"Graven" redirects here. For the 2004 Swedish TV series, see Graven (TV series).

A copperplate engraver at work

Engraving is the practice of incising a design on to a hard, usually flat surface, by cutting grooves into it. The result may be a decorated object in itself, as when silver, gold, steel, or glass are engraved, or may provide an intaglio printing plate, of copper or another metal, for printing images on paper as prints or illustrations; these images are also called engravings.

Engraving was a historically important method of producing images on paper, both in artistic printmaking, and also for commercial reproductions and illustrations for books and magazines. It has long been replaced by various photographic processes in its commercial applications and, partly because of the difficulty of learning the technique, is much less common in printmaking, where it has been largely replaced by etching and other techniques.

Traditional engraving, by burin or with the use of machines, continues to be practised by goldsmiths, glass engravers, gunsmiths and others, while modern industrial techniques such as photoengraving and laser engraving have many important applications. Engraved gems were an important art in the ancient world, revived at the Renaissance, although the term traditionally covers relief as well as intaglio carvings, and is essentially a branch of sculpture rather than engraving, as drills were the usual tools.

Terms[link]

An assortment of hand engraving tools

Other terms often used for printed engravings are copper engraving, copper-plate engraving or line engraving. Steel engraving is the same technique, on steel or steel-faced plates, and was mostly used for banknotes, illustrations for books, magazines and reproductive prints, letterheads and similar uses from about 1790 to the early 20th century, when the technique became less popular, except for banknotes and other forms of security printing. Especially in the past, "engraving" was often used very loosely to cover several printmaking techniques, so that many so-called engravings were in fact produced by totally different techniques, such as etching or mezzotint.

Process[link]

At an engravers workshop: Miniature engraving on a Louis George watch movement: Smallest engraving of the royal Prussian eagle on a watch movement. It takes about 100 passes to create the figure.

Hercules fighting the Centaurs, engraving by Sebald Beham

The Farnese Hercules by Hendrik Goltzius 1591

Hand engraving is a term for engraving not used for printing plates, but to personalize or embellish jewelry, firearms, trophies, knives and other fine metal goods. Each graver is different and has its own use. Engravers use a hardened steel tool called a burin, or graver, to cut the design into the surface, most traditionally a copper plate.^[1] However, modern hand engraving artists use burins or gravers to cut a variety of metals such as silver, nickel, steel, brass, gold, titanium, and more, in applications from weaponry to jewelry to motorcycles to found objects. Professional engravers engrave with resolution of up to 40 lines per mm in high grade work creating game scenes and scrollwork. Dies used in mass production of molded parts are sometimes hand engraved to add special touches or certain information such as part numbers.

In addition to hand engraving, there are engraving machines that require less human finesse and are not directly controlled by hand. They are usually used for lettering, using a pantographic system. There are versions for the insides of rings and also the outsides of larger pieces. Such machines are commonly used for inscriptions on rings, lockets and presentation pieces.

Tools and Gravers or Burins[link]

Gravers come in a variety of shapes and sizes that yield different line types. The burin produces a unique and recognizable quality of line that is characterized by its steady, deliberate appearance and clean edges. The angle tint tool has a slightly curved tip that is commonly used in printmaking. Florentine liners are flat-bottomed tools with multiple lines incised into them, used to do fill work on larger areas or to create uniform shade lines that are fast to execute. Ring gravers are made with particular shapes that are used by jewelry engravers in order to cut inscriptions inside rings. Flat gravers are used for fill work on letters, as well as "wriggle" cuts on most musical instrument engraving work, remove background, or create bright cuts. Knife gravers are for line engraving and very deep cuts. Round gravers, and flat gravers with a radius, are commonly used on silver to create bright cuts (also called bright-cut engraving), as well as other hard-to-cut metals such as nickel and steel. Square or V-point gravers are typically square or elongated diamond-shaped and used for cutting straight lines. V-point can be anywhere from 60 to 130 degrees, depending on purpose and effect. These gravers have very small cutting points. Other tools such as mezzotint rockers, roulets and burnishers are used for texturing effects. Burnishing tools can also be used for certain stone setting techniques.

