! ' ' 1 ||-,:i:'i f FFFZ BRITISH ART REFERENCE L43 LA _x^0 Yale Center for British Art and British Studies Puttick & Simpson Literary and Fine Art Auctioneers, - Make a Speciality and hold Periodical Sales of Baxter and Le Blond Colour Prints In addition to this branch of the business, Messrs. Puttick & Simpson hold frequent Sales of Porcelain, Objects of Art, Antique Furniture, Silver, Jewellery, Coins, Medals, Textiles, Lace, Old and Modern Engrav ings and Etchings, Drawings, Pictures, Postage Stamps, Books, MSS., all kinds of Musical Instruments, Stock Sales, Plates, and Copyrights, etc. Items for inclusion in above Sales can at all times be received. Experts sent to all parts of the Country. Valuations made for Probate. Advances made pending realization. Telephone: Gerrard 1S81. Jlddress : 47 Leicester Square, London, W.C. 2. Notice. Baxter Prints AND Licensees. Licensees. Le Blond Mansell Bradshaw and Blacklock Dickes Myers Kronheim Mr. C. T. COURTNEY LEWIS will be pleased to advise collectors as to buying, selling, arranging, or cleaning Baxter and Licensee prints. He only asks such of his correspondents as care to consult him to defray postage. He has always a great number of prints for disposal at moderate prices, particulars of which can be obtained on application by post if wants are fully described. So many prints come to his knowledge that he can generally secure any rarities or fine specimens desired. He guar antees all he sells, and is open to buy prints and books in large or small quantities. Address : 29 Martin Lane, Cannon Street, London, E.C. THE LE BLOND BOOK 1920 BY THB SAME AUTHOR THE PICTUBB PEINTBK OP THB NINETEENTH OBNTURT (GEORGE BAXTER). Crown 4to, cloth. Fully illustrated with repro ductions of Baxter prints. Price £3 3s. net. THE BAXTER BOOK, 1919. F'cap 8vo, cloth, rounded corners for pocket. Fully illustrated. Price ios, 6d. net. ABRAHAM LE BLOND, Colour printer and Baxter licensee. Died in 1894. THE LE BLOND BOOK 1920 Being a History & detailed Catalogue of the Work of Le Blond &f Co. by the Baxter Process, with a Glance at the other Licensees C. T. COURTNEY LEWIS AUTHOR OF ' THE PICTURE PRINTER OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY ' ' THE BAXTER BOOK, 1919/ ETC. LONDON AND EDINBURGH SAMPSON LOW, MARSTON W COMPANY LIMITED 1920 ~Brtrish Art ReferenceH 3 LH (LC) There has been delay between the completion of the manuscript and publication. Meanwhile, Values have advanced, so both sellers and buyers would do well to estimate for a slight increase in the prices given throughout this volume. The "New Houses of Parliament," ascribed on page 126 to Kronheim & Co., should instead be placed under the heading if Myers & Co. on page 127. THE AUTHOR TO Sir EDWARD COATES, Bart., M.P. THIS VOLUME IN MEMORY OF FORMER DAYS AND IN APPRECIATION OF HIM AS A MAN AND A COLLECTOR OF OLD PRINTS IS INSCRIBED BY THE AUTHOR PREFACE THE daily fear that this little, yet wonder fully great, country of ours was in danger, the anxious and continuous perusal of newspapers relating to the march of events in the Great War, the call to arms of those near and dear, and upon whom in my daily life I relied for help, as well as the necessity of undertaking other duties, so sapped my energy and further reduced the time at my disposal, that the completion of this volume — which some time before the outbreak of hostiUties I contemplated and began — had inevitably to be postponed to a more favourable occasion. But now gladly do I turn from the carnage and horrors — but, withal, the heroism — of that great conflagration to the peaceable and pleasant com munion with my friends and readers about more civilised and civilising things. It has always been obvious to me that as the prints of George Baxter became more and more established in favour, so those of his Hcensees would follow in public estimation. And, inasmuch as in my judgment Le Blond & Co. are, after the inventor; by far the best of the printers by this method of viii PREFACE producing coloured pictures, and in addition are also the most popular, and as there is no cata logue of their prints in existence, it occurred to me to remedy this long-standing omission by the publication of this guide. I am conscious of many shortcomings in my book : and perhaps I may say that only those who have set forth on a similar undertaking can realise the immense and continuous labour and attention to detail involved, even in so small an effort as this, and the constant alterations to be made even to the moment of going to final press. My publishers sternly refuse to allow me — at present, at all events — to put forth a more elaborate work or anything approaching the size of my ' Picture Printer of the Nineteenth Century ' ; so my readers, I fear, like myself, must rest content with this modest beginning. I know I have yet a good deal to learn upon the subject on which I write; but possibly the publication of this volume may bring to me on this matter, as it has done on previous occasions with ' George Baxter,' additional information from interested readers. If that should prove to be the case, I shall carefully store up the knowledge thus gained with the idea and hope of some day turning it to useful account ; but ' ars longa, vita brevis est.' The fact that through all this long drawn out agony, when men's minds have had so much to disturb and distract them, Baxter and Le Blond prints have never ceased their hold on PREFACE IX public estimation or popular demand, makes me feel confident that now this devastating war is done, our people, who have endured so patiently that frightful calamity, will turn with redoubled zest to those subjects of refinement and culture which interested them of yore. C. T. COURTNEY LEWIS. 29 Martin's Lane, Cannon Street, London, E.C. 4. August 1919. CONTENTS CRAP. PAGE I. The Baxter Process explained . . i Methods of producing coloured prints before the Baxter process — Printing in intaglio and in cameo — Wood-block printing in simple colours, in fifteenth century — In chiaroscuro, in next century — John Baptist Jackson and his pictures in natural and proper colours, in 1754 — William Savage and his ' Hints on Decorative Printing,' in 1825 — The Baxter patent, 1836 — His wood block prints in natural and proper colours — Genesis of printing from plates — Johannes Teyler — James Christopher Le Blon, 1720, and his ' Printing Paintings ' — Three-colour process — Mezzotint plates — Plate printing in eighteenth century — Baxter's method combined both plate and block printing — His materials — Care for detail — His artistic eye — Steel plates — Great period of Ryland, Bartolozzi, Val Green, J. R. Smith, and others, ended — Baxter revives colour printing in 1834 — His methods still studied — Coming of the chromo-lithograph, which de stroyed his art — Le Blond & Co. last to print by Baxter's methods. II. Le Blond & Co., Baxter Licensees : Who they were and what they did 8 Little known of Le Blond & Co. — Firm estab lished about 1840 — Robert and Abraham Le Blond — Robert goes to America — Abraham stays in England — Death of Robert in 1863 — Marriage of Abraham in 1842 — Firm removes xi xn contents CHAP. PAGR to Carron House, Thames Street, with works at Kingston, in 1881 — Death of Abraham in 1894, after insolvency of firm and sale of its assets — Death of Mrs. Abraham Le Blond — Incident with Louis Philippe related — Baxter's petition for renewal of patent in 1849 — George Cargill Leighton opposes — Lord Brougham's advice to grant licences — Le Blond & Co. first licensees — Their prints as licensees — The ' Le Blond -Baxters ' — Mr. F. Mockler buys the plates — His folio of reprints — Elliot & Co. — Exhibition of prints at Birmingham, 1895 — Sale there in 1896 — Signature of prints — Letter from Robert E. Le Blond in Inland Printer. III. The Le Blond Catalogue in this Volume EXPLAINED 23 IV. Chronological List of all the Prints in the Baxter Process produced by Le Blond .... 27 Part I. — Numbered prints from Le Blond's own designs. Part II, — The Le Blond-Baxters. V. Small Figure and Fancy Subjects . 35 Observations — Descriptive catalogue of small figure and fancy subjects. VI. The Small Landscapes . . . .48 Observations — Descriptive catalogue of small landscapes, VII. Prints Relating to Royalty — Regal Series 62 Observations — Descriptive catalogue of regal prints. VIII. Needle-box Prints 73 Observations — Descriptive catalogue of needle- box prints. CONTENTS Xlll CHAP. PACK IX. The Raphael Cartoons ... 76 Observations — Descriptive catalogue of the cartoons. X. The Exhibitions 78 Observations — Descriptive catalogue of prints of the exhibitions, XI. The 'Ovals' 81 Observations — Descriptive catalogue of the ' ovals.' XII. Prints of a Large Size . . .102 Observations — Descriptive catalogue of prints of a large size. XIII. Book Illustrations (other than those for Pocket-books) .... 107 Observations — Descriptive catalogue of prints that are book illustrations (other than pocket- book illustrations), XIV. The Le Blond-Baxters . . .108 Observations. XV. Baxter Licensees 114 Index to the Prints . . . .129 General Index 133 ILLUSTRATIONS FACING PAGE Portrait of Abraham Le Blond Frontispiece Head of Windermere 53 Ballinahinch Lake 54 Loch Katrine, Scotland 55 Her Majesty (Queen Victoria) at Osborne . 66 Her Majesty (Queen Victoria) at Windsor . 67 Her Majesty (Queen Victoria) at Balmoral . 68 The Image Boy 88 ' Please remember the Grotto ' . . .89 The Pedler [sic] 92 The Showman 93 May Day 94 The 5th of November 95 The Dancing Dogs 99 A Highland Lake 104 In the North of Scotland . . . .105 THE LE BLOND BOOK, 1920 CHAPTER I THE BAXTER PROCESS EXPLAINED ALTHOUGH in these days, when the Baxter print is found on the walls of, and in port folios at, so many dwellings, and is otherwise so well known, the majority of our readers no doubt will be well acquainted with the art that produced these beautiful pictures, yet there may be some to whom the process is an enigma : there fore, for their benefit, we will try to explain in a few sentences exactly what it is; but for the full story of the hfe and labours of the interesting personality who was the originator and patentee of this method of printing in colour, we must refer our readers to our ' The Picture Printer of the Nineteenth Century.' Prior to the time of George Baxter, who was born in 1804 at Lewes, and who began his experi ments about 1827, neither chromo-lithography nor any of the modern processes of producing coloured prints by means of photography were 2 THE LE BLOND BOOK, I92O known, and the only methods that had at any time before then been employed for mechanically rendering a picture in its natural and proper colours were impressions from either (a) metal plates or (b) from wood blocks. By the former means you either cut out or in some other way make such an impression on the surface of the metal plate as will enable it to hold ink, with which you then fill it and press the paper into it ; and by the latter you cut away all the parts of a wood block except the ridges which are to convey the design, rub the tops of them with ink, and stamp them on the paper. The former is called printing in ' intaglio,' the latter in ' cameo.' Wood-block printing in simple colours was introduced shortly after the invention of printing, in the fifteenth century. When we say simple colours, we mean that on a portion of the paper will appear a red or blue or perhaps some other colour or colours by way of embellishment ; but there is no attempt to produce a real picture in colours by superimposing one colour on another, which is called printing in compound colours. In the next century and after, there were many who obtained light and shade, or what was called chiaroscuro, by putting colour on colour by means of blocks. But they confined themselves to dark or light shades of one colour; and there was no one who produced by this method what we should to-day call a picture in its proper colours, as seen in Nature, until John Baptist Jackson managed to publish some specimens about 1754; but even then his work led to nothing, and THE BAXTER PROCESS EXPLAINED 3 he had no imitators until William Savage about 1825 gave forth a few in a book he called ' Hints on Decorative Printing.' But he, too, had no followers, and nothing effective was done until George Baxter took up the subject of wood-block printing in colours in the years immediately pre ceding the patent he obtained in 1836 for his well- known Baxter process. Baxter in these few years prior to 1836 was the first to turn wood-block printing in proper colours to any real artistic and commercial use for pictures. But block printing was on the minds of men, and patents were obtained about this time for its use for calico printing and wall papers. Printing by the use of blocks was not even then sufficiently new for pictures for anyone to secure a patent without the addition of some other aid; but Baxter was the first to obtain one for its use in any form for pictures. Much as he may be admired for the beautiful prints he has left behind by his later patent process, to be presently explained, he is equally entitled to com mendation for the originality and merit of his pictures from wood blocks ; for there is no picture printer by this method who preceded him whose work will compare with his, and very few, if any, since. But we will continue our preliminary remarks; for it is necessary to do so in order adequately to explain his patent or ' Baxter ' process. Although coloured prints produced from wood blocks are of greater antiquity than those from metal plates, yet pictures in their natural and proper colours from metal plates are older 4 THE LE BLOND BOOK, ig20 than those from wood. There were a few who experimented in producing pictures from metal in the seventeenth century, particularly Johannes Teyler, who did so in hne engraving — a method never practised by any one before him or since. Yet the true genesis of real pictures by metal plates lays with James Christopher Le Blon (not to be confused with Le Blond, although said to be an ancestor), who invented what he called ' print ing paintings ' about 1720. And he also may be said to be the originator of the three-colour process, for he pointed out that all visible objects could be represented with three colours— yellow, red, and blue ; and acting on this principle he resolved each portion of his picture into these parts, making three plates, i.e. one for each colour, to be impressed in register over a mezzotinted key or foundation plate engraved in black. Now mezzotint, which came into use some half-century or more prior to James Christopher Le Blon, is an admirable method of plate engraving on which to impose colour. James Christopher Le Blon's plan was followed by his pupils ; and other modes of engraving from plates in colour, more or less similar— such as aqua tint and stipple, which are other methods of acting on the surface of the plate so that it will hold ink — came into use in the years following, both in France and England. As picture printing from plates came more and more into vogue, and although aquatint in two or three colours continued for some years into the nineteenth century, the great bulk of colour printing from plates ceased shortly after the French THE BAXTER PROCESS EXPLAINED 5 Revolution ; for wars and revolutions are inimical to art. When Baxter began his experiments there was in being practically no form of printing artistic pictures in colours whatever ; and although the period was ripe after the peace of 1815, time necessarily had to elapse, because whatever method was to be the one used, it had to be re-invented-, which needed much experiment. George Baxter was the man to do this, for his skill was considerable and his aptitude great. He had been brought up as an engraver on wood in black and white ; and as he apparently knew very little of the history or methods of any of the men who preceded him in colour work from wood blocks, much less from metal plates, it is not surprising that he favoured block printing at first. But as he proceeded, he found that neither the block nor the plate by itself gave him the finished results to which he aspired, and he sought other means ; and, being a man of great perseverance, ultimately he produced, after infinite labour, what is in effect a printed oil painting, but which he called " picture printing in oil colours.' And he did this by a combination of plate and block— that is to say, by the two methods of John Baptist Jackson and James Christopher Le Blon ; for he imitated Le Blon to the extent that he used an engraved plate for the foundation of his print in black or mono-chrome ; but then, like Jackson, he imposed the colours by means of wood blocks and not by other plates^ thus the two methods heretofore'" separated became in Baxter united. From this description our readers will gather that 6 THE LE BLOND BOOK, I92O three things are essential to constitute a Baxter patent process print : (1) a metal plate for the foundation ; (2) wood blocks for the colours ; (3) oil inks. Mezzotint he sometimes employed for his foundation plates, but more commonly it was aquatint with a little stipple in places to get better effects. But he was no believer in the three-colour process expounded by James Christopher Le Blon, even if he knew anything about it, which he probably did not ; for whilst Le Blon only used his three plates for his three colours, Baxter, in some cases, used as many as thirty blocks for imposing his various tints. The labour involved was very great ; for each colour or shade of colour had to have its special block cut and be passed as many times through the press. But add to this painstaking building up of a picture his artistic eye, fine materials of paper and pigments (for he only used the best of both), immense care for detail, and the beautiful bloom he placed by some unknown method over the colours, which gave to them a greatly added lustre, and which none of his licensees ever succeeded in imitating, and you get a harmonious whole which makes his pictures unique in the annals of colour printing. And by utilising steel plates, invented in 1820 and therefore not open to James Christopher Le Blon, he was able to obtain greater durability, and to produce large numbers, which in their day undoubtedly were a great means of originating a taste for the beautiful among many classes of society whose means debarred them from purchasing the original painting, to which these prints bore so close a resemblance that in some cases artists THE BAXTER PROCESS EXPLAINED 7 would not allow him to copy their works, as far as they could help it. From what we have .said, it will be seen that Baxter stands for an epoch as well as an art. The great period of the end of the eighteenth century, which produced among so many other beautiful things the fine coloured prints in France and England of Ryland, Bartolozzi, Val Green, J. R. Smith, the Wards, Alix, Janinet, Descourtis, and others, and which began with James Christopher Le Blon, ended with the French Revolution and the wars that followed ; and colour printing then nearly ceased and did not reappear until Baxter revived it in a new era some twenty years later ; but from his beginnings about 1834 t° this hour it has been continuous. In our own day, with all the new methods and advanced science, his ways of mixing colours and other details of his labours are still much studied, so clever and varied were they. From 1836 to 1854 his process was protected by a patent, and was paramount. But with the incoming of the chromo-lithograph it lost its position ; and the firm to whose memory this volume is a memoir, Le Blond & Co., were practically the last, but not the least, of those to give to the world their best efforts by the Baxter process. The men of this age could not shake off the effects of their environment ; but that they enriched the world by some specimens of beautiful colour work, who will deny ? And it may be that the demand that has sprung up of late years for their prints will proclaim them to be the pioneers to make popular a. revival of the best things of the Victorian era. CHAPTER II LE BLOND AND CO., BAXTER LICENSEES : WHO THEY WERE AND WHAT THEY DID REMEMBERING that when a man has passed beyond and left behind him things that are pleasant to see, to understand, and to possess, and which enhance the refinement of our existence here, that posterity likes to know something of his history, we propose to set forth in this chapter such scanty particulars as we have been able to gather of the firm who were not only the first, but who were the best, of all the colour printers who held licences from George Baxter, the talented inventor and patentee, to work his well-known process; but if we know httle of the master, our knowledge is still less of his pupils — the subjects of this memoir. The firm of Le Blond & Co. was estabhshed somewhere about 1840, in Walbrook, London, their description in the direc tory being ' steel and copper-plate engravers and printers.' The actual man or men who started the business is not clear, but probably the two whose names we shall presently mention; and there they continued until about the year 1847, LE BLOND AND CO., BAXTER LICENSEES 9 when we find them at 24 Budge Row and Walbrook ; but this may have been only an enlargement of their premises. Robert and Abraham Le Blond brothers, the two partners who constituted the firm, were descended from an old aristocratic Huguenot stock, whose property in France being confiscated, the family came to London : indeed, it was said to be an ancestor of these two who set up in Spital- fields the first silk-weaving machine ; they also claimed to be descended from that James Christopher Le Blon, the well-known figure who in the time of Hogarth was the first to print pictures in their natural and proper colours from a series of metal plates, which was the real origin of printing in colours by the three-colour process, of whom we had something to relate in the first chapter. So altogether the name of Le Blond or Le Blon, as it seems to have originally been, was one of some distinction in colour printing. Robert Le Blond, the elder of the two, was born on August 4, 1816 ; he learned his trade of a copper-plate printer with one Thomas Brooker, of 13 Walbrook, whose sister Sarah he married on November 17, 1837. He was not, we fear, at any time a very successful man of business; but we find him three years after his marriage, viz. in 1840, going to America — probably to see what prospects might present themselves to a young man in that country ; but he only stopped there a few months, and then he returned to England. In March 1856, admittedly for pecuniary causes, he departed again for the United States, and gave up all his interest 10 THE LE BLOND BOOK, 1920 in the firm of Le Blond & Co. in London. At first he only took his eldest son with him, the rest of the family following in the autumn of the same year. This eldest son is, we are glad to know, now carrying on a flourishing business under the title of the ' R. K. Le Blond Machine Tool Company,' at Cincinnati, and presently we shall give our readers a very interesting letter from this gentle man, published in the Inland Printer, and dated January 12, 1909. But to return to the father: he almost as soon as he reached the American shores, searched about for a means of livelihood, and procured at once a situation as book-keeper and proof-reader with the firm of Wrightson & Co. of Cincinnati ; then he was appointed American agent for Blackie & Son of Glasgow, and one or two others who carried on similar businesses. At one time he started in the United States, in con junction with his sons, a small printing office ; but it was soon closed up, and in June of the year 1863 he returned to England, and died on October 18 of that year, of dropsy, at the home of his sister Jane, at No. 13 Walbrook, at the early age of forty- seven. From this slight biography of the elder of the two brothers it is not difficult to draw the conclusion that in ability and stability the younger must have been the dominant personality, and as will be gathered from what we have said, he alone carried on the business of the firm from 1856 to its final end. Abraham Le Blond was born on February ii, 1819 ; where he learned his trade we do not know, LE BLOND AND CO., BAXTER LICENSEES II but probably at the same source as his brother Robert. He married in 1842 a lady of the same patronymic as his own. In 1881 the business of Le Blond & Co. was moved to Carron House, 14 Upper Thames Street, London, with works at Kingston, Surrey, in which latter town Abraham Le Blond also lived, and where in 1894 he died, aged seventy-five. Unfortunately, the firm, which at some time was turned into a company (probably about the year 1881, when it moved), borrowed money on debentures, under which, in 1894, a receiver was appointed, who sold off all the assets, the business itself being ultimately purchased, we believe, by Messrs. Fry and Barclay, and then for the first time — since 1842 at least — no Le Blond & Co. appeared in the London directory. Abraham Le Blond had always ardently desired that his two sons should possess the business after him ; and when it met with financial disaster it was a great grief to him, and undoubtedly hastened the end not only of his own useful life, but of his wife who predeceased him by only a few months. But his was a kindly, patient, and uncomplaining nature, and he was never known to utter a word of reproach about those who he conceived had done him a great injury, and to some of whom he had shown many kindnesses in days gone by. About the year 1848, when Louis Philippe and his Queen had to fly from France, and, as so many other fallen monarchs have done, came to this country, Abraham Le Blond is said to have saved the life of Her ex-Majesty. All the facts are not within our 12 THE LE BLOND BOOK, 1920 knowledge, but he certainly received from her a fine bowl and a letter in token of her gratitude. He was a man of a simple mind, and passionately fond of his garden and