Held by the British Library, the seven volumes of the Planches Gravées de l’Imprimerie Royale [Plates of the Royal Printing House] contain proofs of the plates printed by this printing house between 1640 and 1789.

Across these volumes and their 2338 prints, several names, or at least several signatures, crop up time and time again.  Opening the very first volume, we find what comes to be the very reliable signature of Claude Mellan (1598-1688): C Mellan. Others are not as consistent.  Karl Audran (1594-1674) took on Carol, Charles, Karolus, without much explanation; Louis Simonneau (1654-1727), when working with a Latin text, signed his name as Ludovicus, a penchant shared by Gilles ‘Aegid’ Rousselet (1610-1686).  Others still used shorthand, like Jacques Stella (1596-1675) who favoured his J *.  Signatures abound, but rarely do we see the engraver beyond the various and changeable ways they sign their names.  Volume 1.2 is the exception.

This volume contains all the prints of the Mémoires pour servir à l’histoire des animaux, across all its publications (1671, 1676, 1688, and 1733).  In Claude Perrault’s magnum opus, we may easily think that the only symbolic print is that of the lion that opens it, referencing Louis XIV’s own attempts to recall the glory of Rome in his image.  However, in an unassuming headpiece in the preface, Sébastien Leclerc I (1637-1714) achieved iconographic immortality.

Headpiece from the preface of Claude Perrault’s Mémoires pour servir à l’histoire des animaux by Sébastien Leclerc, c. 1671. This print is found in volume 2.1 of Planches Gravées de l’Imprimerie Royale (1750.c.7).

In the interior of a building in, what can be assumed to be, the Jardins des Plantes (then, the Jardins du Roi), a group of savants from the Académie des Sciences gather in the centre to dissect a fox.  From the skeletons in the background to the group of men on the left by the window, who examine various items using various instruments, this is a scene of scientific rigour.  Who could easily be missed is the man on the right of the table, who shows a print to a noble man on his left: Sébastien Leclerc.

Portrait of Sébastien Leclerc I, by John Sturt, 1675-1730. © The Trustees of the British Museum.

One of the more prolific engravers of the Ancien Régime, Leclerc produced over 3000 etchings and engravings both with and without royal patronage.  Born in Metz in 1637, he began his printing career at seventeen in 1654 to later become the protégé of Charles le Brun, a painter in Louis XIV’s court.  As a member of the Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture from 1672 and a ‘graveur du roi’ [King’s engraver] from 1693, his is a legacy that has not often been overlooked.  However, this self-portrait is still striking among the prints made by the faceless (and sometimes nameless) engravers of the Imprimerie Royale.

The print marks his construction of his own legacy, one not intertwined, as we would expect, with the Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture, but with the Académie des Sciences.  His pictorial inscription into the history of the Académie des Sciences to which he did not formally belong but with which he so often associated then reminds us of his other scholarly love.  Whilst engraving gave him fame and (relative) fortune, science also held his heart.  This print then reveals what Leclerc, himself, wanted to be remembered for.

Caitlin Sturrock
PhD student at the University of Bristol and PhD placement student in Western Heritage Prints and Drawings.

Further Reading:
For Leclerc’s other self-referential moments, see Maxime Préaud, Inventaire du fonds français, Graveurs du XVIIe siècle, vol. 8: Sébastien Leclerc I (Paris: Bibliothèque Nationale de France, 1980), pp. 235-58.
Maxime Préaud, ‘« L’Académie des sciences et des beaux-arts » : le testament
graphique de Sébastien Leclerc’, RACAR: Revue d'art canadienne, 10.1 (1983), pp. 73–81. doi:10.7202/1074641ar
For further detail on the volumes, see Caitlin Sturrock, ‘The Scrapbooks of the Imprimerie Royale’, British Library European Studies Blog. 

