Is this the landscape engraver?
In 1833 there appeared a book of “Picturesque Illustrations” of the Isle of Wight, many of the pictures being signed as drawn, engraved, or both, by a “T.” or “Tho.” Barber. The book itself seems to be widely attributed to “Thomas Barber,” but the exact truth seems not at all clear. The Preface to the first edition was written anonymously from 11 Park Place, Islington, and the name Simpkin & Marshall appears as either printers or publishers.
The illustrations, mainly landscapes and views (some of which such as Ryde and Cowes are seen from offshore), are to my eyes of high quality. Many were signed as drawn (delt) by [H.W.] Bartlett, some both drawn and engraved (sculpt) by Barber. Other artists were also involved. The name Barber does not appear at all in the text unless I missed it.
Barber the engraver did not work exclusively in the Isle of Wight and I have seen pictures of Edinburgh and London scenes attributed to presumably this same man. I have made various searches in the British Newspaper Archive which have failed to identify either man as the same as, or not the same as, the other.
Several images were printed in T.H.Shepherd's “Metropolitan Improvements” (1827 and later editions) as drawn by Mr Shepherd and engraved by Thomas Barber. These include one of Clarence Terrace, Regents Park which Alistair Plant in a 2016 article in Country Images Magazine states was drawn by Barber of Nottingham and engraved by T H Shepherd. So Mr Plant has reversed the artists. As to the addition of Nottingham he might have relied on the National Trust Collections Catalogue, which says this with no explanation of it. The Science Museum database also seems to assume that the Nottingham artist and the landscape engraver are the same.
I cannot at present even guess whether our Barber the portrait painter is the same as the namesake who specialised in landscapes. I have seen no evidence leading either way. To me it is a completely open point, but I somewhat suspect that Barber's son Alfred may have had some involvement.
The publisher of the Isle of Wight landscapes seems to have wanted to conceal his identity, and that makes me curious. Whoever it was, he called himself just “the Proprietor,” a tag that Alfred would use on a number of later occasions in his advertisements.
Such as when offering a (fake?) daguerrotype licence for sale in Sussex. Alfred Barber lived in the Isle of Wight for a time. That was where his wife's death was registered, in late 1846.
After about 1843 when Queen Victoria bought Osborne, there was growing interest in the Isle of Wight, and the book was reissued in 1844 or 1845 (or both), and again in 1850 as Barber's Picturesque Guide, the Preface now signed “The Proprietor, London.”
An engraver called Barber of Islington is mentioned in newspaper stories of 1835 concerning his daughter's marriage to a violent Swedish officer. But this Mr Barber's name was John, he was a die-engraver and medallist and his address was apparently not Park Place but Sherborne Cottage, New North Road (or Sherborne Street). This gets us nowhere in considering whether the landscape engraver Thomas Barber is the same as the portrait painter, but I guess that the engraver Barber was a different man. Adding to the muddle Benezit lists the landscape engraver as having initial J..
A British Museum database online, which shows both portraits and engravings, seems to leave open the possibilities (a) that T. Barber and J. Barber (engraver) are one and the same, and (b) that the portraits – many of which connect to Nottingham or Derby - and landscape engravings – mostly published in London – are by the same Thomas Barber.
In Hunnisett's Dictionary of British Steel Engravers is an entry on Thomas Barber fl.1816-1846 which has no biographical information.
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