Robert Taylor Pritchett (1828 - 1907), 'Pen and Pencil Scrap...

Hammer

£1,600

Robert Taylor Pritchett (1828 - 1907), 'Pen and Pencil Scraps from Belgium' - a sketchbook and journal of the artist's travels to Calais and Belgium, 1850, 31 pencil and watercolour sketches mounted in a full leather-bound book, with handwritten text, (five further sketches are missing), sketches around 14 x 19 cm each, volume 27 x 22 cm Before becoming an established artist and illustrator, Pritchett worked as a gun manufacturer at his father’s firm in Enfield. In 1853 he created the Pritchett bullet alongside William Ellis Metford which awarded the firm fame and success. However, the collapse of the East India Company in 1858 greatly reduced the firm’s productivity, with the former being one of the company’s primary customers. Pritchett took the opportunity to build a career as an illustrator working for Punch magazine and the publishing house Cassell, Petter, and Galpin between 1863 and 1869. He won the patronage of Queen Victoria in 1869 after she bought a painting that had been commissioned from the art dealership Thomas, Agnew & Sons. He went on to produce many watercolour illustrations of intimate events within the Royal Family up until Queen Victoria’s death. Before his career as an artist or his invention of the Pritchett bullet, he travelled to Belgium, producing this handwritten book he titled "Pen and Pencil Scraps from Belgium” in 1850. The work produced most likely went on to influence his entries to the 1851 and 1852 exhibitions at the Royal Academy of Art, which included a view of Belgium.