Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1902-11-29

an inventor of type foundry appliances. an
adept in almost any line of commerce, and,
for his own pleasure and recreation,
worker in water colors. He was of a de-
| cided artistic temperament and used to
spend hours before his easel.
Roswell Abbey's son, William NJ. Abbey,
earned his livelihood as a merchant and
was a prosperous one at that, in Phladel-
phia, when that city scarcely extended
above Broad street. Like his father he
found his recreation largely in the sketch
book and the brush until late in life.
Began Drawing in the Cradle.
One of William NJ Abbey's two sons is
Edwin A. Abbey, and Edwin A. Abbey be-
gan manifesting the artistic trait of his
grandfather almost from the cradle.
He was barely four years of age when he
began making pencil drawings that attract
ed more than passing attention the fly
leaves and margins of magazines and
books and a few years later he divided his
time between base ball and littering up the
house with sketches of the family, his home
and his playmates.
About the same time a decided character
istic, that is remarked upon whenever Mr..
Abbeys art is discussed, began to develop.
Mr. Abbey is famed among artists the
professions most pronounced stickler for
correct costumes and settings for his work.
He has horror of anachronisms. So in
order to be absolutely accurate he has
gathered from time to time collection of
ancient dress and implements of warfare
that experts on things antique hold to be
unequaled. Wherever he has seen habili-
ments that had the spirit and technique of
the times dealt with in the various products
of his brush and pencil Mr.. Abbey has Sc
cured them, and many of these he has dis
covered in out-of-the-Way corners of Eu-
rope. Others that he has not been able to
obtain in this way he has had built accord
ing to painfully detailed descriptions found
in chronicles and other ancient sources of
information.
Mr. Abbey considers amount of time
and work wasted in avoiding an anachro-
nism or undoing one.
After he had finished the painting of
Gloucester and the Lady Anne" he discov-
cred that he had got in the wrong quarter
ingS in the coat of arms on the lady dress
which is of heraldic design Despite the
fact that it meant much labor, he promptly
did the skirt over again.
In the painting of the Castle of King
Amphortas'' there is a vau!ted roof sup
ported by columns with unusual capitals
That he might not be guilty of an anach-
ronism Mr.. Abbey travelled to Brittany,
and not only copied, bat modelled the capt.
tals.as well.
Used Brother for a Model
This characteristic Mr.. Abbey displayed
when a boy just in his teens, he posed
brother and sister and companions, always
insisting that their costumes be faultless
as to time and circumstance. One of his
first sketches to be printed in a magazine
was IRA ckng Rabbits 1t showed two
boys out hunting-Mr. Abbeys brother and
a friend-and before the artist would con-
sent to begin the sketch he wearied the
Youthful models almost to the point of re-
bellion by his fussinesS over details OF their
dress
1t was the same with the drawings that
Ned Abbey made for the late Oliver OPP
tics paper, "Our Boys and Girls" The first
OF these and the first of any of Mr.. Abbey's
handiwork to be published, was illus
trated rebus, appearing in 1856. At that
time Mr.. Abbey was fourteen years old.
But the style of this and other illustrations
that appeared frequently in the paper so
attracted Mr.. Adams to the youthful artist
that he cultivated his acquaintance and
later dedicated a book to him.
Two years after the rebuS was published
Abbey went into a wood engrayer's shop
and drew on wood: and it was about this
time. too that he first broke into Harper's
with a sketch portraying a band of Puri-
tans celebrating THE First Thanksgiving.'
Concerning this achievement Mr.. Abbey,
while in this country last year, said to
friend who had congratulated him on Sc
curing the commission for the coronation
picture:
Yes, naturally I'm pleased to have been
selected; but. do you know l wasn't tickled
half SO much when l got my first
sketch in Harper's-
A Base Ball Enthusiast.
Three years after THE First Thanksgiv-
ing" had been published Abbey came to
New York. In the meantime he had studied
a year or so in the Pennsylvania Academy
of Fine Arts in Philadelphia. and today
there is a tradition in that school that
Ned Abbey was good artist, but unwiI-
ing But once in New York he began de-
veloping another trait that is the subject
of much good-natured banter among his
fellows-in-art. He Joined THE Tile Club
of which many artists now famous were
members-F. Hopkinson Smith being