Stanley, C. (McKechnie Section 1)

See also Section Six

Known from two press notices in the Bodleian Library, Oxford (John Johnson collection), and from two examples of his work: one in the Bodleian Library (see Section Six) and the other (hollow-cut, 1814) seen by me. One press notice bears the address, `Mr Tarring's, 3, Old Bond Street' (presumably in London, though possibly in Bath); it probably dates from c. 1812-15. The other notice bears a Leamington address; it offers a wider variety of work at higher prices than the notice just mentioned, and therefore was probably issued later, perhaps c. 1818-20. It is clear from these notices (which are small enough to have been usable as trade labels) that Stanley, like Isaac Hawkins, invented a 'machine (probably of the physiognotrace type) for taking profiles, although we do not know whether he reserved the machine for his own use or (like Hawkins) hired it out to others. Stanley offered plain black work (some of it evidently hollow-cut), priced at 1s. on the earlier notice. On the Leamington notice, shaded black silhouettes (probably painted in Indian ink or gum arabic against a dark-grey background) were offered for 2s. 6d.; bronzed silhouettes for 4s. 6d.; 'black and white' silhouettes, painted in monochrome and probably showing the sitter's features, for 3s. 6d.

The hollow-cut silhouette which I have seen was inscribed on the back, in faded brown ink in a neat cursive hand, 'Taken by Stanley, Feb. 1814/Mrs. John Allen'. Stanley was therefore contemporary with Henry Hervė, and offered a similar range of work.

The hollow-cut silhouette of Mrs. John Allen looked much like the work of Henry Hervė, though smaller than examples by him, showing more of the white paper surround. It was, unusually, framed in a small oval turned wood frame; by 1814 most artists were using papier-mâché frames. No examples by Stanley of the other types of work offered by him are known to me. It seems unlikely that he produced full- length work, to judge by his list of prices.

Ills. 598, 599