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Figure 8. — "The Spanish Pointer," illustralion 

 (actual size) by Thomas Bewick, from A general 

 history of quadrupeds, i ygo, in the collections of the 

 Library of Congress. 



any others), is weak and unskillful. The fine woik of the 

 backgrounds is seldom made out, and the whole impression 

 is blurred and unequal. 



E\^en in the Select fables oj Aesop and others of 1 784, 

 when Bewick's special gifts began to emerge, the cuts 

 on laid paper appeared weak in comparison with his 

 later work. Bewick was still using wood engraving as 

 a cheaper, more quickly executed substitute for the 

 woodcut. The designs were based upon Croxall's 

 edition of Aesop^s Fables, published in 1722, which was 

 probably the best and most popular illustrated book 

 published in England during the century up to Be- 

 wick's time. According to Chatto, the cuts were 

 made with the burin on end-grain wood, probably by 

 Kirkall,-" but Bewick believed they were engraved on 

 type metal.-' It was not easy to tell the difference. 

 Type metal usually made grayer impressions than 

 wood and sometimes, but not always, nail-head marks 

 appeared where the metal was fastened to the wood 

 base. The Croxall cuts, in turn, were adapted with 

 little change from 17th-century sources — etchings by 

 Francis Barlow and line engravings by Sebastian Le 

 Clerc. Bewick's cuts repeated the earlier designs but 

 changed the locale to the English countryside of the 

 late 18th century. This was to be expected; to have a 

 contemporary meaning the actors of the old morality 

 play had to appear in modern dress and with up-to- 

 date scenery. But technically the cuts followed the 

 pattern of Croxall's wood engraver, although with a 

 slightly greater range of tone. Artistically Bewick's 

 interpretation was inferior because it was more literal; 

 it lacked the grander feeling of the earlier work. 



Bewick really became the prophet of a new pictorial 

 style in his .1 general history of quadrupeds, published in 



-- Chatto, op. cil. (footnote 6), p. 448. 



" Thomas Bewick, Fatdes of .desop and others, Newcastle, 1818. 



1790 on wove paper (see figs. 8, 9, and 10). Here his 

 animals and little vignetted tailpieces of observations 

 in the country annoimced an original subject for il- 

 lustration and a fresh treatment of wood engraving, 

 although some designs were still copied from earlier 

 models. The white line begins to function with 

 greater elasticity; tones and details beyond anything 

 known previously in the medium appear with the 

 force of innovation. Tiic paper was still somewhat 

 coarse and the cuts were often gray and muddy. But 

 the audacity of the artist in venturing tonal subtleties 

 was immediately apparent. 



One of Bewick's old friends at Newcastle had been 

 William Buhner, who by the 1790's had become a 

 famous printer. In 1795 he published an edition of 

 Poems by Goldsmith and Parnell, which was preceded by 

 an Advertisement announcing his intentions: 



The present volume . . . [is] particularly meant to 

 combine the various beauties of pri.nting. tvpe-foi'nding, 

 ENGRAVING, and PAPER-MAKING. . . . The ornamcnts arc 

 all engraved on blocks of wood, b\' two of my earliest 

 acquaintances, Messrs. Bewick [Thomas and his brother 

 and apprentice John], of Newcastle upon Tync and London, 

 after designs made from the most interesting passages of the 

 Poems they embellish. They have been executed with 

 great care, and I may venture to say, without being supposed 

 to be influenced by ancient friendship, that they form the 

 most exti-aordinary eflbrl of the art of engraving upon 

 wood that ever was produced in any age, or any country. 

 Indeed it seems almost impossible that such delicate cfTccts 

 could be obtained from blocks of wood. Of the Paper, 

 it is only necessary to say that it comes from the manufactory 

 of Mr. Whatman. 



The following year, 1796, a companion volume. The 

 Chase, a Poem, by William Somervile, appeared with 

 cuts by Bewick after drawings by his brother John 

 (see fig. 11). In both books, although no acknowl- 

 edgment was given, there was considerable assistance 



I'.M'KR 1 1 : WHY BEWICK SUCCEEDED 



195 