Musical instrument engraving on American-made brass instruments flourished in the 1920s and utilizes a specialized engraving technique where a flat graver is "walked" across the surface of the instrument to make zig-zag lines and patterns. The method for "walking" the graver may also be referred to as "wriggle" or "wiggle" cuts. This technique is necessary due to the thinness of metal used to make musical instruments versus firearms or jewelry. Wriggle cuts are commonly found on silver Western jewelry and other Western metal work.

Tool Geometry[link]

Tool geometry is extremely important for accuracy in hand engraving. When sharpened for most applications, a graver has a "face", which is the top of the graver, and a "heel", which is the bottom of the graver; not all tools or application require a heel. These two surfaces meet to form a point that cuts the metal. The geometry and length of the heel helps to guide the graver smoothly as it cuts the surface of the metal. When the tool's point breaks or chips, even on a microscopic level, the graver can become hard to control and produce unexpected results. Modern innovations have brought about new types of carbide that resist chipping and breakage, such as the GRS C-Max graver, which holds a very sharp point longer between resharpening than traditional metal tools.

Tool Sharpening[link]

Sharpening a graver or burin requires either a sharpening stone or wheel. Harder carbide and steel gravers require diamond-grade sharpening wheels; these gravers can be polished to a mirror finish using a ceramic or cast iron lap, which is essential in creating bright cuts. Several low-speed, reversible sharpening system made specifically for hand engravers are available that reduce sharpening time. Fixtures that secure the tool in place at certain angles and geometries are also available to take the guesswork from sharpening to produce accurate points. Very few master engravers exist today who rely solely on "feel" and muscle memory to sharpen tools. These master engravers typically worked for many years as an apprentice, most often learning techniques decades before modern machinery was available for hand engravers. These engravers typically trained in such countries as Italy and Belgium, where hand engraving has a rich and long heritage of masters.

Artwork Design[link]

Design or artwork is generally prepared in advance, although some professional and highly experienced hand engravers are able to draw out minimal outlines either on paper or directly on the metal surface just prior to engraving. The work to be engraved may be lightly scribed on the surface with a sharp point, laser marked, drawn with a fine permanent marker (removable with acetone) or pencil, transferred using various chemicals in conjunction with inkjet or laser printouts, or stippled. New transfer methods, as well as engraving techniques, are shared often in online forums such as The Engraver's Cafe or the Ganoksin forums. Engraving artists may either rely on hand drawing skills, copyright-free designs and images, computer-generated artwork, or common design elements when creating artwork.

Handpieces[link]

Originally, handpieces varied little in design as the common use was to push with the handle placed firmly in the center of the palm. With modern pneumatic engraving systems, handpieces are designed and created in a variety of shapes and power ranges. Handpieces are made using various methods and materials. Knobs may be handmade from wood, molded and engineered from plastic, or machine-made from brass, steel, or other metals. Two widely-known hand engraving tool makers, GRS Tools in Kansas and Steve Lindsay in Nebraska, are both American-owned and operated companies that manufacture handpieces for various applications in metal engraving.

Cutting the Surface[link]

The actual engraving is traditionally done by a combination of pressure and manipulating the workpiece. The traditional "hand push" process is still practiced today, but modern technology has brought various mechanically assisted engraving systems. Most pneumatic engraving systems require an air source that drives air through a hose into a handpiece, which resembles a traditional engraving handle in many cases, that powers a mechanism (usually a piston). The air is actuated by either a foot control (like a gas pedal or sewing machine) or newer palm / hand control. This mechanism replaces either the "hand push" effort or the effects of a hammer. The internal mechanisms move at speeds up to 15,000 strokes per minute, thereby greatly reducing the effort needed in traditional hand engraving. These types of pneumatic systems are used for power assistance only and do not guide or control the engraving artist. One of the major benefits of using a pneumatic system for hand engraving is the reduction of fatigue and decrease in time spent working.

