John Brooks (engraver)
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John Brooks was born circa 1710 in Dublin, the son of John Brooks. The family was possibly of Dutch descent, as van der Brooks, and he may have been related to other printers and printmakers. In 1736, he was admitted as an engraver to the Goldsmiths' Corporation.[3][1]
Around 1746 he settled in London, managing a business at Battersea for the enamelling of china in colours by a process which he had devised using copper plates to apply designs to enamel objects. The articles produced were ornamented with subjects chiefly from Homer and Ovid. He was unsuccessful in a patent application. After a period of success manufacturing decorated enamel objects such as snuffboxes and étuis known as "Battersea ware", the business folded on the bankruptcy of its chief proprietor, Stephen Theodore Janssen, Lord Mayor of London for 1754-5. He was also associated with James Gwim at this time.[3][1]
Brooks stayed in London as an engraver and enameller of china, living "rather disreputably in various inns". He died after 1756, and was buried by an innkeeper whom he had led to believe that he was a wealthy man and that the innkeeper would inherit from him.[1]
Some of Brooks' pupils worked as engravers in mezzotint, among them Andrew Miller, Richard Houston, Michael Ford, Charles Spooner, Richard Purcell, and James MacArdell, and he is credited with founding the Anglo-Irish school of mezzotint engraving.[1]
