Page:Dictionary of National Biography, Second Supplement, volume 3.djvu/268

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.
Sambourne
258
Samuelson

Samboume's best work in this line. In 1883 he designed and executed for the Fisheries Exhibition a diploma card which earned the enthusiastic praise of Tenniel (Spielmann, Hist. of Punch, p. 534). In 1900 he was one of the royal commissioners and sole juror for Great Britain in class 7 of the fine arts at the Paris exhibition.

In the autumn of 1909 Sambourne fell ill, and on 3 Nov. of that year his last cartoon appeared in 'Punch' (cxxxvii. 317). Two previously executed full-page drawings appeared in the 'Punch' almanack for 1910. He died at his home, 18 Stafford Terrace, Kensington, on 3 Aug. 1910, and his remains were buried, after cremation, in the graveyard of St. Peter's church, near Broadstairs.

Sambourne is entitled to a very high place among ’black-and-white' artists. His career as a contributor to 'Punch' extended over nearly forty-three years, and the marked growth of his powers may be studied in the pages of that journal. His youthful contributions show ingenuity and a certain grotesque humour, but little artistic merit. In his middle period the grotesqueness and the humour increased, with the addition of a great, but somewhat mechanical, vigour of execution. Only in his later period, fortunately a prolonged one, did he achieve that combination of artistic grace and dignity with an extraordinary firmness and delicacy of line which is the mark of his best work. He did not aim at Tenniel's massive simplicity, nor did his strength lie in the portrayal of living persons by way of caricature; but in imaginative designs, especially where his subject permitted him to introduce classically draped female figures, or where his ingenious and fertile fancy could invent and harmonise in a large and balanced composition a great variety of details, he was without a rival. So sure and accurate were his hand and eye that he could accomplish Giotto's feat of drawing a perfect circle. Fond of sport and outdoor exercise, Sambourne was a delightful companion noted for his bonhomie and good stories.

Sambourne married on 20 Oct. 1874 Marion, eldest daughter of Spencer Herapath, F.R.S., of Westwood, Thanet; by her he had a son, Mawdley Herapath, and a daughter, Maud Frances (Mrs. L. C. R. Messel), who has contributed sketches to 'Punch.' A portrait of Sambourne (1884), by Sir George Reid, R.S.A., is in the possession of the city of Aberdeen. A caricature portrait of him by Leslie Ward ('Spy') in 1882 is in the ’Punch' room.

[Punch, vols, lii.–cxxxviii.; Spielmann's History of Punch, 1895; Who's Who, 1910; The Times, 4 Aug. 1910; baptismal register, St. Philip's church, Clerkenwell.]

R. C. L.


SAMUELSON, Sir BERNHARD, first baronet (1820–1905), ironmaster and promoter of technical education, born at Hamburg, where his mother was on a visit, on 22 Nov. 1820, was eldest of the six sons of Samuel Henry Samuelson (1789–1863), merchant, by his wife Sarah Hertz (d. 1875). Bernhard's grandfather, Henry Samuelson (1764-1813), was a merchant of London. In his infancy his father settled at Hull. Educated at a private school at Skirlaugh, Yorkshire, he showed mathematical aptitude, but he left at fourteen to enter his father's office. At home he developed a love of music and a command of modern languages. He was soon apprenticed to Rudolph Zwilchenhart & Co., a Swiss firm of merchants, at Liverpool. There he spent six years. In 1837 he was sent to Warrington by his masters to purchase locomotive engines for export to Prussia. The experience led him to seek expert knowledge of engineering, and it suggested to him the possibility of expanding greatly the business of exporting English machinery to the Continent. In 1842 he was made manager of the export business of Messrs. Sharp, Stewart & Co., engineers, of Manchester. In this capacity he was much abroad, but owing to the railway boom at home in 1845, the firm gave up the continental trade. Next year Samuelson went to Tours and established railway works of his own, which he carried on with success till the revolution of 1848 drove him back to England.

In 1848 Samuelson purchased a small factory of agricultural implements at Banbury, which the death of the founder, James Gardner, brought into the market. Samuelson developed the industry with rare energy, and the works, which in 1872 produced no less than 8000 reaping-machines, rapidly became one of the largest of its kind. A branch was established at Orleans. The business, which was turned into a limited liability company in 1887, helped to convert Banbury from an agricultural town into an industrial centre. Meanwhile Samuelson in 1853 undertook a different sort of venture elsewhere. At the Cleveland Agricultural Show he met John Vaughan, who had discovered in 1851 the seam of Cleveland ironstone, and now convinced Samuelson of the certain future of the Cleveland iron trade. Samuel-