Curclaze Tin mine, 1813 (engraving on paper)

By Joseph Farington R.A. (1747 - 1821) Joseph Farington R.A. (1747 - 1821) Lancashire, the son of the vicar of Leigh and rector of Warrington. He was educated in Manchester and studied under Richard Wilson in London from 1763. He entered the Royal Academy Schools in 1769 and became an Academician in 1785. His strength was in pen, ink and wash drawings of topographical views. He made extensive sketching tours of the UK and settled in the North Country from 1776. Works made there led to the publication ‘Views of the Lakes of Cumberland and Westmorland’ (1785). Samuel Middiman (1750 - 1831). In 1767 Samuel Middiman was apprenticed to the engraver William Byrne and later worked with printmakers William Woollett and Francesco Bartolozzi. As a specialist in landscape etching, his skills were always in demand. He made 16 plates for the publication ‘Picturesque Castles and Abbeys in England and Wales’ (1807-11) and 53 for ‘Select Views in Great Britain’ (1814). From 1780 to 1782 and from 1795 to 1797 he exhibited drawings at the Royal Academy. Later in his career he turned to landscape painting and exhibited several works at the British Institution. Published May 1813, by T. Cadell & W. Davies, Strand, London, a publishing company established in London in 1793. Cadell & Davies was formed when bookseller and publisher Thomas Cadell the elder (1742–1802) bequeathed his business to his son Thomas Cadell the younger (1773–1836) and the elder Cadell's apprentice William Davies. Cadell & Davies shut down after Davies death in 1819 and Cadell continued in business until his own death in 1836. Carclaze mine, near St Austell in Cornwall, produced tin and china clay for over 400 years. The tin ore is in a matrix of shorl and quartz and was quarried from open cast pits rather than mined. The tin was then separated by crushing and washing the rock. Carclaze was worked exclusively for tin until 1851, from which time china clay was also quarried. Following the collapse of the price of tin in the 1860s, Carclaze continued to produce china clay. Carclaze was a huge operation and in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries became a ‘must-see’ location for visitors from all over Europe, particularly those interested in geology and mineralogy. Intellectually, the early scientific interest in Carclaze can be seen as part of the Enlightenment, but in the nineteenth century the influence of Romanticism can also be detected. Much of the attraction was due to the openness and accessibility of Carclaze pit, which allowed the geology to be easily appreciated. This resulted in the mine and its development being particularly well documented through contemporary accounts and illustrations.