With a Plate by Copley

[English Bible].
The Illuminated Bible, Containing the Old and New Testaments.
New York: Harper & Brothers, 1846. (Prothro B-466)

Many illustrated Bibles of the mid-nineteenth century featured wood engravings. To create these images, a graver is used to remove lines of various thicknesses from the end grain of a very hard wood. While the inked surface prints the shadows and contours of the desired image, these engraved lines leave blank areas that appear as lighter shades or highlights. In addition, wood engraving offers more precise detail and greater tonal range than was achievable with the traditional woodcut technique.

The wood engraving of the “Peaceable Kingdom” in this American Bible illustrates the text of Isaiah 11:6-9, “The wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat, the calf and the lion and the yearling together; and a little child will lead them.” The bucolic image was adapted from an illustration that the British artist Richard Westall (1765–1836) designed for a Bible published in London in 1815. Westall’s imagery had a profound influence upon the American artist Edward Hicks (1780–1849), who produced numerous oil paintings of this subject.

THE ELIZABETH PERKINS PROTHRO BIBLE COLLECTION