Mary Byfield (baptized 11 November 1795 – 1871) was an English book illustrator and wood engraver. She and Ann Byfield were "artist engravers on wood" with a business in Florence Street, Islington.

Biography

Byfield was born in London into a family of

wood engravers Wood is a porous and fibrous structural tissue found in the stems and roots of trees and other woody plants. It is an organic materiala natural composite of cellulose fibers that are strong in tension and embedded in a matrix of lignin tha ...

. Taught by their father, Mary Byfield often worked with her brothers John (1788-1841) and Ebenezer (1790-1817) to produce engraved illustrations for books. These included several volumes for the writer

Thomas Frognall Dibdin Thomas Frognall Dibdin (177618 November 1847) was an English bibliographer, born in Calcutta to Thomas Dibdin, the sailor brother of the composer Charles Dibdin. Dibdin was orphaned at a young age. His father died in 1778 while returning to En ...

. Mary and John Byfield also produced illustrations for the

Chiswick Press The Chiswick Press was founded by Charles Whittingham I (1767–1840) in 1811. The management of the Press was taken over in 1840 by the founder's nephew Charles Whittingham II (1795–1876). The name was first used in 1811, and the Press continue ...

, notably for the works of William Pickering. Working alone, Mary Byfield also produced engravings for several other volumes and designed a version of the

Oxford University Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

arms that became, for a time, the mark of the

Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print books ...

. She worked for the printer

Charles Whittingham Charles Whittingham (16 June 1767 – 5 January 1840) was an English printer. Biography He was born at Caludon or Calledon, Warwickshire, the son of a farmer, and was apprenticed to a Coventry printer and bookseller. In 1789 he set up a small ...

and his nephew,

Charles Charles is a masculine given name predominantly found in English language, English and French language, French speaking countries. It is from the French form ''Charles'' of the Proto-Germanic, Proto-Germanic name (in runic alphabet) or ''*k ...

at the Chiswick Press throughout her life. As well as full page illustrations, her work included engraved alphabets for the first letter of a page, head and tail pieces, decorative borders and vignettes. Byfield taught several other members of her family, and members of the Whittingham family, wood engraving techniques. For most of her life, Byfield lived in the Holloway area of London, notably at Canonbury Place and

Liverpool Road Liverpool Road is a street in Islington, North London. It covers a distance of between Islington High Street and Holloway Road, running roughly parallel to Upper Street through the area of Barnsbury. It contains several attractive terraces o ...

Works illustrated

Works illustrated in whole, or part, by Mary Byfield include, * ''Bibliotheca Spenciana'' by Thomas Frognal Dibdin, 1814, 4 volumes, with John Byfield * ''Bibliographical Decameron'', 1817, with John Byfield * ''Typographical Antiquities'' by Thomas Frognal Dibdin, 1819 * ''Icones veteris testamenti'', 1830, with John Byfield * ''South Yorkshire'' by Joseph Hunter, 1831 * ''The Dance of Death'' by

Francis Douce Francis Douce ( ; 175730 March 1834) was a British antiquary and museum curator. Biography Douce was born in London. His father was a clerk in Chancery. After completing his education he entered his father's office, but soon quit it to devote ...

, 1833, with John Byfield * ''Reminiscences of a Literary Life'', 1836, with John Byfield * ''Memorials of Cambridge'' by

Orlando Jewitt Thomas Orlando Sheldon Jewitt (1799 – 30 May 1869) was a British architectural wood-engraver. Biography Thomas Orlando Sheldon Jewitt was born in Buxton, Derbyshire, the son of Arthur Jewitt and brother of Llewellyn Jewitt. Before the intro ...

, 1841 * ''A Summer's Day at Windsor, or A Visit to Eton'' by

Edward Jesse Edward Jesse (January 14, 1780 – March 28, 1868), English writer on natural history, was born at Hutton Cranswick, Yorkshire, where his father was vicar of the parish. He became clerk in a government office in 1798, and for a time was secr ...

, 1841 * ''Bibliotheca Spenciana'' by Thomas Frognal Dibdin, 1842 * ''History of the Orders of Knighthood'' by Nicolas, 1842 * ''First Book of Elements of Euclid'', 1847 * ''Queen Elizabeth's Prayer Book of 1569'', 1853. * John William Bradley and J. G. Goodwin's ''Manual of Illumination'', published for Winsor and Newton, 1861 (with Ann Byfield)

References

External links

Works by Byfield
in the

British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...

print collection {{DEFAULTSORT:Byfield, Mary 1795 births 1871 deaths 19th-century British printmakers 19th-century English women artists 19th-century engravers Artists from London English wood engravers Sibling artists Women engravers