William Miller (engraver)
William Miller | |
|---|---|
 William Miller, photograph, circa 1862 | |
| Born | May 28, 1796 |
| Died | January 20, 1882 |
| Cause of death | (burial location: Quaker Burial Ground, The Pleasance, Edinburgh, Scotland, United Kingdom) |
| Spouse | Jane Miller |
William Miller was a Quaker line engraver from Edinburgh, Scotland.
Miller became an apprentice to William Archibald in 1814. His first published engraving was in that year, of an apple tree for William Archibald. This engraving appeared in Vol I of the Caledonian Horticultural Society. He spent four years with William Archibald, then setting up on his own account. At the end of 1819 he moved to Hackney to join the workshop of George Cooke. The premium paid for his eighteen month stay with Cooke was £240. Other apprentices with Cooke included William Shotter Boys. Whilst an apprentice with Cooke, Miller drew a series of plants from the neighbouring nursery of Loddiges. These were engraved by Cooke and published in volumes v - vii of Loddiges Botanical Cabinet, London, J and A Arch, 1820 - 1822.
Miller was one of the principal engravers of J. M. W. Turner. His engravings after Turner included Portsmouth, Clovelly Bay and Comb Martin for An Antiquarian Tour Round the South Coast, J and A Arch, 1826; Bass Rock for Scott's Provincial Antiquities of Scotland, 1826; seven plates Straits of Dover, Great Yarmouth, Stamford, Windsor Castle, Chatham, Carew Castle and Durham Cathedral for Picturesque Views in England and Wales, London, Longman and Co, 1838.
James Giles, one of William Miller's pupils, wrote some reminiscences of his time as an apprentice at Hope Park. Writing from Redhill on Sept 17th 1883 (published privately in Memorials of Hope Park): "Wm Miller's admiration of Turner was unbounded, and his pupils soon caught the infection. The drawings, which at first sight looked so mysterious and unintelligible, the more they were pondered, unfolded their wondrous meaning and beauty; and from my own experience I can testify, that sitting for weeks before the same drawing, I did not tire over them, as was the case with inferior pictures. The plates executed from 1833 to 1836 consisted of the illustrations to Scott's Works, Turner's 'Annual Tour', Gainsborough's 'Watering Place', a large Venice, by Turner and, of course, some plates of less note. The plates for Rogers's poems were engraved before my time, but not published till afterwards; these are probably the most exquisite gems that ever were, or ever will be produced. I beg however to differ from Ruskin in my estimate of them. I like Loch Lomond, and the old Ancestral Hall better than the vignette, with the fountain, at the beginning of the volume...........The Gainsborough was entirely the work of your father's own hand; it was done from a smaller copy of the ooriginal in the National Gallery. The pencil drawing was sent as usual to be transferred by the printer through the rolling press on to the etching ground, but when it came back the drawing was found to have shifted during the process, and the transferred outlines were thick and blurred. I should have been appalled, but your father made light of it, and etched away as if it had been all right.
"I need hardly say that it is as the interpreter of Turner your father's fame very much rests, and that Turner himself preferred 'the Scotch Quaker' to all other engravers. The skill with which he translated the high aerial effects was beyond all rivalry..........
"In making the outline drawings for transference to the plate, we were instructed to preserve every minute touch, indeed, keeping the touch was a point much insisted on. I remember an amusing instance of this. I was etching the Pass of Killicrankie, a vignette for Scott's Works; cottages were in flames, and the dead lying in the foreground; in the distance was a row of dark spots - the subject suggested they might be a regiment of soldiers, at the same time they looked very much like fir-trees. I asked your father's opinion, he reply was 'Oh, just keep the touch, and they can be taken for either.' He was not, however, so particular in the case of architecture; and when Edinburgh, from St. Anthony's Chapel, was in hand, he sent me to the spot to make sketches of the principal buildings in the distance. The High School in Turner's drawing was little more than a white patch. Your father did the foreground, and I believe, the sheep, but St. Anthony's Chapel, and the various distant buildings were etched by me - the latter from the sketches I had taken. For closeness of line and minute detail, it is the most laborious plate I was ever engaged on, and will, I believe, bear looking at through a magnifier. Of course, the beautiful effects depend entirely on the finish of your father. I had only to do with the mechanical part - the body - the soul is his. In the case of Turner's figures, perhaps keeping the touch was carried too far.
"Your father usually etched the foreground of the plates his pupils worked upon; and was fond of etching water, both rough and smooth, which was remarkable for its liquid effect.
"Turner's touched proofs were always an oject of interest in the workroom. I recollect on the margin of one of them he had written. 'Mr Miller will please return all my touched proofs.' Whether this was done I cannot say; but they are generally considered the property of the engraver. They must be of considerable value."
