Timothy Cole   Master Engraver
 

D
 

MELVIN LOOS

URING the years that I was superintendent of manu¬
facturing for the Printing House of AVilliam Edwin
Rudge, one of my responsibilities was to assign press
time for the various kinds of work. Periodically between 1926
and 1930 Timothy Cole would write that he would like to have us
print some of his wood engravings. He lived in Poughkeepsie and
would arrive in Mount Vernon about eight o'clock in time for the
plant opening at 8:20.

While I was waiting for him at the New York Central station,
I would sometimes think about this remarkable artist who in his
twenty-fifth year achieved acclaim for his ability to "translate"
oil paintings of the masters into skillful wood-engravings which
were works of great art in themselves. He became a standby first
of Scribner's Monthly and then, for many years, of Century
Magazine. In fact, the Century Company had sent him to Europe
where for twenty-seven years he had created engravings after
paintings by the old masters. He was the last one of note to be
a success at this in the face of the growing use of photography
which finally took over the field. It was when he returned to the
United States in 1910 that he had settled in Poughkeepsie.

And when the thundering train, his,sing steam, had come to a
halt and the passengers for Mr. Vernon debarked, I would soon
spot him coming along—jaunty even though often in non-match¬
ing coat and pants. He would hop in my auto and we would be off
to the Printing House. Although he had left his home in Pough¬
keepsie at five o'clock in the morning to arrive at the plant at open¬
ing time, he would always refuse a cup of coffee or any kind of
food when he arrived. After working for three or four hours, I
would ask him to take lunch with me, but he always said he pre-

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