Talk:The Deserted Village

Illustrations
Nice work on the article.

It would be good to see a section on the illustrations. A a headpiece and tailpiece] (p. 94) are by Thomas Bewick, and some plates e.g. The Sad Historian by Robert Bewick (his brother).

An apparently better source, a bookseller, writes "The first book in the volume, Poems by Goldsmith and Parnell, is illustrated with four full-page, wood-engraved plates, by Thomas Bewick and one by John Bewick, and eight wood-engraved vignettes drawn by Robert Johnson or John Bewick, and engraved by Thomas Bewick. The second book, The Chase by William Somerville, has thirteen wood-engraved vignettes, including title pages, engraved by Thomas Bewick after designs by John Bewick."

Booksellers usually get such facts from a large reference catalogue. It may be as named in the same bookseller's description "InThe Bewick Collector, Thomas Hugo describes Poems by Goldsmith and Parnell as "A magnificent result of the efforts of the wood engraver, type-founder, papermaker, and printer" and writes that The Chase "contains the best specimens of John Bewick's abilities as a designer.""

The title page engraving seems to be signed "John (?) Taylor del & sculp" (...drew and engraved this). This could possibly be the father or brother, both engravers, both named John, of Irish artist William Benjamin Sarsfield Taylor.

Chiswick Chap (talk) 08:32, 1 June 2013 (UTC)


 * Good idea – sources may not be easy to find, but I've still got a lot of reading to do about the poem, so will try to incorporate anything I find. The article on Isaac Taylor (engraver) claims he produced the engraving, and this is supported by his entry in the new ODNB, so I'll mention this in the article shortly. Celuici (talk) 09:03, 1 June 2013 (UTC)


 * Aha! Here's a proper ref: Christies: Goldsmith, Oliver. The Deserted Village... Half-title, title-page with engraved vignette by Isaac Taylor. Sale 5829, Lot 215. 23 November 2009.

There's also The Metropolitan Museum of Art which says "Designed and engraved by Isaac Taylor, I (British, Worcester 1730–1807 Edmonton, Greater London)" and "Author: Oliver Goldsmith (Irish, Pallas, Longford ca. 1728–1774 London). Publisher: W. Griffin (London). Date: 1770".

The engravings by Thomas Bewick are attested to by the |1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Bewick, Thomas]. So there are reliable sources... All the best, Chiswick Chap (talk) 10:21, 1 June 2013 (UTC)

The deserted village
A summary of this poem 115.186.190.29 (talk) 08:13, 6 November 2022 (UTC)