George Baxter : His Life and Work

E. P. Publishing Ltd, London, 1972 reprint of 1908 first edition with a new foreword by Helen Courtney-Lewis. Cloth, 8vo, 21 cm,. v-vi, [1], xviii, 276 pp, plates. From the blurb: "George Baxter was born in Lewes in 1804 and undoubtedly he learned much from his father who was a printer, wood engraver and publisher. Baxter became a pioneer of the art of colour printing, and in 1836, after setting up his business in London, applied for a patent of his own elaborate process. This reprint provides some biographical details on Baxter and outlines his career and position in the colour printing hierarchy in England, but it is primarily important as a manual for collectors, cataloguing all the prints ever produced by Baxter. Although the prints are valuable for their numerous and alluring artistic qualities they also have value for the historian, throwing much light upon early Victorian times. During the quarter of a century in which Baxter was actively producing colour prints there were few prominent persons, noteworthy events or memorable places that were not perpetuated for us by his art. Depicted on his plates are King Henry VII; Queen Victoria and the Prince Consort; Jenny Lind; the Emperor Frederick, at the time of his marriage; Napoleon the Third and his beautiful consort; Wellington, whose funeral is excellently presented; Peel; and many another notable man or woman. Baxter was also unsurpassed as a pictorial chronicler of events. There is the coronation of Queen Victoria, scenes connected with the Great Exhibitions in London in 1851, and in New York in 1853, and a number of prints illustrative of the stirring days of early missionary enterprise. Top edge spotted, otherwise Very Good in Very Good dustwrapper.