Michael Ford (died October 1758?), was an Irish

mezzotint Mezzotint is a monochrome printmaking process of the intaglio (printmaking), intaglio family. It was the first printing process that yielded half-tones without using line- or dot-based techniques like hatching, cross-hatching or stipple. Mezzo ...

engraver. A native of

Dublin Dublin is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, and is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, pa ...

, Ford had been a pupil of engraver John Brooks. When Brooks left Ireland around 1747, Ford set up shop as his successor in a store on Cork Hill. There, he engraved a number of portraits in mezzotint, which on account of their scarcity are highly valued by collectors. He also painted

portraits A portrait is a painting, photograph, sculpture, or other artistic representation of a person, in which the face is always predominant. In arts, a portrait may be represented as half body and even full body. If the subject in full body better re ...

, and engraved some himself. His subjects included senior judges like Thomas Marlay and Henry Singleton. Ford's address as publisher appears on some of the engravings by Andrew Miller and

James MacArdell James MacArdell (c. 1729 – 1765) was an Irish mezzotinter. Life He was born in Cow Lane (later Greek Street), Dublin, around 1729. He learnt mezzotint-engraving from John Brooks (engraver), John Brooks. When Brooks moved to London in 1746, Ma ...

. With the former he seems to have been in rivalry, as they often engraved the same subjects, notably Hogarth's full-length portrait of Gustavus Hamilton, of which Ford's print seems to be the earlier of the two. It is probable that Ford visited London, but this is not certain. On 27 October 1758 the ship ''Dublin Trader'', Captain White, left

Parkgate, Cheshire Parkgate is a village in the civil parish of Neston, on the Wirral Peninsula in Cheshire, England. It lies on the banks of the River Dee, adjoining of salt marsh. Parkgate forms part of the Neston built up area as defined by the Office for Nat ...

, for Dublin, and foundered in the

Irish Sea The Irish Sea is a body of water that separates the islands of Ireland and Great Britain. It is linked to the Celtic Sea in the south by St George's Channel and to the Inner Seas off the West Coast of Scotland in the north by the North Ch ...

; she carried 70,000

Irish pounds The pound ( Irish: ) was the currency of Ireland until 2002. Its ISO 4217 code was IEP, and the symbol was £ (or £Ir for distinction.) The Irish pound was replaced by the euro on 1 January 1999. Euro currency did not begin circulation until ...

in money and £80,000 in goods, along with around sixty passengers, among whom were Edward, fifth Earl of Drogheda, the actor

Theophilus Cibber Theophilus Cibber (25 or 26 November 1703 – October 1758) was an English actor, playwright, author, and son of the actor-manager Colley Cibber. He began acting at an early age, and followed his father into theatrical management. In 1727, Alex ...

, and others. There are grounds for supposing that Ford was also among the passengers.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ford, Michael Year of birth missing 1758 deaths English engravers 18th-century Irish engravers