John Harris Jr. (artist)

John Harris Jr. (17 November 1791 – 28 December 1873), was an English artist who specialised in pen-and-ink facsimile work,[1][2] and Masonic catechetical designs.

Harris earned his income as an artist chiefly from the production of facsimiles, used to replace pages (or entire sections) of books which had been damaged or become decayed.

[1] The practice of adding pen facsimiles to replace missing pages in early printed books was common in the nineteenth century, especially for "collectors who preferred their works to be prinstine and perfect.

A British Museum colleague, Robert Cowtan, gave an account of the examination of a book from the national collection by the British Museum's foremost book experts, Messrs Panizzi, Jones, and Watts, and their abject failure to discover the reproduced sections.

[6] It is known that Harris carried out book restoration work for Prince Augustus Frederick, Duke of Sussex, the Grand Master of English Freemasonry.

[9] The enormous original boards are still in use by the Emulation Lodge of Improvement, and may be viewed weekly, although they are sealed in protective glass cases.

In his latter years Harris wrote some poetry, including pieces in praise of masonic charity, and some of his work was published.

Harris and his wife lived in the RMBI residential home at East Croydon, where he died on 28 December 1873.

Following research the site of the grave was rediscovered in 2016,[7]: 7  and Surrey Freemasons, led in particular by the members of the Croydon Lodge of Endeavour No.