Charles Pye Jr. (Birmingham 1777–1864) was a British engraver from Birmingham. He illustrated topographical subjects, and published a Holy Family after Michelangelo.

Life Pye was the elder son of Charles Pye Sr. (see below), an engraver in Birmingham, and the brother of landscape engraver John Pye. He was a pupil of James Heath.

During his later years, Pye lived in Leamington. A trade card (proof before engraved letters) is in the Heal Collection (Heal, 59.124) and advertises "C. Pye Engraver, No.14 Charton St. Sommerstown."

Works

Pye's engravings were published in collections including:

Beauties of England Illustrated Hunter's History of London Cadell & Davies, Britannia depicta. J. Scott and P. B. de la Boissière, Picturesque Views of the City of Paris and its Environs (1823)

Pye supplied engravings to designs by William Westall for the early issues of John Poole's The Regent, Or, Royal Tablet of Memory.Sandro Jung, The Illustrated Pocket Diary: Generic Continuity and Innovation, 1820-40, Victorian Periodicals Review Vol. 45, No. 1 (Spring 2012), pp. 23–48 at p. 40. Published by: The Johns Hopkins University Press on behalf of the Research Society for Victorian Periodicals In 1820 he published a letter, from Euston Square, on his experiments with relief etching on copper, in The London Journal of Arts and Sciences.

Charles Pye senior In numismatics, the elder Charles Pye was associated with the Soho Mint.Sue Tungate, Matthew Boulton and the Soho Mint: Copper to the Customer, 2010 Ph.D. Dissertation, at p. 236 He worked with Sarah Sophia Banks to issue a catalogue of tokens, illustrated by his own engravings, for collectors.John Barrell, Radicalism, Visual Culture, and Spectacle in the 1790s, Field Day Review, Vol. 4 (2008), pp. 40–61, at p. 49. Published by: Field Day Publications. He published A Correct and Complete Representation of all the Provincial Copper Coins, Tokens of Trade, and Cards of Address, on Copper, Which were circulated as such between the Years 1787 and 1801 (1801). A third edition of this book was edited by Arthur William Waters, and appeared in 1916 as a limited edition.

Pye also published Birmingham directories, and A Description of Modern Birmingham (c.1819).

References