Illustrations
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S.104.3 hand tinted illustration from volumes on the agriculture of various counties 1794.
Megatherium americanum was one of the largest animals in its habitat in South Anerica, weighing up to 4 tons with a shoulder height of 2.1 m (6 ft 11 in) and length of 6 m (20 ft) from head to tail. It was one of the largest ground sloths, about as big as modern asian elephants. Megatherium became extinct around 12,000 years ago thought due to the the first arrival of humans in the Americas. Skeletal remians were first discovered in 1787. Charles Darwin collected further specimens.
From Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of 1854 with the 1st Earl Brownlow's bookplate within, although he had died in September the previous year (S.103.22). It was based on a presentation, 'On the megatherium' by Prof Richard Owen superintendent of the Natural History departments at the British Museum.
From a book owned by Viscount Tyrconnel dating to 1702. Perhaps he used it to mug up on his grand tour of 1710. Study, shelf 141. The V&A have the print, but not the book.
Heidelberg Tun
From the same book as th eone above, this huge wine barrel (Fass auf Deutsch) still exists on the tourist route at Heidelberg Castle.
Baxter used intaglio printing, the opposite of relief printing. Printing is done from ink that is below the surface of the plate. The design is cut, scratched, or etched into the printing surface that can be copper, zinc, aluminium, magnesium, plastics, or even coated paper. The detailed intaglio was printed on a rolling press. Then hand platen presses added colour from 12 to 20 tinting blocks. Register was obtained by several points on the press. His process was complex.
Antient Topograhy
Antient, an ancient spelling of ancient. This the only coloured plate in the book, carefully hand tinted. But the detailed monochrome images of a London known only to the Brownlows of the 18th century and earlier, are worth a look.
The earliest colour printing was a two-colour frontispiece to a Buddhist sutra scroll, dated 1346. Chinese wood block printing introduced colour from 1606, e.g. the 1679 Manual of the Mustard Seed Garden printed in five colours.
In this country, the move from hand-tinting didn't occur until George Baxter (1804–1867) became active. He was an English artist and printer based in London and is credited with the invention of commercially viable colour printing. His first known colour print, Butterflies, was published in 1829. Below is his, The Carrier Pigeon Number 46(41) 1837 Number 3 in the Cabinet of Paintings, this was used as the frontispiece.
Punch during WW1
Bound copies probably from Ashridge House as the supplier is
T. W. Bailey of Berkhamsted.
Joseph Ashby-Sterry (1836 or 1838 -1917) was an English poet, novelist and journalist. He contributed to Punch. His rather belittling descriptions of women was even in the 1870s criticised in the Spectator.
By 1920 the price had doubled!
Punch, or The London Charivari was a British weekly magazine of humour and satire established in 1841 by Henry Mayhew and wood-engraver Ebenezer Landells. Historically, it was most influential in the 1840s and 1850s, when it helped to coin the term "cartoon" in its modern sense as a humorous illustration. Last published in 2002.
Take a peek inside Punch.
A complete view of the dress and habits of the people of England by Joseph Strutt (1749-1802) first published 1796.
Strutt’s superb plates in 2 volumes reproduce portraits of English personages from illuminated manuscripts in the British Museum and the Bodleian Library, along with richly hand-coloured reproductions of the costumes, arms, seals, and other interesting objects particular to various English peoples from the time of the Saxons to the close of the 17th century. It was issued in both colored and uncolored versions.
Portrait of a Gentlewoman is an original print on paper realized by Anonymous English artist in the late 18th Century. The artwork represents a portrait of an elegant woman. Mixed coloured etching and mezzotint.
It was possible to print in colour in late 18th century England. Both mezzotints and stipple engravings were printed in multiple colours from a single engraved plate. The different coloured inks in a wide range of ready-mixed tints were applied to different areas of the same plate as called for by the design and printed simultaneously in one passing through the press. The inks were dabbed onto the plate with little twists of cloth like miniature rag dolls and the process is known by the French term as printing à la poupée (“with the dolly”). The engraved plate is the complete image, identical whether the resulting print is monochrome or coloured; the colouring is the work of the printer, not the engraver.
As illustrated left, the appearance is different.