Description
The Sabin portrait is based on the original rare American mezzotint of Adams printed for and published by Charles Reak and Samuel Okey in Rhode Island in 1775. That print was by J. Mitchell and engraved by Samuel Okey. They based the image on John Singleton Copley’s original oil portrait of Adams, which now in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. The Copley painting was originally commissioned by John Hancock during a pivotal moment in the lead-up to the American Revolution. This layered lineage of artistic interpretation — from Copley to Mitchell and Oakey and then to Sabin – reflects the continued interest in Samuel Adams as an important American Revolutionary war figure. Examples of the original 18th Century print, and the Sabin version in 1904 are rare.
Samuel Adams (1722-1803) was a pivotal figure and a true Revolutionary War hero, known for his leadership in organizing colonial resistance against British rule and his instrumental role in the movement for American independence. He was a prominent leader in Boston, a key organizer of the Sons of Liberty, a signatory of the Declaration of Independence, and a vital force in galvanizing popular support for the revolutionary cause.
Below the title of the Sabin print in the lower margin are eight lines of verse in two columns celebrating Adams’s opposition to the Intolerable Acts, a series of punitive laws passed by the British Parliament in 1774 in response to the Boston Tea Party and the growing colonial resistance, particularly in Massachusetts:
When haughty North impress’d wth proud Disdain,
Spurn’d at the Virtue, which rejects his Chain;
Heard with a Tyrant Soon our Rights implor’d,
And when we su’d for Justice sent the Sword:
Lo! Adams rose, in Warfare nobly try’d,
His Country’s Saviour, Father, Shield & Guide,
Urg’d by her Wrongs he wag’d ye glorious Strife
Nor paus’d to waste a Coward-Thought on Life.
Samuel Okey was a short-lived but significant figure in colonial American printmaking. He worked in Newport, Rhode Island from 1773 to 1775, producing engravings that catered to a patriot-leaning New England audience, before returning to London by 1778.
J. Percy Sabin was a member of the distinguished Sabin family — renowned for their contributions to the rare book and print trade through the production and sale of fine engravings, maps, and Americana in New York. The New York Public Library is the repository of the family papers and provided this online biographical summary:
Joseph Sabin (1821-1881), Joseph F. Sabin (1846-1926) and J. Percy Sabin (1872-1934) were the principal proprietors of the family firm of book, autograph and print dealers doing business in the U.S. and England from 1842 to 1934. Joseph Sabin compiled the Dictionary Catalogue of Books Relating to America, a bibliography of all books published in America or elsewhere pertaining to America. His son Joseph F. and grandson J. Percy continued the business of the firm and collected Americana and materials related to George Washington. Collection consists of correspondence, notes, financial records, and other papers that document the publishing and bookselling careers and personal lives of three generations of the Sabin family.
In 1899, J. Percy Sabin published a portrait of George Washington, by the British prolific engraver Samuel Arlent Edwards after a painting by James Sharples. In 1904 he was listed as the engraver of a mezzotint portrait of Samuel Adams, based on a 1775 mezzotint version of the portrait published in Rhode Island. Presumably he was publisher of this work as well. Indeed, inasmuch as he abilities as a mezzotint artist are otherwise not document this credit might have been an indication of his role as publisher rather than engraver. Percy’s professional activities were closely tied to a larger family business rooted in bibliographic scholarship and historical documentation. Through his publications, he helped shape how Americans visually remembered the founding generation, and his firm played an important role in making rare historical materials accessible to collectors, institutions, and the public.
Condition: Generally fine overall with little toning, wear, handling.
References:
“Sabin Family Papers.” New York Public Library Archives and Manuscripts. https://archives.nypl.org/controlaccess/31368?term=Sabin,%20Joseph%20Percy,%201872-1934 (7 July 2025).
“Samuel Adams in Mezzotint.” Boston 1775. https://boston1775.blogspot.com/2008/07/samuel-adams-in-mezzotint.html (7 July 2025).
