John Scott (engraver)

At the age of twelve he was apprenticed to a tallow-chandler; but at the end of his articles went to London, where his fellow-townsman Robert Pollard gave him two years' instruction, at the same time paying him.

On leaving Pollard, Scott obtained employment from John Wheble, the proprietor of the Sporting Magazine, and for many years executed the portraits of racehorses published there.

Scott worked until 1821, when a stroke of paralysis practically terminated his career; during the last years of his life he was assisted by the Artists' Benevolent Fund[clarification needed], of which he had been one of the originators.

Scott's works included: A pair of large plates, Breaking Cover, after Philip Reinagle, and Death of the Fox, after Sawrey Gilpin, issued in 1811, are regarded as his masterpieces.

Scott also did much work for publications of a different kind, such as Henry Tresham and William Young Ottley's British Gallery, Ottley's Stafford Gallery, John Britton's Fine Arts of the English School, James Hakewill's Tour of Italy, and Peter Coxe's Social Day.