Robert Laurie (engraver)

Robert Laurie (c. 1755–1836) was an Anglo-Scottish mezzotint engraver and publisher. He signed his name as Lowery, Lowry, Lowrie, Lawrey, Lawrie, or Laurie.

Born about 1755, his background was the Lauries of Maxwelton, Dumfriesshire. He received from the Society of Arts in 1770 a silver palette for a drawing from a picture, and in 1773, 1775, and 1776 premiums for designs of patterns for calico-printing.

His earliest portraits in mezzotint are dated 1771. He invented a method of printing mezzotinto engravings in colours, and for its disclosure he received from the Society of Arts in 1776 a bounty of thirty guineas. Early in 1794, in partnership with James Whittle, he succeeded to the business carried on by Robert Sayer at the Golden Buck in Fleet Street, London as a publisher of engravings, maps, charts, and nautical works. Major charts published by this firm were James Cook's Survey of the South Coast of Newfoundland (1776) and the Surveys of St. George's Channel, (1777). Laurie then gave up the practice of engraving. He retired from business in 1812, and the firm continued as Whittle & Laurie, but the business was run by his son, Richard Holmes Laurie, who, on the death of Whittle in 1818, became the sole proprietor. L. S. De la Rochette and John Purdy were the hydrographers to the firm.

Robert Laurie died at Broxbourne, Hertfordshire, on 19 May 1836, aged 81. His son died at 53 Fleet Street, on 19 January 1858, also at the age of 81, leaving two daughters.

Major subject prints by Laurie were:

Portraits include those of:

and a series of twelve portraits of actors, after Robert Dighton.

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Lee, Sidney, ed. (1892). "". Dictionary of National Biography. 32. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 

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