Object Number 1976.0010

Object Name

Print (Mezzotint)

Title

M.\r SAMUEL ADAMS.

Category

Prints and Maps

Credit Line/Donor

Museum purchase with funds provided by the Claneil Foundation

Creator (Role)

Samuel Okey (Mezzotinter)
The London engraver Samuel Okey arrived in Newport, Rhode Island in 1773, several years before the Revolutionary War. He was among several British engravers seeking opportunities to practice their craft in Colonial America. But in the end, he must have found it too difficult to make a living and returned to England some time before 1778, the year his work was published in London. In Newport Okey engraved and published only four or five mezzotints. Other than the prints he engraved in Rhode Island, there is very little known about him.

J. Mitchell (Painter and designer)

John Singleton Copley (Painter)
07/03/1738-09/09/1815

Charles Reak and Samuel Okay (Publisher)

Place of Origin

Newport, Newport, Rhode Island, New England, United States, North America

Date

1775

Mark or Signature or Inscription or Label

1. Inscription; Lower right; Sam\l Obey Fecit
2. Inscription; Lower left; J. Mitchell pinx.\t
3. Inscription; Lower center; Printed by and for Cha.\s Reak & Sam\l Okey Newport Rhode Island April 1775.

Subjects

Portrait

Materials

Ink; Paper (wove)

Techniques

Mezzotint

Dimensions (inches)

21 (H) , 15.9 (W) , 13.5 (Image H) , 10.2 (Image W)

Dimensions (centimeters)

53.4 (H) , 40.4 (W) , 13.5 (Image H) , 10.2 (Image W)

Measurement Notes

Plate H: 14.8 in. (37.5 cm). Plate W: 11.9 in. (30.1 cm).

Publisher Summary

Charles Reak and Samuel Okay

Publication Date

1775

Place of Publication

Newport, Rhode Island, United States, North America

State

Proof

Watermark

None

Edition Notes

Only one state recorded in Chaloner-Smith.

Object Description

Text available soon.

Bibliography and Bibliographic Notes

[Book] Smith, John Chaloner. 1884 British Mezzotinto Portraits; Being a Descriptive Catalogue of These Engravings from the Introduction of the Art to the early part of the present century. 3. 941-1428.
• Print listed as no. 1, pp. 950-951.