The River Thames, London,  with the Original London Bridge and Saint Paul’s Cathedral in the Distance

Biography of Robert Havell ( 1769-1832, British )

Robert Havell Sr. (29 December 1769 – 21 November 1832) was the proprietor of a printing and engraving shop, with an ancillary business in natural history artifacts, in the Marylebone district of London, in the early decades of the nineteenth century. Robert was the brother of Luke Havell. In February 1793, Robert married Lydia Miller Phillips at St Sepulchre church in London. Their eldest son Robert was born in Reading in December the same year and also went on to become an engraver. Both Robert senior and junior ran an engraving business in London.

In 1824, following the marriage of his son, Robert moved the business to 79 Newman Street, where John James Audubon approached him in 1827 to engrave a portfolio of 240 drawings he had brought with him from America. Recognizing that without the help of another expert engraver he would not be able to take on a work of this magnitude, Robert Havell Sr. contacted his son, Robert Havell Jr., who had quarrelled with his father and left London in an attempt to launch an independent artistic career. Robert Havell Jr. consented to reestablish the partnership with his father and agreed to engrave the plates of Audubon’s drawings, with Robert Sr. supervising their printing and colouring. The collaboration between father and son continued in this way until Robert Havell Sr.’s retirement in 1828.

Robert died in 1832, and was buried at the Old St. Pancras Church graveyard in London.

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