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Charles Heath

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
For other people named Charles Heath, seeCharles Heath (disambiguation).

Silvia (character from "The Two Gentlemen of Verona",1849, engraving afterJohn William Wright)
Saighton Grange(1817, engraving afterGeorge Pickering)
View of the Louvre (1831, engraved afterAugustus Charles Pugin)

Charles Theodosius Heath(1 March 1785 – 18 November 1848) was a Britishengraver,currency and stamp printer, book publisher andillustrator.

Life and career

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He was the illegitimate son ofJames Heath,a successful engraver who enjoyed the patronage of KingGeorge IIIand successive monarchs. Early in life he became a fellow of theSociety of British Artists,and contributed for some years to their exhibitions.[1]

The American connection

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Jacob Perkinsthe American inventor developedsiderography,asteel engravingtechnique, and in 1809 metJoseph Chessborough Dyer,an American who moved to England and acted as Perkins's agent. Perkins went to England in 1819, with his eldest son Ebenezer and associates, to bid for aBank of Englandcontract to print banknotes. He gained the contract.[2]Heath had encouraged Perkins to come to England.

From 1819 Charles Heath and then (1820) his half-brother George Heath (1779–1852) were in partnership with Perkins, working with the new technique of siderography. Charles Heath replaced Asa Spencer, a partner of Perkins who returned to the United States, while George Heath was a financial backer. Perkins and his other American partner Gideon Fairman were in the United Kingdom for a period. With finance from Dyer for a printing press, the company traded as Perkins, Fairman, and Heath.[2][3][4][5]Initially Perkins and Heath usednitric acidfor the steel engraving, and shallow lines were an issue during the 1820s.[6]They then jointly purchased rights to the etching fluid developed byWilson Lowry.[7]

Joshua Butters Bacon (1790–1863), son-in-law of Perkins who settled in England, bought out the Heath interest in the company, by mid-1829.[8][9]It then assumed the name Perkins, Bacon orPerkins Baconby which it is usually known.

Rights of engravers

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Charles Heath believed that custom entitled engravers to make and keep a limited number of impressions of their work. When he was sued by the publisher, John Murray, in 1826, as a result of having made and kept such impressions, he relied on that supposed custom, but, in 1830, a jury denied its existence. Then, in 1831, the judges of the Court of King's Bench held that his conduct had been unlawful at common law, though not a breach of the Prints Copyright Act 1777.

Annuals

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An entrepreneur who sought out other new markets, Heath was a driving force behind, and contributor to, the new genre of theliterary annual.[10]He established his own annual,The Keepsake,first published at the end of 1827, and approachedWilliam Harrison Ainsworthto become its editor.[11]His first choice had beenSir Walter Scott,then having money troubles. Scott had declined, but sent Heath some stories first intended forChronicles of the Canongate.[12]

Later life

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Heath was successful in business, with some serious difficulties, but in the 1840s encountered cash flow problems, and sold stock from his back catalogue to stay afloat.[10]He persisted in trying to interest the Bank of England in engraving work, though paper money was less needed after the end of the Napoleonic Wars.[3]Henry Corbouldas designer. Charles Heath (engraver), and George Heath (financial backer) contracted for paper money and postage stamps with several governments. ThePenny Blackwas designed byWilliam Wyon,Corbould and Heath.[13]

Among Heath's pupils wereGeorge Thomas Doo(1800–1886),William Henry Mote(1803–1871), andJames Henry Watt(1799–1867).[1]

Works

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Heath received training in engraving from his father James, and his first known etching dates from when he was six years old. It was from his father that he learnt how to produce small plates suitable for book illustration.[1]He was a noted if self-regarding illustrator of theWaverley Novels,and engravedChrist healing the Sick in the Temple,one ofBenjamin West's big scriptural paintings.[12][14]AfterRichard Westall,he engraved illustrations toLord Byron's poems, published in 1819.[15]

As an engraver, Heath exhibited at theRoyal AcademyandSuffolk Street Galleryfrom 1801 to 1825.[16]After 1828 he produced little work of his own, but his studio was productive through his pupils Doo and Watt, and his sons.[10]Thomas Garnerwas taken on by the studio in the 1820s, to work uncredited on annuals.[17]As did his competitorEdward Finden,Heath outsourced work to a substantial group of engravers into the 1830s and 1840s, and employed a production line technique with division of labour.[18]

