Nathaniel Whittock (26 January 1791 – 12 August 1860) was a Victorian topographical engraver, who published bird's-eye views, e.g. of York (1856), Oxford (1834), Melbourne, Australia (1854), Hull (1855), and London (1845, 1849, 1859).
Life He was born to John and Sarah Whittock in the City of Westminster and was baptised on 6 March 1791 at St John's, Smith Square.
By 1819 he was living in Oxford, where he ran the Oxford Drawing Academy in Oriel Street, teaching ladies on Tuesdays and Thursdays and gentlemen on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays for two hours, charging a guinea every three months. He also had a Painting Room next to the Angel Hotel in the High Street.Advertisement inserted by him in Jackson’s Oxford Journal, 24 December 1819 In 1823 he moved out of his house and shop in the High Street, and the premises were auctioned on 19 June that year.Advertisement by the auctioneer W. Fisher in Jackson’s Oxford Journal, 7 June 1823 He moved to St Clement’s, a suburb of Oxford.Inquest into the death of Elizabeth Kirby, “servant of Mr. Whittock, engraver, in the parish of St. Clement’s” reported in Jackson’s Oxford Journal of 1 June 1825 The Oxford Baths were in St Clement’s, and on 6 May 1826 his book A Description of the Oxford Baths and School of Natation was published.Jackson’s Oxford Journal, 6 May 1826 In 1824–1829 he appears as "Teacher of Drawing and Perspective, and Lithographist to the University of Oxford", and worked for the University's Ashmolean Museum and scientific community.The Ashmolean, Issues 15-27, Ashmolean Museum, 1989 By October 1827 he had left Oxford, and the contents of his St Clement’s house were sold by auction.Jackson’s Oxford Journal, 3 November 1827
In 1830 and 1831 he was at 24 Garnault Place, Spa Fields, Islington, London. The 1841 census shows him living at 34 Richard Street in Islington with his young nephew Henry Hyde: both were described as engravers. In 1851 he was still at the same address with his wife Ann Whittock, nee Hyde, his nephew and business partner Henry Hyde, and his niece Caroline Hyde.
Works Whittock was "a prolific writer of instruction books",About faces: physiognomy in nineteenth-century Britain, Sharrona Pearl, p. 96Hugh Murray, Nathaniel Whittock's bird's-eye view of the City of York in the 1850s, Friends of York City Art Gallery, 1988 on drawing and other subjects, such as The decorative painters' and glaziers' guide (1828), On the construction and decoration of the shop fronts of London (1840), and The complete book of trades, or the parents' guide and youths' instructor (1837). The full title of the first of these was:
As the full title shows, the work was very comprehensive, and the preface "rails against trade secrecy" which the book was intended to dispel.Joanna Banham, Sally MacDonald, Julia Porter. Victorian interior style, 1995, Studio Editions, , The work has been described as "influential" and "important" and is often cited by modern scholars of interior decoration.It is described as "influential" in both: Parissien, Steven. Interiors: The Home Since 1700, p. 140 (quoted) - 141, 2008, Laurence King Publishing, and Encyclopedia of interior design: M-Z., Volume 2, Editors Joanna Banham, Leanda Shrimpton, Fitzroy Dearborn, p. 785, 1997, , . "Important":Painted wood: history and conservation, p. 245, 1998, Symposium Proceedings, Getty Conservatiomn Institute, Eds, Valérie Dorge, F. Carey Howlett, ,
References
External links
Images of engravings, etc. Whittock's picture of Robin Hood's Bay A picture of engraved by Fenner for Fisher's Drawing Room Scrap Book, 1836 with a poetical illustration by Letitia Elizabeth Landon. A picture of engraved by W J Cooke for Fisher's Drawing Room Scrap Book, 1836 with a poetical illustration by Letitia Elizabeth Landon.
List of publications List from British Library