Engraving

Title:

The Maid of the Mill

Object Name:

Engraving

Object ID:

1910.008.01

Creator:

Richards, John Inigo (1731-1810)Artist; Woollett, William (1735-1785)Engraver

Place of Origin:

London, England

Date:

1768

Description:

Engraving and etching, The Maid of the Mill, engraved by William Woollett (1735-1785), after John Inigo Richards (1731-1810), 1768. Ink on paper. Scene in rural village with two houses and a mill. Two women in front of house on left; man in center of scene waves back to them; woman seated in upper-story window of house on right. Mill, left of center background, with water wheel and man carrying sacks stamped with a "RF" in a heart shape. Title and publication information printed in lower margin: "JN.O RICHARDS PINX.", at right; "WM. WOOLLETT SCULP." at left. Title lower margin at center: "The first Scene of the MAID of the MILL, as Designed by Mr. Richards. / Publish'd as the Act directs Jany. 15th, 1768, & Sold by Wm. Woollett, Charlotte Street, Rathbone Place, London." In black molded frame, glazed.

Frame was originally backed with sheet of light brown paper with early handwritten inscriptions, now in accession file. Ink inscription: "The Maid of the Mill, a Comic Opera / by Isaac Bickerstaff, as performed at the / Theatre Royal, Covent Garden, London / ACT I. Scene I. / A rural prospect, with a mill at work. / Several people employed about; on one side / a house, Patty reading in the window; on the / other a barn, where Fanny sits mending a net; / Giles appears at a distance in the mill; Fairfield / and Ralph taking sacks from a cart. / Chorus..." Pencil inscription: "The Maid of the Mill is one of those delusions which frequently destroy / the proper subordination of society. The village beauty, whose simplicity and / innocence are her native charms, smitten with the reveries of rank and / splendor, becomes affected and retired, disdaining her situation and / every one about her." A separate sheet of paper, previously folded but later opened and glued to upper left corner of backing paper, contains a poem, "The Millers Maid".

Material:

Paper

Dimensions:

H-16.75 W-20.75 inches

Provenance:

Donated by the heirs of James Rindge Stanwood. It is conceivable that this print has a history of use in Portsmouth, NH, as Stanwood inherited the Wendell House and lived there.

The Maid of the Mill is a late Jacobean era stage play, a comedy written by John Fletcher and William Rowley. It was initially published in the first Beaumont and Fletcher folio of 1647. The play was revived in 1765 at the Covent Garden Theatre, where John Inigo Richards worked as a scene painter. The play was very successful, and this print was a response to the play's popularity.

Credit Line:

Gift of James Rindge Stanwood, In Memory of Jacob Wendell

People:

Stanwood, James Rindge (1847-1910), Woollett, William (1735-1785), Richards, John Inigo (1731-1810)

Subjects:

Genre prints, Mills, Plays, Thatched roofs, Theatrical productions, Village life, Villages, Maids, Engravings, Etchings