Silvester Harding
English artist and publisher (1745-1809)
Silvester Harding (also Sylvester) (25 July 1745 – 12 August 1809) was an English artist and publisher.
Life
Harding was born at Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire, England, UK, on 25 July 1745. Placed when a child with an uncle in London, at the age of fourteen he ran away and joined a company of actors. In 1775 he returned to London and took to miniature-painting, exhibiting at the Royal Academy of Arts in 1776 and in subsequent years.
In 1786 Harding joined his brother Edward Harding in starting a book and printseller's shop in Fleet Street, London. In 1792 they moved to 102 Pall Mall, where they carried on a successful business. Before 1798, the brothers dissolved their partnership, Silvester moving to 127 and Edward to 98 Pall Mall.
Harding died on 12 August 1809.
Works
The Hardings published many prints of subjects designed by Silvester and engraved by Francesco Bartolozzi, Jean Marie Delattre, William Nelson Gardiner and others. Silvester Harding concentrated on drawing portraits of theatrical celebrities, and copying historical portraits in watercolours which were used to illustrate other works.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Silvester Harding” as english artist and publisher (1745-1809). Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
Why this record matters
The subject matters to the people & ideas register because the source frames it as english artist and publisher (1745-1809). Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated Mar 14, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7516908. VIAF identifies the subject as 71658072. The Library of Congress control number is nr92028434. 1 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1745, 1809, 1775 and 1776.
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Three-step research path
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Questions for further research
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This entry incorporates text from “Silvester Harding” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.