Plumbago drawings are graphite

Graphite

The mineral graphite is one of the allotropes of carbon. It was named by Abraham Gottlob Werner in 1789 from the Ancient Greek γράφω , "to draw/write", for its use in pencils, where it is commonly called lead . Unlike diamond , graphite is an electrical conductor, a semimetal...

 drawings from the 17th and 18th centuries. There was a group of artists whose work in plumbago is remarkable for their portraits drawn with finely pointed pieces of graphite and on vellum

Vellum

Vellum is mammal skin prepared for writing or printing on, to produce single pages, scrolls, codices or books. It is generally smooth and durable, although there are great variations depending on preparation, the quality of the skin and the type of animal used...

. Initially these works were often prepared as the basis of an engraving. As time went by they would be produced as works in their own right.

Early artists in plumbago

One of the earliest of this group of workers was Simon Van de Pass (1595-1647), and his pencil drawings were probably either for reproduction on silver tablets or counters or for engraved plates. The earlier miniature painters also drew in this manner, notably Nicholas Hilliard

Nicholas Hilliard

Nicholas Hilliard was an English goldsmith and limner best known for his portrait miniatures of members of the courts of Elizabeth I and James I of England. He mostly painted small oval miniatures, but also some larger cabinet miniatures, up to about ten inches tall, and at least two famous...

 in preparing designs for jewels and seals, and Isaac Oliver

Isaac Oliver

Isaac Oliver was a French-born English portrait miniature painter.-Life and work:Born in Rouen, he moved to London in 1568 with his Huguenot parents Peter and Epiphany Oliver to escape the Wars of Religion in France...

 and Peter Oliver in portraits.

A few pencil portraits by Abraham Blooteling

Abraham Blooteling

Abraham Blooteling was an eminent Dutch designer and engraver.He was born at Amsterdam. From the style of his etchings it is not unlikely that he was brought up under the Visschers. On the inroad of the French into Holland in 1672, he came to England, where he met with encouragement, but did not...

, the Dutch engraver, have been preserved, which appear to have been first sketches, from which plates were afterwards engraved. David Loggan

David Loggan

David Loggan was an English baroque engraver, draughtsman and painter.-Life:He was baptized 27 August 1634 in Danzig, then a semi-autonomous city within Prussian Poland and a member of the Hanseatic League...

 (1635-1700), a pupil of Van de Pass, also left a few portraits, as a rule drawn on vellum and executed with dexterity.

These works were not always prepared for engraving. There is one representing Charles II

Charles II of England

Charles II was monarch of the three kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland.Charles II's father, King Charles I, was executed at Whitehall on 30 January 1649, at the climax of the English Civil War...

, set in a gold snuff

Snuff

Snuff is a product made from ground or pulverised tobacco leaves. It is an example of smokeless tobacco. It originated in the Americas and was in common use in Europe by the 17th century...

 box, which was given by the King to the Duchess of Portsmouth

Louise de Kérouaille, Duchess of Portsmouth

Louise Renée de Penancoët de Kérouaille, Duchess of Portsmouth was a mistress of Charles II of England. Through her son by Charles II, Charles Lennox, 1st Duke of Richmond, she is ancestress of both wives of The Prince of Wales: the late Diana, Princess of Wales, as well as The Duchess of...

, and which went to the Duke of Richmond

Duke of Richmond

The title Duke of Richmond is named after Richmond and its surrounding district of Richmondshire, and has been created several times in the Peerage of England for members of the royal Tudor and Stuart families...

, and a similar portrait of Oliver Cromwell

Oliver Cromwell

Oliver Cromwell was an English military and political leader who overthrew the English monarchy and temporarily turned England into a republican Commonwealth, and served as Lord Protector of England, Scotland, and Ireland....

 which was in the possession of Lord Verulam

Earl of Verulam

Earl of Verulam is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created in 1815 for James Grimston, 4th Viscount Grimston. He was made Viscount Grimston at the same time. Verulam had previously represented St Albans in the House of Commons. In 1808 he had also succeeded his maternal cousin...

; and there are no engravings corresponding to these.

Later works

William Faithorne

William Faithorne

William Faithorne , often "the Elder", , English painter and engraver, was born in London and was apprenticed to William Peake....

 (1616-1691) derived much of his skill from the time he spent with Robert Nanteuil

Robert Nanteuil

Robert Nanteuil was a French printmaker in engraving.He was born about 1623, or, as other authorities state, in 1630, the son of a merchant of Reims...

, whose style he followed. There are drawings by him in the Bodleian Library

Bodleian Library

The Bodleian Library , the main research library of the University of Oxford, is one of the oldest libraries in Europe, and in Britain is second in size only to the British Library...

, at Welbeck Abbey

Welbeck Abbey

Welbeck Abbey near Clumber Park in North Nottinghamshire was the principal abbey of the Premonstratensian order in England and later the principal residence of the Dukes of Portland.-Monastic period:...

 and at Montagu House

Montagu House

Montagu House or Montague House may refer to:in England*Montagu House, Bloomsbury, the first home of the British Museum, also known as Montague House*Montagu House, Portman Square, built for Elizabeth Montagu on Portman Square...

, and two fine portraits in the British Museum

British Museum

The British Museum is a museum of human history and culture in London. Its collections, which number more than seven million objects, are amongst the largest and most comprehensive in the world and originate from all continents, illustrating and documenting the story of human culture from its...

. Thomas Forster (c. 1695-1712) was one of the major draughtsmen in this form of portraiture, on vellum and on paper. His work was at Welbeck Abbey, in the Holburne Museum at Bath, in the Victoria and Albert Museum

Victoria and Albert Museum

The Victoria and Albert Museum , set in the Brompton district of The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, London, England, is the world's largest museum of decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 4.5 million objects...

 and elsewhere.

