Mystery of the Steel Engraving of the Melon Farmer at Pelham Bridge

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Today presents another Pelham history mystery and, hopefully, a solution to the mystery.

There is a lovely 19th century steel engraving entitled "RIPE AND READY PELHAM BRIDGE, WESTCHESTER CO. N.Y."  It depicts a melon farmer in a bucolic setting, working a lovely but small melon field that slopes to the water's edge with a bridge and buildings in the distance.  There is a small sailboat in the waters near the bridge and a number of rowboats pulled onto the opposing shore.  The engraving was prepared by "R. Hinshelwood" and is so marked.  

Robert Hinshelwood was an American engraver, etcher, and landscape painter known for, among other things, preparing mass production steel and wood engravings of popular paintings.  Hinshelwood was born in Edinburgh in 1812.  He immigrated to America in about 1835 and settled in New York City.  He worked for Harpers and other publishers and, later, for the Continental Bank Note Company.  He died after 1875 in New York and is best known for his landscape engravings.

An image of the "RIPE AND READY" steel engraving by Hinshelwood appears immediately below (as always, click on the image to enlarge it).

"RIPE AND READY PELHAM BRIDGE, WESTCHESTER

CO. N.Y." Steel Engraving by Robert Hinshelwood.  NOTE:

Click on Image to Enlarge.

This fascinating engraving raises interesting questions.  It purports to show the Pelham Bridge area on Eastchester Bay near City Island (at least according to the title of the engraving).  Careful inspection, however, suggests that the bridge depicted in the distance in the engraving is not the Pelham Bridge (either today's Pelham Bridge or its predecessors).  Moreover, the waters leading to the bridge seem far too narrow to be Eastchester Bay at the wide mouth of the Hutchinson River regardless of the direction from which the Pelham Bridge could be viewed in such a setting.  Additionally, the buildings in the distance do not seem consistent with what is known about structures at the Pelham Bridge during the 19th century.

All in all, the engraving doesn't "feel right" as a depiction of the Pelham Bridge area.

Further research now suggests the possibility that the engraving, indeed, does not depict the Pelham Bridge area but, instead, depicts an area near Glen Cove, Long Island.  

It turns out that, as often was the case with engravings by Robert Hinshelwood, the "Ripe and Ready" engraving was based on a painting.  That painting was one crafted by famed local artist Edward Gay of Mount Vernon.  An image of Gay's oil painting of the scene appears immediately below.

Oil Painting Signed "Edward Gay 1873" (Oil on canvas, 23" High x 35"

Wide).  NOTE:  Click on Image to Enlarge.

Edward Gay was a noted American landscape artist.  According to one source:

"Edward Gay (1837–1928) was an Irish-American artist who specialized in landscape paintings. He was active in Mt. Vernon, New York and Cragsmoor, New York.

The 1848 Irish potato famine forced his family to move to America, when he was 11 years old. Gay trained in Albany on the advice of James Hart, his brother William Hart, and George Henry Boughton, artists who recognized Gay's talent while he was still a child. 

In 1862, Gay went to Karlsruhe in Germany to continue his studies under the artists Johann Wilhelm Schirmer and Karl Friedrich Lessing. In 1864 he returned to the United States and dedicated himself to landscape painting.  

Gay and his wife, Martha Freary, moved to Mt. Vernon, New York. The couple had a son, Duncan–also an artist–and a daughter, Ingovar.

Gay was a member of the New York Artists Fund Society, National Academy of Design, and the Lotos Club. He exhibited in museums and galleries throughout America and he painted murals for public libraries in Mt. Vernon, New York and Bronxville, New York.

Gay died in 1928 in Mount Vernon, New York."

Source:  "Edward Gay (Artist)" in Wikipedia -- The Free Encyclopedia (visited Nov. 17, 2019).

Edward Gay in His Studio in 1907.  Source:  "Edward Gay (Artist)"

in Wikipedia -- The Free Encyclopedia (visited Nov. 17, 2019).

NOTE:  Click on Image to Enlarge.

The original oil painting by Edward Gay on which the Hinshelwood engraving is based, recently was offered at auction by Butterscotch Auctioneers & Appraisers together with an example of the Hinshelwood steel engraving.  The lot, with a minimum of $6,000, passed without bid.

Significantly, the auction catalog noted that although the original stretcher of the painting had been replaced, sections of the original stretcher had been mounted to retain an inscription indicating that the painting depicted a "Glen Cover [sic] Waterway."  Indeed, the auction catalog entitles the painting as "The Pumpkin Patch, Glen Cove, NY."  

A detail from that portion of the oil painting showing the bridge in the distance appears immediately below.  

Detail from Oil Painting Signed "Edward Gay 1873".

NOTE:  Click on Image to Enlarge.

Given that the painting was created in 1873, we now can consider the version of the Pelham Bridge that stood at that time.  Indeed, the version of the Pelham Bridge that existed at that time was the so-called "Iron Bridge" built in 1869 and 1870.  (That bridge was replaced with the current Pelham Bridge that opened in 1908 and is scheduled for replacement in 2022.)  Immediately below is a postcard view of the "Iron Bridge" version of the Pelham Bridge.

Undated Postcard View of "PELHAM BAY BRIDGE, PELHAM BAY

PARK, NEW YORK."  NOTE:  Click on Image to Enlarge.

The bridge depicted in the Edward Gay painting, like the bridge in the Hinshelwood engraving of the same scene, bears no resemblance to all or any portion of the Pelham Bridge that stood across Eastchester Bay in 1873, the date of the Edward Gay painting.  

Although it is unknown why Robert Hinshelwood entitled his steel engraving of the same scene to include a reference to "Pelham Bridge, Westchester Co. N.Y." it seems certain the engraving is mistitled.  The scene does not depict Pelham Bridge.

Archive of the Historic Pelham Web Site.

Archive of the Historic Pelham Web Site.
Home Page of the Historic Pelham Blog.
Order a Copy of "The Haunted History of Pelham, New York"
Order a Copy of "Thomas Pell and the Legend of the Pell Treaty Oak."