Alexander Francis Lydon

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Alexander Francis Lydon

Alexander Francis Lydon (* 1836 in Dublin , † early 1917 in Brentford ) was a British engraver and lithographer .

life and work

Lydon probably grew up in Driffield ( Yorkshire ) and began in the late 1840s as a printer's apprentice at Benjamin Fawcett , with whom he worked for long. In addition to Fawcett's preferred wood print , Lydon also used other techniques, such as chromolithography . Lydon was first known for his work in many books on natural history, with prints of birds, fish and plants from drawings by well-known naturalists such as Francis Orpen Morris or William Thomas Greene . He also made drawings and watercolors himself, which were then often put to print by Fawcett. Lydon later contributed the colored engravings to the six-part book series County Seats of The Noblemen and Gentlemen of Great Britain and Ireland . He worked with Fawcett in Driffield until 1883 and then moved to London.

In 1859 Lydon married Catherine Fitzgerald and had seven children with her.

  • Selected copper engravings

  • Golden Carp in A History of the Fishes of the British Islands

  • Guy's Cliffe, Warwick, Warwickshire, England

  • Chromolithography from Milton Abbey, Dorset, England

Illustrations (selection)

  • Francis Orpen Morris, Alexander Francis Lydon: A History of British Birds . Groombridge and Sons, 1866 ( full text in Google book search).
  • Edward Joseph Lowe, Alexander Francis Lydon, Benjamin Fawcett: Ferns: British and Exotic . Groombridge and Sons, 1867 ( full text in Google book search).
  • Jonathan Couch, Alexander Francis Lydon: A History of the Fishes of the British Islands . Groombridge and Sons, 1868 ( full text in Google book search).
  • Country Walks of a Naturalist with His Children . William Houghton, John Gould, Benjamin Fawcett, Alexander Francis Lydon, Groombridge and Sons, 1869.
  • British Fresh-Water Fishes. William Houghton. London, 1879.
  • A Series of Picturesque Views of Seats of the Noblemen and Gentlemen of Great Britain and Ireland: With Descriptive and Historical Letterpress . Francis Orpen Morris, Alexander Francis Lydon, W. Mackenzie, 1880.
  • The Ruined Abbeys of Britain . Frederick Ross, Alexander Francis Lydon, W. Mackenzie, 1882.
  • British Birds' Eggs. 1910.
  • Edward Joseph Lowe, W. Howard, Benjamin Fawcett, Alexander Francis Lydon: Beautiful Leaved Plants . Groombridge and Sons, 1866 ( full text in Google book search).

literature

  • Gordon Norton Ray: The Illustrator and the Book in England from 1790 to 1914 . Courier Dover Publications, 1992, ISBN 0-486-26955-8 , pp. 65 ff. ( Limited preview in Google book search)

Web links

Commons : Alexander Francis Lydon  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Ray Desmond, Christine Ellwood (Eds.): Dictionary of British and Irish Botanists and Horticulturists: Including Plant Collectors, Flower Painters, and Garden Designers . CRC Press, 1994, ISBN 0-85066-843-3 , p. 443 ( limited preview in Google book search)
personal data
SURNAME Lydon, Alexander Francis
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British engraver
DATE OF BIRTH 1836
PLACE OF BIRTH Dublin
DATE OF DEATH 1917
Place of death Brentford