James Tibbits Willmore

Who was James Tibbits Willmore?

James Tibbits Willmore was an English engraver who was born at Bristnal's End, Handsworth, England.

At the age of fourteen Willmore was apprenticed to the Birmingham engraver William Radclyffe. In 1823 he went to London where he worked for Charles Heath for three years. He was later worked on the plates of William Brockedon's Passes of the Alps and Turner's England and Wales.

He made engravings after Chalon, Leitch, Stanfield, Landseer, Eastlake, Creswick and Ansdell, and especially after Turner. Willmore engraved thirteen pictures on copper for Turner's England and Wales series, beginning in 1828, and eight on steel for his Rivers of France. He made a number of large single plates after Turner, including Ancient Italy in 1842. The next year he exhibited this print at the Royal Academy, and was elected an associate engraver of the academy.