Sidney Lawton Smith was an American designer, etcher, engraver, illustrator, and bookplate artist.
Background
Smith was born in Foxborough, Massachusetts to Lawton and Lucy Thompson Smith on June 15, 1845. Although his mother admonished him to stay in his apprenticeship, in 1864 Smith enlisted with the Union Army and saw active service at the end of the Civil War.
Education
In 1847, his family moved to Canton, Massachusetts, where he was educated in the public school system.
Career
He was the third of three sons. In 1865, Smith returned to Carpenter"s engraving shop, but moved on to the shop of Joseph Andrews in 1867. There, he worked on reproductions of the original etchings and woodcuts that had been issued in England with an edition of Dickens"s works
Smith began his own engraving establishment in Canton, Massachusetts.
He worked on government notes for the American Bank Note Company and on book illustrations for the publisher Riverside Press.
In 1877, Smith became an assistant to John LaFarge in the decoration of Trinity Church in Boston. He continued to work with LaFarge on stained glass work and decorative projects that came through LaFarge"s studio in New York, until 1887.
In 1893, Smith moved his family and business to Boston. During this period, Smith worked primarily as an etcher and engraver, and a designer of bookplates.
Smith"s bookplate clients included notable book and engravings collectors, college and public libraries, historical and research societies, publishing houses, bookstores, and collector"s clubs.
Smith died in 1929. The American Antiquarian Society holds his papers and other materials, including several bookplate drawings and engravings, copper bookplates, photographs, and his engraving tools. Bookplates
Collections of bookplates designed, etched, and engraved by Sidney Lawton Smith are held in the Lewis Stark Bookplate Collection at the University of New Hampshire, and the William Augustus Brewer Bookplate Collection at the University of Delaware.
Bookplates by Sidney Lawton Smith.