Jacobus Buys (1724-1801). (Two original designs for book illustrations)

Two original grisaille designs for illustrations for Hannah More, Gewyde tooneelstukken. Uit de heilige geschiedenis ontleend, (Amsterdam, Allart & Holtrop, 1783), both 8.5 x 5.5 cm, 1x signed and dated 1783 in lower margin, both mounted at upper margin.

Both drawings with narrow margins, trimmed with loss of (part of) the signature. Drawings depicting Moses in the basket about to be put in the river (opposite p. 24 in the book) and Daniel in the lions' den (opposite p. 248). The engravings "Mozes in het biezenkistje" (by Reinier Vinkeles and C. Bogerts) and "Daniël" after the drawings, can be traced in the digitised version of the book (Delpher). The book contains, apart from these two engravings, only two more plates. Jacobus Buys was one of the most important Dutch book illustrators of the period. See L. Buijnsters-Smets, Jacobus Buys als BoekIllustrator, in: Documentatie-Blad Werkgroep 18de Eeuw XVI, 63-64 (1984), p. 104 no. 85. (total 2)