Add MS 5244

This is the only known surviving version in manuscript form of the unpublished treatise "The art of delineation, or drawing", written and illustrated by John Dunstall, schoolmaster at Blackfriars in London, active as printmaker and art teacher between 1653 and 1693. The manuscript includes a combination of text in English, written by Dunstall in brown ink, and engraved plates printed directly onto the folios of the album.

The etched plates are signed 'Johannes Dunstall delineavit' and are numbered progressively within the subseries to which they belong. Most plates are small etchings that fit on a single leaf, but some are larger and occupy the whole opening, measuring c. 310 x 275 mm (platemark). Summary description of contents:

ff. 2-22. Manuscript text for the manual on the art of drawing. This includes an address to the reader, an introduction to 'Delineation or Drawing', a discussion of geometry as foundation of drawing and a description of the engraved plates about geometry.

ff. 23-98. Etchings intended as accompaniment for the text of the manual. Several subgroups can be distinguished according to the subject matter of the print: geometry (ff. 23-26), the human head and its individual components (ff. 27-30), trees (ff. 31-34), houses (ff. 35-42), flowers (ff. 43-82) and fruit (ff. 83-98).

ff. 99-100. Two engraved portraits of King William III and Queen Mary II, bearing the signature 'Johannes Dunstall fecit' and lettering in English and Hebrew. Other impressions of the same two portrait s are in the British Museum: for King William III (Y, 1.6) and for Queen Mary (Y, 1.7).

ff. 101-107. Manuscript text by Dunstall, including a brief clarification on the content of the plates and their use in the context of teaching the art of drawing, followed by a description of the instruments required for the art of drawing, which includes a recipe for ink on f. 107.