The Pictorial Album, or, Cabinet of Paintings, for the Year 1837.

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Creator

George Baxter

Title

The Pictorial Album, or, Cabinet of Paintings, for the Year 1837.

Coverage

London

Publisher

Chapman & Hall, Strand

Date

[1837]

Description

George Baxter was one of the first English printers to develop a commercially successful method of color printing, using a succession of intaglio and relief plates to achieve image effects of remarkable depth and subtlety, qualities which were not equalled again until the heyday of chromolithography, almost half a century later. But Baxter’s process was complicated and time-consuming, and therefore unsuited for large print runs, or for the budgets of most nineteenth century readers; and it did not long survive his death in 1867. This collection of some of Baxter’s finest book-work was acquired as an example of an important, if ultimately futile, attempt to achieve one long-held dream of nineteenth-century publishing: fast, cheap, and accurate color illustrations.

Source

Purchased in 2011 with Grolier Club Library Harper Funds, supported by a gift from Brian Heidtke.