obert Taylor Pritchett was born in Whitechapel, London, on 24 February 1828. He had an unlikely background for an artist. His father was Richard Ellis Pritchett, head of the well-known Enfield firearms firm. After attending school at the recently founded King's College in the Strand, Pritchett followed his elder brother into the family business, and found fame in 1853 as co-inventor of the "Pritchett bullet." He joined the Victoria Rifles that same year, when it was first formed, and gave lectures on firearms at the Working Men's College in London, with which he had been involved from its very foundation. He also established himself independently in the capital, at 86 St. James Street and 57 Chamber Street, as a supplier, principally to the Confederacy in the America Civil War, retiring only in 1865 ("Early British Pattern 1853 Enfield Military Match Rifle").
Left: Draft Trade card of Robert Taylor Pritchett, gunsmith. © The Trustees of the British Museum. This still mentions the East India Company, so must have been prior to 1857. Right: Pritchett's device, shown on his drawings, represents an ancient harquebusier (cavalryman) and his matchlock gun.
Pritchett had already exhibited landscapes at the Royal Academy, and now had the means to indulge his artistic inclinations more freely. Getting to know illustrators working on Punch through the Moray Minstrels, he joined the staff there and "executed some 26 drawings between 1863 and 1869" (Long). At the same time, he was in demand as an illustrator for publishers like Cassell and Ward Lock, and married his varied career paths by illustrating Sir Sibbald David Scott's The British Army: Its Origin, Progress, and Equipment (2 vols., 1868), sometimes from historical items in his own collection — he belonged to the Gunmaker's Company, had been elected a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries in 1861, and was an authority on historic armour.
Left: "Flagging Interest," one of Pritchett's drawings for Punch, Vol. 45, November 28 1863, p. 216. Right: Pritchett (standing, extreme left, behind Arthur Sullivan, who sits next to Ellen Terry) with a cast of players for amateur performances in aid of the [Charles] Bennet Fund, 11 May 1867. © National Portrait Gallery, London, NPG X18489, with thanks. [Click herefor a closer view of Pritchett]. Third from the right is John Tenniel, with a wide-brimmed feathered hat and a long-haired wig, standing behind Kate Terry.
From at least 1866, Pritchett was giving his address for the Royal Scottish Academy and London's Royal Academy Exhibitions as The New-Lodge, Esher, Surrey. The 36 delightful pen-and-ink sketches that he made of local scenes and people were later bought by Elmbridge Borough Council, where they have been featured recently in a small exhibition at the Council Offices (31 January 2023 - 21 September 2023), and an informative online exhibition. More prestigious still was the royal patronage which he attracted. After purchasing two of his watercolours of Scottish life, the Queen took a lifelong interest in his work. The most artistic of her children, Princess Louise, visited his house in Esher with her husband, the Marquess of Lorne. The Prince of Wales also bought some of his work. Indeed, the Royal Collection boasts 86 of his works, dating from the two Scottish watercolours of 1865. The latest of his in the collection are several works recording the Queen's visit to Dublin in 1900.
Left: "Our Spare Room" at Glasmakil, Skye, dated 1865, bought by the Queen on 21 March 1868, for 15 guineas (Royal Archives PP2/127/13728; PP PEA). Royal Collection Trust / © His Majesty King Charles III 2023. Right: The Sheep-Wash, a rural scen in Esher, Surrey.
Hand in hand with Pritchett's love of art went his enjoyment of travelling. He published an illustrated book about his visit to Norway in 1874-75: Gamle Norge: or, Rambles and Scrambles in Norway (1879). He was particularly fond of sailing, accompanying Joseph Lambert and his wife on their round-the-world voyage in their yacht the Wanderer, and Sir Thomas and Lady Brassey on their adventurous tours in the Sunbeam. Lady Brassey paints an idyllic word-picture of a morning on board: "After an early breakfast we settle down to our several occupations — the children to lessons, till it is time for sights to be taken and calculations made; Mr. Pritchett elaborates the sketches which he has made on shore during our recent wanderings ..." (92). His expert knowledge of yachting made his marine illustrations particularly skilful.
