The artist's repository and drawing magazine,, MDCCLXXXIV [1784]-MDCCXCIV [1794]
- Title(s):
- The artist's repository and drawing magazine, exhibiting the principles of the polite arts in their various branches.
- Additional Title(s):
Artist's repository
Heads of lectures on the polite arts
Heads of a second set of lectures on the polite arts
Compendium of colors, and other materials used in the arts of design
Dictionary of principles, and terms of art, adopted in the arts of design
Miscellanies relating to the arts
Artist's repository and drawing magazine (London, England : Cumulation)- Published/Created:
- London [England] : printed for T. Williams, no. 43, nearly opposite Hatton-Street, Holborn, MDCCLXXXIV [1784]-MDCCXCIV [1794]
- Physical Description:
- 5 v., plates (some fold.) : tables ; 21 cm (8⁰)
- Holdings:
- Rare Books and ManuscriptsN1 .A835 1784Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon CollectionView by request in the Study Room [Request]
Note: The Study Room is open by appointment. Please visit the Study Room page on our website for more details. - Copyright Status:
- Copyright Not Evaluated
- Full Orbis Record:
- http://hdl.handle.net/10079/bibid/9129667
- Classification:
- Periodicals
- Notes:
- Compiler and principal contributor: Francis Fitzgerald, named on letterpress title pages as author of the Heads of lectures.
Title pages are engraved; most volumes have added letterpress title page.
The letterpress title page for the Compendium of colors reads at head: The artist's repository. Vol. II; for the Dictionary the added statement appears at the foot of the page: The artist's repository. Vol. IV.
The Miscellanies have caption titles for each part, with added engraved title pages for Part I and Part II.
Imprints vary; all later volumes and later issues of the letterpress title pages read in part: Printed for C. Taylor no. 10 near Castle Yard [or Castle Street] Holborn. Some letterpress title pages lack imprints; most imprints lack dates. Some copies have the Taylor imprint on the engraved title page of vol. 1.
The organization of this publication is problematic and varies from copy to copy. At the end of the Dictionary section is a note to the binder which reads: This work may be bound in either two volumes or four [clearly at this time vol. 5 had not been prepared]. ... When ... in four ... each series of lectures makes a volume. The Compendium of colours, with ... Miscellanies, makes also a volume.... Or, the Dictionary may be united to the Compendium ... and the two courses of Miscellanies form a volume .... These suggestions have been variously followed in different sets, however the four volume arrangement with the Dictionary and Compendium bound together and the Miscellanies forming a separate volume seems to be the most common; variants from this arrangement will be noted for holdings whenever possible.
Pagination is individual for each section of the text.
Preface to vol. 5 begins with note,"After a standing of more than ten years, and the sale of five editions ...", suggesting that the engraved title pages with the Taylor imprint, all of which look alike, are a late issue in order to present the entire work as a complete set. There are no edition statements on the volume titlepages, although different editions of individual sections occur in a number of copies. This suggests a compilation of remaindered and reprinted material from the original monthly issues of the first four volumes, combined with new material in vol. 5. Later editions of vols. 1 and 2, the 'Heads of Lectures' were also published in the 1780s (see: T219857, T219856, T219860).
The complete work includes detailed advice on drawing, composition and color for human figures, landscapes, and architecture, with a fifth volume on the world history of art, a dictionary of terms, biographies and criticism of famous artists, and many plates as examples. Vol. 5 includes an appendix on ancient art, a chronology of art, a list of modern artists, and added plates with notes.
British Library identifies Francis Fitzgerald as a pseudonym for Charles Taylor, but ESTC thinks this unlikely.
Crane, R.S. Census of British newspapers and periodicals, 1620-1800, 29
Volumes lack chronological designations; vols. 1,5 dated from imprints: 1784 and 1794; vols. 2-4 include engravings dated from 1784-1787.
Cumulates, with added title pages and much rearrangement, monthly issues of the Artist's repository.
English short title catalogue, P006669
New Cambridge bibliography of English literature, II:1307
Times (London, England). Tercentenary handlist of English & Welsh newspapers, magazines & reviews, p. 46
Ward, W.S. Index and finding list of serials published in the British Isles, 1789-1832, p. 9
BAC: British Art Center copy has vol. 1-4. - Subject Terms:
- Art -- History -- Periodicals -- Early works to 1800.Art -- Periodicals -- Early works to 1800.Artists -- Biography -- Periodicals -- Early works to 1800.Engraving -- Specimens -- 1784-1794.Etching -- Specimens -- 1784-1794.
- Form/Genre:
- Periodicals -- England -- 18th century.
- Export:
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