# Thomas Willoughby Nason artist context and auction value notes

Canonical page: https://appraisily.com/artist/thomas-willoughby-nason/
Profile generated: 2026-08-24T16:31:56.179Z
Quality: medium confidence, strong sources

## Artist identity

- Nationality: American
- Common media: Wood engraving, Etching, Woodcut, Book illustration

## About Thomas Willoughby Nason

Thomas Willoughby Nason (1889–1971), also recorded as Thomas W. Nason, was an American artist best documented as a wood engraver, etcher, woodcutter, and illustrator. Bibliographic records connect his engravings with editions of Robert Frost's You Come Too, Ralph Waldo Emerson's Nature, and Henry David Thoreau's Walking and Walden. These records place his practice within twentieth-century American printmaking and literary illustration, although the collected sources do not assign him to a named artistic movement. Collectors may encounter his work as original prints or in illustrated volumes containing his engravings. The British Museum cites both a 1977 catalogue of his works and a 1937 study of his engravings, providing useful starting points for title and catalogue research. Artist records maintained by MoMA and the British Museum, together with Getty, VIAF, Wikidata, and library authorities, give Nason a well-established institutional identity.

## Common works and media

Nason is most commonly documented through wood engravings, with authority records also identifying etching and woodcut practice. His work appears in literary illustration, including editions of Robert Frost's You Come Too, Emerson's Nature, and Thoreau's Walking and Walden. Appraisal candidates may therefore include individual prints as well as illustrated books containing his engravings. Titles, publication details, dates, and catalogue references should be recorded carefully to distinguish related objects and editions.

## Market and appraisal context

Appraising Nason's work begins with identifying the object type and printmaking technique. Authority records describe him in connection with wood engraving, etching, woodcutting, and illustration, while bibliographic records document engravings made for particular literary publications. The publication, edition, date, title, and correspondence with cited catalogue literature can therefore help establish an accurate description. Appraisily's supplied input reports 255 associated auction records, but the source pack does not expose their individual lot details, realized prices, sale dates, edition information, or condition reports. A valuation should consequently be tested against verified public auction results for the same work or closely comparable examples. This research supports artist identity and work-type classification more strongly than any price conclusion.

## Appraisily data basis

Appraisily artist pages combine institution-grade artist identity research with auction records, auction-house context, sale dates, realized prices, and comparable lots when those records are available and can be verified.

## Sources

- British Museum: https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/term/BIOG39899
- IdRef: https://www.idref.fr/070759006
- VIAF: https://viaf.org/viaf/49988628/
- Wikidata: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q22132695
- The Museum of Modern Art: https://www.moma.org/artists/4229
- Getty Vocabulary Program: https://vocab.getty.edu/page/ulan/500073675
- Appraisily: https://appraisily.com/artist/thomas-willoughby-nason/