Baston, Thomas. INCUBUERE mari totumque, a fedibus imis una Eurusque Notusq; RUUNT ereberque procellis AFRICUS, et vastos volvunt ad Litora fluctus. Under deep dark clouds six threemasters sailing under stormsails in heavy weather. One of which just seems to sail itself downwards. Pen and brown ink with grey wash on vellum. Inscribed lower right: TBaston F. 1722. as well as from Vergil’s Æneis as above. 180-184 x 282-287 mm.

(Parthey 1275; Hollar Catalogue Berlin, 1984, 97 with ills.) to sheet 17 of the “Twenty-two Prints of several of the Capital ships of his Majesties Royal Navy with Variety of other Sea Pieces after the Drawings of T. B.” which were published “under his name after his drawings, but engraved by several artists” by T. Bowles in London in 1721 and became known in their entirety of 22 sheets to Thieme-Becker III, 27 only. Nagler I, 317 knew Baston as draughtsman and engraver, but only 9 sheets of this set that is also missing in the Scheepvaart Museum and only recently was highly paid with US$ 20,000.

In his living conditions widely unknown, other works have not become known even to newest literature including AKL VII, 434:

“ Artist working in the first quarter of the 18^th century. In the reign of George I, Thomas Bowles published an important set of prints, ‘Twentytwo PRINTS of several of the CAPITAL SHIPS OF HIS Maj^ties ROYAL NAVY with Variety of other SEA PIECES after the drawings of T. Baston’. The National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, has two drawings by him. This compiler knows of no oil paintings by him ”

(Archibald, Dictionary of Sea Painters, in the 3^rd ed., 2000, correcting the erratum “un”important).

In addition to this Chatterton, Old Ship Prints, 83 f., together with plate illustration:

“ During the first quarter of the eighteenth century there flourished Thomas Baston, who deserves our attention because he has left us some very spirited illustrations of English men-of-war … some of his pictures were engraved by … Kirkall, and others … The detail of these ‘wooden walls’, with their great topsails and their picturesque poop lanterns, is

most  valuable  if  we  wish  to  study

the  ships  of  the  period  immediately  preceding  1765 ,

the  date  when  Nelson’s  Victory  was  launched  …

Such details as the running and standing rigging, the pennants, the stowage of the anchors … which immediately attract our attention … Certainly such prints … give a life and meaning to eighteenth-century naval history, for they help us to visualize the manner in which fleets went into action, or fought their way across the ocean under conditions that we can scarcely envy. ”

Based on more recent research, however, present Baston seems to have been born in Ireland about 1665/70, and father of Thomas (II) baptized 1691 in Allhallows, London Wall, as son of Thomas (I) and Mary Baston. Further documents prove the existence of a marine draughtsman Thomas Baston, living in great financial difficulties for at least the first years of the 18^th century, what with respect to age thus should refer to present Th. I, and finally being in debtor’s prison from 1710 till at least end of 1716, more likely till 1720. This then in remarkable concurrence with the gap between the dates of two further drawings available here from 1710 and 1720 resp. as well as the publication of the set starting in 1721. For 1728 finally the birth of a Thomas III as son of again Thomas and Mary Baston is documented in Allhallows. See on this as on the marriage of one (further?) Thomas Baston with the propertied widow Ann Grace before mid of 1691 recorded likewise in Allhallows in greater detail Charles H. Wallace, Thomas Baston: Pioneer Marine Print Designer.

Artistically Baston belongs to the

earliest  pioneers  of  an  independent  English  art  scene

at the beginning of the 18^th century. And it is Baston and the obviously about half a generation younger Peter Monamy (1681-1749) who not only succeed the younger van de Velde, at last active in London and deceased in 1707, but satisfy in a political-economical environment of secured predominance on all seas and a growing colonial empire an increasing middle-class request for art and through this make marine painting popular, Baston in the field of prints, Monamy with paintings. The latter by the way made free by the Guild of Painter-Stainers the very same day as Sir James Thornhill, the later father-in-law of William Hogarth with whom Monamy then was on friendly terms and just as this he contributed – shortly before his death – to the decoration of Captain Coram’s Foundling Hospital, though his marine piece is lost today.

The thirteenth sheet of the set reproduced by Chatterton – as the one here engraved by Sartor – with coat of arms and dedication to the Royal officers instead of a verse of Vergil’s.

by Johann Jakob Sartor (inscribed: TBaston delin / Sartor Sculp., otherwise as the drawing with the addition “Vergil”. 22 x 30.9 cm).

Sartor, also known as Sarter, lived at least predominantly in Cologne, that is from 1710 (title for the Opera mystica by B. Joannis a Cruce) till 1737. So Nagler, Monogrammisten, IV, 424 in only partial concurrence with Thieme-Becker (1706/12 unsure where, 1715/19 London, 1732/37 Cologne). In his Künstler-Lexicon, however, Nagler mentions under no. 1 the Crucifixion after van Dyck and Schelte à Bolswert which was published in London in 1729, thus during the reported time at Cologne.

The drawing trimmed just outside – below with the recess of the signature on the lower right – of the borderline. Three small to tiny tears in the right margin in the part of the sky. The slight waving resulting from the warmth of the artist’s hands – see Meder, Handzeichnung, 169 – leading to a certain creasing which, however, gives an additional plasticity to the depiction of the churned up elements. In all somewhat rubbed.

The extraordinarily luxurious paper margin of the engraving – on especially strong laid paper with typographic watermark – in the outer parts to some extents time-stained and with several small tears backed acid-freely. Otherwise, however, early rich impression qualified by still feebly noticeable plate dirt.

Only the drawing with its immediateness can unveil the artist in his whole. In a way it is impossible even for the mezzotint washes can show the slightest shadows besides the clear lines. Many details appear even in the fully executed drawing sketchy, stressing the impressions which were important for the draftsman himself.

Restricted to the straight line the engraving can display – besides its own special charm – tender shades very limited only. Other details, suggested only in the drawing, might step to the foreground in a way it may not have been intended originally.

So here, too. While the tempest under the gloomy, low clouds appears almost concrete in the print, the horizon clearly distinct, one almost believes to feel the humidity over the churned up sea in the drawing, are clouds and waves blurred in the mist at the horizon.

Such  confrontation

is – conditioned by the unique character of original drawings themselves as well as their often untraceableness –

an  opportunity  of  extraordinary  rarity  indeed .

This all the more in the case of drawings on vellum. Although vellum was nearly the only material for drawings of all kind before paper came up, since the 13^th century it was pushed away just according to the ever growing quality of paper. Only

“ in the 17^th century it received a kind of re-vitalization. Not only delicately drawn compositions, genre scenes and still lives were executed on vellum … They were also brought to a painterly impression by tender colored washes ”

(Meder, Die Handzeichnung, p. 171 f.).

The one in question here thus already ranging at the end of the re-vitalization chiefly borne by the Dutch. And, besides its special effects, although intended to be just as permanent as Vergil’s verses.

But in their confrontation with the contemporary engravings – in the opposite direction because of direct transfer to the plate – they are now

mandatory  for  every  collection , not  maritime  ones  only .

And, as said

Offer no. 28,820  /  price on request