of all nature, as it is not difficult to perceive from the subjects of most of his prints ; but he was a reticent being and difficult to understand, and it is doubtful whether even his wife ever fully did so. As to their colour prints by the Baxter process, readers of the ' Picture Printer ' will remember that in the year 1849, when Baxter successfully petitioned the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council for an extension of the time of the patent granted to him in 1836, and was so actively opposed by George Cargill Leighton, and others of his former pupils, on the ground that Baxter taught them as his pupils only oil-colour printing, and that now they were out of their apprenticeship he would not let them earn a living because he refused to permit any one to practise the process ; that Lord Brougham, who presided over the tribunal that heard the application, in giving judgment remarked : ' I hope the petitioner will have the benefit of the opinions expressed to-day, which will help him in his further proceeding, and my advice is that he by past experience should take the benefit of his patent qua patent by selling licences, and not injure himself by speculations as a printseller. . . . That is my advice, and the advice which I always gave to my clients when I was at the Bar, viz. to sell licences.' Whether Baxter at any future time speculated as a printseller, as he had in the past, LE BLOND AND CO., BAXTER LICENSEES 13 we cannot say ; but we do know from notices on the mounts of his prints, produced at this time, that he immediately set to work to follow this advice, and advertised his willingness to grant licences, and Le Blond & Co. became in November 1849 the first of his licensees, and continued from that date at intervals to produce prints under their licence up to the time of the expiry of the patent in 1854 (when the process was open to anyone), and after then, up to about 1867, by the same method I — these prints during all this time being from designs of their own — and later, they reproduced about 1868 the ' Le Blond-Baxters,' particulars of which are given in Chapter XIII. After obtaining their licence, their first attempt was in the year 1850 ; they then produced the ' Royal Family at Windsor ' (No. 71 of our Catalogue), which, as might be expected, is somewhat crude ; and as if to mark the event they dated it, as will be seen on referring to our list of prints of the Regal series, and this was, we believe (unlike Baxter in this respect), the only print they did date ; and then came two or three other subjects relating to Royalty — such as ' Queen Victoria' and ' Prince Albert ' respectively, standing on a balcony, and the ' Royal Family at Buckingham Palace,' a few landscapes for pocket- books (four to be exact), and a print of the Great Exhibition of 1851 ; and these seem to have con stituted their whole output by this method prior to numbering their productions. But in 1851, doubtless owing to the impetus given by the Great Exhibition of that year, they started a regular 14 THE LE BLOND BOOK, I92O series, and from this date they placed on their mounts, and, later, on the blue label at the back of them, a distinctive number for each print ; and this plan was continued to the end, covering a period of some seventeen years. Like Baxter, they ob tained orders for their work at first for music title- pages, for the bands for tying up dress and other materials, for pocket-books and other ephemeral objects ; and for some years they published only small subjects — fancy designs interspersed with small landscapes and portraits of Royalty — and it was not until about 1865 that any print appears of really considerable dimensions. The production of the ' Le Blond-Baxters ' in 1868 (more fully described in Chapter XIII) was not a success : cheap German and other chromo-lithographs, then getting more prevalent, preventing any profit accruing by the sale. And then Le Blond & Co put away all the plates and blocks in their cup boards, and they never again saw the hght until Mr. Mockler, a gentleman who was such an enthusiast of Baxter's art, that as soon as he heard of the existence of the Le Blond and ' Le Blond-Baxter ' plates at Le Blond's premises, came straightway to London on June 6, 1893, and purchased the whole of them there and then. Later on, Mr. Mockler pubhshed his foho of reprints in sepia, on thick paper, from these plates. But the reproduction is defective, inasmuch as the producer was not able to discriminate the plates produced by Baxter from those of Le Blond & Co. ; and so, although the folio purports to be reprints from Baxter's plates, LE BLOND AND CO., BAXTER LICENSEES 15 it contains many of Le Blond & Co. as well. There was included in the sale to Mr. Mockler, as stated in the contract, the following items. Firstly, the plates and blocks of Baxter's productions, as purchased by Le Blond & Co., with a stock of reprints, for £300 ; and secondly, all the plates Le Blond & Co. had made of their own subjects, together with all the blocks for the same, and half the stock of printed subjects on hand, for £500. It is interesting to note in this connection that Abraham Le Blond says in a letter, dated June 2, 1893, addressed to Mr. Mockler : ' I purchased Mr. Baxter's stock of plates and prints about forty years since, and still am printing his and our own subjects from them.' What he meant exactly — if anything — by saying he was then printing in the Baxter process, we do not know ; but he was getting on in years — it was not long before his death — and he was breaking up, and his memory was defective, and this accounts probably for his error in saying he purchased the Baxter plates and stock about forty years since, when he ought to have said twenty-five years. With this sale Le Blond & Co.'s connection with Baxter's plates ceased. We should like to be able to tell our readers how it is, and why it is, that on so many of Le Blond & Co.'s prints the names of ' L. A. Elliot & Co., Boston, U.S.' appear, as well as their own firm; but at present there is no precise evidence of the reason. It will be observed, however, that none of the early productions seem ever to be found bearing the name of ' Elliot & Co.' ; but nearly l6 THE LE BLOND BOOK, ig20 all the later ones sometimes or always do, including, we believe, all the ' Le Blond-Baxters.' It has been rumoured that the prints bearing the joint names were never actually placed on the market by Le Blond & Co., and that it was not until after the exhibition of Baxter process prints, held by , Mr. Mockler, under the presidentship of Lord Leighton, in Birmingham in 1895, that they first made their appearance. We cannot vouch for this, but it may be correct. If Abraham Le Blond's letter, which we have quoted, is accurate when it says the firm was on June 2, 1893, still printing ' Baxter's and their own subjects,' then it may well be that the two firms of Le Blond & Co. and Elliot & Co. contemplated, some time before that date, a joint issue of prints, either in America- or England, or both, and that only the later ones, as being the best, were selected for reproduction, and as part of the arrangement Elliot & Co.'s name was to appear on the prints ; but that by some error, or possibly by the insolvency of Le Blond & Co.'s firm, the scheme never fully materialised, and the stock, or part of it, was left on hand, and was later on disposed of by the Receiver after he had entered on the premises of the firm to realise the assets for the debenture-holders ; and in this way the rumour may be about accurate, as that would be after the Mockler exhibition. In a letter in our possession, dated January 5, 1895, the stock of oil prints, of which the Receiver took possession, was then still in his hands, and was very large indeed, consisting, amongst other items, LE BLOND AND CO., BAXTER LICENSEES 17 of : 1500 ' Galway Peasants ' ; 880 ' Virginia Water' ; 725 ' In the North of Scotland ' ; 440 ' The Heather ' ; 525 ' Forget-me-nots ' ; 1175 ' Cruci fixion ' ; 1270 ' Gardener's Shed ' ; 1350 ' Holly hocks ' ; 1330 ' Lucerne ' ; 20 ' Highland Lake ' ; 1060 ' Descent from the Cross ' ; 770 ' Reconcilia tion ' ; 1300 ' Saviour Blessing Bread ' ; 1270 ' Ninth Hour * ; 1530 ' Italy ' ; 200 ' Ramsgate ' ; 200 ' Brighton ' ; 5800 ' Cartoons of Raphael ' ; 44,000 square subjects (assorted) ; 12,500 needle subjects and 60,000 small subjects (assorted) ; — and the total was open for sale by private treaty . at £900. What ultimately became of it we cannot say ; but in the year 1896 there was put up for sale by auction at Birmingham, by direction of Mr. Mockler, a great quantity of Baxter and Le Blond prints ; whether this included only those he purchased from Le Blond & Co., or whether he bought the remainder from the Receiver as well — as he was at one time, we know, inclined to do — we cannot say. From what we have indicated it follows that if the names of the two firms were not placed on the plates until 1893, then all Le Blond & Co.'s stock printed before then would bear, if any name at all, only the name of Le Blond & Co. We know that the ' ovals ' are found sometimes with the name of ' Le Blond & Co., London,' and at others with the names of the two firms ; and probably this may also be the case with the other late prints, including the ' Le Blond-Baxters.' One observes, however, that Le Blond & Co. do not on the prints use the word ' Limited.' The date when they were made l8 THE LE BLOND BOOK, 192O into a company, and which was, we believe, a limited company, and which would necessitate the use of this word in general, was about 1881 ; but the receipt given to Mr. Mockler on June 6, 1893, was also without it, although signed by Le Blond & Co., as was also the printed bill-head. The question of the signatures on the prints, in the case of both Baxter and Le Blond & Co., we shall probably never quite understand. Baxter did not sign his for many years ; and when he began there was no method in it, for he would sign some and not others, even of prints in pairs like ' News from Australia' ' and ' News from Home,' or the ' Corona tion ' and ' Opening of Parliament.' And Le Blond & Co. seem to have been almost as erratic. The following letter from the son of Robert Le Blond, before mentioned, has in it points of interest. ' How " Oil Prints " were Made. ' To the Editor : Cincinnati, Ohio, January 12, 1909. ' I have been much interested in the article in The Inland Printer, by Charles E. Dawson, on " Baxtertype," particularly as I worked in the office of Le Blond & Co., 24 Budge Row, London, who were hcensees of Baxter ; this was in 1854 an<3 1855. The firm of Le Blond & Co. was composed of my father Robert and his brother Abram. My father came to America in 1856, leaving his brother Abram in charge of the business. ' The actual printing of the " oil prints," as the LE BLOND AND CO., BAXTER LICENSEES 19 were designated by us, was carried on in the work shops at No. 4 Walbrook, a small street leading out of Budge Row and coming out on Cheapside by the Mansion House. This work, as Dawson says, was all done on hand presses ; in fact, outside of the newspaper and large book offices, there were no power presses then. We had over twenty hand presses at Walbrook, and at Budge Row half a dozen lithograph presses and as many copper plate presses. I pulled a hand press in the room just outside of the one where the oil prints were printed. I was then fourteen years old. As a rule, the other employees were not allowed in there, and, of course, strangers visiting any workshop in the old country was, and is, entirely out of the question. ' According to my recoUection, these prints were first engraved on a steel plate, as Dawson says, a key-plate, or, as I should call, a master- plate. From transfers from this the different color-blocks were engraved, mostly on boxwood,! some on copper. In printing, each form contained^ two blocks, each of a different color, two colors being used at a time on the ink table. The roller had about two inches cut out of the center, so that the colors would not mix. When the top sheet on the tympan was printed, it was taken off the points and put on the lower set of points and a new sheet put on above. At times, the pressman touched up a certain part that needed it, with a little pad of composition carrying a different tint to what was on the roller. This, as you may imagine, 20 THE LE BLOND BOOK, I92O was slow work ; I should say that nine hundred a day was the maximum. In your article you say that nine hundred or one thousand five hundred was a fair day's work for a pressman or helper, I think this should read and helper ;. there were almost invariably two to a press — one journeyman and one apprentice — except with the more advanced apprentices, who had charge of a press with a younger apprentice to help them. ' The sheets were printed on dry stock. I am sure I never saw any dampening of sheets in that department, but in most other work done there the paper was wet down first, and kept about the same degree of dampness until the job was finished. The color was furnished us dry and was ground and mixed as it was needed, mostly by the apprentice, while the journeyman made the form ready. This was generally the rule all over the shop. All colors came dry, except Chinese blue and black, and perhaps a few others. ' A man was employed to grind most of the ink, where comparatively large quantities were needed, but on smaller and more particular jobs, each pressman had his own stone muller and ground and mixed his own ink. In the oil-print depart ment they had certain standard tints, of which they kept a little stock on hand, carefully protected from drying, and replenished them by fresh grinding when needed. ' Most of these forms were kept locked up all the time. When a run was finished, the chase with tympan frame attached, containing all the LE BLOND AND CO., BAXTER LICENSEES 21 make-ready, was lifted off the press and carefully stood aside, and the chase with the next two colors put on. This, while involving quite an outlay for chases, etc., effected a considerable saving of time in making ready. A different point hole was used for each impression, as can be seen by some of the prints I have sent you ; fifteen or more point holes are on some, showing that that number of colors have been used. It would take quite an expert to pick out and number the different colors. ' As far as the work of the licensees not equaling that of Baxter, I never saw any of his, but think you will find on examining specimens I have sent you, that they are very nearly perfect. These prints are nearly, if not quite, fifty years old, and to my eye show no deterioration. The smaller prints were sold at about 18 pence each, and I believe were originally designed to use as labels on cotton goods, but gradually got to be used as pictures. They were generally trimmed close and mounted on the embossed card, showing the title, etc. These prints were, as you say, each subjected to careful inspection, and none allowed to go out unless perfect. ' When our firm moved their shops from London to Kingston-on-Thames, about i860, several of our men left and were employed by Kronheim Company, who were endeavoring to do that class of work, but I never saw any of their work to equal ours. ' In reference to the tympans used by Baxter being of sheet metal, ours were simply of calico 22 THE LE BLOND BOOK, I92O stretched tight on the frame, enclosing the necessary additional paper sheets and overlays. I never heard of sheet metal being used for that purpose. ' Robert E. Le Blond.' To Baxter must be assigned the merit not only of being the inventor and patentee of the oil- print process, but also of having revived with much added beauty the ancient art of block printing. Le Blond & Co. cannot claim such merits ; they were always copyists of Baxter methods, and never much of pioneers in the art of colour printing. Baxter laboured from 1834 to i860 — a period of twenty-six years — and produced some 350 original colour prints, including book illustrations ; Le j Blond & Co., from 1850 to 1868, or thereabouts ; and there are some 126 of their original colour prints, including the only book illustration which we know, as well as their ' Le Blond-Baxters ' ; but if there are respects in which Le Blond & Co., as colour printers, are not equal to the inventor, we can at least say that their smaU landscapes are delightful, their Regal series interesting, their larger and later prints attractive, and their set of ovals charming ; and the collection of their prints, whether for a portfolio or to adorn a room, is an occupation attended with great interest and has much to recommend it. CHAPTER III THE LE BLOND CATALOGUE EXPLAINED HAVING done our best to explain Baxter's process, and stated all we know at present of the firm of Le Blond & Co. who worked it, we propose to give in a catalogue all the prints they produced by such process, with the informa tion as to each one that is available. This catalogue is divided into chapters, and each one has reference to a different class of subject. This, it is thought, is a more interesting arrangement than the one that would result if we were merely to make a list of prints alphabetically or chronologically. The prices given are about those which a collector wishful to buy by private treaty might expect to give to a seller wilhng to sell, and it is assumed that the print and the mount when in that state are in really first class condition in all respects. The market fluctuates, but the tendency for some time, especially with the ' ovals,' has been upwards. No attempt has been made to give the prices in any other state than that of fine — we may say ' mint ' condition — prints ; but it must be remembered ' state ' always regulates prices. When the print can be found 23 24 THE LE BLOND BOOK, 192O on a stamped mount, the value is given both with the mount and without it ; but a stamped mount, with gold border round the print, is more valuable than one without it. As far as possible, the correct title of each print — that is, the title assigned to it by its producers — is stated ; but in cases where no name was allotted to it by them, we have given a fancy name of our own for better identification. At the beginning of each chapter we have added a few descriptive remarks concerning the class of print catalogued in that chapter. Where the print is ' signed,' i.e. lettered in the body of the picture, the details of where the coUector should look to find such signature are given ; where it is not signed, it is stated at the foot of the description that it is ' unsigned.' But it is quite possible that the later prints, unless they bear the signature of Le Blond & Co. and Elliot & Co., may have no signature at all. A short description of each print is appended, so that coUectors may identify the examples they come across. The dimensions given are as near as possible exact ; but the prints are not always of precisely the same size where they are adhered to the mount, as the cutting them for mounting varied slightly. No minute fractions of an inch are in any case attempted. We believe our catalogue is complete ; but, on the other hand, there may be other prints of which we do not know, and there may exist iUustrations ior books of which we are not aware ; and should any coUector discover any of either category not here mentioned, and he will convey his information to the author, THE LE BLOND CATALOGUE EXPLAINED 25 his courtesy will be much esteemed. We beHeve our list of prints, not book iUustrations solely, is entire, because Le Blond & Co. have facilitated the task by the numbers they have given to each subject on their mounts, and we have accounted for every number. But, at the same time, they did publish some without numbers, as stated on page 31, and there may therefore be others. We think there are a few intermediate numbers they did not use, which will be seen on reference to Chapter IV. It will be understood that we attempt nothing in the catalogue but a list of prints Le Blond & Co. published in colours by the Baxter process. Before entering upon the descriptive part of the catalogue, beginning with Chapter V, we give in Chapter IV a simple chronological list of all the original prints they produced by the patent process, according to Le Blond & Co.'s numbers, with the names of the subjects which they set apart for them — where they did this; but in the cases where they did not, we have, as before stated, for better identification, allotted fancy names ; and we have also given a list of the prints they pubhshed from the Baxter plates. In this latter hst we have also affixed Le Blond & Co.'s numbers ; but we have refrained from giving there, or elsewhere in this volume, any description of these prints, for the reasons we give in Chapter XIII. We are aware that many of Le Blond & Co.'s prints, as well as being on mounts, were used for pocket-books and music ; but we have not attempted to give the values in that state. 26 THE LE BLOND BOOK, ig20 The following abbreviations are used in the catalogue : — C. = Comparatively common. M.R. = Moderately rare. R. = Rare. V.R. = Very rare. The print is Signed. = The print was lettered or signed in the body of the plate, and therefore in the body of the print, by ' Le Blond & Co.' The print is Unsigned. = The print was not lettered or signed in the body of the plate by Le Blond & Co. On mount. = On a mount as issued, which should have some where on it, either in gold or embossed letters, the name of the subject or a number only. Fancy name. = That the print has no name assigned to it by Le Blond & Co., and we have given it one of our own creation for better identification. ' Le Blond No.' = The number given by Le Blond & Co. to the print on their mounts. Le Blond. = The firm of Le Blond & Co., and hereafter called * Le Blond.* CHAPTER IV CHRONOLOGICAL LIST OF PRINTS THIS is a chronological list of all the prints in the Baxter process produced by Le Blond, with the distinctive numbers he gave them. Where he gave the subject a name, that name is used by us to describe the print ; where he gave no name, we have given a fancy name of our own, and so stated it in this list, as will be seen. PART I Numbered Prints from Le Blond's own Designs Le Blond's Name of the prints. Nos. 1. The Tyrolean Waltz. \ 2. Brothers Water, Westmorland. I All four engraved on 3. Venice. [ one Plate- 4. Her Majesty at Balmoral. I 5. The Wedding Day .. 6. Courtship. ^ four en d on 7. The Departure. Y one plate, 8. Her Majesty leaving Ports mouth Harbour. 27 AU four engraved on one plate. All four engraved on one plate. 28 THE LE BLOND BOOK, 1920 9. The Butterfly Belle (our fancy name). \ All four 10. The Lady of the Lilies (our fancy name). I engraved 11. The Flower Maiden (our fancy name). j on one 12. In Contemplative Mood (our fancy name). ' Plate- 13. The Queen of the Harem (our fancy name). 14. With Silver Bells and Cockle Shells (our fancy name). 15. The Lady Harpist (our fancy name). 16. Roaming through the Forest Dell. 17. The New Houses of Parliament. 18. Her Majesty Opening Parliament. 19. Her Majesty at Windsor. 20. H.R.H. Prince Albert in St. James' Park. 21. Bingen— Rhine. 22. Lake Lugano, Italy. 23. Coblentz— Rhine. 24. Rheinfels— Rhine. 25. Constancy. 26. The Moorish Bride. 27. Castle of Heidelberg— Rhine. 28. The Britannia Bridge. 29. Her Majesty at Osborne. 30. Her Majesty at Windsor. 31. Osborne House. 32. Her Majesty at Balmoral. > 33. The Rose. 34. The Gate of Justice, The Alhambra, 35. Londonderry. 36. Loch Katrine— Scotland. 37. Abbotsford. 38. Victoria Bridge, Windsor. 39. Head of Windermere. 40. Head cf Derwentwater. 41. The Shipwreck. ^ 42. The Spanish Lovers. 43. The Cavalier. 44. The Gleaner. All four engraved on one plate. All four engraved one plate. All four engraved on one plate. All four engraved on one plate. All four plate. engraved on one All four engraved on one plate. All four engraved on one plate. CHRONOLOGICAL LIST OF PRINTS 29 45. The Sisters (our fancy name). 1 46. Actseon and Diana (our fancy name). 47. The Grape Lady (our fancy name). 48. Nearly Ready for the Bath (our fancy name) 49. The Image Boy. 50. 'Please remember the Grotto.' 51. Love's Messenger (our fancy name;. \ 52. One Summer's Day (our fancy name). I AU fou* en^ 53. The Tambourine Girl (our fancy name). [ labiate?1 54. As Slow as a Snail (our fancy name). > 55. Ullswater. \ 56. Durham Cathedral. -"(.„. 57. Ballinahinch Lake. AU four engraved on one plate- 58. Ben Lomond. ' 59. The Dancing Colleen (our fancy name). \ 60. Is Anyone Looking? (our fancy name). I AU f°™[ e°n" 61. Nature's Mirror (our fancy name). [ ^e^plate 62. An Eastern Dancer (our fancy name). > 63. St. Paul preaching at Athens. 64. Elymas smitten Blind. 65. Death of Ananias. 66. The Beautiful Gate of the Temple. 67. Miraculous Draught of Fishes. 68. St. Paul and Barnabas at Lystra. 69. Christ's Charge to Peter. 70. The Crystal Palace, Sydenham. 71. The Crystal Palace, Sydenham, another view. 72. Good News. 73. The Burning-glass. 74. Blowing Bubbles. 75. The Pet Rabbits. 76. The Blackberry Gatherers. 77. The Soldier's Return. 78. The Sailor's Departure. 79. The Gleaners. 80. The Mill Stream— Towing the Prize 81. The Cherry Seller. Both on one plate. 30 THE LE BLOND BOOK, 192O 82. The Pedler [sic], 83. The Showman. 84. The Young Angler. 85. May Day. 86. The 5th of November. 87. Crossing the Brook. 88. The Village Spring. 89. Snowballing. 90. The Fisherman's Hut. 91. Waiting at the Ferry. 92. The Swing. 93. The Bird's Nest. 94. The International Exhibition (1862). 95. Brighton. 96. Ramsgate. 97. Windsor Castle. (From a painting by J. Buckley.) 98. Galway Peasants. (From a painting by F. W. Topham.) 99. Grandfather's Pipe. 100. Grandmother's Snuff-box. 101. Sunday Morning. 102. The Wedding Day. 103. The Dancing Dogs. 104. Learning to Ride. 105. Virginia Water. (From a painting by C. Smith.) 106. The Heather. (From a painting by A. D. Lucas.) 107. Forget-me-nots. (From a painting by A. D. Lucas.) 108. On the Watch. (From a painting by Armfield.) 