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William Elder

active London, 1680 - 1700

BiographyElder, William (fl. 1680–1701), engraver, was born in Scotland but worked in London, principally for booksellers. He engraved a number of portraits, often copied from older engravings, many of which were used as frontispieces to contemporary publications. Among them were one of Ben Jonson, prefixed to the folio edition of his works (1692) and copied from Vaughan's engraving in the first edition (1616), and one of the naturalist John Ray, from a drawing by William Faithorne, and prefixed to his Wisdom of God Manifested in the Creation (1701). Other portraits include Archbishop Sancroft, John Pearson, bishop of Chester, the astrologer George Porter, the physicians Theodore de Mayerne and Richard Morton, and the writing-master Charles Snell. According to Horace Walpole, George Vertue had also found an example of engraved writing by Elder in a book dated 1681. Elder engraved his own portrait twice, once in a fur cap from a crayon drawing, and again in a wig. He also contributed some plates to John Savage's abridgement of Richard Knolles and Paul Rycaut's The Generall Historie of the Turkes (1701). A portrait vignette of Elder is inserted into a portrait of Robert White, engraved by A. Bannermann in Walpole's Catalogue of Engravers (2nd edn, 1765).

L. H. Cust, rev. Anne Puetz
Sources Redgrave, Artists · Bryan, Painters · J. Strutt, A biographical dictionary, containing an historical account of all the engravers, from the earliest period of the art of engraving to the present time, 2 vols. (1785–6) · H. Walpole, Anecdotes of painting in England: with some account of the principal artists, ed. R. N. Wornum, new edn, 3 vols. (1849) · Anderson, Scot. nat. · H. Walpole, ed., A catalogue of engravers, who have been born, or resided in England, 2nd edn (1765) · Vertue MSS, BL, Add. MS 23078 · Thieme & Becker, Allgemeines Lexikon · Engraved Brit. ports., 6.606
Likenesses A. Bannermann, vignette (inserted into engraving of Robert White), repro. in Walpole, A catalogue of engravers, pl. 92 · W. Elder, self-portrait, engraving · J. Nutting, line engraving (after W. Faithorne the elder), BM, NPG [see illus.]
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L. H. Cust, ‘Elder, William (fl. 1680–1701)’, rev. Anne Puetz, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/8612, accessed 20 June 2014]

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Last Updated8/7/24

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