Examples of modern pneumatic hand engraving systems are the GraverMach AT by GRS Tools or the AirGraver by Steve Lindsay. Hand engraving artists today employ a combination of hand push, pneumatic, rotary, or hammer and chisel methods. Hand push is still commonly used by modern hand engraving artists who create "bulino" style work, which is highly-detailed and delicate, fine work; a great majority, if not all, traditional printmakers today rely solely upon hand push methods. Pneumatic systems greatly reduce the effort required for removing large amounts of metal, such as in deep relief engraving or Western bright cut techniques.

Finishing[link]

Finishing the work is often necessary when working in metal that may rust or where a colored finish is desirable, such as a firearm. A variety of spray lacquers and finishing techniques exist to seal and protect the work from exposure to the elements and time. Finishing also may include lightly sanding the surface to remove small chips of metal called "burs" that are very sharp and unsightly. Some engravers prefer high contrast to the work or design, using black paints or inks to darken removed (and lower) areas of exposed metal. The excess paint or ink is wiped away and allowed to dry before lacquering or sealing, which may or may not be desired by the artist.

History and usage[link]

For the printing process, see intaglio (printmaking). For the Western art history of engraved prints, see old master print and line engraving

The first evidence for humans engraving patterns are hatched banding upon ostrich eggshells used as water containers found in South Africa in the Diepkloof Rock Shelter and dated to the Middle Stone Age around 60,000 BP.^[2] Engraving on bone and ivory is an important technique for the Art of the Upper Paleolithic, and larger engraved petroglyphs on rocks are found from many prehistoric periods and cultures around the world.

In antiquity, the only engraving on metal that could be carried out is the shallow grooves found in some jewellery after the beginning of the 1st Millennium B.C. The majority of so-called engraved designs on ancient gold rings or other items were produced by chasing or sometimes a combination of lost-wax casting and chasing. Engraved gem is a term for any carved or engraved semi-precious stone; this was an important small-scale art form in the ancient world, and remained popular until the 19th century.

Battle of Engravers, satirical etching by George Cruikshank, showing hypothetical battle between the engravers, including William Hogarth, Antoine Masson, William Woollett, Jean-Joseph Balechou, Albrecht Dürer and Marcantonio Raimondi.

However the use of glass engraving, usually using a wheel, to cut decorative scenes or figures into glass vessels, in imitation of hardstone carvings, appears as early as the first century AD,^[3] continuing into the fourth century CE at urban centers such as Cologne and Rome,^[4] and appears to have ceased sometime in the fifth century. Decoration was first based on Greek mythology, before hunting and circus scenes became popular, as well as imagery drawn from the Old and New Testament.^[4] It appears to have been used to mimic the appearance of precious metal wares during the same period, including the application of gold leaf, and could be cut free-hand or with lathes. As many as twenty separate stylistic workshops have been identified, and it seems likely that the engraver and vessel producer were separate craftsmen.^[3]

In the European Middle Ages goldsmiths used engraving to decorate and inscribe metalwork. It is thought that they began to print impressions of their designs to record them. From this grew the engraving of copper printing plates to produce artistic images on paper, known as old master prints in Germany in the 1430s. Italy soon followed. Many early engravers came from a goldsmithing background. The first and greatest period of the engraving was from about 1470 to 1530, with such masters as Martin Schongauer, Albrecht Dürer, and Lucas van Leiden.

Modern reproduction of Rembrandt's 1639 self portrait

Thereafter engraving tended to lose ground to etching, which was a much easier technique for the artist to learn. But many prints combined the two techniques: although Rembrandt's prints are generally all called etchings for convenience, many of them have some burin or drypoint work, and some have nothing else. By the nineteenth century, most engraving was for commercial illustration.

Before the advent of photography, engraving was used to reproduce other forms of art, for example paintings. Engravings continued to be common in newspapers and many books into the early 20th century, as they were cheaper to use in printing than photographic images. Engraving has also always been used as a method of original artistic expression.

Music Engraving[link]

The first music printed from engraved plates dates from 1446 and most printed music was produced through engraving from roughly 1700–1860. From 1860–1990 most printed music was produced through a combination of engraved master plates reproduced through offset lithography.