Large single prints by Miller after Turner include The Grand Canal for Hodgson and Graves, 1837; Modern Italy for F G Moon, issued as the Presentation Plate for the National Art Union in 1843; and The Rhine, Osterprey and Feltzen for D T White in 1852.
His last engraved work was a series of vignettes after Myles Birket Foster to illustrate two volumes of the poems of Thomas Hood, published by Moxon in 1871 and 1872.
Bibliography of works illustrated by William Miller
- Memoirs of the Caledonian Horticultural Society Volume First. Edinburgh: Printed by Neill & Co. for Archibald Constable and Company; and for Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme and Brown, London, 1814
- Encyclopaedia Britannica 5th Edition, at the Encyclopaedia Press, For Archibald Constable and Company, and Thomson Bonar, Edinburgh: Gale, Curtis, and Fenner, London; and Thomas Wilson and Sons, York, 1817
Botany Plate 124; Shipbuilding Plate 490; Shipbuilding Plate 491; War Plate 552; War Plate 558
- The Botanical Cabinet Consisting of Coloured Delineations of Plants from all countries. Plates by George Cooke. Conrad Loddiges. London: John & Arthur Arch, 1818
Phlox carnea (Loddiges 111); Stapelia vetula (Loddiges 428); Phaca astragalina (Loddiges 429); Erica ventricosa (Loddiges 431); Pinguicula gandiflora (Loddiges 445); Olea europaeae longifolia (Loddiges 456); Erica purpurea (Loddiges 703); Erica primuloides (Loddiges 715); Calothamnus quadrifida (Loddiges 737)
- Engravings of the Skeleton of the Human Body. John Gordon MD. Blackwood, Edinburgh 1818
Human Skull plate Va; Human Skull plate Vb; Human Skull plate VI; Human Skull plate VII; Human Skull plate VIII; Human Skull plate X
- Scottish Cryptogamic Flora or Coloured Figures and Descriptions of Cryptogamic Plants, belonging chiefly to the Order Fungi; and Intended to serve as a Continuation of English Botany. Robert Kaye Greville. Edinburgh: Printed (by P. Neill) for MacLachlan & Stewart, Edinburgh; and Baldwin, Cradock & Joy, London, 1823-1828 (Plesch 301; Margadant, Greville 5; Nissen 757)
Fly agaric, plate 54; Fungi, plate 171
- An Account of the Bell Rock Lighthouse by Robert Stevenson, Edinburgh Printed for Archibald Constable and Co, Edinburgh; Hurst, Robinson and Co and Josiah Taylor, London, 1824
Progress of the Bell Rock works (Plate ix); Apparatus connected with the Bell Rock works (Plate xi); General View of the Bell Rock works (Plate xviii)
- An Essay on Gothic Architecture by T. Rickman, Architect. Third edn. Thomas Rickman. Liverpool: Geo. Smith. 1825
- Picturesque Views on the Southern Coast of England from drawings made principally by J.M.W. Turner, R.A. and engraved by W.B. Cooke, George Cooke and other eminent engravers, John and Arthur Arch, London 1826
Clovelly Bay; Comb Martin; Portsmouth
- Provincial Antiquities and Picturesque Scenery of Scotland, Walter Scott, J M W Turner and others, John and Arthur Arch, London 1826
- Select Views In Greece With Classical Illustrations. Williams, Hugh William. London: Longman Rees Orme Brown and Green; and Adam Black. 1829
Ancient Sarcophagi. Plataea; Ancient Temple at Corinth; Caritena, Ancient Brenthe; Corinth. Apocorinthus of Corinth; Delphi, Castalian Fountain, on Mount Parnassus; Eleusis, & Part of the Island of Salamis; Mount Oleno, Peloponnesus; Mountains of Locri Ozolae, looking towards Naupactus; Nemea; Part of Misitra, the Ancient Sparta; Parthenon of Athens; Patras (Ancient Patrae) Achaia; Plain of Orchomenos from Livadia; Plain of Plataea, from Mount Cithaeron; Promontary of Sunium from the Sea; Rocks of the Strophades; Temple of Minerva, Acropolis of Athens; Temples of Jupiter Panhellenius, Aegina; View Looking across the Isthmus of Corinth;
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References
- A Catalogue of Engravings by William Miller HRSA 1818 - 1871 By WFM (William F Miller, his eldest son), Published privately in 1886
- Memorials of Hope Park comprising some particulars in the life of our dear father William Miller, together with a list of his engravings. By WFM (William F Miller, his eldest son), Published privately in 1886