Robert

Robert White (engraver)

Robert White was an English draughtsman and engraver. A Londoner, he was a pupil of David Loggan, and became a leading portrait engraver. White was celebrated for his original portraits, drawn in pencil on vellum in the manner of Loggan...

 and George White

George White (artist)

-Life:The son of Robert White, he was born about 1684, and instructed by his father. He completed some of the plates left unfinished by the latter, and himself executed a few in the line manner; but at an early period he turned to mezzotints. A portrait of Jean-Baptiste Monnoyer, which he executed...

, were English artists, father and son. The former (1645-1704) was a pupil of Loggan and a prolific engraver, and most of his drawings executed on vellum were for the purpose of engraving. George White (c. 1684-1732) was taught by his father, and finished some of his father's plates. Forster and the two Whites signed their drawings and dated them. By Robert White there are portraits of John Bunyan

John Bunyan

John Bunyan was an English Christian writer and preacher, famous for writing The Pilgrim's Progress. Though he was a Reformed Baptist, in the Church of England he is remembered with a Lesser Festival on 30 August, and on the liturgical calendar of the Episcopal Church on 29 August.-Life:In 1628,...

 and Sir Matthew Hale in the British Museum, and his own portrait at Welbeck; and by him and his son there are other drawings, depicting Sir Godfrey Kneller

Godfrey Kneller

Sir Godfrey Kneller, 1st Baronet was the leading portrait painter in England during the late 17th and early 18th centuries, and was court painter to British monarchs from Charles II to George I...

, Archbishop Tenison

Thomas Tenison

Thomas Tenison was an English church leader, Archbishop of Canterbury from 1694 until his death. During his primacy, he crowned two British monarchs.-Life:...

 and others.

The two John Fabers, John Faber Senior

John Faber Senior

John Faber Senior was a Dutch portrait engraver active in London, where he set up a shop for producing and marketing his own work. His son John Faber Junior was also active in this field.-Life:...

 (c.1660-1721) and John Faber Junior

John Faber Junior

John Faber Junior was a Dutch portrait engraver active in London.-Life:He was born to the artist John Faber Senior in Amsterdam, and learned mezzotint and drawing from his father after the family's move to London. He then enrolled at the St. Martin's Lane Academy...

 (1660-1721), were Dutch; they usually added drawn inscriptions, often found within circles around the portraits and occasionally extending to many lines below them. The son was the more significant artist, known for mezzotint

Mezzotint

Mezzotint is a printmaking process of the intaglio family, technically a drypoint method. It was the first tonal method to be used, enabling half-tones to be produced without using line- or dot-based techniques like hatching, cross-hatching or stipple...

s. The portrait painter Jonathan Richardson (1665-1745) executed many drawings in pencil

Pencil

A pencil is a writing implement or art medium usually constructed of a narrow, solid pigment core inside a protective casing. The case prevents the core from breaking, and also from marking the user’s hand during use....

, examples of which can be seen in the British Museum.

The Scot David Paton was working in 1670. Most of his drawings belonged to the Earl of Dysart

Earl of Dysart

Earl of Dysart is a title in the Peerage of Scotland. It was created in 1643 for William Murray, who had earlier represented Fowey and East Looe in the English House of Commons. He was made Lord Huntingtower at the same time, also in the Peerage of Scotland. He was succeeded by his daughter, the...

 and were at Ham House; examples of his portraiture were in the possession of the Daizell family. Paton was attached to the court of Charles II, when the king was in Scotland; at that time he drew his portrait of the King. There are drawings of the same character as his, the work of George Glover

George Glover (engraver)

George Glover was an English engraver, working in the reign of Charles I. He mainly worked for London publishers, including Robert Peake, Thomas Banks, John Hinde and Peter Stent....

 (d. 1618) and Thomas Cecill (fl. 1630), but they were evidently studies for engravings. A Swiss artist, Joseph Werner

Joseph Werner

Joseph Werner , known as the Younger to distinguish him from his painter father of the same name, was a Swiss painter, known for miniatures.-References:*This article was initially translated from the German Wikipedia....

 (b. 1637) drew in pencil, adopting brown paper as the material on which his best drawings were done, and in some cases heightening them with touches of white paint.

Later miniature artists, including Nathaniel Hone, Grimaldi, Bernard Lens

Bernard Lens

Bernard Lens may refer to one of three British artists:*Bernard Lens , probably from the Netherlands, also the writer of several religious tracts*Bernard Lens II , son of the former, mezzotint engraver...

 and John Downman

John Downman

John Downman was a Welsh portrait and subject painter.-Life and work:Downman is thought to have been born near Ruabon, Denbighshire, the son of Francis Downman, attorney, of St Neots, and Charlotte ; his grandfather, Hugh Downman , had been the master of the House of Ordnance at...

, also drew in plumbago. Other exponents of this art were Thomas Worlidge

Thomas Worlidge

-Life:He was born in Peterborough of Roman Catholic parents, and studied art in London as a pupil of the Genoese refugee Alessandro Maria Grimaldi . He painted portraits of his master Grimaldi and his master's wife about 1720. He married Grimaldi's daughter, and remained on close terms with...

 (1700-1766), F. Steele (c. 1714), W. Robins (c. 1730), G. A. Wolffgang (1692-1775), George Vertue

George Vertue

George Vertue was an English engraver and antiquary, whose notebooks on British art of the first half of the 18th century are a valuable source for the period.-Life:...

 the engraver (1684-1756), Johann Zoffany

Johann Zoffany

Johan Zoffany, Zoffani or Zauffelij was a German neoclassical painter, active mainly in England...

 (1733-1810), and the Swede, Charles Bancks (c. 1748).