least four prints of later date added to it, and there is no evidence whatever that there ever was a Polyautographic Society, or that it was published as an album'. |
| Collection | |
| Accession number | E.1122-1899 |
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| Record created | June 30, 2009 |
| Record URL |
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