Heath initially commissioned, and the studio produced, the engraved seriesPicturesque Views in England and WalesbyJ. M. W. Turner,eventually running to 100 watercolours by Turner for apart publishingproject from 1827 to 1838. This collection has been considered a central part of Turner's opus, by Andrew Wilton, but in business terms was not a great success in its time.[19]

Family

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Heath married his cousin Elizabeth Petch. Two of their sons,Frederick(1810–1878) andAlfred(1812–1896), were engravers and another,Henry Charles Heath(1829–1898), was a miniature painter who portrayedQueen Victoriaand other members of the royal family.[20]Their daughter Fanny Jemima (died 1850) married in 1839Edward Henry Corbould,son of Henry Corbould.[21]

References

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  1. ^abcStephen, Leslie;Lee, Sidney,eds. (1891)."Heath, Charles (1785-1848)".Dictionary of National Biography.Vol. 25. London: Smith, Elder & Co. pp. 340–1.
  2. ^abMcConnell, Anita. "Perkins, Angier March".Oxford Dictionary of National Biography(online ed.). Oxford University Press.doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/21967.(Subscription orUK public library membershiprequired.)
  3. ^abKathryn Ledbetter,"The Copper and Steel Manufactory" of Charles Heath,Victorian Review Vol. 28, No. 2 (2002), pp. 21–30, at p. 24. Published by: The Johns Hopkins University Press.JSTOR27793493
  4. ^Mackenzie, A. D. (1953).The Bank of England Note: A History of Its Printing.CUP Archive. p. 65.
  5. ^Hunnisett,Basil (1 January 1998).Engraved on Steel: The History of Picture Production Using Steel Plates.Ashgate. p. 40.ISBN9780859679718.
  6. ^Hunnisett,Basil (1980).Steel-Engraved Book Illustration in England.David R. Godine. p.48.ISBN9780879233228.
  7. ^Guyatt, Mary. "Lowry, Wilson".Oxford Dictionary of National Biography(online ed.). Oxford University Press.doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/17103.(Subscription orUK public library membershiprequired.)
  8. ^Hunnisett,Basil (1980).Steel-Engraved Book Illustration in England.David R. Godine. p.165.ISBN9780879233228.
  9. ^Schultz, Jane E. (2010).This Birth Place of Souls: The Civil War Nursing Diary of Harriet Eaton.Oxford University Press. p. 231.ISBN9780199780730.
  10. ^abcHeath, John. "Heath family".Oxford Dictionary of National Biography(online ed.). Oxford University Press.doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/65036.(Subscription orUK public library membershiprequired.)
  11. ^Reynolds, Frederic Mansel (2006).The Keepsake for 1829.Broadview Press. pp. 14–5.ISBN9781551115856.
  12. ^ab"Charles Heath (1785–1848), www.walterscott.lib.ed.ac.uk".Retrieved16 July2018.
  13. ^Chesterton, G. K. (2002).Twelve Types: A Collection of Mini-Biographies.IHS Press. pp. 109 note 6.ISBN9781605700236.
  14. ^Lee, Sidney,ed. (1899)."West, Benjamin".Dictionary of National Biography.Vol. 60. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
  15. ^Fiona Wilson,"Virt'ous Fraud": The Perverse Politics of the "Caritas Romana" Scene in "Childe Harold",Keats-Shelley Journal Vol. 54 (2005), pp. 93–112, at pp. 109–110. Published by: Keats-Shelley Association of America, Inc. JSTOR30213108
  16. ^Press, Oxford University (2012).Benezit Dictionary of British Graphic Artists and Illustrators.OUP USA. p. 536.ISBN9780199923052.
  17. ^Charles, Greg. "Garner, Thomas".Oxford Dictionary of National Biography(online ed.). Oxford University Press.doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/10387.(Subscription orUK public library membershiprequired.)
  18. ^Kathryn Ledbetter,"The Copper and Steel Manufactory" of Charles Heath,Victorian Review Vol. 28, No. 2 (2002), pp. 21–30, at p. 26. Published by: The Johns Hopkins University Press.JSTOR27793493
  19. ^(Gallery), Tate Britain (26 February 2017).'Picturesque Views in England and Wales' Watercolours c.1826-38 (J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours), Tate website.ISBN9781849763868.Retrieved16 July2018.
  20. ^Charles Heath biography.
  21. ^Mallalieu, Huon. "Corbould, Edward Henry".Oxford Dictionary of National Biography(online ed.). Oxford University Press.doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/32568.(Subscription orUK public library membershiprequired.)

Further reading

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