109. A Highland Lake. (From a painting by Armfield.) 110. In the North Of Scotland. (From a painting by Armfield.) 111. Moonlight. The Leisure Hour. VProbably these numbers were never used by Le Blond. CHRONOLOGICAL LIST OF PRINTS The following prints from Le Blond's own have no Le Blond number. 31 Name of the print. in Our Nos. this Book. Ayr 42 Chamouni 53 New York Bay 54 Queen Victoria on Balcony .... 65 Prince Consort on Balcony .... 66 The Royal Family at Buckingham Palace 69 Windsor Castle (small) 70 The Royal Family at Windsor 71 Needle-box Subjects 73 Book Illustration 74 PART II The Le Blond-Baxters. (See also Chapter XIII, especially p. in.) Le Blond's distinctive Nos. Le Blond-Baxters. Where signed by Le Blond. (See note at end of this Chapter.) 120. Descent from the Cross. Bottom left. From the celebrated painting by Rubens. 121. The Bridesmaid. Bottom left. From the painting by Brooks. 122. The Crucifixion. 123. The Gardener's Shed. From the painting by Bartho lomew. 124. The First Impression. From an original painting. 125. Lake Lucerne, Switzerland. After Turner. 126. The Lover's Letter Box. From the painting by Jessie Macleod. Doubtful. Extreme bottom left. Doubtful.Bottom right centre. Extreme bottom left. 32 THE LE BLOND BOOK, ig20 127. The Slaves. From a painting by Fitzgerald. Doubtful. 128. The Day before Marriage. From the painting by Fanny Corbaux. Bottom right. 129. Fruit Girl of the Alps. From the original painting. Extreme bottom left. 130. Group of Hollyhocks. From the original painting by Bartholomew. Bottom left. 131. Summer (large). From the painting by W. E. Jones. Bottom left. 132. Winter (large). From the painting by W. E. Jones. Bottom left. 133. The Mountain Stream. From the original painting. Bottom left. 134. The Wreck. From the original painting by Turner. Bottom right centre. 135. The Tired Soldier. After a painting by Goodall, R.A. Extreme bottom right. 136. The Belle of the Village. Bottom right. 137. The Reconciliation. Bottom left. 138. The First Lesson. Doubtful. 139. The British Fleet. Doubtful. 140. Charge of Troops. Doubtful. 141. Arctic Expedition. Doubtful. 142. The Saviour blessing Bread. Bottom left. 143. The Third Day. Bottom left, rather high in the print. 144. The Ninth Hour. After the painting by Albert Durer. Bottom left. 145. Dover, with Shakspeare's Cliff. Doubtful. 146. Crystal Palace (Exterior). Doubtful. 147. Italy. Bottom right centre. CHRONOLOGICAL LIST OF PRINTS 33 148. 149. 150.151.152.153.154.155. 156. 157.158. 159. 160.161. 162.163.164. 165. 166.167.168.169. 170.171.172. 173. 174. So Nice ! So Nasty ! The Cornfield. After a painting by Shayer. Summer-time. After the original by Corbould. Come, Pretty Robin ! The Saviour. 'It is finished!' After the painting by Vandyke. The Crucifixion. Puss Napping. So Tired ! Stolen Pleasures. After the original by Burgess. The Birth of the Saviour. Short Change. After the original by Collinson. Returning from Prayer. From the original by Lee. The Daughter of the Regiment. Bottom left. Extreme bottom left. Bottom right. Bottom left. Bottom left. Bottom left. Doubtful. Doubtful. Doubtful. Doubtful. Bottom left. Bottom left. Doubtful. Bottom right. Bottom left. Crystal Palace and Gardens. Red Riding Hood. See-saw. Australia — News from Home. From the original by Freeman. News from Australia.' The Soldier's Farewell. The Girl at the Bath. Verona. The Hop Garden. Fruit-piece, No. 1. After Lance. Fruit-piece, No. 2. After Lance. Infantine Jealousy. After a drawing by Kenny Meadows. Extreme bottom right. Bottom right, rather - high up in the print. Bottom right. Bottom left. Bottom right. Bottom right. Bottom right. Bottom right. Extreme bottom right. Bottom right. Bottom left. Bottom right. 34 175. 176.177. THE LE BLOND BOOK, ig20 Extreme bottom left. 178. 179.180.181. 182. 183. Christmas-time. From the painting by Fitz gerald. The Bride. After a miniature by Fanny Corbaux.Mont Blanc. Four views — A, B, C, D. a. b.c. . . . d. . . . The Queen (head-dress). The late Prince Consort. Princess Royal (half length). Prince of Wales (at seventeen) Duke of Wellington. Lord Nelson. 184. Sir Robert Peel. Rev. J. Wesley. Empress of the French. Napoleon I. Napoleon HI. Bottom right. Extreme bottom right. Extreme bottom left. Extreme bottom right. Extreme bottom right. Doubtful.Doubtful.Bottom right. Doubtful. Bottom left. Has signatures of Bax ter and Le Blond, bottom right. Has signatures of Bax ter and Le Blond, bottom right. Doubtful.Extreme bottom right. Doubtful.Bottom right. 1- These numbers were probably not used by Le Blond. Note. — Where the signature is stated to be doubtful, it is because the author is unable to give it, and he would be grateful for any information ; or else it is doubtful if the print was ever published by Le Blond. CHAPTER V SMALL FIGURE AND FANCY SUBJECTS Observations TO use a sporting expression, we now find that Le Blond, after a preliminary canter, is well into his stride ; or, in other words, after several essays with the process about 1850 (as stated in Chapter II), he has succeeded to such an extent as to justify him in commencing his labours in earnest with it; for we find he now begins to number his prints, which means continuity. The series set out in this chapter is curious and interesting, but not the best of his work ; this, perhaps, is not extraordinary, seeing that most of the prints were produced for ephemeral objects and sold at small prices. It is certain all were begun about the time of the Great Exhibition of 185 1, and continued during the following two or three years; and in every case, so as to save labour, and copying Baxter's method, four prints were engraved on one plate. Just as the master sought sales of his prints for commercial purposes — such as the adornment of music sheets, the outside covers of packs of cards, 35 36 THE LE BLOND BOOK, I92O needle-boxes, handkerchief and stationery boxes, pocket-books, and the like — so did the pupil Le Blond ; and it was much to Baxter's disgust that Le Blond and others trespassed on the inventor's field of operations. Some prints set out in this chapter will be found on music, on the bands used in the shops and warehouses for tying up dress and other material, and in pocket-books, and no doubt they were also applied to other similar uses. The origin of those in this series was a contract obtained for embelhshments for Pea cock, Mansfield & Sons' pocket-books ; and, further imitating Baxter's manner, they were also placed on mounts for the purpose, amongst others, of being used in the then ubiquitous scrap-book. The mounts resemble those of the small landscapes and regal subjects set out in Chapters VI and Vll ; that is to say, sometimes they have embossed white borders of various patterns round the prints, and at other times the border is in gold, or filigree gold, pattern. When in the former, the name of the subject, or in many cases the distinctive number of the print without any such name, is embossed in the bottom centre of the mount ; but when the border is gold, or filigree gold, pattern, then the name of the subject is found in gold below the print in the centre of the mount, and the distinctive number is on the bottom right or left of the mount. In one interesting particular Le Blond differed from Baxter: the former utilised the first pulls from the plates of these subjects for unimportant purposes, in which a print in colours could be dispensed with ; but, so far as we know, the latter SMALL FIGURE AND FANCY SUBJECTS 37 never turned the first pulls to any advantage other wise than as the ground-work for a coloured print. We are unable to say whether the prints, or any of them in this chapter, are original designs or taken from pictures. But we do know that Le Blond seems in these early days — unlike Baxter, who was most decorous — to show a great liking for representations of the fair sex ; for in every instance is a lady in the case, and many of them, too, in decollete or stiU more scanty raiment. But for the most part they seem solitary, and this loneliness Le Blond seems in many cases to emphasise. Much as Le Blond copied Baxter, he has not done so in the designs of these prints. They are unique ; Baxter never did anything quite like them. DESCRIPTIVE CATALOGUE OF SMALL FIGURE AND FANCY SUBJECTS [See pages 23 to 26. ) 1. The Tyrolean Waltz. Le Blond, No. 1. An upright oval print. It is a pleasing little picture in which there is some beautiful miniature work, and depicts two ladies of the Tyrol in their national costume : one in a red bodice and blue skirt, the other in a green bodice and red skirt, dancing in the open air by the side of a lake. One has her arm round the other, and they both face the beholder in a roguish fashion, as much as to say, ' We can do without you men ! ' In the background are appropriate Alpine landscape and buildings. It matches well with No. 28 in size and shape. It is on the same plate as Nos. 32, 47, and 55. It was used as an illustration in 1 85 1 to Peacock, Mansfield & Sons' pocket-book, ' La Belle Assemblee.' Size, 3 -J x i\. On mount, M.R. 10s. Without mount, C. 5s. The print is unsigned. 38 THE LE BLOND BOOK, I92O 2. The Wedding Day. Le Blond, No. 5. An upright oblong print. A lady of medieval times, in her wedding dress, hangs on the arm of her Cavalier husband. A small white dog, jealous of being displaced in favour, looks up at them plaintively. The castle is seen on the right, and in the left middle distance is the coach, ready to take the newly wedded pair away. It is on the same plate as Nos. 3, 4, and 56, and is one of a series with Nos. 3 and 4. Size, 3$ x i\. On mount, M.R. 10s. Without mount, C. 3s. 6d. The print is unsigned. 3. Courtship. Le Blond, No. 6. An upright oblong print. The same lady as in the last print is now seen walking, in a blue coatee and pink skirt, hanging on the arm of her Cavalier, who carries his plumed hat in his hand. On the left is a large vase of growing flowers, and in the distance are the sea and ships. It is on the same plate as Nos. 2, 4, and 56, and is one of a series with Nos. 2 and 4. Size, 3I x -z\. On mount, M.R. 10s. Without mount, C. 3s. 6d. The print i's unsigned. 4. The Departure. Le Blond, No. 7. An upright oblong print. The same lady as in the last two prints, and still wearing a blue coatee and pink skirt, is leaning on the arm of her Cavalier. A tree is on the left ; on the right is the sea, with a large gondola and a small sailing-boat on it, and on the ground are shells. Le Blond discreetly brings this series to an early close and does not prolong the history of this same affectionate couple for, say, seven years. It is on the same plate as Nos. 2, 3, and 56, and is one of a series with Nos. 2 and 3 . Size, 3J x 2J. On mount, M.R. 10s. Without mount, C. 3s. 6d. The print is unsigned. SMALL FIGURE AND FANCY SUBJECTS 39 5. The Butterfly Belle (fancy name). Le Blond, No. 9. An upright oblong print. A rather vindictive-looking damsel, wearing a robe of green, stands alone amidst the growing corn and flowers, and whilst with her right hand she holds up her dress, with her left, jealous perhaps of their transient happiness, she essays to catch two butter flies on the wing. It is on the same plate as Nos. 6, 7, and 8. There is no name of the subject on the mount, only a number. Size, 4 x i\. On mount, M.R. 10s. Without mount, M.R. 5s. The print is signed on the bottom centre. 6. The Lady of the Lilies (fancy name). Le Blond, No. 10. An upright oblong print. A lady, with flowing hair and slightly dicolleti light purple robe and yellow scarf, stands alone in the water amidst the bulrushes and water- lilies. A bird, also without a mate, is on the wing on the right. It is on the same plate as Nos. 5, 7, and 8. There is no name of the subject on the mount, only a number. Size, 4 x 2J. On mount, R. 15s. Without mount, M.R. 5s. The print is signed on the bottom centre. 7. The Flower Maiden (fancy name). Le Blond, No. 11. An upright oblong print. A lady, in dUolleti dress — red bodice and striped red skirt — stands alone amidst the flowers, and whilst with her left hand she holds up her dress to retain the blooms within its folds, with the other she is strewing them on the ground. A dragon-fly and its mate hover on the left. It is on the same plate as Nos. 5, 6, and 8. There is no name of the subject on the mount, only a number. Size, 4 x -z\. On mount, M.R. 10s. Without mount, M.R. 5s. The print is signed on the bottom left. 40 THE LE BLOND BOOK, I92O 8. In Contemplative Mood (fancy name). Le Blond, No. 12. An upright oblong print. A lady, in a d&c-ollete' red bodice and green skirt, stands alone amidst the growing corn, and with her hand to her face is contemplating something, or perhaps some one. In the immediate fore ground is growing convolvulus. On the left are two turtle-doves on the wing, indicative, we surmise, of the subject of the lady's thoughts. On the same plate as Nos. 5, 6, and 7. There is no name of the subject on the mount, only a number. Size, 4 x i\. On mount, M.R. 10s. Without mount, M.R. 5s. The print is signed on the bottom centre. 9. The Queen of the Harem (fancy name). Le Blond, No. 13. An upright oblong print. A lady, en demi toilette and with streaming hair, sits lonely on a red cloak at the edge of a marble bath, and she has put her foot in it. There is a green-striped curtain on the left, and water and Oriental buildings in the distance. On the same plate as Nos. 10, 11, and 12. There is no name of the subject on the mount, only a number. Size, 3$ x 2J. On mount, M.R. 10s. Without mount, C. 4s- The print is signed on the extreme bottom left. 10. With Silver Bells and Cockle Shells (fancy name). Le Blond, No. 14. An upright oblong print. A semi-nude female, with streaming hair and looking dejected, is floating alone in a large shell amid the water-lilies. There are trees and other foliage on the left, and Oriental buildings in the right distance, and water and a swan and its mate on it. On the same plate as Nos. 9, 11, and 12. There is no name of the subject on the mount, only a number. Size, 3$ x 2$. On mount, R. 15s. Without mount, C. 4s. The print is signed on the extreme bottom left. SMALL FIGURE AND FANCY SUBJECTS 41 11. The Lady Harpist (fancy name). Le Blond, No. 15. An upright oblong print. A semi-nude lady, with a red garment and streaming hair, is kneeling alone in the open air by the side of a stream, playing a small harp. Trees are in the background, and a mountain in the right distance. On the same plate as Nos. 9, 10, and 12. There is no name of the subject on the mount, only a number. Size, 3J x 25. On mount, R. 15s. Without mount, C. 4s. The print is signed on the extreme bottom left. 12. Roaming through the Forest Dell. Le Blond, No. 16. An upright oblong print. It was used on the title page of a piece of music written by Miss S. M. Sterne, and com posed by John E. Astes, lay- Vicar of King's, Trinity, and St. John's Colleges, Cambridge, and called ' Roaming through the forest dell.' A nymph, with crossed arms, is flying alone over the water. In the right and centre fore ground are rocks and growing plants, and in the left distance, on an eminence, is a castle. On the same plate as Nos. 9, 10, and 1 1 . There is no name on the mount, only a number. Size, 3J x 2f . On mount, R. 15s. Without mount, C. 4s. The print is signed in the bottom centre. 13. Constancy. Le Blond, No. 25. An upright oblong print. A mother — her husband absent— with curling hair and green robe and a yellow skirt, sits facing an open stone stairway ; her little girl is standing on her chair, and the jealous dog is looking up at them. At the back is a harp, and in the front a table with a vase of flowers. Through the opening can be seen the sea. On the same plate as Nos. 14, 39, and 51. It was used as an illustration in 1852 to one of Peacock, Mansfield & Sons' pocket-books. Size, 3f x 2J. On mount, M.R. 10s. Without mount, C. 4s. The print is unsigned. 42 THE LE BLOND BOOK, I92O 14. The Moorish Bride. Le Blond, No. 26. An upright oblong half-length print. A lady, with Eastern head-dress, from which pearls are suspended, and with a blue robe and striped red scarf, and with a bunch of flowers in her right hand, sits alone and melancholy on a balcony. It is on the same plate as Nos. 13,, 39, and 51, and is from ten blocks. It was used as an illustration in 1852 to one of Peacock, Mansfield & Sons' pocket-books. Size, 3f x 2J. On mount, M.R. 10s. Without mount, C. 4s. The print is unsigned. 15. The Rose. Le Blond, No. 33. An upright oblong half-length print. A lady, in a dicollete' red dress and blue skirt, stands alone on a balcony, holding two roses in her right hand and her handkerchief in the other. On the left is a large vase and growing roses ; she has also roses in her hair — Roses, roses everywhere. In the distance is a lake. On the same plate as Nos. 37, 40, and 52. Size 3! x 2$. On mount, M.R. 10s. Without mount, C. 4s. The print is unsigned. 16. The Shipwreck. Le Blond, No. 41. An upright oblong, but nearly square, print. A scantily dressed maiden stands alone with her dog on a rock over looking the angry sea, contemplating the wreck below. The life-boat is going to the rescue. On the same plate as Nos. 17, 18, and 19. Size, 4I x 3$ . On mount, V.R. £1. Without mount, M.R. 10s. The print is signed on the bottom centre. 17. The Spanish Lovers. Le Blond, No. 42. An upright oblong, but nearly square, print. A Cavalier and lady sit under a tree ; his sombrero is on the ground, his sword by his side. He is playing a stringed instrument ; SMALL FIGURE AND FANCY SUBJECTS 43 she is nursing a small dog. The chateau, with fountain playing, is seen in the background. On the same plate as Nos. 16, 18, and 19. Size, 4J x 3! . On mount, R. 15s. Without mount, M.R. 10s. The print is signed on the extreme bottom right. 18. The Cavalier. Le Blond, No. 43. An upright oblong, but nearly square, print. A Cavalier, wearing a large-plumed hat and sword, is expressing his admiration in a very unconventional but evidently agree able manner to the maiden standing beside him. A large castle is in the background. On the same plate as Nos. 16, 17, and 19. Size, 4J x 3}. On mount, R. 15s. Without mount, M.R. 10s. The print is signed on the bottom left (on the path). 19. The Gleaner. Le Blond, No. 44. An upright oblong, but nearly square, print. A maiden, in a dicolleti red dress and striped blue skirt, stands alone at a gate ; her hat suspended by the ribbon over her left arm, and her gleanings, tied by some red material, on her head. In the right distance is the village, and in the left extreme distance a windmill. The cornfield is close by, in which is another gleaner. On the same plate as Nos. 16, 17, and 18. Size, 4i x 3$. On mount, R. 15s. Without mount, M.R. 10s. The print is signed on the extreme bottom centre. 20. The Sisters (fancy name). Le Blond, No. 45. An upright oblong, but nearly square, print. Two ladies, in dicolleU dresses, one blue and one red, stand holding each other's hands on a balcony ; a small white dog is at their feet. On the left is a trellis and a plant in a vase ; in the distance, on the right, is the sea and a 44 THE LE BLOND BOOK, I92O ship on it, and the hills beyond ; and, nearer, a castle and a town are visible. On the same plate as Nos. 21, 22, and 23. Size, 4£ x 3J. On mount, V.R. £1. Without mount, M.R. 10s. The print is signed on the bottom left. 21. Actseon and Diana (fancy name). Le Blond, No. 46. An upright oblong, but nearly square, print. Diana, in scanty raiment, with her bow and arrows (indicative of the Goddess of Hunting) by her side, has evidently finished her bath and is resting on a red cloak ; whilst Action looks at her from the trees in the back. The hounds by the lady, and the stag in the distance, are emblematical of the punishment he — perhaps justly — received for his wicked ness. On the same plate as Nos. 20, 22, and 23. Size, 4J x 3j. On mount, V.R. 15s. Without mount, M.R. 7s. 6d. The print is signed on the bottom right. 22. Nearly Ready for the Bath (fancy name). Le Blond, No. 48. An upright oblong, but nearly square, print. A lady, in a very dicolleU robe of pink, and extremely abundant flowing hair which she is smoothing out with her hands, stands alone with one foot in the water into which she is about to enter. Trees form the left background, and in the right distance are rocks. On the same plate as Nos. 20, 21, and 23. Size, 4I x 3|. On mount, V.R. 15s. Without mount, M.R. 7s. 6d. The print is unsigned. 23. The Grape Lady (fancy name). Le Blond, No. 47. A figure of a lady who, in slightly d&colUU dress, stands at the foot of some steps, with right hand extended, palm upwards, and left holding up her robe in a passage or pathway overhung with grapes. There are shrubs on her right. Her hair is adorned with flowers. (The author, after many years' search, has never seen a print in colours, SMALL FIGURE AND FANCY SUBJECTS 45 only the plate and a print in monochrome from it.) On the same plate as Nos. 20, 21, and 22. Size, 4J x 3J. On mount, V.R. £2. Without mount, V.R. £1. The print is unsigned. 24. Love's Messenger (fancy name). Le Blond, No. 51. An upright oblong print. A lady, wearing a dicotteti red dress, stands alone on a castellated terrace, holding a pigeon to which she is attaching a letter. Another pigeon, probably its mate — or perhaps it is a dove — hovers near. On the same plate as Nos. 25, 26, and 27. There is no name of the subject, only a number. Size, 3I x 2f . On mount, R. 10s. Without mount, M.R. 5s. The print is unsigned. 25. One Summer's Day (fancy name). Le Blond, No. 52. An upright oblong print. A lady, in a light blue skirt and d&colUU dress, stands alone amidst growing flowers ; with her right hand she retains her dress, and in the other, which is gloved, she holds a single rose. She has also flowers in her corsage. On the same plate as Nos. 24, 26, and 27. There is no name of the subject on the mount, only a number. Size, 3f x 2J . On mount, R. 15s. Without mount, M.R. 10s. The print is unsigned. 26. The Tambourine Girl (fancy name). Le Blond, No. 53. An upright oblong print. A girl, in a very light dicolleti dress and blue stole, and hair streaming, is alone, dancing and playing a tambourine in the open air. On the left is a large vase with flowers. On the same plate as Nos. 24, 25, and 27. There is no name of the subject on the mount, only a number. Size, 3f x 2f . On mount, R. 12s. 6d. Without mount, M.R. 7s. 6d. The print is unsigned. 46 THE LE BLOND BOOK, I92O 27. As Slow as a Snail (fancy name). Le Blond, No. 54. An upright oblong print. A lady, in a green dicolleti robe and striped scarf, stands alone with one foot on a stone near a river ; her hand is to her face, and she appears to be waiting for some one slow in coming, and one feels , that when he arrives he will ' catch it.' A snail is on the ground. On the same plate as Nos. 24, 25, and 26. There is no name of the subject, only a number. It was used as a pocket-book illustration for the ' Ladies' Historical Pocket-book, Diary, and Almanack,' published by C. Penny & Sons, London, 1854. Size, 3f x 2$. On mount, R. 15s. Without mount, R. 10s. The print is unsigned. 28. The Dancing Colleen (fancy name). Le Blond, No. 59. An upright oval print. An Irish girl, with both hands on her hips and wearing a red tunic and home-spun striped skirt, is alone, dancing with bare feet in the open air. In the distance are the hills and a stream. It matches well with No. 1 in size and shape. On the same plate as Nos. 29, 30, and 31. Size, 3J x 2J. On mount, M.R. 10s. Without mount, C. 4s. The print is unsigned. 29. Is Anyone Looking P (fancy name). Le Blond, No. 60. An upright oblong print. A semi-nude lady, with a red garment, bare feet, and flowing hair, stands alone amid the bulrushes, looking cautiously around, and is about to enter the water. On the right are a dove and its mate on the wing, and below is a lonely frog, which seems to croak : ' Look before you leap.' On the same plate as Nos. 28, 30, and 31. Size, 34 x 2J. On mount, M.R. 10s. Without mount, C. 5s. The print is unsigned. SMALL FIGURE AND FANCY SUBJECTS 47 30. Nature's Mirror (fancy name). Le Blond, No. 61. An upright oblong print. A girl in very scanty raiment is standing alone by the bulrushes and holding on to the branch of a tree to see her reflection in the water. In the left distance is an Eastern town and a hill. On the same plate as Nos. 28, 29, and 31. Size, 3J x 2J. On mount, R. 10s. Without mount, M.R. 5s. The print is unsigned. 