Joseph Booth (a stage name, real surname Martin) (died 1797) was an English tradesman, actor and inventor.

Theatrical career

Booth's life is not well documented. Initially a hosier at

Mansfield Mansfield is a market town and the administrative centre of the Mansfield District in Nottinghamshire, England. It is the largest town in the wider Mansfield Urban Area and the second largest settlement in Nottinghamshire (following the city ...

, Nottinghamshire, he went on the stage. In 1774, when he recruited

Thomas Holcroft Thomas Holcroft (10 December 174523 March 1809) was an English dramatist, miscellanist, poet, novelist and translator. He was sympathetic to the early ideas of the French Revolution and helped Thomas Paine to publish the first part of ''The Ri ...

to his company at

Carlisle Carlisle ( , ; from ) is a city in the Cumberland district of Cumbria, England. Carlisle's early history is marked by the establishment of a settlement called Luguvalium to serve forts along Hadrian's Wall in Roman Britain. Due to its pro ...

, Booth was a provincial theatrical manager in the north of England. The position was a temporary one, the company manager West Digges being absent. The company contained other well-known names:

Elizabeth Inchbald Elizabeth Inchbald (née Simpson, 15 October 1753 – 1 August 1821) was an English novelist, actress, dramatist, and translator. Her two novels, '' A Simple Story'' and '' Nature and Art'', have received particular critical attention. Life B ...

, James Perry, William Shield. A business proposition concerned with making reproductions of paintings, by a process kept secret, was something Booth discussed with Holcroft around 1780; at this period he was an assistant prompter at

Covent Garden Theatre The Royal Opera House (ROH) is a theatre in Covent Garden, central London. The building is often referred to as simply Covent Garden, after a previous use of the site. The ROH is the main home of The Royal Opera, The Royal Ballet, and the Orch ...

. He also claimed an invention relating to textile manufacture.

The Polygraphic Society

Booth in London set up the Polygraphic Society. It held annual exhibitions, after Booth had published a pamphlet explaining the scheme in 1784. It also issued catalogues of the reproduction paintings available in "polygraphic" form. The first catalogue, of 24 paintings, was issued from

The Strand, London The Strand (commonly referred to with a leading "The", but formally without) is a major street in the City of Westminster, Central London. The street, which is part of London's West End theatreland, runs just over from Trafalgar Square eas ...

. The 1792 catalogue is of 80 paintings, and the Society's premises were then in Pall Mall, at

Schomberg House Schomberg House at 80–82 Pall Mall is a prominent house on the south side of Pall Mall, London, Pall Mall in central London which has a colourful history. Only the street facade survives today. It was built for Meinhardt Schomberg, 3rd Duke ...

. The Society left its mark on Schomberg House by adding the

Coade stone Coade stone or ''Lithodipyra'' or ''Lithodipra'' () is stoneware that was often described as an artificial stone in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. It was used for moulding neoclassical architecture, neoclassical statues, a ...

figures to the porch in 1791. The initial name for the polygraphic works was "pollaplasiasmos" (sometimes spelled "polyplasiasmos").

Thomas Jefferson Thomas Jefferson (, 1743July 4, 1826) was an American Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father and the third president of the United States from 1801 to 1809. He was the primary author of the United States Declaration of Indepe ...

bought one in London, of ''The Prodigal Son'' by

Benjamin West Benjamin West (October 10, 1738 – March 11, 1820) was a British-American artist who painted famous historical scenes such as ''The Death of Nelson (West painting), The Death of Nelson'', ''The Death of General Wolfe'', the ''Treaty of Paris ( ...

, and it hung at

Monticello Monticello ( ) was the primary residence and plantation of Thomas Jefferson, a Founding Father, author of the Declaration of Independence, and the third president of the United States. Jefferson began designing Monticello after inheriting l ...

. The Society's workshop, destroyed by fire in 1793, was at

Woolwich Common Woolwich Common is a common in Woolwich in southeast London, England. It is partly used as military land (less than 40%) and partly as an urban park. Woolwich Common is a conservation area. It is part of the South East London Green Chain. It is al ...

