A very rare survival in excellent condition. Raphael Pinion’s limomachia machine was one of the earliest examples of machines replacing the eighteenth-century tradition of silhouette portraits. At the time of printing, a portrait silhouette might cost as much as ten shillings, Pinion’s machine would produce a likeness of an entire family for 1s 2d.
More commonly known as physiognotrace, the method was first invented by Gilles-:Louis Chrétien (1754-1811). There “were other names for the various inventions, including the Ediography, Limomachia, Pasigraph, Prosopoagraphus, Profilograph, Charles Schmalcalder’s Delinator, Copier, Proportionometer, and William King’s ‘patent delineating pencil’” (Knipe). “They dressed in flowing robes and the machines worked by concealed operators. They functioned by means of a rod and wire attached to a pencil, which passed over the sitters profile and reproduced the outline on a sheet of paper” (NPG).
This handsome broadside includes a lengthy, rather breathless description:
“Mr Pinon, animated with an enthusiastic desire to remove every impediment to the progress of his Art, and to place its frame upon the firm basis of true excellence, has boldly dared to tread a path unbeaten by his predecessors, and, for the first time, hath united Mechanics with the Art of Painting. Notwithstanding the greatness of his design, with unwearied diligence, and a constancy not to be shaken by difficulties; although at the expense of health, pleasure and fortune, he hath produced to the world his LIMOMACHIA or MACHINE FOR GRINDING LIKENESSES. He will forbear in this place to congratulate himself on the success of his labours, or to expatiate on the importance of his discovery. It affords him, however, great comfort when he reflects that his Machine is given to the world at a time when genius and protection are inseparable: and although he has much to apprehend from the sneers of incredulity and the envy of contemporary artists, he throws himself into the arms of a liberal and discerning Public, where genius and talents were never known to want a patron. Trusting therefore to the intrinsic merit of his Machine, and the modesty of his pretentions, he will only add, that by his method, and his alone, any Lady or Gentleman may have their Portraits taken in one minute with the most scrupulous exactitude; and, as his Machine admits of more than one sitter, the Lady and her Spouse, the Lover and his Mistress may be drawn at the same time, in the most engaging attitudes and tender situations …”
ESTC, locates a single copy at Harvard and dates it c.1750. We find another at the British Museum (whose catalogue gives a date of ‘1780–1788’). Knipe, P., “Paper Profiles: American Silhouettes” in Journal of the American Institute for Conservation, Vol. 41, No. 3 (Autumn-Winter, 2002), p.216; “The Spread of the Silhouette” - https://www.npg.org.uk/whatson/display/2004/silhouettes/the-spread-of-the-silhouette