In music printing, engraving is an intaglio technique. The first comprehensive account is given by Mme Delusse in her article "Gravure en lettres, en géographie et en musique" in Diderot's Encyclopedia. The technique involved a five-pointed raster to score staff lines, various punches in the shapes of notes and standard musical symbols, and various burins and scorers for lines and slurs. For correction, the plate was held on a bench by callipers, hit with a dot punch on the opposite side, and burnished to remove any signs of the defective work. The process involved intensive pre-planning of the layout, and many manuscript scores with engraver's planning marks survive from the 18th and 19th centuries^[5] .

By 1837 pewter had replaced copper as a medium, and Berthiaud gives an account with an entire chapter devoted to music (Novel manuel complet de l'imprimeur en taille douce, 1837). Printing from such plates required a separate inking to be carried out cold, and the printing press used less pressure. Generally, four pages of music were engraved on a single plate. Because music engraving houses trained engravers through years of apprenticeship, very little is known about the practice. Fewer than one dozen sets of tools survive in libraries and museums^[6] . By 1900 music engravers were established in several hundred cities in the world, but the art of storing plates was usually concentrated with publishers. Extensive bombing of Leipzig in 1944, the home of most German engraving and printing firms, destroyed roughly half the world's engraved music plates.

Modern Hand and Machine Engraving[link]

Because of the high level of microscopic detail that can be achieved by a master engraver, counterfeiting of engraved designs is well-nigh impossible, and modern banknotes are almost always engraved, as are plates for printing money, checks, bonds and other security-sensitive papers. The engraving is so fine that a normal printer cannot recreate the detail of hand engraved images, nor can it be scanned. In the U.S. Bureau of Engraving and Printing, more than one hand engraver will work on the same plate, making it nearly impossible for one person to duplicate all the engraving on a particular banknote or document.

Many classic postage stamps were engraved, although the practice is now mostly confined to particular countries, or used when a more "elegant" design is desired and a limited color range is acceptable.

The modern discipline of hand engraving, as it is called in a metalworking context, survives largely in a few specialized fields. The highest levels of the art are found on firearms and other metal weaponry, jewelry, and musical instruments.

Another application of modern engraving is found in the printing industry. There, every day thousands of pages are mechanically engraved onto rotogravure cylinders, typically a steel base with a copper layer of about 0.1 mm in which the image is transferred. After engraving the image is protected with an approximately 6 µm chrome layer. Using this process the image will survive for over a million copies in high speed printing presses. Engraving machines such as GUN BOW (one of the leading engraving brands) are the best examples of hand engraving tools, although this type of machine is typically not used for fine hand engraving.

Hand Engraving Tool Example

In most commercial markets today, hand engraving has been replaced with milling using CNC engraving or milling machines. Still, there are certain applications where use of hand engraving tools cannot be replaced.

A Renaissance in Hand Engraving[link]

During the mid-1900s, a renaissance in hand engraving began to take place. WIth the inventions of pneumatic hand engraving systems that aided hand engravers, the art and techniques of hand engraving became more accessible. In the years past, hand engraving was an extremely secretive art where masters would carefully and rarely choose apprentices to pass on the trade. Even into the 1970s, many engravers were reluctant to share trade secrets and kept methods closely guarded.

Today, both large and small training facilities and studios exist in the Unites States and in many other countries such as Belgium and Italy. Most notable is the GRS Training Center in Emporia, Kansas. The facility is on the same grounds as the small, family-owned business GRS Tools, which invents and manufactures tools for the industry. GRS classes are 40-hour intensive sessions with a maximum of 12 students per class. Several professional engravers hold classes at their personal studios, training students throughout the year. Individual engravers such as Michael Dubber, Barry Lee Hands, Sam Alfano, and many other artists offer private instruction in the engraving arts. Ray Cover's School of Fine Art Engraving and Weyerts Fine Arts Engraving School can accommodate several students for instruction and include a variety of tools and systems. Most classes range between $500-$1000 for fundamentals, but costs vary.

