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This collection contains a small quarto (9 1/8 X 7 1/2 inches) of over a hundred caricatures created by Ange Denis M'Quin (Ange-Denis Macquin) (1756-1823). A pen and ink manuscript title page that reads "A Series of Heads by A.D.M." with a roundel of sixteen heads is dated at the lower right-hand corner, "June 1819." An index follows with four handwritten pages and then a sub-title page, "A congeries of heads, May 1819," with a quote from Macbeth and an illustration of heads drawn together as a sphere.
The remainder of the text block includes one hundred interleaved original caricatures that depict often distorted and twisted facial expressions of human characteristics, feelings, and actions, including curiosity, despondency, grief, disappointment, laughter, hope, arrogance, and many others. Below each depiction is a word or phrase that explans what the illustration is meant to portray. Some people may find The majority of the illustrations to be unsightly. Many are are also dated at the foot of the page, some with addtional notes written in pen or pencil.
This material may contain offensive or harmful language or imagery. The purpose of this note is to give users the opportunity to decide whether they need or want to view these materials, or at least, to mentally or emotionally prepare themselves to view the materials.
The Abbe Ange Denis M'Quin (Ange-Denis Macquin) was born in 1756 in Meaux, in the Seine and Marne department, in France. Educated at Collège de Meaux, he became a classical scholar and was later appointed as Professor of Rhetoric and Belles-Lettres, as well as holding the rank of an Ecclesiastical Benefice in the neighborhood.
In 1783 M'Quin anonymously published a pamphlet entitled 'Je ne sais quoi, par je ne sais qui, se vend je ne sais où,' and, in 1789, published verses on memory. At the commencement of the French Revolution he edited or contributed to a royalist paper, which openly welcomed the Prussian invaders. M'Quin left Meaux in time to escape the massacre of 4 Sept. 1792 and embarked for England from St. Valery.
M'Quin settled in Hastings where he began learning English and supported himself by sketching local scenery. In 1793 an introduction to Edmund Lodge led to his appointment as heraldic draughtsman to the College of Arms, and on 22 May 1794 he was elected honorary fellow of the London Society of Antiquaries (Gough, List, 1798). He designed Nelson's funeral car and a new throne for the House of Lords.
Devoting his leisure to literature and art, M'Quin wrote on heraldry and other subjects in the 'Encyclopædia Londinensis,' besides literary and antiquarian articles for the 'Sporting Magazine.' He likewise edited Bellinger's 'Dictionary of French and English Idioms,' and published a humorous Latin poem, 'Tabella Cibaria,' a history of three hundred animals (London, 1812), and a 'Description of West's picture of Christ rejected by the Jews' (1814).
After the fall of Napoleon, M'Quin revisited France, and recovered part of his property, but shortly returned to London. He was latterly engaged on a work entitled 'Etymological Gleanings,' some portions of which appeared in Jordan's 'Literary Gazette,'
He died in Bermondsey Street, Southwark, 17 July 1823, and was buried in the catholic church at Horselydown. (Gent. Mag. 1823, ii. 1801 W. Jerdan's Autobiography, iii. 103, London, 1852; Quérard's France Littéraire, Paris, 1833; Carro'e Histoire de Meaux, 1865).
Reference List:
A Series of Heads, by MACQUIN, Rev. Ange Denis; M'QUIN, Rev. Ange Denis. (n.d.). Biblio. Retrieved January 15, 2026, from https://www.biblio.com/book/series-heads-macquin-rev-ange-denis/d/1438144183
This collection ism open for research.
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MSS 16934, Series of Heads by A.D.M., Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library, University of Virginia.
Purchased from David Brass Rare Books, Inc., 7 August 2023. Acquired by Brenda Gunn.