Like the great artist himself, many of JMW Turner’s relations led unconventional private lives, not the least of whom was Maria Harriett, the daughter of Turner’s first cousin, Thomas Price Turner (d.1868) and Harriett Westcott (d.1838).  Maria Harriett was baptised on 28 May 1815 at St Kerrian, Exeter.  Her father started life as a saddler but later became a classical musician and professor of music.

On 30 July 1836, Maria married Edward Charles Austin, a London architect, surveyor and builder at St Leonard Shoreditch.

St Leonard Shoreditch church from R. Ackermann's A Collection of 226 Engravings, etc., illustrating London and Environs - No.65 of Repository of Arts ... 1 May 1814. British Library Maps.C.18.d.6 Images Online 

Maria gave birth to a son, Sydney Alfred Austin who was baptised on 4 August 1837.  Sadly he died the following year and was buried at Bunhill Fields on 30 July 1838.  On 10 May 1839 another son, Albert William, was born.

The 1841 census shows Maria living with Edward and Albert in Singleton Street, Tower Hamlets.  At some point in the next few years, she left Edward and started a relationship with Ralph Hall, a silk manufacturer.

Birth registration for Maria Hall Austin from General Register Office for England and Wales

On 18 May 1847, Maria Harriett Austin gave birth to Maria Hall Austin at 23 Euston Place, St Pancras, with no father named.  It appears that this child later became known as Jenny Maria Matthews and she was described as Ralph Hall’s niece to disguise the fact that she was his illegitimate daughter.  Matthews was the name of Maria’s widowed aunt, Mary Saunders Matthews, Thomas Price Turner’s sister.

The census in 1851 records Albert Austin as a boarder at a school in West Ham.  In 1852 he was apprenticed to a metal chaser, naming his father at Singleton Street in the Goldsmiths’ Company register.  This perhaps indicates that he had stayed with Edward when his parents separated.  Albert worked as a silver chaser and embosser, married Sarah Martha Trotter, and had 5 children.  He died on 9 November 1922.

Death registration for Edward Charles Austin from General Register Office for England and Wales

Edward Austin died of tuberculosis in January 1854, aged 38, but his will was not settled until 1866, presumably because his son was a minor when he died.  He pointedly left one shilling to Maria.

In December 1854 Maria married Ralph Hall in Paddington.  The witnesses were a Turner cousin, Jabez Tepper, and his daughter Victoria Helen.  In 1861, the Halls were living at 54 Finchley Road, with Mary Matthews and two servants.

Following her father’s death in 1868, Maria, Ralph, and her brother, Frederick, brought a case against her father’s second wife, also Maria, for the payment of their share of the value of some JMW Turner engravings that had been reclaimed, following a suspect sale to Jabez Tepper.  Sadly, she did not live to see the outcome of the case, which was settled in her favour in 1880.  Maria died on 25 June 1869 at her home in Onslow Square, South Kensington, and was buried in Highgate Cemetery.

Death notice for Maria Harriett Hall in Morning Post, 29 June 1869 British Newspaper Archive

In the 1871 census Mary Matthews and Jenny M Matthews are recorded as visitors at Ralph Hall’s house. He died in Paris on 11 May 1883 and was buried in the same Highgate grave as Maria. Also in this grave are Mary Matthews (d.1871), and Jenny Maria Matthews (d.1928).

Grave at Highgate Cemetery - inscription for Maria Harriett. Photograph courtesy of Martin Ransley, volunteer guide at Highgate Cemetery.

Grave at Highgate Cemetery - inscriptions for Mary Matthews, Ralph Hall and Jenny Maria Matthews. Photograph courtesy of Martin Ransley, volunteer guide at Highgate Cemetery.

The inscription for Maria named her husband and father, and recorded that she was ‘cousin to the late JMW Turner Esq. R.A.’.  Jenny Maria Matthews is described on the grave as the ‘beloved niece’ of Ralph Hall. It appears that she was never openly acknowledged as the daughter of Ralph and Maria.

