Anderson 2-16-25 11516

HINTS RESPECTING MR WILLIAM BERRY,
SEAL ENGRAVER IN EDINBURGH.

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With a portrait.

WILLIAM BERRY was one of those artists who owed
more to nature than instruction. Like Raphael,
Guido, and some others, his mind opened for him-
self a route, that made him attain to a perfection
far beyond the views of his preceptor. He was
bred to the businefs of a seal engraver by Mr
Proctor, of Edinburgh, whose sole employment was
cutting coats of arms for the nobility and gentry
in Scotland; and who, though respectable in his
moral character, never attained to such eminence
VOL. Xiv
A

in his profefsion, as to make his name be known as an artist out of his own country.

For some years after Mr Berry began businefs on his own account, he pursued the same line with his teacher; but his designs were so elegant, and his mode of cutting so clean and fharp, as soon to make him be taken notice of as a superior artist. He did not, however, venture to do any beads in the stile of the antique entaglio's for several years; but by constantly studying and admiring these, he at last resolved to attempt something of that sort himself; and the subject he chose for this essay was a head of Sir Isaac Newton, which he executed in a stile of such superior excellence, as astonished all who had an opportunity of observing it. But as Mr Berry was himself a man of the most unaffected modesty, and as this head was given to a friend in a retired situation in life, it was only known to a few in the private circle of his acquaintance; and for many years was scarcely ever seen by any one who could justly appreciate its merit; and was totally unknown in that circle of the great, which alone can afford to grant a proper reward for works of superior excellence. Owing to these circumstances, Mr Berry was permitted to waste his time, during the best part of his life, in cutting heraldic seals, for which he found a much greater demand than for fine heads, at such a price as could indemnify him for the time that was necefsarily spent in bringing works of such superior excellence to perfection. He often told the writer of this paper, that though some gentlemen prefsed him very much to make fine heads for them,