collection Gejus van Diggele
# 19
S.W. Fores
a famous publisher of prints, who could
not resist to make some drawings by himself.
collection
Gejus van Diggele
Life of a collector can be so simple. A few years ago I was able to buy this playing card with a drawing on the back. One does not have to be an art expert to recognize it as a drawing in ink, made with a pen by an amateur. Further investigation (just flipping the card) resulted in a name: S.W. Fores, probably the name of the artist. Actually this man was not an artist. Thanks to the internet I found that S.W. Fores was one of London's most prominent printmakers and publishers, with a shop at Piccadilly. His date of Birth and the date of his death are unknown but according to the dates of publications he was active at the end of the 18th century and in the first half of the 19th century. Fores published many prints, mostly satirical engravings. His prints were very popular at the time and even now they are highly searched after by musea and private collectors.
Maybe Fores, inspired by his "real" artists, wanted to be creative himself, when he made this drawing of a tree in 1808. Since 1805 Fores also printed playing cards: copper engravings from transformation cards designed by John Nixon from London.
I know of another playing card with a similar drawing of trees, in exactly the same style, without a name or date. It was for sale at Intercol in London but is not listed anymore. To the unknown buyer: your piece of art is done by S.W. Fores, the man who doodled on playing cards.
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