CC-BY
David Meaden
Independent Researcher

Creative Commons Attribution licence

Further reading:
British Newspaper Archive for reports on the court cases involving the Turner estate.

 

Turner’s restored house in Twickenham is open to visitors.

 

Today is the 80th anniversary of Victory Over Japan Day, 15 August 1945, which marked the conclusion of the Second World War.  VJ Day saw jubilant celebrations in Britain and around the world as six long years of war finally ended. 

VJ Day celebrations n London's Piccadilly Circus.. IWM D 25636

Betty Clay, a physiotherapist in London, who featured in a previous post on VE Day, noted in her diary on 15 August: 'I was roused at 3am by ringing of Church bells.  I wondered sleepily what on earth the bellringers had chosen such an early hour to practice for, but the obvious solution never occurred to me – that Japan had finally capitulated, & they were celebrating victory.  Today & tomorrow are to be observed as VJ Day'.  At the same time in India, her sister Audrey Baylis wrote in her diary: 'Fine morning & wet afternoon.  Got down early & put on the news - & heard that it is PEACE!!!  It is marvellous'.

Piles of torn up paper thrown, 'ticker tape'-style, from the windows of offices, on Lower Regent Street, London, to celebrate the signing of the Peace with Japan, 15 August 1945. IWM D 25638

A file in the India Office Records shows the concern of government officials to acknowledge the contribution of India in the struggle against Japan and the importance of both the Indian Armed Forces and the civilian effort in achieving victory . It was decided that a message would be sent by the Secretary of State for India to the Viceroy, to be passed on to the Indian Armed Forces, the people of India and to the Indian Princes.  The message was: 'At this moment when the Allied cause has achieved its final triumph in the defeat of Japan it is my privilege to convey to you the congratulations of His Majesty’s Government on the truly magnificent part which India has played.  We in this country are deeply conscious of the vital contribution which the armed forces of India, the Princes, and the people as a whole, have made not only on the battlefields, but in the workshops and factories which have transformed India into a great arsenal and fighting base.  The unsurpassed gallantry and endurance of the Indian forces throughout this long and bitter struggle are beyond all praise, and will stand recorded as a most glorious page in India’s history.  Those who have made the supreme sacrifice in this greatest world struggle for the triumph of right over might are not here to rejoice with us today in this moment of victory, but their names are remembered with thankfulness and pride. India, with her Allies, has crushed the aggressors.  Now we face the great task of restoring a stricken world and of building a universal structure of peace'.

Indian Army mountain guns carried on pack mules pass the saluting base during the Victory Parade in Delhi. IWM IND 5040

Another India Office file lists the messages of celebration, relief and congratulation which were sent to the Viceroy from people across India.  Talenah Omedkhan of Palanpur wrote: 'The World is at last really rejoicing today at the end of War and stopping for better future for all mankind', while the Maharaja of Dhrangadhra prayed that 'the forces of hatred and tyranny which have dominated the World for the past five years may be replaced forever by love and goodwill amongst all the people of the earth'.  The Federation of Kathiawar Seeds and Oil Associations congratulated His Majesty’s Government on the victory and hoped that the 'successful termination of World War secured revival of democracy which will ensure free trade and industrialisation of India for the advancement of Indian people and their lasting benefit'.

John O’Brien
India Office Records

Further Reading:
Diary of Betty Clay, Jan 1945-Jan 1946, British Library shelfmark: Mss Eur F765/4/1.
Diary of Edith Audrey Baylis (nee Clay) (1910-1998), 1945, British Library shelfmark: Mss Eur F765/2/21.
India Office Information Department file, India's contribution to victory: statement made after defeat of Japan, 1945-1946, British Library shelfmark IOR/L/I/1/1162.
India Office Political Department file, Congratulatory messages on the victory over Japan, and in connection with the victory celebrations in London, 1945-1946, British Library shelfmark IOR/L/PJ/7/7259.
BBC guide to VJ Day.