31. An Eastern Dancer (fancy name). Le Blond, No. 62. An upright oblong print. A girl, dressed in Oriental costume of tunic of red and gold, ' bloomers,' cap, and blue skirt, is dancing a pas seul in the open air, and with her hands is manipulating a scarf. On the left background is an Eastern building, and in the foreground are growing flowers. On the same plate as Nos. 28, 29, and 30. Size, 3J x 2J. On mount, R. 12s. 6d. Without mount, M.R. 6s. The print is unsigned. CHAPTER VI THE SMALL LANDSCAPES Observations IT cannot rightly be claimed, perhaps, that there is the same depth of colour or warmth of tone in the prints which we describe in this chapter that are to be found in those of the same class of print of a similar size by George Baxter ; but, certainly, for the most part, they are very pleasing productions, and indicate that Le Blond was making very rapid strides in the technique of the art. Here, again, we are in difficulty as to the pictures — if any — from which the subjects are taken, and Le Blond has done very httle to enhghten us. As to the date of pubhcation, there is no doubt (we exclude for this purpose Nos. 44 and 45) they were first given to the world in the year of the Great Exhibition of 1851, and contemporaneously with the small figure and fancy subjects set out in the last chapter, and most of the prints relating to Royalty set out in the next. We see in this series a much greater similarity to Baxter's methods than in the later prints. Whether Le Blond was 48 THE SMALL LANDSCAPES 49 an admirer of the patentee we know not ; but we presume, as he took out a licence, he was. But it is quite certain that in the early days of his labours in this process he was a very close imitator of him. Here we have the same size print, the same size mount, no signature, and even those weird little Victorian figures are introduced that so delighted the heart of Baxter, and which he inserted in nearly every small print he pubhshed ; and if they were not in the picture from which he was supposed to be copying, he took care to insert them. And this imitation was only natural. At the time Baxter granted the licence to Le Blond and others to work his process, he was busy with those admirable little landscape pictures of his for use in pocket- books, scrap-books, and such-like purposes, which he invented about 1847-8, and which are to-day so well known, and which undoubtedly met with much appreciation and great success at the time ; and it would therefore be, as we have said, only natural that the hcensees would desire to travel along the same road and participate in that popularity ; and so we find that the small land scapes by these two colour printers are in all their characteristics almost precisely the same. When, too, used as pocket-book illustrations, they both give the name of the subject in the bottom centre of the plate margin ; but whilst the one places his well-known ' Baxter's Patent Oil Printing, 11, Northampton Square,' on the left hand bottom, and, as a rule, gives the name of the artist, from whose picture he had copied the subject, in a 50 THE LE BLOND BOOK, 1920 corresponding position on the right-hand side, the other simply uses the words, ' Printed in oil colours by Le Blond & Co,' in a similar situation to that in which Baxter placed his name, on the left ¦; and on the right, instead of giving the name of the artist, he uses the word ' Licensees, London.' And it is from this fact that, whilst he makes it very difficult to discover from what pictures — if any — the sub jects are taken, he also renders it easy to come to the conclusion that the prints were published during the time the licence was in operation — that is to say, the early 'fifties of the nineteenth century, and not after 1854, when the patent expired and Le Blond was under no obhgation to obtain any permission to use the process. Probably all, or a majority, of the prints in this chapter, if not actuaUy produced for, were utilised as, iUustrations to the series of pocket- books published by Peacock, Mansfield & Sons, and Renshaw, which were very similar to that of Suttaby & Co., so largely illustrated by Baxter. When Baxter first produced his small landscapes, he had not designed for them his stamped mounts ; but he used instead tinted cardboard of the same size with a ruled blue line round the print, and in thus doing was only continuing on a smaller scale a plan he had adopted with most, or all, of his large prints, when on mounts, during the missionary period, which immediately preceded his small landscapes ; and it was not until after he had begun to grant licences that he first used a stamp or seal. Whether or not he did this to differentiate THE SMALL LANDSCAPES 5 1 his work from other people's, we cannot say ; but we think it was likely. But although there are so many points of resemblance about the prints, the mounts of Baxter and Le Blond for the small landscapes do materially differ. Baxter's were tinted, with no device round the print, or other decoration, except the stamp or seal, which was always on his small landscapes on the bottom left. Le Blond's mounts, on the other hand, were always white, and he had three separate kinds of bands round the prints on them : (a) a plain gold one, (b) a filigree pattern in gold, or (c) an embossed white of eight or nine different patterns. His stamp, which differed from Baxters in every respect, was invariably in the bottom centre ; and there was always a distinguishing number on the mount- When the mount had a gold, or filigree gold, band' the number was in the right or left hand side of the bottom, in gold figures ; but when it had an embossed band, then the figure formed part of the seal. We have spoken of the seal; but in fact Le Blond's, unlike Baxter's, was nothing more than a device giving the name of the subject ; and Le Blond's name nowhere appears either on the print or the mount: When the band is in gold, the seal is in gold; when it is embossed,. the seal is embossed. We think there must have been keen rivalry at this time between the original patentee and his licensees, and it quite accounts for the refusal by Baxter to give them more of his secrets than he could help. But we think Baxter's notice, which we set out on page 28 of the ' Year Book,' 52 THE LE BLOND BOOK, 1920 1912, in which he warns the public of parties attempting to pass off their hastily got up and inferior productions by closely imitating his private stamp, which . he had introduced to verify the genuineness of his pictures and prevent their being taken for the works of other persons, may not have been intended for Le Blond, as regards these small landscapes at least, especially as he adds : ' Attention is requested to the fact that while the name of Baxter is conspicuous on the imitation of the patentee's private stamp, the names of the licensees are put upon the pictures so huddled together as not to appear to a common observer. Another licensee has also made similar attempts to pass off his work; more closely imitating the private stamp of the patentee by adding the crown to the imitation.' On the other hand, it may have been Baxter's complaints and pressure which forced Le Blond to adopt differences in his mounts. We feel sure collectors will much appreciate and enjoy this series, which we will now proceed to classify and describe. DESCRIPTIVE CATALOGUE OF THE SMALL LANDSCAPES (See pages 23 to 26.) Views of Lakes in the British Isles 32. Brothers Water, Westmorland. Le Blond, No. 2. The print shows a view of this well-known lake — named after two brothers who, tradition says, were drowned in it— taken from the descent from the foot of Kirkstone Pass ; some signs of the rugged nature of which we may HEAD OF WINDERMERE Print A"o. 33 the small landscapes 53 gather from the barren rock on the right. On the left, besides the lake, are a quaint cottage and pollard ; and in the road to Keswick (which we see for a considerable distance running by the side ofthe lake), in the foreground, is a flock of sheep which a shepherd and his dog are gather ing to let pass the horseman and a two-horse vehicle which we see approaching. A beautiful background of the distant hills with their varying shades of colour adds finish to a charming little picture. It is on the same plate as Nos. i, 47, and 55. Used as an illustration in 1851 to Peacock, Mansfield & Sons' pocket-book, ' The New Forget-me-not.' SlZE' 3* X 2i' On mount, M.R. 10s. Without mount, C. 5s. The print is unsigned. 33. Head of Windermere. Le Blond, No. 39. This view of the ' Queen of Lakes ' is probably taken from the high road between Ambleside and the Vale of Troutbeck, and thus we see no very considerable stretch of the lake. In the distance are the stately Langdale Pikes. To the right are two large trees ; to the left other trees ; and in the road, in the centre, from which the view is probably taken, are cattle with a driver. On the same plate as Nos. 34, 41, and 72. Size, 3! * *i- Qn mount> M R 12g 6d Without mount, M.R. 7s. 6d. The print is unsigned. 34. Head of Derwentwater. Le Blond, No. 40. The view of this loveliest of the English lakes is prob ably taken from the spot where the River Derwent enters the lake. We see the steep, wooded crags and green hills rising from its banks, and in the distance other hills of Westmorland and Cumberland. As Baxter also produced ' Derwentwater ' the same size, the interested can compare the two prints. On or by the road on the right are trees, two sheep, and two men conversing. On the same plate as Nos. 33, 41, and 72. Size, 3| x **• Qn mount> M-R. 12s# 6d. Without mount, M.R. 7s. 6d. The print is unsigned. 54 THE LE BLOND BOOK, ig20 35. Ullswater. Le Blond, No. 55. The view is taken looking towards Patterdale, which is close to the head of the lake. Some of the mountains, including mighty Helvellyn, are shown on the opposite shore, with the beautiful lake between them and the spec tator. In the foreground is a road running from right to left. On the near shore loose rocks lie about ; two figures are resting in the extreme foreground ; and by the side of the road is a cottage. On the same plate as Nos. 36, 38, and 43. Size, 3! x i\. On mount, M.R. 12s. 6d. Without mount, M.R. 7s. 6d. The print is unsigned. 36. Ballinahinch Lake. Le Blond, No. 57. A beautiful little print of this lake in County Galway, Ireland, and perhaps the best of Le Blond's small land scapes. Rising abruptly from the shores is a conical hill on the left, and mountains in the distance. Some of the picturesque islands are shown. The two figures standing on a rock in the foreground remind us very much of Baxter's ' Bala Lake.' On the same plate as Nos. 35, 38, and 43. Size, 3$ x 2J. On mount, R. 15s. Without mount, R. 7s. 6d. The print is unsigned. 37. Loch Katrine, Scotland. Le Blond, No. 36. The portion of the loch shown is from the Trossachs, and huge Ben Venue rises in front. This also is a. very- excellent print. On the right, in the foreground, are a party of two men and a woman (not forgetting the dog) making a kettle boil — reminding us forcibly of Baxter's print of Derwentwater. There are also other figures : one is by his craft, and a sailing-boat is on the lake. The mountain on the right is probably Benan, by Ellens Isle. On the same plate as Nos. 15, 40, and 52. Size, 3J x 2J. On mount, M.R. 12s. 6d. Without mount, M.R. 7s. 6d. The print is unsigned. Print No. 36 BALLINAHINCH LAKE LOCH KATRINE, SCOTLAND Print No. 37 THE SMALL LANDSCAPES 55 38. Ben Lomond. Le Blond, No. 58. We are shown the ' Bonnie Banks of Loch Lomond,' with majestic Ben Lomond and other mountains round about on the opposite side. We are here in the country of Rob Roy, and the road seen running from right to left of the picture is probably that leading to Inversnaid ; on it is a covered cart, and from below the bridge on the left, over the Douglas Water, is a man fishing. We see some boats on the pride of ' Scottish lakes,' and three cattle in or by the water on the right. On the same plate as Nos. 35, 36, and 43. Size, 3| x t\. On mount, R. 15s. Without mount, R. 8s. 6d. The print is unsigned. Other Views in the British Isles 39. The Britannia Bridge. Le Blond, No. 28. This is the tubular bridge, built 1846-50 by Robert Stephenson, which crosses the Menai Straits near Bangor, Wales. Once all men marvelled at it ; but in these days we are more used to tube railways. In the distance is the equally well-known suspension bridge across the estuary of the Conway, and which was erected at the same time. On the strait are seen numerous boats, and in the distance the Welsh hills. On the same plate as Nos. 13, 14, and 51, and is from ten blocks. Used as an illustration in 1852 to one of Peacock, Mansfield & Sons' pocket-books. Size, 3f x 2£. On mount, M.R. 8s. 6d. Without mount, C. 5s. The print is unsigned. 40. Londonderry. Le Blond, No. 35. The view is taken of this historic city of North Ireland from the east, and shows a large portion of the right bank of the River Foyle in the rays of the setting sun. The cathedral is easily distinguishable on the hill, as well as other 56 THE LE BLOND BOOK, 1920 buildings. There are boats on the river and figures on the left bank. On the same plate as Nos. 15, 37, and 52. Size, 3J x i\. On mount, M.R. 10s. Without mount, M.R. 5s. The print is unsigned. 41. Abbotsford. Le Blond, No. 37. The entrance and the whole front of the picturesque residence which Sir Walter Scott built on Clarty Hole farm, by the Tweed, is shown ; the view being taken probably from the road to Melrose. There are deer on the right, and men in Highland costumes with horses and dogs on the left, and the hills in the distance. On the same plate as Nos. 33, 34, and 72. Size, 3$ x 2j. On mount, M.R. 8s. Without mount, C. 5s. The print is unsigned. 42. Ayr. Has no Le Blond number. This is the centre of the Burns country. In the distance is the river Ayr at its confluence with the sea. The ' twa briggs ' are not shown, nor any part of the town. In the left foreground are two tall trees, and on the road in the centre are some cattle and a driver, and on the right a cottage. Most likely this was one of Le Blond's earliest small landscapes, and was produced for a pocket-book and was never on a mount. The tone of the prints on this plate is different to any of the others. On the same plate as Nos. 53, 54, and 70. Size, 3J x 2J. As pocket-book illustration complete, V.R. 15s. The print is unsigned. 43. Durham Cathedral. Le Blond, No. 56. An attractive view of the well-known and grandly situated cathedral, dedicated to Our Lord and St. Mary the Virgin, taken from the opposite bank of the River Wear. The whole stately building is seen high up on the hill, and through a lens the beautiful tracery of the windows can be distinguished. On the river are boats, the bridge is in THE SMALL LANDSCAPES 57 the distance, and the foliage on the opposite bank is putting on its autumn tints. On the same plate as Nos. 35, 36, and 38. The print was an illustration to Renshaw's pocket- book for 1854. Size, 3f x 2j. On mount, M.R. 12s. 6d. Without mount, M.R. 7s. 6d. The print is unsigned. 44. Brighton. Le Blond, No. 95. This and the next are much later prints than the others in this chapter, being produced about 1862. The old chain pier is shown and part of the town. Near the pier is fishing-boat 20, J.P.C.W. (the letters being probably the initials of the artist) ; there is also a rowing-boat, lt is a companion to No. 45, and probably on the same plate. From a painting by Wake. Size, 6x4. On mount, V.R. £3 10s. Without mount, R. £2. The print is signed on the extreme right-hand bottom corner. 45. Ramsgate. Le Blond, No. 96. This and No. 44 are much later prints than the others in this chapter, being produced about 1862. A view from the sea of the town and the entrance to the harbour ; inside the latter a tug and other boats are seen. The fishing- boat 30, P.R.H., is sailing, and near it is a rowing-boat. It is a companion to No. 44, and probably on the same plate. From a painting by Wake. Size, 6x4. On mount, V.R. £3 10s. Without mount, R. £2. The print is signed on the extreme right-hand bottom corner. Views Abroad 46. Lake Lugano, Italy. Le Blond, No. 22. A considerable stretch of the lake is visible with the white peaks of the Alps in the distance. On the left, on the banks of the lake, are Roman ruins ; and on a hill in the distance, a castle ; on the right is the road, and on it a mule 58 THE LE BLOND BOOK, ig20 and figures. On the shore, in the distance, are a church and houses, and close by them, wooded to the summit, is probably Monte Salvatore ; but with the growth of the district since those days of well over sixty years ago, it is not easy now to be certain of any particular spot. On the same plate as Nos. 48, 49, and 50. Size, 3J x i\. On mount, M.R. 10s. Without mount, C. 5s. The print is unsigned. 47. Venice. Le Blond, No. 3. The view seems to be taken from below the point where the Grand Canal joins the Canale della Giudecca. Thus on the left we see the Church of Sta Maria della Salute and the entrance to the Grand Canal, and down it on the right, in the distance, is St. Mark's and the other well-known buildings in its vicinity. On the immediate right are steps leading to the water, and a man standing on them, and overhead is a tree ; immediately in front, is a large gondola. On the same plate as Nos. 1, 32, and 55. Used as an illustration in 1851 to Peacock, Mansfield & Sons' pocket- book ' The Keepsake.' Size, 3| x -z\. On mount, M.R. 8s. 6d. Without mount, C. 4s. The print is unsigned. 48. Bingen, Rhine. Le Blond, No. 21. The town is shown in the foreground, and the confluence of the Rhine with the Nahe is seen in the distance, and close by such junction stands the famous Mouse Tower — an isolated building, associated with which is the story of Bishop Hatto and the rats, related by Southey. In the background are the hills ; on the left a large Roman ruin, and in the centre, at the back of the town, which we see below, are figures and two horses drawing a wagon. On the same plate as Nos. 46, 49, and 50. The print was an illustration to Renshaw's 'Ladies' Pocket-book' for 1852. Size. 3$ x i\. On mount, R. 10s. Without mount, M.R. 5s. The print is unsigned. THE SMALL LANDSCAPES 59 49. Coblentz, Rhine. Le Blond, No. 23. The great military depot at the confluence of the Rhine with the Moselle is seen on the left, and on the right the noble height across the river (the Gibraltar of the Rhine) is the fortress of Ehrenbreitstein, and connecting the two is the well-known bridge. On the left foreground are some ruins ; in the centre is an elevated rock, on which are two figures ; and a small town is seen below, with a church, and near by are two horses drawing a cart. On the same plate as Nos. 46, 48, and 50. Size, 3J x 2L • On mount, M.R. 12s. 6d. Without mount, M.R. 7s. 6d. The print is unsigned. 50. Rheinfels, Rhine. Le Blond, No. 24. The principal attraction of the town of St. Goar is the Castle of Rheinfels, the most extensive ruin on the Rhine. The castle and the way up to it are visible on the left, and on the extreme right is part of the town. Mules and figures are seen in the road on the left, and on the right a long stretch of the Rhine, with the Lurlei in the distance ; and round about, arising from the banks of the river, are hills, with the well-known romantic castles on their summits. On the same plate as Nos. 46, 48, and 49. Size, 3J x z\. On mount, R. 12s. 6d. Without mount, M.R. 7s. 6d. The print is unsigned. 51. Castle of Heidelberg, Rhine. Le Blond, No. 27. ' High and hoar ' stands this ancient German castle, and behind are the hills. Below the broad terrace of masonry is the town ; above it is the front of the Chapel of St. Udal- rick, and on the left of this stands the octagon tower of the horloge. The Rhine runs below, and spanning it in the distance is the bridge. On the extreme right is a cluster of boats (one of which has up a yellow sail) with men in them, and close to the boats, on the bank, are other figures. On the same plate as Nos. 13, 14, and 39. Used as an 60 THE LE BLOND BOOK, 1920 illustration in 1852 to one of Peacock, Mansfield & Sons' pocket-books. Size, 3f x 2J. On mount, R. 12s. 6d. Without mount, M.R. 7s. 6d. The print is unsigned. 52. The Gate of Justice. The Alhambra. Le Blond, No. 34. On the right we see the well-known Puerta Judiciaria : that plain, massive, but rather clumsy monument, which, in the days when the Moors were in Spain, served as an outwork to the fortress and an arch, or entrance hall, to the Alhambra ; but was principally used as, and was expressly built for, an open-air Court oi Justice, where the Khalif, personally, sat in judgment — a custom handed down to the Arabs by the Hebrews, to which there are so many references in the Scriptures. In the distance are the Sierras Nevada, and nearer is the River Darro with boats upon it. Numerous Spanish inhabitants are dotted about. It is on the same plate as Nos. 15, 37, and 40. Size, 3! x 2J. On mount, R. 10s. Without mount, M.R. 5s. The print is unsigned. 53. Chamouni. Has no Le Blond number. A glance at this print shows the change in this Alpine spot from then to now. On the left rises Mont Blanc with its ' fields of glaciers and worlds of snow.' The village is seen nestling in the valley, through which passes the stream. On the right, in the road, are figures, trees, and a cart. Most likely this was one of Le Blond's earliest small land scapes, and was produced for a pocket-book, and was never on a mount. On the same plate as Nos. 42, 54, and 70. The tone of the prints on this plate is different to any of the others. Size, 3 J x 2. As Pocket-book illustration complete, V.R. 15s. The print is unsigned. THE SMALL LANDSCAPES 6l 54. New York Bay. Has no Le Blond number. This bay, at the mouth of the Hudson, as is well known, is the entrance to New York from the sea. It is here shown with its then fortifications : that on the left, probably, being what is now known as ' The Battery,' and from whence there are several ferries. We can imagine immense changes have taken place in the nearly seventy years since the print was produced. On the left are three equestrians, a man with a telescope, and other figures; and on the bay are many sailing-craft. Most likely this was one of Le Blond's earliest small landscapes, and was produced for a pocket- book, and was never on a mount. On the same plate as Nos. 42, 53, and 70. The tone of the prints on this plate is different to any of the others. Size, 3J x 2J.As pocket-book illustration complete, V.R. 15s. The print is unsigned. CHAPTER VII PRINTS RELATING TO ROYALTY: REGAL SERIES Observations AN interesting series is this, containing as it does so many portraits of the early days of Queen Victoria, the Prince Consort, and their children — many of which latter in after life, from their exalted positions, became famous, but most of whom have now served their term, made history, and passed to the Great Beyond. It is not easy to say whether the prints comprised in this chapter, or any of them, are original designs ; but we can with some certainty fix the time of publication. Thus in No. 69 it is not difficult to ascribe the date to between 1850 and 1853 — probably 1851 — and to say the baby in the cradle is none other than His Royal Highness, the present Duke of Connaught, who was born in 1850. The two youngest children of Queen Victoria — the Prince Leopold, born in 1853, and the Princess Beatrice, born in 1857 — are not shown, for the good reason they had not then made their entry on this troubled planet ; and the same process of reasoning can be brought to bear upon some of the other prints. It is almost certain that 62 PRINTS RELATING TO ROYALTY 63 all of them were produced between 1850 and 1853 (except Nos. 67 and 68). Here again Le Blond, at this time, seems to have taken many of his ideas from Baxter, who, as is well known, about the year 1850, produced portraits relating to the Royal Family, which were extremely popular, including those of Prince Albert and Queen Victoria standing on a balcony, and Le Blond did the same ; and those who are interested, and care to compare the two prints by these two colour printers, will find many points of resemblance; but the difference in merit is in favour of Baxter. The measure of success of the invenfor of the process can be judged to a large extent by the amount by which he was copied. But Le Blond's prints did not attain the depth of colour and brilliance of those of Baxter, which is not remarkable seeing Baxter had then been working at the process for about twenty years, and Le Blond had only just begun to do so. It is in later years, when Le Blond's colour-printing department had been brought into more actual touch with that of Baxter by the coming into it of some of his instructors, most skilled workmen, that a more accurate comparison can fairly be made in the work produced by the two men. With the exception of Nos. 67 and 68 (which we do not think are by Le Blond and which we insert only because some have expressed a doubt), we should say all the prints in this chapter were produced about the same time — that is to say, between 1851 and 1853 and synchronise with the small figure and fancy subjects set out in Chapter V and with the small 64 THE LE BLOND BOOK, I92O landscapes set out in Chapter VI, or most of them ; and the mounts of each of the three series will be found very similar. DESCRIPTIVE CATALOGUE OF THE REGAL PRINTS (See pages 23 to 26.) 55. Her Majesty at Balmoral. Le Blond, No. 4. The whole front of the castle is visible with the Royal Standard flying. Queen Victoria, Prince Albert, and two of the Royal Children are shown riding ponies, accompanied by servants in scarlet, and a dog. On the right and left are trees, and the wooded hill of Craig Gowan rises at the back of the castle. It is from the summit of this hill that bonfires blaze when it is wished to commemorate family or national events. On the same plate as Nos. 1, 32, and 47. Used as an ilustration in 1851 to Peacock, Mansfield, & Sons' pocket-book, ' The Wreath.' Size, 3} x 2 J. On mount, M.R. 10s. Without mount, C. 4s. The print is unsigned. 56. Her Majesty leaving Portsmouth Harbour. Le Blond, No. 8. The Royal Yacht is seen leaving the harbour, and figures in other boats are cheering those on board. On the right is a warship of that period — which would be a year or two before the Crimean War — with yards manned, firing a Royal salute. On the left is a steam-boat, and in the centre a craft being rowed by eight oarsmen. Haslar is visible in the distance, and also more warships. On the same plate as Nps. 2, 3, and 4. Size, 3J x 2J. On mount, C. 7s. 6d. Without mount, C. 3s. 6d. The print is unsigned. PRINTS RELATING TO ROYALTY 65 57. The New Houses of Parliament. Le Blond, No. 17. A fine view of the whole southern front of the Palace of Westminster is shown ; and from the cheering spectators on the river we should imagine the picture represents the scene at the formal opening, by Queen Victoria, of the new Houses in 1852. On the left we get a glimpse of Wren's towers, and some other portions of Westminster Abbey, and on the extreme right a small piece of Westminster Bridge. The gorgeous barges shown are probably those belong ing to the Lord Mayor of London. The last time the civic functionaries took the water to be sworn at Westminster was in 1856. On the same plate as Nos. 58, 59, and 60, and is a companion to No. 58. The whole four prints were produced from ten blocks. Size, 4J x 2$. On mount, R. 15s. Without mount, M.R. 8s. The print is signed on the extreme right bottom corner, 58. Her Majesty Opening Parliament. Le Blond, No. 18. This is an interesting little print of the opening of Parliament in 1852, after the dissolution caused by the resignation of the Derby Ministry. We see Her Majesty Queen Victoria and the Prince Consort in the state coach, drawn by the well-known Hanoverian cream-coloured horses, and attended by an escort of the Life Guards as well as Yeomen of the Guard (who first appeared at the Coronation of Henry VII, 1485), and Royal servants on their way to the Sovereign's entrance to the House of Lords. As to the cream-coloured horses, it may be well to remember that when Napoleon entered Hanover he seized the stud, which served to supply the Royal stables over here. At his coronation the following year, his state coach was drawn by eight ' chevaux cafe au lait,' as the Parisians called them. This so irritated George III that, until 1815, the state coach was drawn by black horses at the opening and proroguing of Parliament. On the right are cheering spectators, Westminster Abbey, St. Margaret's Church, and the well-known statue of Sir Robert Peel. It is a companion print to No. 57, and is on the same plate as F 66 THE LE BLOND BOOK, 192O Nos. 57, 59, and 60. The whole four prints were produced from ten blocks. Size, 4J x 2f . On mount, R. 15s. Without mount, M.R. 8s. The print is signed on the bottom left centre. 