. There it employed artists to finish partial printed copies in oils. Known to have been employed in this work are:

James Baynes James Baynes (5 April 1766 – 12 May 1837) was an English watercolour painter and drawing-master. Little is known of his family apart from the fact that he was born in Lancaster as the son of a local tradesman and was the eldest of s ...

, Isaac Jehner, James Sillett, and the English-American portraitist William J. Weaver. The Society closed down in 1794. Towards the end it was sharing its premises with the New Shakespeare Gallery of James Woodmason, a rival to the

Boydell Shakespeare Gallery The Boydell Shakespeare Gallery in London, England, was the first stage of a three-part project initiated in November 1786 by engraver and publisher John Boydell in an effort to foster a School (discipline), school of British history painting. ...

elsewhere in Pall Mall. The last polygraphic picture exhibition started on 10 December 1794, leading up to a final auction in April 1795 and the sale of the lease. ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...

'' had commented on the concentration of these innovative galleries. According to Hazlitt, Holcroft was several hundred pounds the poorer for the collapse of the Society. Booth died on 25 February 1797, in Cumberland Gardens,

Vauxhall Vauxhall ( , ) is an area of South London, within the London Borough of Lambeth. Named after a medieval manor called Fox Hall, it became well known for the Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens. From the Victorian period until the mid-20th century, Va ...

. Sillett wrote in 1808 in the ''

Monthly Magazine ''The Monthly Magazine'' (1796–1843) of London began publication in February 1796 as ''The Monthly Magazine and British Register''. From 1826 through 1835 it used the title ''The Monthly Magazine, or British Register of Literature, Sciences, a ...

'' stating there was no loss of the mystery or trade secrets; that Booth had been bought out some time before he died; and that the polygraphic work had continued after the fire for a year or so at Walham Green. The 1795 auction was advertised by the executors of Thomas Goddard, who had held the lease on the Polygraphic Rooms in Pall Mall for the Society from 1792.

Aftermath

There is no concrete evidence to connect Booth's process with that of Francis Eginton, even if at the time the two may have been assumed related. Weaver was advertising the "polygraphic art" in New York in 1805. James Perry made an effort to continue the "polygraphic art" south-west of London; Pryse Gordon in 1830 decried Booth as a charlatan, and told of Booth's textile scheme in connection with Perry and his colleague James Gray. Richard Alfred Davenport writing in 1837, rather dismissively, mentioned that at least eight exhibitions were held, and suggested that the process used multiple blocks, an innovation that had been tried again recently. In the 1860s the works of the Polygraphic Society were brought up in a debate on the priority for photography.

Family

Booth married an actress named Malatratt. William Martin was their son.

References

*Robin Hamlyn, ''An Irish Shakespeare Gallery'', The Burlington Magazine Vol. 120, No. 905 (Aug. 1978), pp. 515–516+518-529. Published by: The Burlington Magazine Publications Ltd. Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/879330 * *Seymour Howard, ''Thomas Jefferson's Art Gallery for Monticello'', The Art Bulletin Vol. 59, No. 4 (Dec. 1977), pp. 583–600. Published by: College Art Association. Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/3049712 *Eric Robinson and Keith R. Thompson, ''Matthew Boulton's Mechanical Paintings'', The Burlington Magazine Vol. 112, No. 809, British Art in the Eighteenth Century. Dedicated to Professor E. K. Waterhouse (Aug. 1970), pp. 497–507. Published by: The Burlington Magazine Publications Ltd. Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/876394 *Paul D. Schweizer, ''William J. Weaver and His "Chymical and Mechanical" Portraits of Alexander Hamilton'', American Art Journal Vol. 30, No. 1/2 (1999), pp. 82–101. Published by: Kennedy Galleries, Inc. Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/1594633

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Booth, Joseph Year of birth missing 1797 deaths English male stage actors English inventors 18th-century English male actors