Description

Frederick William Fairholt (1814-1866) was an English antiquary and wood engraver. He worked as a drawingmaster, and later as a scene-painter. Ink copies made by him of figures from William Hogarth's plates led to his being employed by Charles Knight on several of his illustrated publications. His first published literary work was a contribution to Hone's Year-Book in 1831. Several works on civic pageantry and some collections of ancient unpublished songs and dialogues were edited by him for the Percy Society in 1842. He published an edition of the dramatic works of John Lyly in 1858. His principal works are Tobacco: Its History and Association (1859), Gog and Magog (1860), Up the Nile and Home Again (1862), and many articles and serials contributed to the Art Journal, some of which were afterwards separately published, as Costume in England (1846) and Dictionary of Terms in Art (1854). He also illustrated many works including Charles Roach Smith's Richborough (1850), the Miscellanea Graphica (1857) of Lord Londesborough and Sir John Evans's Coins of the Ancient Britons (1864).