59. Her Majesty at Windsor. Le Blond, No. 19. Queen Victoria, in riding habit and hat, mounted on a grey horse, and attended by three Royal servants in scarlet and two dogs, is cantering by the side of the Thames; the castle is in the distance. Her Majesty is wearing the ribbon and star of an order. On the same plate as Nos. 57, 58, and 60, and is a companion to No. 60. The whole four prints were produced from ten blocks. There are chromo-litho- graphs of this print. Size, 4J x 2f . On mount, M.R. 12s. 6d. Without mount, C. 7s. The print is signed on the bottom centre, 60. H.R.H. Prince Albert in St. James's Park. Le Blond, No. 20. The Prince Consort, in scarlet military coat, top boots, and buckskin breeches, mounted on a black charger, is riding in the park. On the right are bowing pedestrians, and on the left are mounted British and foreign officers. Buckingham Palace, as it then appeared, is in the distance. This is of some interest, apart from the changes recently made, because it was in 1847, or onty three or four years before the appearance of this print, that the east front (or back) of the palace was erected by Edward Blore, architect to Queen Victoria. The Prince wears the star and ribbon of the Garter, and is in the act of acknowledging the salutes of the spectators by raising his hat. On the same plate as Nos. 57, 58, and 59, and is a companion to No. 59. The whole four prints were produced from ten blocks. There are chromo-lithographs of this print. Size 4$ x 2J. On mount, M.R. 12s. 6d. Without mount, C. 7s. The print is signed on the bottom centre. Print No. 61 HER MAJESTY (QUEEN VICTORIA) AT OSBORNE Print No. 62 HER MAJESTY (QUEEN VICTORIA) AT WINDSOR PRINTS RELATING TO ROYALTY 67 61. Her Majesty at Osborne. Le Blond, No. 29. This is a quaint domestic scene of the life of Queen Victoria. Her Majesty, holding the arm of her princely Consort, and accompanied by a dog, is strolling in the grounds of Osborne. With them, carrying his Royal mother's parasol, and holding his father's hand, is the little boy who, in after years, was to become, by the grace of God, of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and of the dominions beyond the seas, King Edward VII, Defender of the Faith, and Emperor of India. In the distance, on the left, is the sea ; and on the right, the mansion, and four of the Royal Children at play. The Victorian garments are noticeable : the immaculate coat, strapped trousers, and tall hat of the Prince, and the full skirt and straw bonnet of Her Majesty. Miss Eleanor Stanley's Letters, recently published, describing her experiences as a maid of honour in the early years of Queen Victoria's Court, are interesting. From them we learn that Queen Victoria's ideas were peculiar. On one occasion ' she had on a blue bonnet and a long, warm, black satin cloak, rather old and shabby.' And on another great occasion, at Cambridge, she wore ' a garter-blue satin gown, pink crepe bonnet, trimmed with lilies-of-the-valley, and a small, square, black Indian shawl worked in yellow, having travelled in an old tartan satin and yellow bonnet.' On the same plate as Nos. 62, 63, and 64, and a companion print to No. 62, or with No. 64 a capital triptych. Size, 4J x 3J. On mount, R. £2 10s. Without mount, M.R. £1 5s. The print is unsigned, 62. Her Majesty at Windsor. Le Blond, No. 30. Another domestic scene in the life of Queen Victoria, similar to No. 61. But the Royal spouses are here walking in the grounds of Windsor, and the young lad with them, holding his father's hand, is probably the future Duke of Edinburgh and Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. In the left distance is the castle, and on the right are four of the Royal Children at play. Here, too, the Victorian garments are noticeable. Miss Stanley's Letters, quoted in the preceding print, relate how the Prince Consort, too, was pecuhar in dress. He appeared on one occasion 'in a -coat (shooting jacket, 68 THE LE BLOND BOOK, I92O rather) the colour of curl-papers, trousers the colour of whitey-brown paper, and boots of a dirty-white shade with little black tips ; no waistcoat, and a straw hat. His blue ribbon did duty for a waistcoat.' On the same plate as Nos. 61, 63, and 64, and a companion to No. 61, or a capital triptych with No. 64. Size, 4 A x 3 J. On mount, R. £2 10s. Without mount, M.R. £1 5s. The print is unsigned. 63. Osborne House. Le Blond, No. 31. The whole front of the mansion is shown, with the Royal Standard flying. The place was acquired by Queen Victoria on the suggestion of Sir Robert Peel in 1845 ; and, as is well known, she died here on January 22nd, 1901 ; it is now the Royal Naval College. Part of the grounds is visible, with deer ; but the sea is not seen. On the same plate as Nos. 61, 62, and 64. The treatment is essentially different to Baxter's print of ' The Queen's Marine Residence,' produced a few years earlier; but the residence may, in the meantime, have undergone alterations. Size, 4J x 3j. On mount, R. £1 5s. Without mount, M.R. 8s. 6d. The print is unsigned. 64. Her Majesty at Balmoral. Le Blond, No. 32. Queen Victoria, in a riding habit of Scotch tweed, mounted on a Highland pony, and accompanied by Scotch collie dogs, is riding in the Highlands. The Prince Consort, also in tweed, the future King Edward VII, wearing a Scotch cap and kilt, and the future Empress Frederick, are also of the party. Royal servants in scarlet are in atten dance ; all of them also on Highland ponies. Queen Victoria, in her Journal for September 29, 1855, wrote : ' Our dear Victoria was this day engaged to Prince Frederick William of Prussia, who had been on a visit to us since the 14th. . . . During our ride up Craig-na-Ban, this afternoon, he picked a piece of white heather (the emblem of good luck), which he gave to her, and this enabled him to make an allusion to his hopes and wishes as they rode down Glen Girnoch.' The HER MAJESTY (QUEEN VICTORIA) AT BALMORAL Print No. 64 PRINTS RELATING TO ROYALTY 69 German Emperor, William II, as is well known, is a child of the union which took place in 1858 ; so that the heroine of this little romance was then fourteen, she having been born on November 21, 1840. This print was produced some six or seven years before their nuptials ; but the locus in quo, mentioned by Queen Victoria, is probably the same. In the right distance is Balmoral Castle, with the hills behind. The Scotch thistle is not forgotten in the picture. On the same plate as Nos. 61, 62, and 63, and makes a capital triptych with Nos. 61 and 62. Size, 44 x 3$. On mount, R. £1 15s. Without mount, R. 17s. 6d. The print is unsigned. 65. Queen Victoria on Balcony. Has no Le Blond number. Queen Victoria, standing on a balcony of marble, wearing full state robes of scarlet and gold, the Garter ribbon, and a diamond crown and ornaments, holds a state paper and points to some words on it. A green curtain and Corinthian columns are at the back, and in the distance may be seen Buckingham Palace. On the right are a table and the Royal arms. As far as the balcony is concerned, most probably — as in the case of Baxter's print of the same subject, to which this bears a resemblance — it is an artistic licence. The print was produced about 1851, and before Le Blond had adopted the plan of numbering his subjects. A com panion to No. 66, and on the same plate. Size, 6x4. On mount, R. £1 10s. Without mount, C. 15s. The print is signed on the extreme bottom right. 66. The Prince Consort on Balcony. Has no Le Blond number. H.R.H. Prince Albert, standing on a balcony of marble, wearing full state robes and the full insignia of the Order of the Garter, holds in his right hand the hat with im mense plumes (which is now in the London Museum — as well it may be, for it is inconceivable anyone would ever wish to wear it), and in his left, his gloves. On the right is a red curtain ; and in the distance may be seen Windsor Castle. Produced about 1851, and before Le Blond had 70 THE LE BLOND BOOK, I92O adopted his plan of numbering his subjects. The balcony is an artistic licence. A companion to No. 65, and is on the same plate. Size, 6x4. On mount, R. £1 10s. Without mount, C. 15s. The print is signed on the extreme bottom right. 67. His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, afterwards King Edward VII. Has no Le Blond number. It is almost certain this is not by Le Blond ; it is possibly by Kronheim. A full length portrait of the Prince at the time of his marriage in 1863. He is seen in walking costume of frock coat, and in his right hand he holds his tall hat, and with his left, his gloves. On the left, in the distance, is Windsor Castle, and on the right a red curtain. It is a companion to No. 68, and probably was printed on the same plate. Size, 4^ x 2f . Probably never on a mount, R. 15s. The print is unsigned. 68. Her Royal Highness the Princess of Wales, afterwards Queen Alexandra. Has no Le Blond number. It is almost certain this is not by Le Blond, but is possibly by Kronheim. A full length portrait of the Prin cess at the time of her marriage in 1863. She is standing on a balcony, and is in walking costume of a purple jacket edged with embroidery, and purple skirt to match, with the crinoline of those days, but wears no bonnet or hat. On the left is a red curtain, and on the right, in the distance, is the castle of her Danish home. It is a companion to No. 67. Size, 4^ x 2|. Probably never on a mount, R. 15s. The print is unsigned. The Royal Family at Buckingham Palace. Has no Le Blond number. Queen Victoria, in d&colleil robe trimmed with lace, and wearing a crown of diamonds and the Garter ribbon, PRINTS RELATING TO ROYALTY 71 and the Prince Consort in military uniform of scarlet and gold, and the ribbon and star of the Order of the Garter, sit on a settee beneath a canopy. Through the open window Westminster Abbey and other London buildings are visible. Six of the Royal Children — including the youngest born, the present Duke of Connaught, in his cradle — are round them ; one is playing with a dog. Queen Victoria was not so averse to Buckingham Palace as was William IV, who was delighted when the Houses of Parliament were burned down in 1834, as he saw in it a capital method, as he hoped, of getting rid of the palace by foisting it on the nation for a new Parliament House. It is an early print, and is on the same plate as No. 82. Size, 6x4. On mount, R. £1 10s. Without mount, C. 10s. The print is signed on the extreme bottom left. 70. Windsor Castle (small). Has no Le Blond number. The castle is seen in the distance from the meadows. In the immediate foreground is water, and cattle are standing in it, and on the bank, on the right, are three figures. Two horsemen are galloping in the fields, and in the distance, on the right, Eton is visible. It is an early print, and is on the same plate as Nos. 42, 53, and 54. It was used as a pocket-book illustration, and probably was never on a mount. Size, 3J x 2J. As pocket-book illustration, with lettering complete, V.R. 15s. The print is unsigned. 71. The Royal Family at Windsor. Has no Le Blond number. An upright oblong print, depicting a wing of Windsor Castle, from a window of which are seen Queen Victoria and the Prince Consort watching six of their children at play in the terrace below. On the bottom of the print is a circle, engraved round which is ' Scene at Windsor Castle and the whole of the Royal Family,' and in the centre is ' 1850 ' ; and on the bottom left, under the print, is ' Printed in colours by Le Blond & Co., Licensees,' and in a corresponding position on the right is ' 24 Budge Row, London.' This 72 THE LE BLOND BOOK, I92O is almost certainly the first print under the Licence, and it is from a plate and nine blocks. Size, 8J x 4! . On mount, R. £1. Without mount, C. 5s. The print is unsigned. 72. Victoria Bridge, Windsor. Le Blond, No. 38. The view is taken from the Bucks shore ; and on the opposite side we see a large portion of Windsor Castle and a stretch of the Thames, which is spanned by the bridge. It is on the same plate as Nos. 33, 34, and 41. Size, 3! x 2 J. On mount, R. 10s. Without mount, M.R. 5s. The print is unsigned. Note. — Windsor Castle (large) (No. 118), and Virginia Water (No. 119), will be found under ' Prints of a large size.' CHAPTER VIII NEEDLE-BOX PRINTS Observations IN the early 'fifties of the nineteenth century it was customary for ladies to purchase their needles in small boxes, on the outside of which was a print of about the size of 6 inches by 4 inches. And inside the box were numerous smaller boxes, containing needles of various sizes ; and on the cover of the smaller boxes was a ' needle-box ' print. Le Blond produced very few prints of the 6 inches by 4 inches size. Baxter, on the other hand, printed a good many, and also a good many of the needle-box sets, but Le Blond very few. Baxter was probably the originator of these coloured needle-prints, and, as in other things, Le Blond copied him. Both these colour printers published them in sets. Baxter, besides using them for needle-boxes, put some of his on stamped mounts. Le Blond never did ; and there was, as to the latter, some want of originality in the designs. The date of the production of Le Blond's two sets is probably 1852-3; and we say this because it will be seen that all the subjects 73 74 THE LE BLOND BOOK, I92O chosen by him, with few exceptions, are miniatures of his larger prints, the latest of these latter being No. 22 of our catalogue, which, as it bears the Le . Blond number of 48, must have been produced some time before his Nos. 70 and 71 (' Crystal Palace, Sydenham '), which appeared in 1854. Le Blond's two sets, being printed on the same plate, probably appeared at the same time. DESCRIPTIVE CATALOGUE OF THE NEEDLE-BOX PRINTS (See pages 23 to 26.) 73. Fancy Subject Set. Has no Le Blond number. A set of ten, in two strips of five each, horizontally. Reading from left to right, on the top row are : (1) a minia ture of No. 20 ( ' The Sisters ') ; (2) a miniature of No. 22 (' Nearly Ready for the Bath') ; (3) a miniature of No. 1 (' The Tyrolean Waltz ') ; (4) a miniature of No. 7 (' The Flower Maiden ') ; (5) an original design of a castle, below which runs the river, in which cattle are standing, and in the immediate foreground is a man fishing. And reading from left to right, on the bottom row are : (6) a miniature of No. 65 (' Queen Victoria on Balcony ') ; (7) a miniature of No. 66 (' The Prince Consort on Balcony ') ; (8) a miniature of No. 8 (' In Contem plative Mood ') ; (9) a miniature of No. 9 (' Queen of the Harem ') ; and (10) another original design of a rocky scene with river, over which, in the distance, is a bridge of a single span. It is on the same plate as No. 74. Size op Set, complete, 5^ x 3f. Size of each Print, i| x i. The set, uncut, C. 7s. 6d. The prints and the set are unsigned. 74. Regal Set. Has no Le Blond number. Another set of ten nice little prints, five on each strip, vertically. Reading the left strip, from the top downwards. NEEDLE-BOX PRINTS 75 they are : (i) a miniature of No. 60 (' H.R.H. Prince Albert in St. James's Park') ; (2) a miniature of No. 59 (' Her Majesty Queen Victoria at Windsor ') ; (3) a miniature of No. 56 (' Her Majesty leaving Portsmouth Harbour ') ; (4) a miniature of No. 55 (' Her Majesty at Balmoral ') (5) a miniature of No. 58 (' Her Majesty opening Parliament'): And reading the right strip, downwards from the top, are : (6) a mini ature of No. 64 (' Her Majesty at Balmoral ') ; (7) a miniature of No. 82 with variations (' The Great Exhibition of 1851 ') ; (8) a miniature of No. 47 ('Venice'); (9) a miniature of No. 32 (' Brothers Water ') ; and (10) a minia ture of No 63 (' Osborne House '). It is on the same plate as No. 73. Size of Set, complete, 5! x 3$. Size or each Print, ij x i. The set, uncut, C. 7s. 6d. The prints and the set are unsigned. CHAPTER IX THE RAPHAEL CARTOONS Observations MANY printers have given us representations of the seven cartoons of Raphael, which, after so many years' wandering, are now, as is well known, at Kensington. Amongst those who did so by the Baxter process, in addition to Baxter himself, are Dickes, Bradshaw and Black- lock, and Le Blond. But whilst Baxter's were never in colour, those by the three licensees we have mentioned were so, and were produced by Le Blond in or about the year 1854. The subjects are too well known to require description. Le Blond never printed these subjects from Baxter's plates at any time or in any way. A set signed by Le Blond is exceedingly rare — so rare, indeed, that we must wonder if he ever did print them all. DESCRIPTIVE CATALOGUE (See pages 23 to 26.) 75. St. Paul Preaching at Athens. Le Blond, No. 63. On mount, R. 7s. 6d. The print is signed on the bottom left. 76 THE RAPHAEL CARTOONS 77 76. Elymas Smitten Blind. Le Blond, No. 64. On mount, R. 7s. 6d. The print is signed on the bottom right. 77. Death of Ananias. Le Blond, No. 65. On mount, V.R. £1. 78. The Beautiful Gate of the Temple. Le Blond, No. 66. On mount, V.R. £1. 79. Miraculous Draught of Fishes. Le Blond, No. 67. On mount, V.R. £1. 80. St. Paul and Barnabas at Lystra. Le Blond, No. 68. On mount, V.R. £1. 81. Christ's Charge to Peter. Le Blond, No. 69. On mount, V.R. £1. CHAPTER X THE EXHIBITIONS Observations IF, as we may assume was the case, the print of the Exhibition of 1851 was published about the year of the opening of that great palace of glass, then we note a distinct advance on that of the ' Royal Family at Windsor ' (No. 71), which, as we have said elsewhere, was Le Blond's first effort in the plate and blocks process, and which is unique, not only as being his first print, but as the only one to bear a date. Obviously the Great Exhibition print could not have been produced much before the opening of the structure : indeed, from the other print on the same plate being the ' Royal Family at Buckingham Palace,' and, as we remark elsewhere, the baby in the cradle being H.R.H. the Duke of Connaught, who was born in 1850, there is in this fact evidence to support the statement that it was produced in 1851. Now to establish this fact is very useful, because, as it has no number, it seems clearly to indicate that, up to 1851, Le Blond had not begun to give his productions 78 THE EXHIBITIONS 79 any distinctive numeral on the mount ; and there fore all the prints that have these additions would be sent forth either later in 1851 or in subsequent years. The two needle-print sets never had any distinctive number; but as they were never on mounts there would be nowhere that Le Blond could well place any number had he given them any such. Le Blond, unlike Baxter, never seems to have published prints of the contents of any of the Exhibitions. DESCRIPTIVE CATALOGUE OF PRINTS OF THE EXHIBITIONS (See pages 23 to 26.) 82. The Crystal Palace, 1851. Has no Le Blond number. In an oval, measuring 4! inches across, is a view of the exterior of the Great Exhibition ; and from the fact that in the foreground is shown Queen Victoria in her state carriage, accompanied by cavalry and with the people cheering, we may conclude the print was produced about the time of the opening of that structure by Her Majesty. Round the oval is a series of emblematical views. London is on the top left, and Canada on the top right ; and on the bottom left is Africa, and on the bottom right, India ; whilst Britannia surmounts the whole in the top centre. When on a mount the print has a fancy gold border ; but it never seems to have had any distinctive number (but on this, see our remarks in the early part of this chapter) . It is on the same plate as No. 69. Size, 6x4. On mount, M.R. 10s. Without mount, C. 5s. The print is signed on the bottom left centre. 83. The Crystal Palace, Sydenham. Le Blond, No. 70. This and the next print are interesting views of the Crystal Palace from inside the grounds, and were probably pub lished about the time of the opening in 1854. We see the 80 THE LE BLOND BOOK, I92O fountains playing ; but the building is without its towers, and nowhere are the antediluvian animals of Mr. Water- house Hawkins visible, for they at that time had not been set up. Although the Crystal Palace has lost for a time some of its old prestige, it has done some service during the War. It belongs to the great treasure houses and historical monuments of the nation. Perhaps more won derful than the opening day in Hyde Park, was the trans ference to Sydenham by the 7000 men employed. In its new form it was more imposing, and there were three transepts instead of one, and ultimately the towers were erected. The splendid scene at the opening in 1854 was surpassed ten months later when Napoleon III and Empress Eugenie came with Queen Victoria. Since then many sovereigns have paid state visits. This and No. 84 are on the same plate. Size, 3| x i\. On mount, R. 15s. Without mount, C. 7s. 6d. The print is unsigned. 84. The Crystal Palace, Sydenham (another view). Le Blond, No. 71. A view of the Crystal Palace from outside the grounds and before the present houses enclosed them. The whole length of the building (which, it may not always be remem bered, is exactly the length and three times the breadth of Portland Place) is seen, and in the road, from whence the view is taken, are carriages, horsemen, and pedestrians. On the same plate as No. 83. Size, 3J x i\. On mount, R. 15s. Without mount, C. 7s. 6d. The print is unsigned. 