Illustrations to the plays of Shakespeare [graphic] / [Samuel Grimm].
1769
Items
Details
Title
Illustrations to the plays of Shakespeare [graphic] / [Samuel Grimm].
Created/published
[1769-1780]
Description
112 items in 11 vol. : ink, wash and watercolor ; 9 1/2 x 7 1/2 in.
Associated name
Grimm, Samuel Hieronymus, 1733-1794, artist.
Ireland, Jane, active 1792-1793, printmaker.
Ireland, Samuel, -1800, former owner.
George, George C., former owner.
Ireland, Jane, active 1792-1793, printmaker.
Ireland, Samuel, -1800, former owner.
George, George C., former owner.
Material base
paper
Note
This record contains unverified data from old cards and may contain incorrect or incomplete text. Please consult Curator for assistance.
Drawings are outlined in ink and the wash and color has been distributed in three areas. The lower areas of the drawings are tinted brown, the central areas grey and the upper areas blue. There are some slight variations to this coloring but most of the drawings follow this pattern. Items were executed on laid paper and the watermarks are consistently cut in half, one half being on one drawing, the other on the next, though sometimes the date of the mark varies as much as ten years. (See project notes for complete schedule of items and notes on watermarks.) All but one or two of the drawings are signed and dated and two are signed twice, one of the signatures having been scratched out. All of the items are labeled on the verso as to play, act, and scene.
Artist: Grimm is noted mostly as a topographical draughtsman though he was also known as an illustrator. His biographer, Rotha Mary Clay, discusses his drawings of Shakespearean subjects and reproduces four items which are duplicates of drawings in this collection. Clay attributes ownership to the Earl of Buckinghamshire for three of these items. The extra-illustrated Turner Shakespeare owned by the Huntington Library also lists three works by Grimm, two of which are duplicated in this collection (see R.R. Wark's Drawings from the Turner Shakespeare). Grimm exhibited two Shakespearean subjects at the RA: 'Falstaff recruiting' in 1771 (a 'stained drawing') and 'Seventh scene in the Winter's Tale, act the fourth' in 1772. The Folger collection includes a drawing for Falstaff recruiting, however it is dated 1769. The signatures on the items in this collection vary, though most are similar to the signatures on the reproductions in Clay and Wark.
History: Five of the drawings are accompanied by proofs of etchings, executed by J. Ireland, the daughter of Samuel Ireland, after the Grimm drawings. A note by George C. George, the grangerizer, on the back of one of the etchings reads as follows: 'This is an Etching by Miss Ireland, a Daughter of the 'Ireland', who published the Shakespearean Mss which created so much controversy. This and some other Etchings in the Collection were made by Miss Ireland from such of Grimm's Drawings as I purchased from Mr. Ireland, and he therefore gave me Impressions to shew the state of the plates, and assured me nothing further should be done with them. Indeed I believe the plates were destroy'd - G.' The number of Shakespearean drawings, and the fact that no etching project was begun, seems to suggest that Grimm was working on illustrations for an edition, however, no such edition appears to have been completed. Four or five of these drawings were reproduced in A. Nicoll's Garrick stage (p.155), without mention of the Folger.
Provenance: Items are contained in an extra-illustrated copy of the 1802 Boydell ed. of Shakespeare's works. The set has been extended from 9 to 11 volumes by the addition of a collection of Shakespearian drawings and engravings gathered by George C. George of Penryn, Cornwall. According to the bookseller, Bernard C. Quaritch, the collection was formed about the end of the 18th and the beginning of the 19th centuries. The set was purchased by the Folgers from Quaritch in July of 1918.
Drawings are outlined in ink and the wash and color has been distributed in three areas. The lower areas of the drawings are tinted brown, the central areas grey and the upper areas blue. There are some slight variations to this coloring but most of the drawings follow this pattern. Items were executed on laid paper and the watermarks are consistently cut in half, one half being on one drawing, the other on the next, though sometimes the date of the mark varies as much as ten years. (See project notes for complete schedule of items and notes on watermarks.) All but one or two of the drawings are signed and dated and two are signed twice, one of the signatures having been scratched out. All of the items are labeled on the verso as to play, act, and scene.
Artist: Grimm is noted mostly as a topographical draughtsman though he was also known as an illustrator. His biographer, Rotha Mary Clay, discusses his drawings of Shakespearean subjects and reproduces four items which are duplicates of drawings in this collection. Clay attributes ownership to the Earl of Buckinghamshire for three of these items. The extra-illustrated Turner Shakespeare owned by the Huntington Library also lists three works by Grimm, two of which are duplicated in this collection (see R.R. Wark's Drawings from the Turner Shakespeare). Grimm exhibited two Shakespearean subjects at the RA: 'Falstaff recruiting' in 1771 (a 'stained drawing') and 'Seventh scene in the Winter's Tale, act the fourth' in 1772. The Folger collection includes a drawing for Falstaff recruiting, however it is dated 1769. The signatures on the items in this collection vary, though most are similar to the signatures on the reproductions in Clay and Wark.
History: Five of the drawings are accompanied by proofs of etchings, executed by J. Ireland, the daughter of Samuel Ireland, after the Grimm drawings. A note by George C. George, the grangerizer, on the back of one of the etchings reads as follows: 'This is an Etching by Miss Ireland, a Daughter of the 'Ireland', who published the Shakespearean Mss which created so much controversy. This and some other Etchings in the Collection were made by Miss Ireland from such of Grimm's Drawings as I purchased from Mr. Ireland, and he therefore gave me Impressions to shew the state of the plates, and assured me nothing further should be done with them. Indeed I believe the plates were destroy'd - G.' The number of Shakespearean drawings, and the fact that no etching project was begun, seems to suggest that Grimm was working on illustrations for an edition, however, no such edition appears to have been completed. Four or five of these drawings were reproduced in A. Nicoll's Garrick stage (p.155), without mention of the Folger.
Provenance: Items are contained in an extra-illustrated copy of the 1802 Boydell ed. of Shakespeare's works. The set has been extended from 9 to 11 volumes by the addition of a collection of Shakespearian drawings and engravings gathered by George C. George of Penryn, Cornwall. According to the bookseller, Bernard C. Quaritch, the collection was formed about the end of the 18th and the beginning of the 19th centuries. The set was purchased by the Folgers from Quaritch in July of 1918.
Genre/form
Book illustrations.
Item Details
Call number
PR2752 1802 copy 2 Sh.Col. vol.1-11 (pictorial content)