HUGIJENOT ARTISTS DESIGNERS AND CRAYPSNEN IN GREAT ...

26.
tortoiseshell, 17 03-1728, and yet another, Rene Pelletier, c.1691 was
a member of the family of cabinet-makers employed by William lU and
Ralph Montagu, and probably specialized in marquetry. Abrai Martin c. mis.
1709, worked as an ergraver of watches and clocks, and Simon Gribelin,
( 1661-1733) is described as 'graveur en taille douce'.
Other names occur in the registers which coincide with the names of
well known engravers, although their professions are not nentioned. These
include the Basire family, who produced four generations of engravers;
James Basire,(1730-1802) of the third generation is best known for taking
William Blake as an apprentice in 1772; Fran2ois Vivares (1709-80),
Paul Fourdrinier ( fl . 1 720-1750), Louis du Guernier,(1687-1716) and
John Rocque (d.1762).
Engraved pattern books were used to establish the reputation of some
of the better-known Huguenot craftsmen. Thus the Huguenot engravers looked
to architects, painters and publishers for patronage. The painter William
Hogarth patronized the Huguenot engravers James Basire and Charles Grignion
(1717-1810). William Kent used Paul Fourdrinier to engrave pictorial
designs for book illustration, as well as architectural designs, for
which Fourdrinier's talent as an engraver was best suited. (Plate 17).
The architect, Sir Christopher Wren had noted the quality of French
pattern books when in Paris in 1665, and wrote,
'I have purchased a great deal of Taille douce that I might give our
countrymen examples of ornaments & grotesks, in which the Italians
themselves confess the French to
It is significant that Simon Gribelin included amongst his
topographical work, an engraving of the interior and exterior of St.
Paul's Cathedral, which is inscribed,'Ex Autographo Architecti, 1702',
indicating thus that it was based on Wren's drawings. St. Paul's was
not completed until 1710, but it is probable that Gribelin was
anticipating a growing market for the prints, as the cathedral neared
completion. There was ev.dently still a demand for a view of the
cathedral forty years later, as the Guildhall Library preserves a
'South East Prospect of the Cathedral Church of St. Paul', which was
published April 28, 17k2 by Paul Fourdrinier. Gribelin also produced
a view of the Royal Naval Hospital at Greenwich, which includes Wren's
additions, completed in 1705, but may well be based on the architect's
revised drawings of 1699.
Other topographical prints by Gribelin include the Trinity
Almshouses at Deptford and Mile End. An inscription on the latter