Risk, George

Dates Active in Dublin: 

1712–1758

Business Type: 
Bookseller
Music publisher
Printer
Publisher
Address(es): 

The London, opposite the Horse Guard, Dame Street, 1712–19
The Exchange, Cork Hill, 1720–?
Corner of Castle Lane, Dame Street, near the Horse Guard, 1725–27
Shakespeare's Head, Dame Street, 1728–58

Details: 

A prominent printer and publisher, who also worked in music publication.

Participated in various joint ventures, including one with George Ewing and Wililam Smith (1726–56) (Munter).

Apprentice: Abraham Bradley.

[Details differ according to sources: Munter gives the dates and addresses as above. Berry gives the Shakespeare's Head, Dame Street in 1732. Boydell (Calendar) gives the dates and addresses as 'Castle Lane, Dame-st 1729–37 (also given as Shakespeare's Head, Dame-st)'. Flood ('Dublin Music Printing from 1685 to 1750') gives the address as Castle Lane, Dame Street. Munter, under 'Smith, William', states that the Risk, Ewing & Smith partnership began in 1727 but under 'Ewing, George' and 'Risk, George' he states that it began in 1726.]

Select Product/Work List: 

Published

  • Daniel Wright, Aria di Camera, 1729 [pirate edition published by Samuel Powell] (Flood, 'Dublin Music Printing from 1685 to 1750')
  • Allen Ramsey, Tea Table Miscellany, 1729 (Flood, 'Music-Printing in Dublin from 1700 to 1750')
  • Allen Ramsey, Tea Table Miscellany, 10th edn, 1734 [pirate edition of the tunes published by Samuel Powell] (Flood, 'Dublin Music Printing from 1685 to 1750' and 'Music-Printing in Dublin from 1700 to 1750')
  • ‘Moral Songs composed for the use of Children [...] The tunes specified may be found in the Musical Miscellany lately published, and are at present more in Vogue. With a recommendatory Preface by Dr Watts’ (Dublin Journal, 5–8 March 1737, cited in Boydell, Calendar)
  • ‘“The Musical Miscellany” being a Collection of choice Songs set to Violin and Flute by the most eminent Masters’ (Dublin News Letter, 29 March – 2 April 1737, cited in Boydell, Calendar)
  • ‘CUPID – A Collection of the most beautiful love Songs in the English Language. In Twelve Parts suited to 12 different sorts of Love’ (Dublin News Letter, 29 March – 2 April 1737, cited in Boydell, Calendar)
    • See Also: 

    Bradley, Abraham
    Ewing, George
    Powell, Samuel
    Risk, Ewing & Smith
    Smith, William

    Source(s): 

    Flood, W.H. Grattan, 'Music-Printing in Dublin from 1700 to 1750', The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, 5th ser., 38.1 (30 September 1908), 236–40 (p. 238)

    Berry, Henry F., 'House and Shop Signs in Dublin in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries', The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries, 5th ser., 40.2 (30 June 1910), 81–98 (p. 90)

    Flood, W.H. Grattan, 'Dublin Music Printing from 1685 to 1750', The Bibliographical Society of Ireland: Short Papers, 2.1 (1921), 7–12 (p. 11)

    Dix, E.R. McC., ‘Some Dublin Music Printers and Music Sellers of the Eighteenth Century’, The Irish Book Lover, 18.1 (January/February 1930), 26–28 (p. 27)

    Boydell, Brian, A Dublin Musical Calendar 1700–1760 (Dublin: Irish Academic Press, 1988), pp. 63, 261

    Munter, Robert, A Dictionary of the Print Trade in Ireland: 1550–1775 (New York: Fordham University Press, 1988), p. 235

    Boydell, Brian, ‘Risk, George’, Dublin Music Trade Card Index <http://dublinmusictrade.ie/card-index>

    Last Update: 12-02-2017