Another contributing factor to the influx of new hand engravers is the dozens of books and videos available that detail the methods used by artists today for hand engraving techniques. Many artists have even recorded detailed work and published it freely online. One of the most highly recommended books on the subject is by the late James B. Meek, titled The Art of Engraving. These resource materials offer a low-cost investment that provide a solid foundation of knowledge and a nice glimpse into the world of hand engraving.

In 2006, Emporia State University in Emporia, Kansas, began the first ever Bachelor's program in the Engraving Arts. The program is funded through an endowment of equipment provided by Glendo Corporation, the maker of the GRS Tools line of engraving equipment. Printmaker and engraver James Ehlers currently serves as head instructor and Assistant Professor in the Art Department at the university. Students learn both hand push and pneumatic system methods with GRS equipment.

Those interested in hand engraving, either as a hobby or a career, now have many avenues through which to acquire both knowledge and skills, including university-level accreditation.

Computer-Aided Machine Engraving[link]

Computerized engraving on Corian.

Engraving machines such as the K500 (packaging) or K6 (publication) by Hell Gravure Systems use a diamond stylus to cut cells. Each cell creates one printing dot later in the process. A K6 can have up to 18 engraving heads each cutting 8.000 cells per second to an accuracy of .1 µm and below. They are fully computer-controlled and the whole process of cylinder-making is fully automated.

Retail engraving machines tend to be focused around ease of use for the operator and the ability to do a wide variety of items including flat metal plates, jewelry of different shapes and sizes, as well as cylindrical items such as mugs and champagne flutes. They will typically be able to do a variety of surfaces including metal, crystal, plastic or glass. With state-of-the-art machinery it's easy to have a simple, single item complete in under ten minutes.

The engraving process with diamonds is state-of-the-art since the 1960s.

Today laser engraving machines are in development but still mechanical cutting has proven its strength in economical terms and quality. More than 4,000 engravers make approx. 8 Mio printing cylinders worldwide per year.

Creating tone[link]

Fallen tree, Carlos Alvarado Lang

Sudarium of Saint Veronica by Claude Mellan (1649)

Ars moriendi engraving by Master ES, circa 1450

Master engraver ennobling a watch movement. Top level engravers work under a stereo microscope.

In traditional engraving, which is a purely linear medium, the impression of half-tones was created by making many very thin parallel lines, a technique called hatching. When two sets of parallel-line hatchings intersected each other for higher density, the resulting pattern was known as cross-hatching. Patterns of dots were also used in a technique called stippling, first used around 1505 by Giulio Campagnola. Claude Mellan was one of many 17th-century engravers with a very well-developed technique of using parallel lines of varying thickness (known as the "swelling line") to give subtle effects of tone (as was Goltzius – see picture below). One famous example is his Sudarium of Saint Veronica (1649), an engraving of the face of Jesus made from a single spiraling line that starts at the tip of Jesus's nose.

Biblical references[link]

The earliest allusion to engraving in the Bible may be the reference to Judah's seal ring (Ge 38:18), followed by (Ex 39.30). Engraving was commonly done with pointed tools of iron or even with diamond points. (Jer 17:1).

Each of the two onyx stones on the shoulder-pieces of the high priest’s ephod was engraved with the names of six different tribes of Israel, and each of the 12 precious stones that adorned his breastpiece was engraved with the name of one of the tribes. The holy sign of dedication, the shining gold plate on the high priest's turban, was engraved with the words: "Holiness belongs to Adonai." Bezalel, along with Oholiab, was qualified to do this specialized engraving work as well as to train others.—Ex 35:30–35; 28:9–12; 39:6–14, 30.

Noted engravers[link]

Prints:

• Paul Gustave Doré (1832–1883)
• Jacopo de' Barbari (active 1500–1515)
• Theodore de Bry (1528–1598)
• William Blake (1757–1827)
• Giulio Campagnola (active c.1505–1515)
• Albrecht Dürer (1471–1528)
• Master ES (active c.1450–1470)
• Maso Finiguerra (1426–1464)
• Hendrick Goltzius (c.1558–1617)
• Francisco de Goya (1746–1828)
• William Hamlin (1772–1869)
• Stanley William Hayter (1901–1988)
• William Hogarth (1697–1764)
• Lucas van Leyden (1494–1533)
• Andrea Mantegna (c.1431–1506)
• Claude Mellan (1598–1688)
• Israhel van Meckenem (c.1445–1501)
• Matthäus Merian (1593–1650)
• Alardo de Popma, (1617–1641)
• José Guadalupe Posada (1852–1913)
• Jan Saenredam (1565–1607)
• Georg Matthäus Vischer (1628–1696)
• Anthonie Wierix (1552–1624)
• Hieronymus Wierix (1553–1619)

