Joseph Ives Pease was born on August 9, 1809 in Norfolk, Litchfield County, Connecticut, United States. He was the son of Earl P. and Mary (Ives) Pease, and a descendant of Robert Pease who emigrated from England in 1634 and settled at Salem, Massachussets.
Joseph's Ives Pease determination to become an engraver was expressed at a very early age, and when, at fourteen, he was placed in a dry-goods store in Hartford, Connecticut, he began to imitate the labels and other designs he found attached to pieces of fabric, copying them in pencil.
Joseph Ives Pease left the dry-goods business and began to practise, in an untrained, amateurish way, his chosen art. He is said, at first, to have used an awl for a graver and a piece of brass from an old thermometer for a plate; and to have produced his impressions on a roll press of his own construction. He had a strong mechanical bent and showed great ingenuity in making a turning lathe and building a small power loom, with which he succeeded in weaving cloth six inches in width. It is said that he erected this loom before he was aware that similar pieces of machinery had been constructed by others. Since his crude attempts at engraving revealed undeniable talent, he was apprenticed to Oliver Pelton, a prominent line-engraver of Hartford, and remained with him until he became of age, when he set up for himself.
His younger brother, Richard H. Pease, who had also become an engraver, had settled in Philadelphia, and in 1835 Joseph followed him thither. His pure and somewhat intimate style of engraving in line recommended him to Carey & Hart, who published The Gift and several other annuals, and for these publications Pease did his most charming work. All his plates that have been seen are small ones, but none the less delightful on that account. For ten years his work appeared regularly in the annuals, and his plates, despite their diminutive size, were much prized for the artistic and technical skill they displayed, as well as for their good taste. Among the best of these little plates are "Mumble the Peg, " from the painting by Inman; "Young Traders, " after Page; and "Tough Story, " after Mount. Pease also engraved an illustration for The Spy, a picture of Washington meeting with Harvey Birch, which has been admired.
From 1848 to 1850, Joseph Ives Pease adapted the foreign fashions and engraved the fashion plates for Godey's Lady's Book. About 1850 he left Philadelphia and went to Stockbridge, Massachussets, where he devoted himself to banknote engraving. A little later he bought a farm at Twin Lakes, near Salisbury, Connecticut, where he continued to engrave vignettes for banknotes. Joseph Ives Pease died on this farm on July 2, 1883.
On December 8, 1841 Joseph Ives Pease was married to Mary Spencer of Baltimore, Maryland.