Among the other works that Pritchett illustrated, the most important was the 1890 edition by John Murray of Darwin's Journal of Researches into the Natural History and Geology of the Countries Visited during the Voyage round the World of the H.M.S. "Beagle". One curiosity, also published in 1890, is his book, Smokiana, Historical and Ethnographical.
Left to right: (a) Front cover of Gamle Norge. (b) Front cover of Smokiana. (c) "H.M.S. Beagle in Straits of Magellan. Mount Sacrimento in the Distance," frontispiece to Darwin's Journal.
Sadly, the gregarious and multi-talented Pritchett outlived his wife, Louisa, whom he had married in 1857: her death in 1899, at the age of 65, was registered in Richmond, about ten miles from Esher, suggesting that the Pritchetts were still living in Surrey then. He also outlived their son Ellis (1861-1905), who had been educated at Marlborough and became an architect in Swindon, and their daughter, Marian. A touching memorial to the latter is the portrait painted of her in 1868 as a very small child by one of Pritchett's friends, the Dutch painter, Josef Israël. After such a busy and varied life, some years in Swindon, and several months of illness, Pritchett himself passed away at The Beeches, Burghfield, Berkshire, where he was then living, on 16 June 1907.
Bibliography
Brassey, Lady Annie. The Last Voyage, to India and Australia, in the "Sunbeam". Illustrated by R. T. Pritchett. London: Longman, 1889. Internet Archive. From a copy in the New York Public Library. Web. 7 September 2023.
Darwin, Charles. Journal of Researches into the Natural History and Geology of the Countries Visited during the Voyage round the World of the H.M.S. "Beagle": under the command of Capt. Fitz Roy, R.N.. London: John Murray, 1890. Internet Archive, from a copy in the Smithsonian. Web. 7 September 2023.
"Early British Pattern 1853 Enfield Military Match Rifle by Pritchett & Son." College Hill Arsenal. Web. 7 September 2023. https://collegehillarsenal.com/Early-British-Pattern-1853-Enfield-Military-Match-Rifle-by-Pritchett-Son
"Ellis Herbert Pritchett." Radnor Street Cemetery. Web. 7 September 2023. https://radnorstreetcemetery.blog/2023/07/22/ellis-herbert-pritchett-architect/
"Flagging Interest." Punch Vol. 45 (1863) 28 November: 216.
Free BMD. https://www.freebmd.org.uk/
Long, Basil Somerset. "Pritchett, Robert Taylor. Dictionary of National Biography. Supplement 2, 1901-11: 138-9. Web. 7 September 2023.
Marian Pritchett. Leighton Fine Art. https://www.leightonfineart.co.uk/artwork/portrait-of-marian-pritchett/
Millar, Delia. "Pritchett, Robert Taylor (1828–1907), gun maker and landscape painter." Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Online ed. 7 September 2023.
Pritchett, R. T. Gamle Norge: or, Rambles and Scrambles in Norway. London: Virtue & Co. 1879. Internet Archive. From a copy in the University of California Libraries. Web. 7 September 2023.
_____. Smokiana, Historical and Ethnographical. London: B. Quaritch, 1890. Internet Archive. From a copy in Columbia University Libraries. Web. 7 September 2023.
"R. T. Pritchett." The Globe, 20 June 1907: 3. BNA (British National Archives). Web. 7 September 2023.
Reynolds, E.G.B. "Early Enfield Arms: The Muzzle-Loaders." Small Arms Profile, No. 14. 1972. Internet Archive. Open Source publication. Web. 7 September 2023. See p.32.
Spielmann, M. H. The History of "Punch". London: Cassell, 1895. Internet Archive. From a copy in the Getty Research Institute. Web. 7 September 2023.
Wright, Anne. "Drawing Esher. Elmbridge Museum. https://elmbridgemuseum.org.uk/online-exhibitions/drawing-esher/
Wright, Anne. "R.T. Pritchett." The Elmbridge Hundred. https://people.elmbridgehundred.org.uk/biographies/robert-pritchett/
Created 8 September 2023