Of gems:

• Theodorus of Samos, Polycrates' gem-engraver
• Pyrgoteles, Alexander's gem-engraver

Of guns:

• Winston Churchill (engraver)
• Sam Alfano
• Malcolm Appleby
• A. B. Bradshaw
• Thierry Duguet
• Geoffroy Gournet
• Alain Lovenberg
• Martin Strolz
• Ken Hunt
• Harry Kell
• Harry Morris (sometimes Henry Morris)
• Jack Sumner

Of coins:

• Thomas Hugh Paget
• William Wyon
• Leonard Charles Wyon

Of postage stamps:

• Czesław Słania
• William Wyon
• Leonard Charles Wyon

Of pins:

• Godfrey Lundberg (1879–1933)

See also[link]

• Drypoint
• Laser engraving
• Mezzotint
• Music engraving
• Photogravure
• Toreutics
• Wood engraving

Notes[link]

References[link]

• A. M. Hind (1923, repr. 1963). History of Engraving and Etching. Dover. ISBN 0-486-20954-7
• A. Gross (1970). Etching, Engraving, and Intaglio Printing.
• G. Duplessis (1989). Wonders of Engraving.

Further reading[link]

• Carles Codina (2002). "Hand engraving". Goldsmithing & Silver Work: Jewelry, Vessels & Ornaments. Lark Books. pp. 38–43. ISBN 1-57990-356-8. http://books.google.com/books?id=ZguWW8mK2Z8C&printsec=frontcover&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false. 
• Steve Lindsay (2003). "The Art of Modern Hand Engraving". In David Darom and Eric Eggly. Art and Design in Modern Custom Folding Knives. Tipografia Edizioni Saviolo. pp. 33–44. ISBN 965-07-1174-0. http://books.google.com/books?id=JDaOu2-RVPEC&printsec=frontcover&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false. 

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Engraving

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Engraved illustrations

• Engraving from the Metropolitan Museum of Art Timeline of Art History
• Links to thousands of museum online images of engravings from Bodkin Prints
• Engravings from the Armenian early published books 1512–1800

Sydney Parkinson

Sydney Parkinson - Self Portrait

Sydney Parkinson (c. 1745 – 26 January 1771) was a Scottish Quaker, botanical illustrator and natural history artist.

Parkinson was employed by Joseph Banks to travel with him on James Cook's first voyage to the Pacific in 1768. Parkinson made nearly a thousand drawings of plants and animals collected by Banks and Daniel Solander on the voyage. He had to work in difficult conditions, living and working in a small cabin surrounded by hundreds of specimens. In Tahiti he was plagued by swarms of flies which ate the paint as he worked. He died at sea on the way to Cape Town of dysentery contracted at Princes' Island off the western end of Java. Banks paid his outstanding salary to his brother.

Parkinson is commemorated in the common and scientific name of the Parkinson's Petrel Procellaria parkinsoni. The great Florilegium of his work was finally published in 1988 by Alecto Historical Editions in 35 volumes and has since been digitized by the Natural History Museum in London.

In 1986 he was honoured on a postage stamp depicting his portrait issued by Australia Post [1].

The following are some examples of Parkinson's artistic work:

• 

  Banksia serrata

• 

  Banksia integrifolia‎

• 

  Banksia ericifolia

• 

  Banksia dentata

See also[link]

• Visual arts of Australia
• List of Australian botanical illustrators
• European and American voyages of scientific exploration

References[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Sydney Parkinson

• Birds - The Art of Ornithology, Jonathan Elphick (2004) ISBN 1-902686-39-X

External links[link]

• Parkinson's posthumously published Journal, 1773, online at the National Library of Australia

Further reading[link]

• de Bray, Lys (2001). The Art of Botanical Illustration: A history of classic illustrators and their achievements, pp. 72, 77. Quantum Publishing Ltd., London. ISBN 1-86160-425-4.

