Description:
Engraving of John Jay engraved by: H.B. Hall, which was found in the Allen House. The stipple engraver and portrait painter Henry Bryan Hall, was born in London on 11 May 1808 and served his apprenticeship under the engravers Benjamin Smith and Henry Meyer. He was subsequently employed by Henry Thomas Ryall who held the title of 'Portrait and Historical Engraver to Her Majesty, Queen Victoria'. In this capacity, Hall contributed plates to Ryall's Eminent Conservative Statesmen (1837-38) and helped to engrave the seventy portraits in Ryall's plate of The Coronation of Queen Victoria after George Hayter (1838-42). Further bookwork included engravings of English Protestant martyrs for C. Birch (1839) and contributions to John Wilson and Robert Chambers's The Land of Burns (1840), Finden's Gallery of Beauty (1841), J. W. Carleton's Sporting Sketch-Book (1842), and J. Kitto's Gallery of Scripture Engravings (1846-49). Hall emigrated to New York in 1850, set up the firm of H. B. Hall and Sons, and established an extensive practice as engraver and publisher of portraits. In particular, he etched a large number of portraits of prominent figures in American colonial and revolutionary history for a private club in New York and for Philadelphia collectors. Hall was also a talented portrait painter in his own right specialising in miniature work on ivory. While still in London, he had painted Napoleon III, and, following his move to America, produced acclaimed portraits of fellow artists Thomas Sully and C. L. Elliott. Hall's children Alfred, Alice, Charles, and Henry were all talented engravers. In particular, Henry Bryan Hall the Younger (fl. 1855-1900) is celebrated for his engravings of the leading figures in the US Civil War (in which he fought). As both father and son engraved portraits of US military and political heroes, it is sometimes difficult to establish which is responsible for a particular plate. Hall died in Morrisania, New York, on 25 April 1884.
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