Artist Information
Artist
Benjamin Fawcett (1808-1893)Role
Printer and EngraverArtist
Rev. Francis Orpen Morris (1810-1893)Role
AuthorArtist
Groombridge and Sons, LondonRole
PublisherDate made
circa 1850 - circa 1857Time Period
19th CenturyNotes
BIOGRAPHIES
ENGRAVER and PRINTER
Benjamin Fawcett (1808-1893), born in Bridlington, East Yorkshire, England, was recognized as one of the finest of the English 19th C. woodblock colour printers. In 1831, after a seven-year apprenticeship to a local bookseller and printer, he established his own business as a bookseller, bookbinder, music seller, printer and stationer in nearby Driffield. He was also an accomplished artist/engraver in his own right, as well as an amateur ornithologist. His early works were mostly children's books, and then in about 1845 he formed a close working association with the Rev. Francis Orpen Morris resulting in his most well known work, the popular and successful "A History of British Birds” as well as many other collaborations. B. Fawcett and Co. closed in 1893.
Fawcett worked extensively with Alexander Francis (AF) Lydon (1836-1917), an Irish-born British watercolour artist, illustrator and engraver of natural history and landscapes. While he worked solely for Benjamin Fawcett, his boss, mentor, and friend for many years and was later noted for his attention to detail, and the beauty and quality of his work, it is believed he would have been too young and inexperienced to have worked on the earlier editions of "A History of British Birds”.
AUTHOR
Rev. Francis Orpen Morris (1810-1893) was an Irish-born British natural history writer, ardent campaigner for animal rights and a clergyman. He graduated with a B.A., honours in classics from Oxford in 1833 and was ordained priest in 1835, becoming a vicar near Driffield, East Yorkshire (1844-1853) and staying in the same county for the rest of his life. He reportedly had ample leisure to pursue his passions for natural history.
Morris was an early advocate of animal welfare and for conservation, campaigning extensively against animal cruelty and successfully for a nature conservation act, and was instrumental in founding the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds. Morris wrote much on religious subjects, but he is best known for his works on natural history, which, although "popular" rather than "scientific", had considerable literary value. His first book on birds was published in 1834, and about this time he formed a close working association with Benjamin Fawcett, a local printer, that would result in the popular and successful "A History of British Birds” for which he contributed the text. This relationship flourished for some 50 years and a prolific number of other publications on natural history and other subjects followed.
PUBLISHER
Groombridge was a publisher and bookseller founded by Richard Groombridge (1793-1855) before 1835 and continued with his sons Richard, Henry, William and Charles until 1891. The firm was best known as the publisher of books on religion, agriculture and natural history. The Groombridges worked closely with the printer and engraver Benjamin Fawcett and the artist and engraver AF Lydon, publishing many of their finely illustrated books (1844 -1890) including several books by Rev. Francis Orpen Morris on birds and butterflies which were generously illustrated in colour.
