18th Century Blacksmiths

Last updated: Jan 5, 2024

This is a general survey of illustrations and artwork showing blacksmiths in the 18th century. Pages elsewhere on this site focus on some of the garments that appear in the illustrations below, such as caps and button-top aprons. Related metal-working occupations on other pages include knife grinders and tinkers.

• The Ludicrous Operator, or Blacksmith turn’d Tooth Drawer, 1768
• Two smiths in The Newsmongers, 1769
• The Gossiping Blacksmith by Edward Penny, 1769
• Saint Monday in the Afternoon, or All Nine and Swallow the Bowl, 1770s
• Sections on the Metalworker, Toolmaker, and Manufacture of Vises in Diderot’s Encyclopédie, 1771
• A Farrier’s Shop, 1771
• Paintings by Joseph Wright of Derby: A Blacksmith’s Shop, 1771 The Blacksmith’s Shop, 1771; An Iron Forge, 1772; Iron Forge Viewed from Without, 1773
• The blacksmith lets his iron grow cold attending to the taylor’s news, 1772
• The Blacksmith and Knife Grinder with a distant of Sir Ricd Worsleys Pavilion &c in Hyde Park 1780 by Paul Sandby
• Interior of a blacksmith shop by Pehr Hilleström, 1781
• William Williams, Blacksmith, Aged 70 by John Walters, 1793
• Illustration from Henry Clinker, 1797
• The Forge by Léonard Defrance
• Pat Lyon at the Forge by John Neagle, 1826-1827