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.