John Swaine

He is best known for his excellent facsimile copies of old prints, of which the most noteworthy are the famous portrait of Shakespeare by Martin Droeshout, William Faithorne's portrait of Thomas Stanley, David Loggan's frontispiece to the Book of Common Prayer, and the plates to William Ottley's ‘History of Engraving,’ (1816), and Singer's ‘History of Playing Cards,’ 1816.

[2] He also engraved many illustrations for various scientific, topographical, and antiquarian works, including the whole series of plates in William Marsden's 'Oriental Coins,’ (1823–5), and many subjects of natural history for the transactions of the Linnean, Zoological, and Entomological societies.

[3] John Barak Swaine (1815?–1838), his only son, studied in the schools of the Royal Academy, and while still a boy did some good antiquarian work.

He engraved in mezzotint Rembrandt's ‘Spanish Officer,’ also a picture by himself entitled 'The Dutch Governess,’ and a portrait of A. J. Kempe.

[2] Swaine was a versatile artist of great promise, but died young, after a long illness, at the age of 23 in Queen Street, Golden Square, London, on 28 March 1838.