A PAIR OF GEORGE III EMBOSSED PAPER PICTURES

These pictures can be attributed to Isaac Spackman, a follower of Samuel Dixon who was working in Islington, London in approximately 1750-1771. Like Dixon, the source for his bird pictures was George Edwards' Natural History of Uncommon Birds (1743-1751) and his style is recognizable by his abbreviated and simplistic rendering of background details. Spackman is thought to have produced three sets of embossed bird pictures in 1754, 1764 and circa 1769. Each set was comprised of twelve pictures and it appears that he signed only one or two examples from each set. While Dixon worked with the assistance of three apprentices, Spackman appears to have worked alone and his pictures are more rare as a result. Most of Spackman's pictures were small, single bird compositions, but with the publishing of A.K. Longfield, 'Identifying Spackman's Embossed Pictures', Country Life, 25 January 1979, pp. 196-197, it was revealed that several double bird compositions by Spackman had been discovered. It is thought that these larger works were a part of a later, unfinished set. Further examples of Spackman's work are illustrated in 'More about Samuel Dixon and his Imitators', The Quarterly Bulletin of the Irish Georgian Society, January-June 1980.