Cornelius Henry Tiebout

Background

Cornelius was born in New York City in 1777. He was the son of Tunis and Elizabeth (Lamb) Tiebout and a descendant of Jan Tibout who came to America before 1656 and in 1660 joined the church in New Amsterdam.

Education

As a lad, Cornelius was apprenticed to John Burger, a goldsmith in New York City, and he is said to have begun his experiment in engraving before he was out of his indentures.

In 1793 he went to London, where he received training in engraving in line and stipple under James Heath.

Career

What is probably his earliest piece of work--a plan of New York--is dated 1789, but before he completed his apprenticeship he had engraved maps, portraits, and subject plates for the New York Magazine and for John Brown's Self-Interpreting Bible.

While he was in the British capital (1795), he engraved and published a stipple portrait of John Jay which has been characterized as "probably the first really good portrait engraved by an American-born professional engraver".

Having acquired the practical knowledge he needed, Tiebout returned to New York in November 1796, and in partnership with his brother Andrew set up in business as an engraver.

In 1799 he removed to Philadelphia, which was his home for the following quarter century. He had already made portrait plates for some of William Dunlap's translations from Kotzebue and was now engaged by booksellers to furnish plates, but he also engraved portraits in quarto and in folio. Conspicuous among his larger plates were those of Rembrandt Peale's Thomas Jefferson, a full length, and "View of the Water Works at Centre Square, " after the picture by Barralet. Tiebout also engraved plates for Benjamin Tanner. A small stipple plate, printed in color, after Sir Joshua Reynolds' "Hope, " was another of his early accomplishments.

Some of his work is to be found in Mathew Carey's Family Bible (1803 - 05); in the Port Folio (1812); in William Gibson's Institutes and Practice of Surgery (1824); and in many of the volumes of William Mavor's Historical Account of Celebrated Voyages (1802 - 03). In 1817 Tiebout joined Benjamin Tanner and Francis Kearny in exploiting Henry S. Tanner's patent (1815) for engraving ornaments on banknotes to make them difficult to counterfeit. The banknote company of Tanner, Kearny & Tiebout existed until 1822, when it succumbed.

According to one account , Tiebout accumulated considerable property but lost most of his savings through investment in a blacking manufactory. He is said to have gone to Kentucky about 1825, where he died, apparently in 1830. His last published plate, a stipple of a picture entitled "Lion and Horse, " appeared in The Casket for May 1830. In 1928 he was represented in the exhibition of One Hundred Notable Engravers at the New York Public Library.

Achievements

• Cornelius Henry Tiebout was a notable line and stipple engraver. Among his major plates were those of Rembrandt Peale's Thomas Jefferson, a full length, and "View of the Water Works at Centre Square".

Works

More photos

• book

  • The Ancestry and Posterity of Cornelius Henry Tiebout of Brooklyn (Classic Reprint)

    (Excerpt from The Ancestry and Posterity of Cornelius Henr...)

Connections

On April 20, 1799, he married Esther Young, who bore him two sons and a daughter.

Father:

Tunis Tiebout

Mother:

Elizabeth (Lamb) Tiebout a

Spouse:

Esther Young

References

• American Engravers Upon Copper And Steel: Biographical Sketches, Illustrated. Index To Engravings Described, With Check-list Numbers And Names Of Engravers And Artists
• History of the Rise and Progress of the Arts of Design in the United States, Volume 2
• American Engravers And Their Works