Billy Mays
Mays at Flatiron District in June 2009, a few weeks before his death
Born	William Darrell Mays, Jr. (1958-07-20)July 20, 1958[1] McKees Rocks, Pennsylvania, United States
Died	June 28, 2009(2009-06-28) (aged 50) Tampa, Florida, United States
Other names	Billy Mays, King of the Pitch
Occupation	Television direct-response advertisement salesman
Years active	1993–2009
Home town	McKees Rocks, Pennsylvania
Spouse	Dolores "Dee Dee" Mays[2] Deborah Mays[2]
Children	Billy Mays III Elizabeth Mays
Parents	Billy Mays, Sr. Joyce Palm

William Darrell "Billy" Mays, Jr. (July 20, 1958 – June 28, 2009)^[3] was an American television direct-response advertisement salesperson most notable for promoting OxiClean, Orange Glo, and other cleaning, home-based, and maintenance products on the Home Shopping Network, and through his company, Mays Promotions, Inc. He and his business partner, Anthony Sullivan, were also featured on PitchMen, a TV series that documented their work. His distinctive beard and impassioned sales pitches made him a recognized television presence in the United States and Canada.^[4][5] Mays was found unresponsive by his wife in his Tampa, Florida, home on the morning of June 28, 2009.^[6] He was pronounced dead at 7:45 am, appearing to have died sometime overnight.^[3][7]

Early life[link]

Mays was born in McKees Rocks, Pennsylvania, attended Sto-Rox High School, and was raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.^[1][8] He later attended West Virginia University, where he was a walk-on linebacker on its football team during his two years there.^[9] After dropping out, he worked for his father's hazardous waste company before moving to Atlantic City, New Jersey in 1983.^[1]

Career[link]

On the Atlantic City boardwalk Mays sold the Washmatik portable washing device to passersby,^[10] along with other "As Seen on TV" products.^[1] In Atlantic City, he was taught how to sell by the older salesmen, saying "I was taught to pitch by a lot of old pitchmen. That's the kind of style I have."^[1] Mays then traveled to home shows, auto shows, and state fairs across the United States for a period of twelve years, selling various maintenance products and tools, including cleaning products and food choppers.^[10]

At a Pittsburgh home show in 1993, Mays struck up a friendship with rival salesman Max Appel, founder of Orange Glo International, a Denver-based manufacturer of cleaning products. He was then hired by the company to promote their line of cleaners, OxiClean, Orange Clean, Orange Glo, and Kaboom, on the Home Shopping Network in St. Petersburg, Florida.^[11] Customer response to Mays's sales pitches was enthusiastic, with a sharp increase in sales after his first day on the network, although some reviews were poor. He was very well known for shouting in an abrasive manner during infomercials. For example, Washington Post staff writer Frank Ahrens called him and other similar television salesmen "a full-volume pitchman, amped up like a candidate for a tranquilizer-gun takedown".^[12]

Mays was the CEO and founder of Mays Promotions, Inc., based at his home in Odessa, Florida.^[4] His services as a pitchman became highly sought-after, and he appeared in commercials for many diverse "as seen on TV" products such as Mighty Putty. Mays claimed to be an avid user of the products he promoted.^[13] In December 2008, Mays began appearing in ads for ESPN's online service, ESPN360.^[14] These ads were a slight departure for Mays as they were designed to be parodies of his and other infomercial cliches with Mays appearing to be doing a parody of himself. He also made a live appearance during the 2008 Champs Sports Bowl promoting ESPN's and ABC's January 1, 2009, bowl games.

On April 15, 2009, the Discovery Channel began airing PitchMen, a documentary series that featured Mays and Anthony Sullivan in their jobs in direct-response marketing.^[15] After Mays's death, Discovery Channel aired a special Billy Mays tribute episode of PitchMen called "Pitchman: A Tribute to Billy Mays".

