Primary Artist

Samuel Clayton (1777–1853)

Title

Bookplate for Charles Izard Manigault.

Date made

1818 (documentation)

Place made

Warrane / Sydney, New South Wales, Australia View on map Close map

Category

Print

Print type

intaglio

Technique

engraving, printed in black ink, from one copper plate

Matrix size

8.8 x 6.5 cm (plate-mark)

Support

paper

Support size

10.7 x 6.6 cm (sheet)

State

published state

Impression

undesignated impression as issued

Edition information

print-run unknown

Production notes

This is perhaps the earliest known Australian bookplate, engraved by convict artist Samuel Clayton for the visiting American merchant Charles Izard Manigault (1795-1874). While visiting Sydney on a trading voyage in 1818, Manigault, an American merchant, and book and antiquarian collector, from Charleston, South Carolina, commissioned Clayton to produce a bookplate for him. As Manigault wrote to his family, I had some of my visiting cards engraved by one of those talented convicts, S. Clayton of New South Wales, by placing my signature with its usual flourish in his hand, he imitated it and engraved it perfectly, …. He also did several hundred of my Coat of Arms, now my book plates.
Later, in Canton, Manigault’s engraved bookplate was copied as the centrepiece on his personal commission of Chinese porcelain.
See article: The earliest known Australian bookplate, by Matthew Fishburn, Hordern House, Sydney.

[Douglas Stewart media, 2026]

Inscriptions or device by artist or designated agent

no inscriptions.

Collection

Private collection

Accession number

DS # 48914

Subject category

Australia, Printed ephemera: Bookplate (ex libris)

Country of context

Australia

Creators

Clayton, Samuel. | (1777–1853) Australian | Irish | Male | artist

Last Updated

06 Oct 2026