85. The International Exhibition (1862). Le Blond, No. 94. The whole front of the structure is shown, and in the immediate foreground are various pedestrians, equestrians, and carriages, and between them and the building is a body of cavalry. Size, 6x4. On mount, M.R. 12s. 6d. Without mount, C. 4s. The print is signed on the bottom extreme right-hand corner. CHAPTER XI THE ' OVALS ' Observations IN the charming set of thirty-two pictures, all alike in size and manner of production, and from their uniformity of shape generally known as the ' Ovals,' Le Blond has left behind him, for our enjoyment, that which alone will probably mark him out for popular appreciation more than any other of the licensees. In this series he is at his best, and shows now no mere servile imitation of his instructor's ways, but independence and originality in several respects, as well as admirable technical skill. For the latter there may be good reasons, which we will give later on ; and as to the former, to mention only one particular, it will be observed how completely he has broken away from the Baxter tradition as regards the mounting; for whilst the patentee always made his prints adhere to the mount, the licensee has actually printed his on the mounts themselves. Embossing was much used about this period for ornamental purposes. Except at times for his seal, Baxter never employed 82 THE LE BLOND BOOK, I92O it : on the contrary, as will be noticed, Le Blond not only often availed himself of it for describing his sub ject and adding the number of his print, but also for the rim or border round the picture, which will be found, in the case of these ' ovals,' in two patterns. Although Le Blond has 'signed' — and we use the term in the same sense here as we do in the ' Picture Printer,' and as it is now generally understood — every one of these prints, unfortunately, he has not added anywhere any dates, nor given the name of any painters from whose pictures they may have been taken ; and in these respects we regret his departure from the Baxter method, for he thereby leaves us on both points in a state of uncertainty of knowledge. Baxter, by the year 1854, had pubhshed those excellent prints ' So Nice,' ' Me warm now,' ' Morn ing Call,' ' Copper, your Honour,' ' So Tired,' ' News from Home,' and others, which we think became at once, as they deserved to be, very popular. They were of uniform size, and were all, most likely, with variations, from pictures, but were not as a rule admitted to be copied from any artist's work ; and were added to in later years by ' Short Change,' ' Stolen Pleasures,' ' So Nasty,' ' Infantine Jealousy,' ' News from Australia,' ' Christmas Time,' ' See saw,' and others, and the whole together make a most excellent series ; and we think it is very likely they furnished Le Blond with the idea for the ' ovals ' on something of the same hnes. As to the dates of production, if we might hazard a con jecture, we should say that, hke the Baxter series we have mentioned, they were pubhshed fitfully, and THE 'OVALS' 83 began about 1854 on the expiry of the patent ; were renewed about the time of peace after the Crimean War in 1855 with the print of ' Good News ' ; con tinued for a few years ; that then, there was something of a hiatus during the 1862 Exhibition, and were not ended until about 1867. There is Uttle to guide us to this conclusion beyond surmise ; but we notice, in the first place, nowhere is the word ' licensees ' employed as it is with so large a proportion of the small landscapes, the small figure and fancy subjects, and the Regal series ; we imagine the omission was not accidental, and seems to indicate that the process was not then a protected one ; and this would bring us to 1854. Again, although two or three prints were produced before, yet the great majority of the series was produced after, the publication of the prints of the ' Crystal Palace, Sydenham,' which building not being opened until 1854 the repre sentation could hardly be produced before, or much before that event ; and, further, we suspect that the ' Departure of the Sailor ' and the ' Return of the Soldier ' appeared about the time of the return of the troops from the Crimean War in 1855, and, finally, eight of them at least were published after the print of the Exhibition of 1862, which would be probably in the same year, and also after that of the large ' Windsor. Castle,' which did not appear until 1865, so that some thirteen years elapsed before the series was complete. As to the designs, it is worthy of observation that, although in the list of Le Blond's oil prints, set out in Chapter IV, Part I, and which list (from Le Blond No: 49) is taken from his own 84 THE LE BLOND BOOK, I92O hst, as issued by him in 1868, and re-published in the ' Bazaar ' in 1898, it will be seen that there are artists' names given by him for several of his other prints ; in the case of the ' ovals,' not one has any painter's name appended: This would give some colour to the belief that they were all original designs : as one would hardly expect that he would adopt the work of others — especially of contem poraries — without at least giving to them some recognition of their share in the creation: But yet, inasmuch as there was not then any copyright in a painting, and other printers — including Baxter — did not hesitate to appropriate designs without any acknowledgment of the source of their inspira tion, it is just possible Le Blond may have done the same: But they are certainly not all, if any of them, original designs ; for we are able to give in our catalogue, in some cases, the name of the artist from whose painting these prints are taken ; and we shall be grateful to any reader who can give us others, for we feel convinced it will be found that they are all taken from pictures. Copyright in works of art was estabhshed in 1862, and all those prints to which he has stated the artist's name were produced in or after that year ; but that, we may observe, would not prevent pictures from old masters or other long-defunct artists from being copied. It is no wonder these prints have become popular, whether it be for their brilliancy of colour and accurate register, or for the agreeable nature of the subjects given to us. All of them represent scenes of a bygone age : of the days when ' Dancing Dogs,' THE ' OVALS ' 85 ' Jacks-in-the-green,' 'Image Boys,' 'Itinerant Showmen,' ' Oyster Grottoes,' and other almost forgotten oddities, were common objects of the village streets: They all depict life as it was in the days of our parents, grandparents, and great- grandparents in rural England : the homes, habits, and habiliments of the people, their labours and pleasures. They present no futurist puzzles to work out, no crafty and subtle designs to put our brains upon the rack, no problem pictures to set you guessing what the weeping lady is saying to the moody gentleman in evening clothes, nor any single unpleasant thing : just simply the leafy lanes and the green trees that Le Blond loved so well; the village church, the fun and mischief of happy childhood, the faithful dog, the cottage homes, and village scenes of those days — good, peaceful, whole some pictures we can hang on the walls of our houses with pleasure to old and young alike and offence to none, and yet each one tells a homely and interesting story. Burns gave poetically the rural pleasures and rural scenes of his native Scotland. Le Blond has done that for us pictorially in England. We think each was produced from a separate plate — as the print was impressed direct on the mount, it almost of necessity must have been — the name of the subject as well as the Le Blond number being always embossed in the right-hand bottom corner of the mount and never in any other way or position. There are many prints on the market which have neither the embossed rim nor the name of the subject, and which usually are uncut, and thus show 86 THE LE BLOND BOOK, 192O the pinholes used for the blocks. These are not so much in favour ; and although we quite sympathise with those who prefer complete prints, as Le Blond published them, in preferencetounfinishedspecimens, yet, on the other hand, for those who desire to frame with an overmount, these answer the purpose, when genuine, as well, as in quahty of printing they are quite as good; but we say ' when genuine ' advisedly, for there are some quite modern reprints, and some of them are on mounts. Naturally, as the plates and blocks were impressed on the mounts in the manner we have before indicated, the border being embossed afterwards, the plates, unlike those of Baxter, would have no names of the subject or other marks on them underneath. It may not unreasonably be asked why these * ovals ' should be so exceptionally good. The answer is, there are several reasons for it. About the time of Le Blond's death in 1894, which synchronised with the cessation of the business, his manager, Mr. Wright, whom Le Blond considered — and who doubtless was — a highly accomplished worker and artist, had been then (so Le Blond said) in his employ for upwards of forty years, and previously to his going there he had been for some years with George Baxter. It was common in those days for skilled workers to go to rival firms. The exact date that Mr. Wright entered or left Baxter's service we cannot say for certainty; but we have it on the evidence of Mr. Wright himself that he printed, amongst others, Baxter's prints of ' Knibb,' the second variety of ' Williams and Moffat,' ' The Wesleyan Chapel, Popham's Broad way,' 'Jerusalem from the Mount of Ohves,' ' Long THE ' OVALS ' 87 Walk, Windsor,' and ' London from Greenwich Obser vatory ' ; and in writing to the ' Bazaar ' in November 1897, Mr. Wright says he had a share in printing the small ' Bride.' Now all these prints were pubhshed in or between 1846 and 1849, so that it seems certain he went to Le Blond some time after this latter year. Now, as readers of the ' Picture Printer ' know well, Mr. Wright had a very high opinion of George Baxter and his art, and we can quite imagine he would like to continue the patent process. And so with the coming of Mr. Wright to Le Blond about this time, and the expiry of the patent, a new era in the colour-printing department of his firm would arise. For Mr. Wright would bring with him not only zeal in a new position, but a much more full, accurate, and intimate acquain tance with the patentee's methods, ideas, and ideals, as well as experience of the inks, paper, and metals employed, and how the colours were appUed, than they could have obtained as hcensees before then — more especially as we know Baxter's reticence and rooted objection to imparting more information in these respects than he could help. And, further more, he would be able to employ his knowledge exactly as he pleased, as the law had now ceased to afford any protection to the patentee ; and we beheve that the beginning of these ' ovals ' was Mr. Wright's first great effort in Le Blond's service. But not only this, but it was Mr. Gleader (or Gleadah), a gentleman of great talent and reputation as an aquatinter^ and who had engraved many of Baxter's plates, and who died in Le Blond's service about 1874, who was employed — perhaps at the instigation of 88 THE LE BLOND BOOK, Ig20 Mr. Wright — in a similar manner for the plates of the ' ovals,' and further assistance was given in the blocks by other competent hands. Here, then, was a powerful combination of circumstances, to which we may probably attribute the excellence of these productions. It must always be borne in mind that a very great deal of the merit of this kind of print lies in the knowledge of the workmen employed, especially as to the arrangement of the order of printing the colours on the work, and par ticularly so as to the inks used ; for Le Blond, like Baxter — and here, once again, it may have origi nated at Le Blond's on the initiative of Mr. Wright — always made his own inks. Some collectors prefer the prints bearing the signature of Le Blond only to those having the American one as well. What personal share of the workmanship, if any, Le Blond had in these prints it is not easy to say ; but at least he was responsible for giving them to the public. He must have been a kindly, simple man, and, from such correspondence of his as we have read, we gather of such a nature was he. And we commend this, his finest series of prints, with the greatest confidence to all who recognise in him a kindred soul. DESCRIPTIVE CATALOGUE OF THE ' OVALS ' (See pages 23 to 26.) 86. The Image Boy. Le Blond, No. 49. In this, the first of the series, we see a delightful old village lane, and at the far end of it the ivy-clad church Print No. 86 THEi IMAGE BOY o H O 5 aS w THE 'OVALS' 89 tower. At the cottage door, in the immediate foreground, the image boy — one of a now extinct species — is endeavouring to dispose of his art treasures to some admiring women and children ; whilst the old hen in her coop on the left is quite unconcerned about anything except the gathering of food for her young brood, some of whom are staring in wonderment at the image group. The only other figure shown is a woman approaching in the distance. The colouring, when unfaded, is excellent. Size, Width 6J inches. Length 5J inches. R. £2 10s. The print is signed on the bottom left centre. 87. ' Please Remember the Grotto.9 Le Blond, No. 50. After a painting by Webster. A charming scene. On the left, the children, in front of the village pump and by the side of the inn signboard, have set up an elaborate structure — the like of which, whether it be for the comparative scarcity of shells, or the want of skill in our generation, we never see in these days. One youngster is handing to another the necessary candle to illumine the grotto. On the right, at the stall kept by an old woman in front of the greengrocer's, the village constable, in the tall hat and swallow-tail coat then worn by the force, is also cele brating in a practical way the first day of oysters ; and in the centre of the picture are the benevolent old gentleman and his lady whom the proprietors are especially requesting to ' Please remember the grotto.' A very favourite print. Size, Width 6J inches. Length 5J inches. R. £3 10s. The print is signed on the bottom right centre. 88. Good News. Le Blond, No. 72. Grandpa is seated in the centre of the cottage room, reading aloud from a. newspaper to the others assembled. Whether he is conveying the intelligence of the capture of Sebastopol, the declaration of peace, or some other event, the news — judging from the excessive joy exhibited by some of the company — must have been equally good. The only person unconcerned is the little girl on the floor, feeding a 90 THE LE BLOND BOOK, I92O kitten from a saucer ; but the other little one of two years, having her breakfast — perhaps pretematurally perceptive— seems to be transported with glee. The colouring is not equal to some. Size, Width 6| inches. Length 5j inches. R. £1 10s. The print is signed on the bottom right. 89. The Burning-glass. Le Blond, No. 73. This tragedy is laid at the back of a rural cottage, where, in addition to five children, there are a dog, a basket of apples, and a water-butt. On the left is the open gate, with hollyhocks beside it, leading to the lane. One boy, whilst he holds fast the hand of another, is showing him, by means of a burning-glass, the power of the sun's rays when concentrated. The lesson, if practical, seems painful, and draws upon the instructor the wrath of grandma, who, hearing the cries, has come to the cottage door. The little girl by her is in tears, and even the dog has commiseration in his eyes. Size, Width 6J inches. Length 5 J inches. M.R. £2 5s. The print is signed on the bottom left centre. 90. Blowing Bubbles. Le Blond, No. 74. After a painting by F. Goodall. On the left, at the cottage door, are seated two women and a child — the former are sewing, the latter is nursing a kitten ; beyond, are two boys on the dustbin — one is blowing bubbles, which the other four in the garden are essaying to catch. Through the fields, in the church, the village preacher would perhaps remind us that ' the earth has bubbles as the water hath.' At one time this print was very rare; but many have come into the market, and it is said some of them are not genuine. Size, Width 6} inches. Length 5J inches. C. £1 15s. The print is signed on the bottom left centre. THE ' OVALS ' 91 91. The Pet Rabbits. Le Blond, No. 75. Another cottage yard. On the right is the empty rabbit- hutch ; the two pets are on the ground munching the green food which their owner has given them. On the left is the cottage, surrounded by trees, and at the door of it stands the hard-working mother, carrying a pitcher, and pausing a moment in her household duties to survey the scene and perhaps to wish that her lot was as easy as that of the rabbits. The young people are watching bunny eat. Size, Width 6| inches. Length 5J inches. M.R. £2. The print is signed on the bottom centre. 92. The Blackberry Gatherers. Le Blond, No. 76. After a painting by Collins. On the right is a boy gathering the fruit, and on the left are four other children arranging the stock. Coming up the beautiful lane, over hung with trees showing early autumn tints, is a shepherd with his flock; his dog, in advance, is watching the boy with one eye and his master with the other. Size, Width 6$ inches. Length s£ inches. M.R. £1 10s. The print is signed on the bottom right centre. 93. The Soldier's Return. Le Blond, No. 77. On the right, seated at a table outside the inn, with the carpenter and two other villagers, is the soldier ; and to the company, including the deaf old gentleman leaning out of the window, he is relating, over a pot of good ale, all his deeds of valour and how he won his medal. His uniform is not the familiar khaki worn by ' Tommy ' in these days, but the garments of ' the thin red line.' On the left are two horses, drinking. On the right again, ' mutely she sits, the soldier's wife, her brave one's work is done ; she only knows that in fierce strife the battle has been won,' so now she is concentrating her attention on her children. Probably published about the time of the return of the troops from the Crimea, and makes an excellent companion to No. 94. Size, Width 6f inches. Length 5 J inches. M.R. £2. The print is signed on the bottom centre. 92 THE LE BLOND BOOK, ig20 94. The Sailor's Departure. Le Blond, No. 78. The hour of Jack's departure — possibly to Sebastopol — has come, and, clasping the hand of his weeping wife with one of his, and his first born with the other, he looks almost as glum as his poor old mother seated behind at the cottage door. His second son, no doubt, in time to come, is to be a sailor too ; but for the present he is only anticipating the future by playing with his toy boats. The dog, hoping only for a run, and ignorant of his master's intended pro longed absence, waits expectantly for him at the gate. The red, tree-encircled roof of another cottage is seen close by. This makes an excellent companion to No. 93. Size, Width 6| inches. Length 5i inches. V.R. £3 12s. 6d. The print is signed on the bottom centre. 95. The Gleaners. Le Blond, No. 79. Those we see availing themselves of the benevolent custom of the country, based on the Mosaic Law, to ' leave to the poor the gleanings of the harvest,' are seen resting by the roadside after their labours. One is nursing her baby, the others are carrying their garnered ears. In the distance is the cornfield, with three figures in it, one of whom is reaping with a hand-sickle. The trees are showing their first autumn tints. Size, Width 6f inches. Length 5J inches. M.R. £1 15s. The print is signed on the bottom centre. 96. The Mill Stream— Towing the Prize. Le Blond, No. 80. In a pool, below the old mill wheel, is a boy towing two toy boats, one of which is the prize. The capture seems to give great satisfaction to the other boys on the bank, who are cheering lustily ; but the dog, by his barking, seems to indicate he does not at present understand it all. Mother, resting on the step, nursing her youngest, is a proud and interested spectator of the stirring deeds. Size, Width 6J inches. Length 5J inches. R. £2 10s. The print is signed on the extreme bottom right. pi 3 'A O tL. w THE 'OVALS,' 95 and brushes in their hands, which they rattle one upon the other ; and to this rough music they jump about in imitation of dancing. Some of the larger companies have a fiddler with them, and a Jack-in-the-green, as well as a Lord and Lady of the May, who follow the minstrel with great stateliness, and dance as occasion requires. The Jack-in-the- green is a piece of pageantry consisting of a hollow frame of wood or wicker-work, made in the form of a sugar-loaf, but open at the bottom, and sufficiently large and high to receive a man. The frame is covered with green leaves, and bunches of flowers interwoven with each other, so that the man within may be completely concealed, who dances with his companions, and the populace are mightily pleased with the oddity of the moving pyramid.' These scenes, common some sixty years ago, have now disappeared from our streets. It makes a good contrast to No. 102. Size, Width 6J inches. Length 5J inches. V.R. £4. The print is signed on the bottom centre. There are some skilfully executed, quite modern, reprints of this. Look carefully at the mounts, as the quality of the material of which they are made indicates the spurious origin of the print on them. 102. The 5th of November. Le Blond, No. 86. The anniversary of the day of ' Gunpowder treason and plot ' ; so the ' Guy Fawkes ' — which is a very fine specimen — is being taken round by some lads, and is now resting at a house, next door to that of Mr. J. Andrews, the ' hair- cutter," whose ' barber's pole ' is suspended from his shop. One woman at the door is putting a copper into the exchequer to help pay expenses, and another surveys the scene from an upstairs window. Up the village and nearer to the inn is another, but inferior, guy. On the right is a woman with a hot-potato stand, and down the street the coach approaches. This makes a good pair with No. 105, or a good contrast to No. 101. Size, Width 6f inches. Length 5J inches. V.R. £5 15s. The print is signed on the bottom centre. 96 THE LE BLOND BOOK, I92O 103. Crossing the Brook. Le Blond, No. 87. After a painting by Gainsborough. An old man has already crossed the flood — as old men must ; the young people await their turn, and a woman is crossing now. The brook is a beautiful one, and the voyagers seem in no hurry to cross it ; but it will be seen there is sunshine and there is peace upon the farther shore. Size, Width 6| inches. Length 5J inches. V.R. £4. The print is signed on the bottom right. 104. The Village Spring. Le Blond, No. 88. On the right of the picture are a pool and the spring issuing into it from the side of this delightful country lane. A woman with a pitcher is obtaining water; others are waiting to do so, but on this summer day no one is in a hurry. On the left are two other figures resting by the wayside, and down the lane is a cottage, nestling amongst the trees. Size, Width 6J inches. Length 5J inches. V.R. £3. The print is signed on the bottom left centre. 105. Snowballing. Le Blond, No. 89. Le Blond's passion seems to have been the summer with its green trees, and only on two occasions in the series is the scene laid in the winter-time. On this occasion we see a young and, presumably, inexperienced woman, standing at the door of a house on the left ; for she appears both pained and surprised at the snowy state of "the garments of the old lady about to enter, who has encountered, on her way home, the young gentlemen we see in the street. Other dire events seem to have happened from their mischief : the dogs are barking furiously, the little girl is weeping, and the pitcher, carried by a boy, is broken. The church is on the left, and, like the landscape, is covered with snow. This makes a good pair with No. 102. Size, Width 6$ inches. Length 5J inches. R. £2 15s. The print is signed on the bottom right. THE 'OVALS' 97 106. The Fisherman's Hut. Le Blond, No. 90. The hut is seen on the right, and near it is the fisherman who, like James and John of old, is mending his nets, whilst his children are extracting the catch from the basket. Fishing-boats, and other articles indicative of his calling, are on the beach, and in the distance are the white cliffs of Albion and the sea-girt shore of our island home. Makes a good companion to No. 117. Size, Width 6f inches. Length 5J inches. M.R. £1 10s. The print is signed on the bottom right centre. 107. Waiting at the Ferry. Le Blond, No. 91. From a painting by Creswick. This, although not a rare, is a very delightful print. Under a blue sky, typical of the height of summer, near a cooling stream, and by leafy trees, passengers — amongst whom are a man with two goats, a horseman on a white steed, a woman with a basket on her head, and a dog — are waiting for the ferry which is approaching. An old cottage — probably the ferryman's — nestling under the trees, is on the left. This is one of the cheapest of the ovals ; but it is too excellent to long remain so. Size, Width 6| inches. Length s£ inches. C. £1. The print is signed on the bottom centre. 108. The Swing. Le Blond, No. 92. After a painting by Webster. On the branch of a large tree, in front of a cottage, is fixed a swing ; a damsel is in it, and two boys are helping her. Mother sits sewing at the door. Three other children and a dog watch events. In the background is a very enticing landscape. This print varies considerably in quality ; some specimens give the idea of the plate being worn. Size, Width 6f inches. Length si inches. R. £3 10s. The print is signed on the bottom centre. H 98 THE LE BLOND BOOK, ig20 109. The Bird's Nest. Le Blond, No. 93. The bird's-nester is up a tree, both metaphorically and actually. He has thrown the nest to the ground, where four children are examining it by the side of the road ; but the presence of a man with a dog seems to indicate to this young destroyer of homes what he may expect when he descends. On the left is a cottage, which is a thatched one, surrounded by leafy and lovely trees. It is difficult to obtain a really good print. Size, Width 6f inches. Length 5J inches. V.R. £3 10s. The print is signed on the bottom right centre. 110. Grandfather's Pipe. Le Blond, No. 99. Six children and a dog are in the kitchen, but grandpa and all other evidence of control are absent. One boy, seated on a stool in the centre, is sampling a cigar ; another, on the table on the right, is trying grandpa's ' church warden ' pipe ; and the girl of the party, like most of her sex, seems a great admirer of bravery, and is applauding their courageous deeds : and of what heroic a nature they are we obtain some indication by the suffering of the lad on the left, who seems alike far beyond appreciation of her feelings or ^expression of his own. This makes a nice companion to No. m. Size, Width 6J inches. Length 5J inches. R. £4 4s. The print is signed on the bottom left centre. 111. Grandmother's Snuff-box. Le Blond, No. 100. On the left, seated in the ancestral arm-chair and wearing her grandparent's cap and spectacles, is grandma junior. The snuff-box is being passed round ; the last child to receive it is generously giving his share to the cat, who, willingly and somewhat ungraciously, declines it. The real granny surveys the scene with regretful eyes from the half-open door on the right. The parrot, in his cage on THE DANCING DOGS Print No *'o. 1 14 THE 'OVALS 99 the left, is a fine piece of colour work. This makes a nice companion to No. no. Size, Width 6J inches. Length 5j inches. V.R. £5 5s. The print is signed on the bottom left centre. 112. Sunday Morning. Le Blond, No. 101. This and No. 113 are the only two upright ovals. The village church is seen down the path, and to it are wending their way various members of the good pastor's flock, who smile when a sabbath appears, and put on their Sunday best. In the foreground, we see the village preacher with his walking-stick ; but where his modest mansion stands we are not shown. On the right are some fine trees. The print makes a nice companion to No. 113. Size, Length 6| inches. Width 5J inches. M.R. £2 5s. The print is signed on the bottom right. 113. The Wedding Day. Le Blond, No. 102. This and No. 112 are the only two upright ovals. The wedding party, headed by the bride and bridegroom, are seen leaving the church door under the tower. On the left and right are villagers making their obeisances and salutations to the newly wedded pair, whilst four girls strew their path with flowers. The print makes a nice companion to No. 112. Size, Length 6| inches. Width 5J inches. R. £3 5s. The print is signed on the bottom centre. 114. The Dancing Dogs. Le Blond, No. 103. On the left is the house of ' S. Smith, Laundress,' in front of which are two dressed-up dogs, dancing at the dictation of a boy, who, by the aid of a whistle and a small drum, provides the appropriate music. Mrs. Smith, her daughter, and four grandchildren, provide the audience. Another charming cottage, surrounded by trees, is seen 100 THE LE BLOND BOOK, 1920 next door, opposite which a boy with a hoop is hastening to see the show. Strutt, in his ' Sports and Pastimes,' 1831, says : ' Dancing dogs, in the present day, make their appearance in the pubhc streets of the Metropolis ; but their masters meet with very little encouragement, except from the lower classes of the people and from children, and of course the performance is rarely worthy of notice. Size, Width 6f inches. Length 5J inches. R. £2 12s. 6d. The print is signed on the bottom centre. 