Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Storer, James Sargant
STORER, JAMES SARGANT (1771–1853), draughtsman and engraver, was born in 1771, and devoted himself to the production of works on topography and ancient architecture, the plates in which, drawn and engraved by himself on a small scale, were distinguished for extreme accuracy and beauty of finish. For some years he was associated with John Greig, another topographical artist, in collaboration with whom he published ‘Cowper illustrated by a Series of Views,’ 1803; ‘Views in North Britain illustrative of the Works of Burns,’ 1805; ‘Views illustrative of the Works of Robert Bloomfield,’ 1806; ‘Select Views of London and its Environs,’ 1804–5; ‘The Antiquarian and Topographical Cabinet,’ 10 vols., with five hundred plates, 1807–11; and ‘Ancient Reliques,’ 1812. He was one of the artists employed upon Britton and Brayley's ‘Beauties of England and Wales,’ 1801–1816. From 1814 James Storer worked wholly in conjunction with his eldest son (see below), whom he outlived. He died at his house at Islington on 23 Dec. 1853, and was buried beside his son at St. James's Chapel, Pentonville.
The eldest son, Henry Sargant Storer (1795–1837), produced with his father ‘The Cathedrals of Great Britain,’ 4 vols. 1814–19 (pronounced by Pugin to be the most accurate views of those buildings in existence); ‘Delineations of Fountains Abbey,’ 1820, a work of great excellence; ‘Views in Edinburgh and its Vicinity,’ 1820; ‘The University and City of Oxford displayed,’ 1821; ‘Delineations of Gloucestershire,’ 1824; and ‘The Portfolio: a collection of Engravings from Antiquarian, Architectural, and Topographical Subjects,’ 4 vols., 1823–4. The letterpress of some of these works is believed to have been written by the elder Storer. He and his son also engraved the plates to Cromwell's ‘History of Clerkenwell,’ 1828, and ‘Walks through Islington,’ 1835, and other similar publications. They resided for some time at Cambridge, where they issued several sets of views of the town and university, the latest being ‘Collegiorum Portæ apud Cantabrigiam.’ H. S. Storer engraved, independently of his father, the plates to Pierce Egan's ‘Walks through Bath,’ 1819, and a view of Christ's College for the ‘Cambridge Almanack,’ 1822. He exhibited drawings at the Royal Academy from 1814 to 1836, and died, at the age of forty-one, on 8 Jan. 1837.
[Gent. Mag. 1854, i. 326; Redgrave's Dict. of Artists; Graves's Dict. of Artists, 1760–1893; Universal Cat. of Books on Art; Willis and Clark's Architectural Hist. of Cambridge.]