Details of Sculptor

Surname

Alken

Alternative Surname

Alkin

First Name

Samuel

Initial of Surname

A

Year of Birth/Baptism

1756

Flourished

Year of Death

1815

Biographical Details

Born on 22 October 1756, the son of Sefferin Alken, he was involved in the family business by April 1771, when he presented his father’s invoice for work at Audley End (Essex RO D/Dby/A30/11). He joined the Royal Academy Schools as a sculptor on 15 October 1772, giving his age as 16, and won a silver medal in 1773.
Alken assisted his father at Somerset House, providing work in wood and stone after his father’s death in 1782 (1, 2). He is better known as an engraver: A New Book of Ornaments Designed and Etched by Samuel Alken, 1779, established him as accomplished in the new technique of aquatint. He died at St Pancras in 1815 and was buried on 9 November that year. His will was proved the following February.
Literary References: Hutchison 1960-62, 138; Gunnis 1968, 16; Colvin 1973-76, 5, 466; Connor 1979; Beard and Gilbert 1986, 8
Will: PROB 11/1576