[PLANT, George (1820–1890)]

[Specimens] of Turning done in Plant’s Geometric Chuck.

[Alsager, Cheshire, 1860s(?)]

Clothbound album, 236 x 186mm; 95 album leaves, with 2 loose prints laid in, and 2 further folded sheets tipped in; together a total of 469 original prints, most engraved but 10 are original photographs. Good condition: rebacked with new endpapers; inscription to the first page largely erased; paper occasionally worn and fragile, specimens generally very good, noting that there is evidence of at least six having once been present, now removed.

Essay

An exceptional record of ‘ornamental turning’, apparently the personal collection of inventor George Plant, including his own work together with specimens from his circle, including H.S. Savory and Captain Richard Pudsey Dawson.

The tradition of geometric or ornamental turning goes back to the early-modern period, but became a widespread hobby following the the development of Holtzapffel’s lathe circa 1800. Inspired by 18th century mechanical drawing instruments, John Holt Ibbetson (1771–1844) designed the ‘geometric chuck’ in the 1810s. This was an attachment for the lathe, and allowed complex geometric patterns to be engraved onto a surface, which could then be printed from.

Another printing technique was developed later, in which scratched lines could be photographed and reproduced. Ten of the specimens here use this early photographic technique.

George Plant was an inventor and engineer, and in the 1860s he developed his own improvement on Ibbetson’s geometric chuck. His originality was disputed by William Hartley, who claimed to have sold Plant the chuck in 1859. A lively debate in the pages of The English Mechanic and other journals apparently did not resolve the priority dispute, and because George Plant and Son Ltd was a successful firm, eventually established in Birmingham, the name of ‘Plant’s Geometric Chuck’ is the one that lives on.

The best known product of Plant’s chuck was H.S. Savory’s Geometric Turning, published in 1873 and containing many hundreds of specimens, as well as an illustrated description of the chuck. Of the specimens in the album attributed to Savory, some do correspond with those printed in Geometric Turning, though the numbering differs, and many are original to the present album.

The attribution to Plant himself is from the inscription to the cover, which is located to Alsager, Cheshire; this is where Plant lived prior to his firm’s move to Birmingham. An inscription to the first page is largely obliterated, but mentions the name H.S. Savory, a ‘Miss Jackson’, and the date 1870. Other names recorded in the volume are ‘R. Livesey’ of Brighton, and a ‘Rev [C?] Phillips’ of Ascott College, Birmingham.

In the age of computer art, these early experiments in ‘generative’ or even ‘algorithmic’ aesthetics are undergoing a revaluation. The most famous productions of the era are the photographic ‘Specimens of Fancy Turning’ by Edward J. Woolsey. The examples in the present album are of similar quality, and it is notable that 10 are produced photographicaly, in a manner similar to Woolsey’s.