115. Learning to Ride. Le Blond, No. 104. Grandpa, leaning on his stick, is standing at his cottage gate, situate in a delightful country lane, watching his little grandson learning to ride. The youngster is mounted, bare back, on a fiery steed — a goat. His sister is holding him on, and a boy kneels at the animal's head to keep it steady ; another little fellow, in terror, has run to his mother, who is seated on a felled tree. Two other figures are coming down the lane. Size, Width 6f inches. Length 5^ inches. R. £1 15s. The print is signed on the bottom left centre. 116. Moonlight. Le Blond, No. 111. ' How sweet the moonlight sleeps upon this bank ! ' On the left are the ivy-clad ruins of an old abbey, and in the path by the side of the stream is a gipsy, telling, at this romantic hour, a lady's fortune by her hand, to which a gentleman and a dog are listening. On the right, under the trees, is the camp fire with three other gipsies round it. Size, Width 6f inches. Length 5J inches. R. £2. The print is signed on the bottom right centre. 117. The Leisure Hour. Le Blond, No. 112. As it is the last of the series, the producer had, perhaps, in mind a period of repose ; but it is a fisherman who is enjoying, in the picture, an hour of cessation from toil. His THE ' OVALS IOI boat is on the shore, and he stands beside it, watching his children float a model barque on an improvised sea. Their cottage is on the extreme right, and his tackle is on the beach. Makes a good companion to No. 106. Size, Width 6$ inches. Length 5J inches. M.R. £1 15s. The print is signed on the bottom centre. CHAPTER XII PRINTS OF A LARGE SIZE Observations LE BLOND never published„as his own original work, many prints of a large size, or indeed any of the dimensions of Baxter's ' Parting Look,' ' Dogs of St. Bernard,' ' Coronation,' or ' Opening of Parliament.' From 1850 up to the year 1862; at least, all his output was of a distinctly small character ; but then for some years it assumed larger proportions. For some unknown reason — probably about 1865, or after 1862 certainly — he conceived the idea of changing his style in this respect, and he then undertook some larger prints. And when in 1868 he acquired Baxter's plates, the first sixteen he selected for republication — with the single exception of the ' Descent from the Cross ' — as will be seen on reference to Part II of Chapter IV, were of the size of the ' Bridesmaid.' From what we have stated, therefore, it will be observed that all the prints described in this chapter appeared between the years 1862 and 1868, and every one is from a painting. We think very few of the PRINTS OF A LARGE SIZE 1 03 larger prints were published on stamped or en graved mounts. We have never seen one on a stamped mount ; but we have seen the ' Galway Peasants ' and ' Windsor Castle ' on mounts some thing similar to those used by Baxter in his 'Missionary' period — viz., with aline round the print and an engraved inscription at foot — and this he may have done with some of the others. All, however, should have his blue label on the back. DESCRIPTIVE CATALOGUE OF PRINTS OF A LARGE SIZE ' (See pages 23 to 26.) 118. Windsor Castle. Le Blond, No. 97. This print was taken from a drawing by Buckley. The whole of the castle is seen from the Bucks shore. On the river are swans and pleasure craft. A picnicking party is on the right ; and in the centre, the train passing over the bridge ; and on the left, a man fishing. The Victorian engine to the train and the costumes of the pedestrians on the near bank are observable. Sometimes found on a- mount with a line round the print, and engraved below is : ' Windsor Castle, 1865. Printed in oil colours by Le Blond & Co., London. From an original drawing by Buckley.' Size, 14 x 10. M.R. £1 10s.1 The print, apparently, is often without signature, which, when it appears, is on the bottom centre. 119. Virginia Water. Le Blond, No. 105. This is a view of the waterfall at this well-known resort. In the background, and on the right and left, are trees. In the immediate foreground is a pool into which the water ¦ If on a Le Blond mount more may be given. 104 THE LE BL0ND BOOK, I920 is flowing over large boulders. The print is not one of Le Biond's best. It is from a painting by C. Smith. Size, 12 x 9. M.R. fil.1 The print is signed on the bottom right. 120. The Heather. Le Blond, No. 106. Taken from a painting by A. Durer Lucas, a Southamp ton flower-painter. The heather is seen growing, some of it being red and some pink, and lying on the ground is a large feather. Water-lilies and landscape form the background. It is a companion to No. 121, and is from sixteen blocks. Size, of x 8. M.R. £1.' The print is signed on the bottom left. 121. Forget-me-nots. Le Blond, No. 107. Taken also from a painting by A. Durer Lucas, a Southampton flower-painter. Forget-me-nots in full bloom are seen growing. A church is seen in the far distance, and nearer, in the background, are two people sitting on a felled tree. It is a companion to No. 120, and is from eighteen blocks. Size, af x 8. M.R. fil.1 The print is signed on the bottom right. 122. On the Watch. Le Blond, No. 108. Taken from a painting by George Armfield. Three Scotch terriers — black, white, and brown — are on the watch at the mouth of a rabbit-hole. Ferns and growing flowers are near, and hills can be seen in the distance. Size, 12 x 9. R. £2 15s.1 The print is signed on the bottom centre. 123. A Highland Lake. Le Blond, No. 109. Taken from a painting by George Armfield. This is probably Le Blond's finest print, and it is also the rarest ; but is often considerably marred by being varnished. A * If on a Le Blond mount more may be given. A HIGHLAND LAKE Print No 123 Print No. 124 I\ THE NORTH OF SCOTLAND PRINTS OF A LARGE SIZE 105 beautiful lake is depicted beneath a clear blue sky, and a sailing-boat,- carrying a solitary passenger, skims its waters. On all the banks are trees and vegetation, and in the immediate foreground, large boulders. It is from twenty-two blocks. Size, 10 x 8. V.R. £5 5s.1 The print is signed on the bottom left. 124. In the North of Scotland. Le Blond, No. 110. Taken from a painting by George Armfield. This is also a very fine print. High up on a rock on the right is a desolate castle ; the hills are in the distance, and another rock is on the left, and in the immediate foreground water and weather-worn trees ; but no boats or birds or other life anywhere, and it seems a dreary spot indeed. It is from twenty-four blocks. Size, 12 x 9. R. £2 2s.1 The print is signed on the extreme right bottom. 125. Galway Feasants. Le Blond, No. 98. Taken from a painting by F. W. Topham. An Irish girl, with rough hair and clothes, and bare feet, is seen standing on a heath, holding a child, which stands on a large stone. Sometimes found on a mount with a line round the print, and engraved below is : ' Galway Peasants. Printed in oil colours by Le Blond & Co., London. From the original painting by F. W. Topham, Esq.' Size, 15^ x uj. M.R. £1 10s.1 The print is unsigned. 126. The Tired Soldier. Le Blond, No. 135. This excellent print is inserted here, although it is not an original publication by Le Blond. It is after a painting by Goodall, and was probably originally produced by Baxter through Messrs. Vincent Brooks (whose label is sometimes found on the back), when Baxter's son was with 1 If on a Le Blond mount more may be given . 106 THE LE BLOND BOOK, 10,20 that firm, and after the patentee had retired from business. It will not be found in any list of Baxter prints ; but it was amongst the Baxter plates that Le Blond bought from Messrs. Vincent Brooks. It represents a thirsty and weary soldier resting by the wayside and being refreshed by a woman with a pitcher of water, which she has drawn from the well. A dog and a little girl watch him with intense curiosity. On the left is an older man with his horse that have come from market, and beside him is his dame. The horse is also being refreshed. It makes an excellent picture. Size, 15 x 11. R. £3 15s.1 The print is signed on the extreme bottom right. 1 If on a Le Blond mount more may be given.- CHAPTER XIII BOOK illustrations (other than those FOR POCKET-BOOKS) Observations WE have not been able to discover any more books illustrated by the Baxter process by Le Blond than the one set out in the catalogue in this chapter, and if our readers can tell us of any others we shall be pleased to receive the information. Descriptive Catalogue of Prints that are Book Illustrations (other than Pocket- book Illustrations) (See pages 23 to 26.) 127. The gathering of Gutta Fercha. Has no Le Blond number. Is an illustration to the book ' Gutta Percha : its Discovery, History, and Manifold Uses, Illustrated by an Engraving in Oil Colours ' (London : Benjamin L. Green, 62 Paternoster Row, 1851). The print shows the method of gathering the rubber. Underneath, on the left, in the plate margin, in one line, is : ' Printed in Oil Colours by Le Blond & Co.,' and on the right, in one line, is : ' Licensees, London,' Size, 5J x 3J. R. £1. The print is unsigned. 107 CHAPTER XIV THE LE BLOND-BAXTERS ABOUT the time of the death of George Baxter in 1867, Le Blond's production of prints from his own designs and plates ended, and then he started on a new venture. Readers of the ' Picture Printer ' will remember that Messrs. Vincent Brooks acquired many of the Baxter plates and blocks, in 1865, from George Baxter. But although their output from them in the two or three years they had them had not been great, yet such prints as they did produce from them were, according to their sale Hst, avowedly a ' Republication of Baxter's Celebrated Oil Prints at greatly reduced prices,' and the plates had not been in any respect altered. As Messrs. Vincent Brooks, in 1868, did not wish to continue the work, George Baxter, junior, approached Le Blond to buy the plates and blocks ; and the latter, believing he saw financial success in the undertaking, purchased them — although Messrs. Vincent Brooks had achieved none. Le Blond then inaugurated his printings from the plates ; and these are to-day called ' Le Blond-Baxters.' Le Blond's heading on his sale catalogue was, however, ' Le Blond & Co.'s 108 THE LE BLOND-BAXTERS I09 Patent Oil Pictures,' and Baxter's name is nowhere mentioned. The identical hst of plates Messrs. Vincent Brooks obtained from Baxter, when they purchased them from him, was handed to Le Blond ; and every plate in this list, with the addition of the ' Descent from the Cross,' but no others, were included in Le Blond's sale catalogue. Thus it will be seen that ' Le Blond- Baxters ' first appeared about eight years after Baxter had retired from business, about five years after he had ceased that series of auctions of his prints throughout the country, which he held about three years after Messrs. Vincent Brooks had acquired the plates, and about one year after Baxter's death. The first thing done with the plates by Le Blond — as one would imagine under the above-stated circumstances it would be — was to remove Baxter's signature from the body of all of those plates which bore it (as is well known, Baxter was erratic, and signed some of his plates and not others), but not the descriptions or other letterings in the plate margins : it would not be necessary, as they would be cut off before the prints would be placed on their mounts. The removal of the signature, although it on first thoughts seems a pity, yet it has had really one beneficial effect : because we can at least feel confident in these days, when we see a print that should bear Baxter's signature and it does not, that it is a Le Blond production and not a genuine Baxter print. There may, however, have been other reasons ; for instance, George Baxter, junior, was in the employ of Messrs. Vincent Brooks, but now 110 THE LE BLOND BOOK, I92O he had ceased all connection with Baxter work, George Baxter, junior, had been told to find other employment; and he may have thought the name of George Baxter was one with which to conjure, and he would prefer to reserve the right of user for himself. As the prints were sold as Le Blond productions, none of them appeared on Baxter mounts or with any seal or stamp. All were on perfectly plain mounts, without embellishment of any sort ; but had on their back the Le Blond label, printed in blue ink, stating the name and the number of the subject, as given in Part II of Chapter IV, and that the print was issued by Le Blond & Co. The idea is more and more gaining ground that Le Blond was a very fine printer ; but has not been quite fairly treated by posterity in respect of these prints, by reason that a large quantity of his unfinished and unmounted ' Le Blond-Baxters' have been placed on the market, and people have compared them with Baxter's finished prints of the same subjects and pointed to them and said : ' See the difference ! ' But now that closer attention has been given to his productions, it is seen that Le Blond was a far better printer than these unfinished ones would lead one to suppose ; and it is getting more the custom for those collectors of ' Le Blond- Baxters ' who buy them, either for their own merit or to place beside the Baxter originals in their collection of Baxter prints, to insist upon having them with Le Blond's signature on them — for he, in addition to removing Baxter's signatures, placed THE LE BLOND-BAXTERS III that of his own firm on all the plates — and for them to be on the mounts with the blue label on the back. These are, however, rare, but worth having ; for in some cases they very nearly reach the quahty of a genuine Baxter. Many of these reprints have, however, had the JLe Blond signature removed by persons wishing to pass them off as Baxter's work, which they could not do as long as Le Blond's signature was on them ; and in very many cases it is very easy to remove the signature — as it is not only in very small letters, but very low down in the plate, so that a small piece could easily be cut off the print ; but these gentlemen, in the endeavour to enhance the value of the print to the unwary, have only succeeded in considerably depreciating them to the wary. Some few, however, cannot be so treated, because the signature is too high up in the print. In those cases it is sometimes painted over, or otherwise made invisible. If Le Blond's reproductions from Baxter's plates are not equal to the originals, it must be pleaded in extenuation that, apart from other considera tions, the user as well as the non-user of plates does not improve them : if they are used, they wear ; and if they are not used, they rust. When Le Blond took them over, they had had, for the most part, tremendous use by Baxter, and, later, some by Messrs. Vincent Brooks; and they had also been lying idle at intervals; so they were not in their pristine condition. There were many of Baxter's well-known plates Le Blond did not get by his purchase from Messrs. 112 THE LE BLOND BOOK, I92O Vincent Brooks — such as the ' Coronation ' and ' Opening of Parhament,' ' The Launch of the Trafalgar,' none of the ' Missionary,' or ' Cabinet of Paintings,' or the small landscape subjects, nor the ' Morning Call/ ' Copper, your Honour,' large 'Queen,' 'Dogs of St. Bernard,' 'Parting Look,' ' Flora,' ' Harvest-time,' and others. Apart from his purchase from Messrs. Vincent Brooks, Le Blond may have acquired elsewhere some other plates; but this is not certain. We do not propose to give a catalogue of all the ' Le Blond-Baxters ' thus repro duced, because, firstly, full descriptions are given in ' The Picture Printer of the Nineteenth Century,' and it would only be repeating what is there said, and would make this volume too bulky; and secondly, because on page 31 will be found a hst of them, which, except for the place of signature, is very nearly a copy of Le Blond's circular of his ' Le Blond-Baxter ' issue ; and any inaccuracies in it are his, not ours. We do not beheve that all the prints so set out were actually reprinted by Le Blond. That hst was simply a compilation from the hst Messrs. Vincent Brooks had handed him, and he no doubt intended, had circumstances permitted, to repubhsh all in that list ; but we believe it was for various causes — such as broken plates and missing blocks — not found possible to reprint all, and that some few never did in fact appear. The position, however, of Le Blond's signatures on the prints is, in most cases, indicated by us in the hst. In the case of a print signed by Baxter and reproduced by Le Blond, as we have THE LE BLOND-BAXTERS 113 before stated — even if it does not record Le Blond's signature on it — we know it is not a Baxter, as it would be without Baxter's signature. But in the case of prints not signed by Baxter, and not record ing Le Blond's signature, the difficulty is greater But after a httle experience, it is relatively easy to discriminate the one from the other, and there are only two or three that present any real difficulty at any time ; but the matter is too technical and minute to deal with here. A set of ' Le Blond-Baxters ' makes a fine decoration to any room ; we confidently recom mend them. CHAPTER XV BAXTER LICENSEES PROBABLY the time is not yet ripe, the material is too scanty, and the task is too great for any author to write a complete history of the work of all the licensees — certainly it is not within the purpose of this volume to make the attempt ; and yet it may be incidental to its objects, and useful to set forth in this chapter some few" details, scanty though they must of necessity be, of those who worked the Baxter process under a licence from the patentee. It is now generally taken as agreed that only the following should be included in this category — viz., Le Blond & Co., Joseph Mansell, William Dickes & Co., Bradshaw and Blacklock, Kronheim & Co., and Myers & Co. We are sometimes asked whether the word ' licensees ' ought not to be used in its wider sense, so as to include not only those who worked the process under a licence from George Baxter, but also all those who used it without a licence. Our reply is that it makes no substantial difference which way the word is construed. It is possible — may be, it is probable — that n4 BAXTER LICENSEES 115 there were other licensees than those we have named : if not in England, then abroad. Baxter, on his mounts in 1850, called himself ' Patentee, Great Britain, France, Belgium, Germany, &c.' And if he went to the expense and trouble of establishing his patent rights in those countries, it is more than likely printers in them would apply for licences ; but at present it cannot be definitely established whether or not. any were taken up over seas, or whether as a fact there are any others here. It should always be remembered that it was not until 1849, when Lord Brougham (who presided over the tribunal from which Baxter successfully obtained an extension of the time of his patent) advised him to sell licences, that any steps were taken by him in this direction. Prior to this date, although he had worked his patent process himself for fourteen years, he had given no permission to anyone else to do so. Indeed, he had definitely refused the request of Leighton and others, his former pupils, when they applied to him for the purpose ; and in consequence of which, and the resultant injury to themselves— as they alleged, but failed to prove that his refusal entailed — they opposed his application to the Privy Council for an extension of the time of his monopoly. Not only did Baxter refuse to grant licences, but by every means in his power he strove to prevent the secrets of his method from being known. But this was not wholly practicable in the cases of Leighton, Reynolds, and others, who had spent seven years apprenticeship in his work shops, and who had there not only exercised their Il6 THE LE BLOND BOOK, I92O observation to pick up, but had actually been taught by Baxter, the art of his oil-colour picture printing. The renewal was only granted for five years ; and this period of time would be none too much for anyone to become acquainted with the process and to establish a trade in the prints. But it is true, anyone, after the expiry of the five years, could con tinue to work it without renewing the licence ; and anyone else then would be at liberty to do so who could, without any licence at all. Strictly, therefore, it is only to those who, during 1850-5, actually did take up a licence that the word ' licensee ' can be properly applied. The difference is material, because those who possessed a licence would receive from the inventor those instructions which, on his stamped mounts and in other places, he announced his willingness to give ; and although he purported to charge extra for them, and he never at any time told more than he could help, it is obvious that no one would pay for a licence unless he was given such instruction, or unless he had already gained such knowledge as would enable him to work it by having been a pupil, or had, or could obtain it by engaging employees, either of the patentee or other licensees, who had acquired the requisite information. Probably a would-be licensee would argue with himself somewhat as follows : ' I appreciate that Baxter's process is the best means now known of producing coloured prints ; that he turns out tens of thousands, and yet the pubhc taste for them is not fully satisfied. If I had a licence, it would BAXTER LICENSEES 117 take time to start work ; but once I got fully going, I could participate in his success. But I should have to pay for the privilege, to set up a special depart ment, probably to pay special wages for skilled hands, and in a very few years my limited monopoly will cease, and unknown numbers come into the market to compete and share the profits without paying any licence fees. And, besides, I cannot tell what the conditions may then be, for other pro cesses are making progress. Is it. worth while to take up a licence ? ' We can quite appreciate that, under these circumstances, very few did; and, furthermore, when the patent expired, very few thought it likely to prove a paying transaction to work it, even with no licence fees to pay. The Crimean War had impoverished the nation, and the tendency was for cheaper work ; and so it is to be feared it will be for us now, and for some years after this War, work in colours — in books, at all events — will have to give way to other methods, because they are cheaper. It was so after the gorgeous period at the end of the eighteenth century ; and those who search into the history of that epoch will find how work in colours almost ceased at the end of that century and the beginning of the nineteenth — when war was continuous— and was not revived until Baxter took it in hand about 1834, and took out his patent in 1835. And even with Baxter, so scanty were his profits after the patent expired that in i860 he had to give up business altogether, and became bankrupt a few years later. It is quite likely, therefore, that there were no others than the six Il8 THE LE BLOND BOOK, I92O before mentioned who worked the process, except Leighton, about whom we shall have a word to say presently. All these licensees would have obtained their knowledge of the process from Baxter himself, either directly or indirectly, at the time when they took up their licences ; and therefore we may pre sume that all their prints, which were produced at this period, are, in all essentials, Baxter process prints ; but, later on, this cannot be said with such certainty. As to George Cargill Leighton, it is certain that he produced most excellent work by the Baxter, or some other similar, process ; and if there be those who think his later prints should be in cluded in the word ' licensees,' except on purely verbal grounds, we should not quarrel with that view ; but for the following reasons it would be better to hesitate before so including him. In the year 1843, Baxter, as we know, left his premises at 3 Charterhouse Square ; and some other pupils of his, whose apprenticeship had expired about that time, started business under the name of Gregory, ColHns and Reynolds, and ultimately took over his old workshops at Charterhouse Square . And we find a few illustrations in colour by them in books ; but apparently these are all from wood blocks, pure and simple, without a plate, and similar to those of Baxter before his patent, which could be produced by anyone who had the requisite skill. In 1849, Mr. Reynolds, of the firm, entered Minton's well-known pottery works at Stoke-upon-Trent ; and Gregory went to Kronheim & Co., and the firm dissolved, and George Cargill Leighton acquired the business. BAXTER LICENSEES Iig In 1849, as before stated, he opposed Baxter's apphcation to the Privy Council ; in doing so he made a mortal enemy of his old master, and, presumably, never applied to him for a licence, and would not have obtained it if he had; but in 185 1 we find him publishing in the Art Journal a print in colours, and the editor in a descriptive article, explains as follows : — ' It is right we should remark, that the print after Landseer, here introduced, has been executed by Mr. Leighton expressly for us. On our visits to the press-room, while the work was in progress, we, of course, had an opportunity of seeing the various processes in operation, from the earliest stages to the finished plate. We shall not be expected to go into the detail of this part of the matter and reveal those secrets of the process by which the inventor hopes to receive the reward of his ingenuity and labour. We can only state that numberless difficulties present themselves during the process of printing, which require much skill and care to overcome ; yet these very difficulties lead of themselves to