The Hartley Horn Drawings: A Collection of Powder Horn Drawings by Robert Hartley

Table of Contents

Hand-drawn illustrations of historic powder horns along with numerous photographs and descriptive text.

Robert M. Hartley was a contemporary of Rufus Grider, whose vast collection of powder horn drawings is widely known. Hartley began to make his own drawings after Grider's death as an extension of Grider's work documenting historic powder horns. Hartley used Grider's style, which he describes as "inscription map-like" in an attempt to best illustrate as much of the decoration on the horns as possible.

The drawings illustrated in this book are held by the Margaret Reaney Memorial Library in St. Johnsville, New York. Although there are believed to be as many as 62 Hartley drawings, this book reproduces all forty drawings held by the Reaney Library. All drawings in this book are dated between 1933 and 1938.

Following the reproductions of the drawings themselves is an analysis of design elements in the Hartley drawings and close-up photos of many examples of these elements, including: the Royal Coat of Arms, rivers, cities and towns, forts and animals.

Includes an introduction to Hartley and his work by Master Horner John Proud and the essay "The Art and Craft of Sketching Powder Horns" by Shelby Gallien.