Description
[005300] Middiman, S.[amuel]. Select Views in Great Britain. ill. Middiman, S.[amuel]. London: John and Josiah Boydell, 1813. First Thus. 4to. Full Morocco. Good. Letterpress title, advertisement leaves in English and French, list of subjects leaf, fifty-three copper engraved plates, (as called for), with English and French descriptions. Contemporary, full, straight-grain maroon morocco, wide flat bands, spine in five panels, title in gilt to second panel, remaining panels with rectangular gilt device, a.e.g.
Rubbed to extremities, especially to joints, a couple of minor scrapes to upper cover, with a larger, but relatively minor scrape to lower cover, corners bumped. Internally some browning and foxing throughout, especially to margins, with some offsetting, the browning becomes quite heavy by the final ten plates and text leaves. Former owner’s name to ffep
Seemingly first issued in parts in the late eighteenth century, Oxford has a copy described as No.’s 1-8, presumably with six plates in each part, giving a total of forty-eight, this later edition with an extra five plates, all of which were published in 1813. Usually found bound in landscape format, this copy bound in portrait, and with the half-title which is often missing
Samuel Middiman (1750-1831) “was apprenticed in 1767 to William Byrne (1743-1805), an engraver who had studied with Aliamet and Wille in Paris, and who worked for Boydell in the later 1760s. Middiman is also said to have worked with Woollett and Bartolozzi. He exhibited at the Free Society of Artists in 1771 and showed drawings and prints with the Society of Artists from 1772 to 1777, giving addresses in St James’s Square and then Wells Street, Oxford Road. In 1780-82 and 1795-7 he exhibited drawings and stained drawings at the academy, giving addresses in Margaret Street, Winchester Row, and Warren Place. On 5 April 1788 he married Martha Woodyer at St Pancras. Middiman produced three large plates and one smaller illustration for the Shakspeare Gallery. As a specialist landscape etcher his skills were much in demand, and he is said to have worked on many plates issued under the sole name of other engravers, for instance John Pye. He produced the fifty-three plates for Select Views in Great Britain (1814) and sixteen plates for Picturesque Castles and Abbeys in England and Wales (1807-11). About 1812 he gave up engraving and appears to have turned to landscape painting, exhibiting pictures at the British Institution in 1810-11 and again in 1824. He died on 20 December 1831 at Cirencester Place, Westbourne Park” (Oxford DNB); and see Alexander, A Biographical Dictionary of British and Irish Engravers 1714-1820, pages 615-617
Upcott xxxiv; Bicknell 77