On March 27, 2009, Mays appeared on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. He and Sullivan also appeared on The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien on June 23, 2009.^[16]

Prior to his death, Mays had signed a deal with Taco Bell to film infomercial-style commercials for the chain. Shooting was scheduled to begin in August 2009.^{[citation needed]}

Personal life[link]

Mays's first marriage to Dolores "Dee Dee" Mays ended in divorce.^[17] He had a son with Dolores named Billy Mays III, who was 22 years old at the time of Mays's death and who worked as a production assistant alongside his father on the PitchMen television show.^[18] Mays had a daughter, Elizabeth, with his second wife, Deborah Mays. His daughter was three years old at the time of his death.^[17][19] Mays's mother is Joyce Palm,^[18] and his father is Billy Mays, Sr.; they both outlived him.

In an interview during the 2008 Presidential Campaign, Mays revealed himself to be a Republican.^[20]

Death[link]

Wikinews has related news: American pitchman Billy Mays dies at age 50

Mays was found unresponsive by his wife in his Tampa, Florida, home on the morning of June 28, 2009.^[6] He was pronounced dead at 7:45 am, appearing to have died sometime overnight.^[3][7] The Associated Press reported that there were no indications that the house had been broken into, and that police did not suspect foul play.^[7] Initially, there was wrong speculation that he had a head injury after he was struck on the head by luggage after an airline landing mishap where tires blew out.^[21]

After an initial autopsy on Mays's body on June 29, Dr. Vernard Adams, the Hillsborough County, Florida medical examiner, stated that Mays suffered from hypertensive heart disease and that heart disease was the likely cause of his death. According to a toxicology report released August 7, 2009, heart disease was the "primary cause of death" and cocaine was listed as a "contributory cause of death."^[22][23] In response to the release of the toxicology report, the Mays family issued a press release stating, "We are extremely disappointed by the press release released by the Hillsborough County medical examiner's office. We believe it contains speculative conclusions that are frankly unnecessary and tend to obscure the conclusion that Billy suffered from chronic, untreated hypertension..." and said in the release that they were considering "an independent evaluation of the autopsy results".^[24]

The medical examiner "concluded that cocaine use caused or contributed to the development of his heart disease, and thereby contributed to his death," the office said in a press release. The office said Mays last used cocaine in the few days before his death but was not under the influence of the drug when he died. Hillsborough County spokeswoman Lori Hudson said nothing in the toxicology report indicated the frequency of Mays's cocaine use. Cocaine can raise the arterial blood pressure, directly cause thickening of the left wall of the ventricle and accelerate the formation of atherosclerosis in the coronary arteries, the release said. However, in October 2009, the results of a second medical examination, commissioned by Mays' family, concluded that "cocaine was not a significant contributing factor" to his death.^[25]

Longtime friend and colleague A.J. Khubani, founder and CEO of the "As Seen on TV" product company Telebrands, said Mays never exhibited any signs of drug use and was always prepared for his many commercial shoots. "I'm just shocked," Khubani said. "He was the model of a responsible citizen."

According to subsequent news reports^[26] the toxicology tests also showed levels of painkillers hydrocodone, oxycodone and tramadol, as well as anti-anxiety drugs alprazolam and diazepam. Mays had suffered hip problems and was scheduled for hip replacement surgery the day after he was found dead.

Mays's funeral was held on July 3, 2009 in his hometown of McKees Rocks, Pennsylvania. The pallbearers for the funeral wore blue shirts and khaki pants at the funeral, much like Mays wore when he advertised his products.^[27]

Fictional representation[link]

In the South Park episode "Dead Celebrities", Mays's ghost appears repeatedly to Ike Broflovski, trying to sell him products from the afterlife with his catchphrase "Hi, Billy Mays here with the...". Mays's son, Billy Mays III, a self-proclaimed South Park fan, said he loved "Dead Celebrities", and found its portrayal of his father to be both tasteful and respectful.^[28]

Notable products pitched[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

Biography portal

• Billy Mays at the Internet Movie Database
• Official Twitter page
• Billy Mays at Find a Grave