a William Waalworth

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THE DICTIONARY OF PHRASE AND FABLE BY E. COBHAM BREWER

<< The chief magistrate of London is The Right Hon. the Lord Mayor, one of
the Privy Council. At the Conquest the sovereign appointed the chief
magistrates of cities. That of London was called the Port-Reeve, but Henry
II. changed the word to the Norman maire (our mayor). John made the office
annual; and Edward III. (in 1354) conferred the title of "The Right Hon. the
Lord Mayor of London." The first Lord Mayor's Show was 1458, when Sir John
Norman went by water in state, to be sworn in at Westminster; and the cap
and sword were given by Richard II. to Sir William Walworth, for killing
Wat Tyler.>>

to rise in undress maisonry upstanded (joygrantit!), a waalworth
of a skyerscape of most eyeful hoyth entowerly, erigenating from
next to nothing and celescalating the himals and all, hierarchitec-
titiptitoploftical, with a burning bush abob off its baubletop and
with larrons o'toolers clittering up and tombles a'buckets clotter
ing down.
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http://www.britannia.com/hiddenlondon/marshalsea.html

<<The Peasants' Revolt was the first popular rebellion in England. Lead
by Wat Tyler, it started after a poll tax of one shilling (around a week's
wages for a skilled labourer) was levied in order to help fund numerous
wars.

An army of 60,000 peasants marched on London but when Tyler met with
Richard II at Smithfield to propose economic reforms, he was stabbed by the
Lord Mayor of London, William Walworth. Some of Tyler's supporters
tried to save him by carrying him into St. Bartholomew's Hospital but
the King's knights dragged him out again and beheaded him.>>
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http://www.artoftheprint.com/artistpages/smith_anker_james_northcote_sirwill
iamwalworth.htm

SIR WILLIAM WALWORTH, LORD MAYOR OF LONDON,
KILLING WAT TYLER IN SMITHFIELD, 1381

Engraver: SMITH, ANKER (London, 1759 - 1819)
Designer: NORTHCOTE, JAMES (Plymouth, 1746 - London, 1831)
Date: 1796
Medium: ORIGINAL ENGRAVING
Publisher: JOHN BOYDELL, LONDON

<<James Northcote: A major English painter, illustrator, designer and
author, James Northcote left Plymouth for London in 1771. He studied art
there at the Royal Academy and then became a principle assistant to Sir
Joshua Reynolds. During his successful career Northcote was highly received
for his portraits, historical paintings and depictions of animals. In this
latter category his One Hundred Fables (1828) stands as a classic of wood
engraved illustration. John Northcote was elected an Associate of the Royal
Academy in 1786 and a full Academician in 1787.

Anker Smith: Anker Smith received his education at the Merchant Taylor's
School of London. After being apprenticed to several engravers he worked for
the London publisher, James Heath. First engraving for illustrated books,
Smith was commissioned by many publishers and designers, including
Bartolozzi. His first large, individually published plates were engravings
after the designs of Renaissance masters, such as Leonardo, Titian and
Correggio.

In 1791 Anker Smith began a leading engraver for Boydell's Shakespeare
Gallery. Of particular interest is that his engraving for Sir William
Walworth,
Lord Mayor of London, Killing Wat Tyler obtained his election into
the Royal Academy in 1797.

John Boydell: John Boydell is easily one of England's most remarkable 18th
century personalities. Born in poverty, he began his career as an at best
mediocre engraver of small book plates. At this time England was at a very
low ebb as a serious centre for the visual arts (particularly engraving) and
Boydell sought to eradicate this situation by beginning a second career as a
publisher of fine prints. Modest initial experiments in the 1760's led to a
rapid expansion of his business and during the 1770's he published his
striking series of mezzotint engravings, Liber Veritas, engraved by Richard
Earlom after the drawings of Claude Lorrain. This ambitious undertaking put
England back on the printmaking map and was a huge financial success for
John Boydell.

Boydell had now established London as a major centre for the arts and this
once poor and struggling engraver/publisher was acknowledged for his efforts
by being elected no less than Lord Mayor of London, in 1791. The same year
marked the beginning of Boydell's most grandiose undertaking. His new
publishing establishment in Pall Mall. 'The Shakespeare Gallery', began by
commissioning the most esteemed painters and engravers in the country to
create and design large and expensive engravings based upon the plays and
life of William Shakespeare. By this time as well John Boydell's brother,
Joshua, had joined the firm.

This monumental venture continued until Boydell's death thirteen years
later. By that time, The Shakespeare Gallery had created and published one
hundred and seventy engravings on a grand scale. Alas, the expenses for
this vast project had been so large that England's foremost publisher
of art ended his life the way he began, dying penniless.

In its grandiose size and style, Sir William Walworth, Lord Mayor of
London, Killing Wat Tyler, is closely related to Boydell's Shakespeare
prints. It clearly contains both the drama and design elements found in many
of his Shakespearean works. Not surprisingly, both James Northcote and Anker
Smith were commissioned by Boydell at this time to work on a number of
Shakespearean designs. This then was a fascinating attempt to turn an
episode of early English folklore into a scene worthy of Shakespeare's
greatest history plays. It was also a delightful self indulgence by Alderman
Boydell. After all, he, like the protagonist in this wonderful engraving,
was Lord Mayor of London.

One should also note that many of Boydell's Shakespeare engravings
were reprinted in later editions during the nineteenth century. Sir William
Walworth, Lord Mayor of London, Killing Wat Tyler, was an individually
published engraving which was not reprinted in any later editions. It is
thus much more scarce than any other large Boydell engravings. >>
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Art Neuendorffer