Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Davenport, Samuel

1214771Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 14 — Davenport, Samuel1888Robert Edmund Graves

DAVENPORT, SAMUEL (1783–1867), line engraver, was born at Bedford, 10 Dec. 1783. While he was still an infant, his father, who was an architect and surveyor, removed to London. Here he was in due course articled to Charles Warren, one of the ablest line engravers of the period, under whose tuition he made good progress. His earlier works were book illustrations after the designs of Shenton, Corbould, and others; but subsequently he engraved in outline a large number of portraits for biographical works, and is said by Redgrave to have executed no less than seven hundred for one publication alone. The best examples of his work are the plates which he engraved for the ‘Forget-me-not’ between 1828 and 1842, and which include: ‘The Sister's Dream,’ ‘Fathime and Euphrosyne,’ and ‘The Disappointment,’ after Henry Corbould; ‘The Orphan Family,’ after A. Chisholm; ‘The Frosty Reception’ and ‘Uncle Anthony's Blunder,’ after R. W. Buss; ‘Chains of the Heart,’ after J. Cawse; ‘Cupid caught tripping,’ after J. P. Davis; ‘The Dance of the Peasants,’ in the ‘Winter's Tale,’ after R. T. Bone; ‘Louis XI at Plessis-les-Tours,’ after Baron Wappers; and ‘Count Egmont's Jewels,’ after a drawing by James Holmes, from a sketch by C. R. Leslie. All these were engraved on steel, the use of which he was one of the earliest to adopt, and are very carefully finished. He also engraved a small plate of ‘The Infant St. John the Baptist,’ after Murillo. He died 15 July 1867.

[Redgrave's Dict. of Artists of the English School, 1878; Forget-me-not, 1828–42.]