William Miller (engraver)

William Miller
Photograph of William Miller in circa 1862
Born	(1796-05-28)28 May 1796 Edinburgh, Scotland
Died	20 January 1882(1882-01-20) (aged 85) Sheffield, England
Cause of death	(burial location: Quaker Burial Ground, The Pleasance, Edinburgh, Scotland)
Spouse(s)	1. Ellen Miller d.1841; 2.

William Miller (28 May 1796 – 20 January 1882) was a Scottish Quaker line engraver and watercolourist from Edinburgh.

Miller became an apprentice to William Archibald in 1814. His first published engraving was in that year, of an for William Archibald. This engraving appeared in Vol I of the Caledonian Horticultural Society. He spent four years with William Archibald, then setting up on his own account. At the end of 1819 he moved to Hackney to join the workshop of George Cooke. The premium paid for his eighteen-month stay with Cooke was £240. Other apprentices with Cooke included William Shotter Boys.

In the 1830s his address is listed as 4 Hope Park, in the Meadows area of Edinburgh.

Whilst an apprentice with Cooke, Miller drew a series of plants from the neighbouring nursery of Loddiges. These were engraved by Cooke and published in volumes v - vii of Loddiges Botanical Cabinet, London, J. and A. Arch, 1820 - 1822.

Miller was one of the principal engravers of J. M. W. Turner.

, one of William Miller's pupils, wrote some reminiscences of his time as an apprentice at Hope Park. Writing from Redhill on 17 September 1883 (published privately in Memorials of Hope Park):

"Wm Miller's admiration of Turner was unbounded, and his pupils soon caught the infection. The drawings, which at first sight looked so mysterious and unintelligible, the more they were pondered, unfolded their wondrous meaning and beauty; and from my own experience I can testify, that sitting for weeks before the same drawing, I did not tire over them, as was the case with inferior pictures. The plates executed from 1833 to 1836 consisted of the illustrations to Scott's Works, Turner's 'Annual Tour', Gainsborough's , a large Venice, by Turner and, of course, some plates of less note. The plates for Rogers's poems were engraved before my time, but not published till afterwards; these are probably the most exquisite gems that ever were, or ever will be produced. I beg however to differ from Ruskin in my estimate of them. I like , and the old better than the vignette, with the , at the beginning of the volume...........The was entirely the work of your father's own hand; it was done from a smaller copy of the original in the National Gallery. The pencil drawing was sent as usual to be transferred by the printer through the rolling press on to the etching ground, but when it came back the drawing was found to have shifted during the process, and the transferred outlines were thick and blurred. I should have been appalled, but your father made light of it, and etched away as if it had been all right.