improvements in the attempt to surmount them. The process adopted by Mr. Leighton is almost the reverse of that which has been used with considerable success by Mr. Baxter in his oil-colour printing : the latter having merely to colour a finished engraving in steel or copper by means of wood blocks, thus the effect is at once seen in each stage of the work, while the other cannot see what he is producing till all is finished. The difficulty of thus working in the dark, as it were, 120 THE LE BLOND BOOK, I92O must be apparent, and it requires a good knowledge of colour and effect to overcome.' Leighton dare not infringe the patent, especially after what happened at the trial, and was consid erably handicapped by the necessity of not doing so ; and it was this, no doubt, that forced him to ' work in the dark, as it were,' and so that he could not see what he was producing until all was finished. Whether he continued this inconvenient method after the expiry of Baxter's patent, and whether his process remained the exact reverse of Baxter's, is a question which must be left to the experts to decide; and until they have done so, it is better perhaps not to include Leighton among the licensees ; but we are quite prepared to beheve that as soon as possible it was entirely on the Baxter lines. An inspection of the ' Hawking Party,' the print produced by Leighton in the Art Journal, in 1851, discloses the fact that no plate was used; but in his work after 1855 it is clear a plate did form part of his process. There are various characteristics attaching to the work of these several hcensees by which, after a little experience, they can be generally identified ; but some of them possess at times considerable diversities in style, accounted for possibly by the interchange of the skilled men, who, under their principals, produced the prints, altering their mas ters'. Dickes, a good colourist, who was largely given to dark and sombre effects, sometimes pro duced prints the reverse of this. On the other hand, Mansell and Kronheim, whose productions are very BAXTER LICENSEES 121 similar as a rule— both being usually extremely florid — on occasions gave out prints quite different in effect. No one, for instance, who is used to the gay colourings of Kronheim & Co., would suspect them of giving forth the two prints of subdued tone like ' The Wine Tasters ' and ' The Schoolmaster,' which one would certainly be inclined to ascribe to Dickes ; these vagaries produce difficulties. Still, there are other points by which their work can often be detected. For instance, Mansell and Kronheim, who, although generally much ahke in colouring, can be often differentiated by the fact that the former often signed his work in the body of the plate, whilst Kronheim & Co. seldom, or never, did so. Le Blond, as we know, generally did ; and Bradshaw and Blacklock, and Dickes, sometimes. None of them, as far as we are aware, sent forth any prints of the size of Baxter's largest — such as ' The Coronation ' and ' Opening of Parliament,' ' The Parting Look,' and ' Dogs of St. Bernard.' Nor did any of them attain to those incomparable flesh tints in their figure subjects, and general refinement and delicacy of finish and depth of colouring that Baxter produced. Bradshaw and Blacklock's work is never very excellent either in colour or drawing, and Mansell's register is often imperfect. Le Blond, in his small landscapes — as is before in this volume shown — closely imitated his instructor, especially in placing on them those curious little dramatic figures ; and he and Bradshaw and Blacklock both adopted many of Baxter's ideas for the mounts, which are, generally speaking, very nice. Nearly 122 THE LE BLOND BOOK, I92O all the hcensees' prints are rare, and all of them are eagerly purchased when they come into the market. The reason why so few are met with is perhaps that so little is at present known of them, and when they do appear they are bought by the few who are wise, and passed by the many who are not, and so the prices are not so high as some day they may be. By far the best known is Le Blond. Le Blond ' ovals ' are, as a set, unique in shape ; and it is curious that, except by Kronheim, there are practically no prints by any of the hcensees, even as large as Baxter's ' Day before Marriage.' Carefully considering the work of all these hcensees, coUectors of their prints will almost certainly, we I think, be driven to the conclusion that Le Blond | was by far the finest craftsman of them all. Vincent Brooks, Day & Co., in later years took over many of Baxter's plates and blocks, and, with the aid of Baxter's son, reproduced, during a few years, some from them ; but, further than this, they were not, and did not, pretend to be printers by the Baxter process, and certainly were never licensees. But this well-known firm have ever been not only pioneers, but givers of good things in the print ing world, and what they did led to a reproduction of Baxter's prints on a much larger >scale by Le Blond, who bought the plates and blocks from them. We propose now to give, under the different headings, some of the prints by the various licensees that seem to us worth possessing. BAXTER LICENSEES 123 Joseph Mansell, of 35 Red Lion Square. Very great favourites and pleasing are his six hunting scenes of a size of 6J X 5 ; not on stamped mounts, but with lettering under each of the plates. They are called : (i) ' The Brook,' (2) ' The Meet,' (3) ' Clearing the Gate,' (4) ' The Leap,' (5) ' All Up,' and (6) ' Full Cry.' And also his six coaching scenes to match, called : (1) ' Going Ahead,' (2) ' Changing Horses,' (3) ' Putting to,' (4) ' Behind Time,' (5) ' Full Swing,' and (6) ' Racing.' Care should be taken to procure sets of good register. Another set of six, much more interesting than artistic, are his Cries of London : (1) ' The Apple Girl,' (2) ' The Coloured Tract Seller,' (3) ' The Flower Girl,' (4) ' The Milkmaid,' (5) ' The Watercress Girl,' and (6) ' Ornaments for the Fire Stove.' ' Army Courtship,' ' Navy Courtship,' and ' The Pretty Story Book,' are three very bright specimens of colour, though they are rather grotesquely drawn. A few years ago a number of uncut sheets of prints by Mansell were found and placed on the market. None of them seem to us worthy of very much notice as high-class specimens of Baxter process prints. The following are some of them, which seem about the best ; all are small subjects : — 1. A sheet of nine hunting and shooting scenes. 2. A sheet of nine, all bearing French titles. 3. A sheet of four, including ' The Fortune Teller,' ' The Pedlar,' &c. 4. A sheet of four, containing a small variety of ' Please, ring the Bell.' 5. A sheet of twelve, relating to .Esop's Fables. 6. A sheet of four female subjects. 7. A sheet of six figure subjects. There are also many others, including some needle-box prints and some illustrations of the 1862 Exhibition; but the prints that please us the most are his small rural scenes. The prints set out in the ' Picture Printer,' as No. 190, are by Mansell. They were at one time thought to be by Baxter, later by Le Blond ; but there is now no doubt. As far as we know, none of his prints will be found on stamped mounts. Two of a different tone of colour are ' Please, ring the Bell ' and ' Donkey Boys at Scarborough,' both of a size of 6 X 4, and both signed on the plate in a more prominent way than usual with this printer, and with the lettering under the plate. 124 THE LE BLOND- BOOK, I92O W. Dickes & Co., of 50 Old Fish Street, Doctors' Commons, London. These printers produced a book which they called ' Studies from the Great Masters,' and it contained the following eighteen prints : — 1. The Blind Beggar. After Dyckmans, as a frontis piece. 2. Ecce Homo. After Guido Reni. 3. The Infant Samuel. After Sir J. Reynolds. 4. Christ Blessing Children. After Hess. 5. The Holy Family. After Correggio. 6. The School Mistress. After Stothard. 7. Christ Entombed. After Guercino. 8. The Spanish Flower Girl. After Murillo. 9. The Prodigal Son. After Spada. 10. The Idle Servant. After Nicholas Maas. 11. Christ in the Garden. After Correggio. 12. The Itinerant Musicians. After Dietrich. 13. The Infant Academy. After Sir J. Reynolds. 14. The Two Misers. After Quintin Matsys. 15. The Three Maries. After Caracci. 16. La Menagere. After Gerard Douw. 17. Cottage Children. After Gainsborough. 18. Landscape — Evening. After Cuyp. Of these, Nos. 1, 8, 10, 14, 16, 17, and 18 should be procured, and, if possible, on stamped mounts; they are excellent. They are all of a dark tone. Another book they illustrated was ' Turkey, Russia, the Red Sea, and the Caucasus,' which contains prints of Schamyl Bey, Circassian Lady, the Czar of Russia, and the Sultan of Turkey. These were also sold separately on stamped mounts, and, without pretending to great excellence, they are interesting and much lighter in tone. Another pair on stamped mounts are portraits of the Prince and Princess Frederick WiUiam of Prussia. These printers illustrated a good many books, and doubtless many of the prints in them were also sold separately on stamped mounts. Bradshaw and Blacklock, of Manchester and London. Well known for their celebrated ' Railway Guide.' In 1854 they produced a book called ' The Pictorial Casket of Coloured Gems,' which contained, according to the de- BAXTER LICENSEES 125 scription given, ' a carefully arranged selection of the universally admired productions of art, with descriptive articles on each subject by talented authors.' And, as was also stated, *a magnificently coloured portrait of Her Most Gracious Majesty is presented gratis to every subscriber.' Volume I contained : — Frontispiece : The Duke of Wellington as he appeared at the Review on Her Majesty's birthday in Hyde Park. i. The Death of Ananias. 2. The Prince of Wales. 3. Crossing the Brook. 4. The Benediction. 5. The Gleaners. 6. The Princess Royal. 7. Bacharach on the Rhine. 8. Popping the Question. 9. The Last Supper. 10. Osborne House. n. St. John. 12. The Spinner. 13. Descent from the Cross. Volume II contained : — 1. Castle of Balmoral. 2. Christ and the Woman of Samaria. 3. (a) The Favourite. (6) The Pretty Tale. 4. (a) Shoulder Arms, (b) My Pretty Dadda. 5. The Judgment of Solomon. 6. View near Bingen on the Rhine. 7. Esther and Ahasuerus. 8. Brookside Cottage. 9. Chepstow Castle. 10. Cathedrals and Churches of England. 11. The Incredulity of St. Thomas. 12. Tender Tales. 13. Tintern Abbey. 14. Views of Castles. 15. Views in London. 16. Palace of Industry, Paris. All the prints were sold separately on tasteful stamped mounts, some of them with gold borders. They are of various sizes. The best are Nos. 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, and 12, 126 THE LE BLOND BOOK, ig20 and the frontispiece, of Volume I ; and Nos. 1, 6, 8, 9, 12, 13, and 15, of Volume II. No. 15 (' Views in London ') was long thought to be a Baxter print (see ' Picture Printer,' print No. 293). There is also a coloured portrait of the Prince Consort to match that of Queen Victoria, given with Volume I ; and when on stamped mounts with gold borders they make an interesting pair ; but the flesh tints are not good. The size of each is 9 X 6£. There is also a series of strips of needle-box prints of a size of 4 x ij, which will be found on stamped mounts. The idea of these strips is precisely the same as Baxter employed : they can each be placed on a stamped mount, or they can each be cut into five small pictures and placed on the small needle-boxes then popular. There are as strips : (1) Greek View, (2) View on the Rhine, (3) Italian View, (4) Ben Nevis, and others. There is also a series of small landscapes of a size of 3 x 2, on stamped mounts — such as : (1) ' Glastonbury Abbey,' (2) ' Blarney Castle,' (3) ' Lake of Killarney,' and others. Also a series of small figure subjects, a size of 4 x 3, on stamped mounts — such as : (1) ' The English Girl,' (2) ' The Rustic Angler,' (3) ' What Pretty things ' and others. A larger size print, on a stamped mount and gold border, size 10 x 7, is ' Truth distributing the Scriptures to all Nations.' There is also ' The Interior of St. Paul's,' on a stamped mount and gold border, of a size of 6 x 4 ; probably representing the Cathedral during some service connected with the Crimean War. Kronheim & Co., of London. These printers, and early licensees, must ever remain a difficulty in the way of any author endeavouring to give a complete list of the prints of the licensees, owing to the prodigious quantity they turned out ; but we only know of one print of theirs on stamped mount, which is of a size 10 x 6 — namely, ' The New Houses of Parhament.' Most of their work, most likely, was for book illustration, and presumably they did not also sell them on stamped mounts as most of the other licensees did. Two large prints, 14 x 11, 'The Wine-tasters' and ' The Schoolmaster,' are of a dark tone — very similar to many of Dickes's productions. A great quantity of their uncut sheets have, within the last few years, been placed on the market, but very few of them have merit, the majority being gaudy and devoid of taste ; but possibly they may, for BAXTER LICENSEES 127 the most part, not be quite complete and were very cheap work. We have seen some prints by this firm quite worthy of possession : for instance, there is a beautiful series of little prints (book illustrations) of Wittenburg, Antwerp, Prague, Geneva, and others ; but with so many productions, which so vary in quality, it is not possible to further tabulate or discriminate. At present, their prints are not great favourites with collectors; but never being on stamped mounts has much to do with this. And also they continued to print when the art, owing to the pressure of other processes, had very greatly deteriorated : in fact it had materially changed in method from what it was when Baxter patented it. A nice pair are Queen Victoria and the Prince Consort on horseback. Myers & Co., of London. Probably these printers were not very prolific by the patent process, and, judged by the only two we know on stamped mounts, were not of any great excellence. There is 'Windsor Castle' and 'Osborne House,' both 12 x 6. George Cargill Leighton, of 19 Lamb's Conduit Street; afterwards, 4 Red Lion Square, London. On no account should be missed, if opportunity for acquisition arises, the excellent set of eight by this printer, all of a size of 4 x 3 on stamped mounts, and called : (1) 'The Gipsy Mother,' (2) 'The Highland Piper,' (3) 'The Blind Fiddler,' three other figure subjects, and two exquisite little landscapes. We know of no work by any licensee that is more pleasing, and it resembles no other. He also illustrated ' The Story without an End,' and other books ; and his work seems universally painstaking, careful, and artistic. INDEX OF THE PRINTS Note; — The numbers refer to the prints, not the pages Abbotsford, 41 Actseon and Diana, 21 Albert, H.R.H. Prince, in St. James's Park, 60 Albert, H. R. H. Prince, on Balcony, 66 Alexandra, Queen, 68 Alhambra, The Gate of Justice of, 52 Ananias, Death of (Raphael Cartoon), -j-j Angler, The Young, 100 As Slow as a Snail, 27 Athens, St. Paul Preaching at (Raphael Cartoon), 75 Ayr, 42 Balcony, The Prince Consort on, 66 Balcony, Queen Victoria on, 65 Ballinahinch, Lake, 36 Balmoral, Her Majesty at, 64 Balmoral, Her Majesty at 55 Bath, Nearly Ready for the, 22 Bay, New York, 54 Beautiful Gate of the Temple, The (Raphael Cartoon), 78 Belle, The Butterfly, 5 Ben Lomond 38 Bingen on Rhine, 48 Bird's Nest, The, 109 Blackberry Gatherers, The, 92 Blowing Bubbles, 90 Box, Grandmother's Snuff, in Boy, The Image, 86 Bride, The Moorish, 14 Bridge, The Britannia, 39 Bridge, Victoria Windsor, 72 Brighton (from the sea), 44 Britannia Bridge, The, 39 Brook, Crossing the, 103 Brothers Water, Westmorland, 32 Bubbles, Blowing, 90 Buckingham Palace, The Royal Family at, 69 Burning-glass, The, 89 Butterfly Belle, The, 5 Castle of Heidelberg, Rhine, 51 Castle, Windsor (large), 118 Castle, Windsor (small), 70 Cathedral Durham, 43 Cavalier, The, 18 Chamouni, 53 Cherry Seller, The, 97 Christ's Charge to Peter (Raphael Cartoon), 81 Coblentz on Rhine, 49 Cockle Shells, With SUver Bells and, 10 Colleen, The Dancing, 28 Constancy, 13 Contemplative Mood, In, 8 Courtship, 3 Crossing the Brook, 87 Crystal Palace, 1851, 82 Crystal Palace, Sydenham, 83 Crystal Palace,Sydenham (another view), 84 Dancer, An Eastern, 31 Dancing Colleen, The, 28 Dancing Dogs, The, 114 Day, May, 101 Day, One Summer's, 25 129 130 THE LE BLOND BOOK, 1920 Day, The Wedding, 113 Day, The Wedding, 2 Death of Ananias (Raphael Cartoon), 'j'j Dell, Roaming through the For est, 12 Departure, The, 4 Departure, The Sailor's, 94 Derwentwater, Head of, 34 Diana and Actason, 21 Dogs, The Dancing, 114 Draught, Miraculous, of Fishes (Raphael Cartoon), 79 Durham Cathedral, 43 Eastern Dancer, An, 31 Elymas Smitten Blind (Raphael Cartoon), 76 Exhibition, 1851, The, 82 Exhibition, 1862, The Interna tional, 85 Family, Royal, The, at Bucking ham Palace, 69 Family, Royal, The, at Windsor, 7i Ferry, Waiting at the, 107 Fifth of November, 102 Fisherman's Hut, The, 106 Fishes, Miraculous Draught of (Raphael Cartoon), 79 Flower Maiden, The, 7 Forest Dell, Roaming through the, 12 Forget-me-nots, 121 Galway Peasants, 125 Gate of Justice, the Alhambra, 52 Gate, Beautiful, of the Temple (Raphael Cartoon), 78 Gatherers, The Blackberry, 92 Girl, The Tambourine, 26 Glass, The Burning-, 89 Gleaner, The, 19 Gleaners, The, 95 Good News, 88 Grandmother's Snuff-box, in Grandfather's Pipe, no Grape Lady, The, 23 Grotto, Please remember the. „ 8? Gutta Percha, its Discovery, &c, 127 Harbour, Portsmouth, 56 Harem, Queen of the, 9 Harpist The Lady, 11 Head of Derwentwater, 34 Head of Windermere, 33 Heather, The, 120 Heidelberg, Rhine, Castle of, 51 Her Majesty at Balmoral, 55 Her Majesty at Balmoral, 64 Her Majesty at Osborne, 6r Her Majesty at Windsor, 59 Her Majesty at Windsor, 62 Her Majesty opening Parliament, 58 Her Royal Highness Princess of Wales, afterwards Queen Alex andra, 68 Highland Lake, A, 123 Hour, The Leisure, 117 Houses of Parliament, New, 57 Hut, The Fisherman's, 106 H.R.H. the Princess of Wales, afterwards Queen Alexandra. 68 H.R.H. the Prince of Wales, afterwards King Edward VIL, 67 H.R.H Prince Albert in St. James's Park, 60 H.R.H. Prince Albert on Balconyi 66 Image Boy, The, 86 In Contemplative Mood, 8 International Exhibition, The 1851, 82 International Exhibition, The,i862, 85 In the North of Scotland, 124 Is any one Looking ? 29 Italy, Lake Lugano, 46 Justice, Gate of, The Alhambra, 52 Katrine, Loch, Scotland, 37 Lady Harpist, The, n Lady of the Lilies, The, 6 Lake, A Highland, 123 Lake Ballinahinch, 36 Lake Lugano, 46 Learning to Ride, 115 INDEX OF THE PRINTS 131 Leisure Hour, The, 117 Lilies, The Lady of the, 6 Loch Katrine, Scotland, 37 Lomond, Ben, 38 Londonderry, 40 Looking ? Is any one, 29 Love's Messenger, 24 Lovers, The Spanish, '17 Lugano, Lake, 46 Lystra, St. Paul and Barnabas at (Raphael Cartoon), 80 Maiden, The Flower, 7 May Day, 101 Messenger, Love's, 24 Mill Stream, The— Towing the Prize, 96 Miraculous Draught of Fishes (Raphael Cartoon), 79 Mirror, Nature's, 30 Mood, In Contemplative, 8 Moonlight, 116 Moorish Bride, The, 14 Morning, Sunday, 112 Nature's Mirror, 30 Nearly Ready for the Bath, 22 Needle-box prints, 73 and 74 1. Fancy subjects set, 73 2. Regal set, 74 Nest, The Bird's, 109 New Houses of Parliament, 57 New York Bay, 54 News, Good, 88 North of Scotland, In the, 124 November, Fifth of, 102 One Summer's Day, 25 On the Watch, 122 Osborne, Her Majesty at, 61 Osborne House, 63 Palace, Crystal 1851, 82 Palace, Crystal, Sydenham, 83 Palace, Crystal, Sydenham (another view), 84 Parliament, Her Majesty opening, 58 Parliament, New Houses of, 57 Paul and Barnabas at Lystra (Raphael Cartoon), 80 Paul Preaching at Athens (Ra phael Cartoon), 75 Peasants, Galway, 125 Pedler [sic], The, 98 Pet Rabbits, The, 91 Peter, Christ's Charge to (Raphael Cartoon), 81 Pipe, Grandfather's, no Please Remember the Grotto, 87 Portsmouth Harbour, 56 Prince Consort,The,on Balcony,66 Prince of Wales, H.R.H., 67 Princess of Wales, H.R.H., 68 Prize, Towing the— The Mill Stream, 96 Queen of the Harem, 9 Queen Victoria on Balcony, 65 Rabbits, The Pet, 91 Ramsgate, 45 Return of the Soldier, 93 Rheinfels; Rhine, 50 Rhine, Bmgen-on-the-, 48 Rhine, Castle of Heidelberg, 51 Rhine, Coblentz on, 49 Rhine, Rheinfels, 50 Ride, Learning to, 115 Roaming through the Forest Dell, 12 Rose, The, 15 Royal Family at Buckingham Palace, The, 69 Royal Family at Windsor, The, 71 St. James's Park, H.R.H. Prince Albert in, 60 St. Paul and Barnabas at Lystra (Raphael Cartoon), 80 St. Paul Preaching at Athens (Raphael Cartoon), 75 Sailor's Departure, The, 94 Scotland, in the North of, 124 Scotland, Loch Katrine, 37 Seller, The Cherry, 97 Shipwreck, The, 16 Showman, The, 99 Silver Bells, With, and Cockle Shells, 10 Sisters, The, 20 Snail, As Slow as a, 27 Snowballings 105 Snuff-box, Grandmother's, 111 Soldier's Return, The, 93 Soldier, Tired, The, 126 Spanish Lovers, The, 17 132 THE LE BLOND BOOK, ig20 Spring, The Village, 104 Stream, The Mill— Towing the Prize, 96 Summer's Day, One, 25 Sunday Morning, 112 Swing, The, 108 Sydenham, Crystal Palace, 83 Sydenham.Crystal Palace(another view), 84 Tambourine Girl, The, 26 Temple, The Beautiful Gate of the (Raphael Cartoon), 78 Tired Soldier, The, 126 Towing the Prize, The Mill Stream, 96 Tyrolean Waltz, The, 1 Ullswater, 35 Venice, 47 Victoria Bridge, Windsor, 72 Victoria, Queen, on Balcony, 65 Village Spring, The, 104 Virginia Water, 119 Waiting at the Ferry, 107 Wales, H.R.H. Prince of, 67 Wales, H.R.H. Princess of, 68 Waltz, The Tyrolean, 1 Watch, On the, 122 Water, Brothers, Westmorland,32 Water, Virginia, 119 Wedding Day, The, 113 Wedding Day, The, 2 Westmorland, Brothers Water, 32 Windermere, Head of, 33 Windsor Castle (large), 118 Windsor Castle (small), 70 Windsor, Her Majesty at, 62 Windsor, Her Majesty at, 59 Windsor, The Royal Family at, 71 Windsor The Victoria Bridge, 72 With Silver Bells and Cockle Shells, 10 Young, Angler, The, 100 GENERAL INDEX Abbreviations used in this book, 26 Albert, Prince (The Prince Con sort), 13, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69, 71, 74 Ambleside, 53 Art Journal, 119, 120 Artists mentioned in this book — Armfield, George, 30, 104, 105 Bartholomew, V., 31, 32 Buckley, J., 30, 103 Burgess, W., 33 Collins, 91 Collinson, J;, 33 Corbaux, Fanny, 32, 34 Corbould, E. H., 33 Creswick, 97 Durer, Albert, 32 Fitzgerald, 32, 34 Freeman, 33 Gainsborough, 96 Goodall, 32, 90, 105 Hogarth, 9 Jones, W. E., 32 Lance, 33 Landseer, 119 Lucas, A. Durer, 30, 104 Macleod, Jessie, 31 Meadows, Kenny, 33 Reynolds, Sir J., 93 Rubens, 31 Shayer, 33 Smith, C, 3° Topham, F. W., 30, 105 Turner, 31, 32 Vandyke, 33 Wake, 57 Webster, 8g, 93, 97 Astes, John E., 41 BANGORj 55 Barge, State, of Lord Mayor, 65 Battery, the New York, 61 Baxter, George — artistic tastes he promoted, 6 artists refused him loan of their pictures, 7 apprentices, pupils, and work men, his, 8, 12, 63, 86, 87, 88, 115, 116, 118 auctions of prints, his, 109 bankrupt, a, 117 birth and birthplace, his, 1 block printing, his pictures by. See ' Block Printing.' bloom on prints, his, 6 commercial use and ephemeral purposes, prints for, 3, 14, 35, 36 dates on prints, 13, 82 death of, 108, 109 depth of colour, his, 48, 63, 121 experiments, he begins, i, 5 first patentee for coloured pictures by blocks, was, 3 first pulls from plates, 36, 37 foreign patent rights, his, 118 inks, his, 87, 88 knowledge, his objection to impart, 51, 87, 115, 116 landscapes, his small, 36, 48, 49,50,51,52 licensees, his. See Licensees. line round prints, his, 50, 103 methods, his, still studied, 7 mounts, his, 13, 36, 49, 50, 51, 52, 73, 81, 115, 121 needle-box prints, his, 36, 73 79 133 134 THE LE BLOND BOOK, 1920 Baxter George — cont. notices on mounts, his, 13 oil colours. See ' Oil.' paper used, 6, 87 patent, his, its expiry and extension, 12, 50, 87, 115, 116, 117, 119 patent process, his, 1, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 87 period of his labours, 22 plates, his, 6, 15, 31, 87, 108, 109, in, 112 plates, his, Le Blond buys, 108, 112, 122 plates, his, Mockler buys, 15 plates, his, Messrs. Vincent Brooks buy, 106, 108, 109, 122 pocket-books, 14, 25, 36, 49 predecessors, his knowledge of, 5, 6 process, his, what it is, 1, 3, 5, 6, 7 Raphael cartoons, 76 re-invents printed coloured pictures, 5, 7, 22, 117 seal or stamp, his, 50, 52, 81 series of prints, his, 82 signature, his, 18, 49, 109, no, 112, 113 steel plates, he uses, 6, 119 tympans. See ' Tympans.' various prints of his mentioned in this book, 18, 53, 68, 73, 82, 86, 87, 109, 112, 121, 122 Victorian figures on prints, 49 warning to public, his, 52 wood engraver, brought up as a, 5 Baxter, George, junior, 105, 108, 109, no, 122 * Bazaar,' the (the ' Exchange and Mart'), 84, 87 Beatrice, Princess, 62 Benan, 54 Ben Venue, 54 Blackie & Son, 10 Block printing, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 22, 118 Blore, Edward, 66 Bradshaw and Blacklock, 76, 114, 121, 124 Brighton, old chain pier, 57 Brooker, Sarah and Thomas, 9 Brooks, Vincent, Messrs., 105, 106, .108, 109, in, 112, 122 Brooks, Vincent, Messrs., re publication list, their, of Baxter's prints, 108 Brougham, Lord, 12, 115 Buckingham Palace, 66, 69, 71, 78 Calico printing, 3 Chases, 20, 21 Chiaroscuro, 2 Chromo-lithography, 1, 7, 14, 66 Chronological list of Le Blond prints, 27 Clarty Hole, 56 Colours, compound and simple printing in, 2 damping of sheets for, 20 grinding and mixing, 20 natural and proper, 2, 3, 5, 9 standard, 20 Compound colours. See ' Colours.' Connaught, Duke of, 62, 71, 78 Copyright in designs and works of art, 84 Craig Gowan, 64 Craig-na-Ban, 68 Crimean War, 64, 83, 89, 91, 117 Crystal Palace, 74, 79, 80, 83 antediluvian animals, 80 opening of, 83 towers and transepts added, 79, 80 Damping of sheets. See ' Colours,' and Le Blond & Co. ' Paper.' Dawson, Charles E., 18, 19 Dickes & Co., 76, 114, 120, 121 124 Douglas Water, 55 Edinburgh, Duke of, 67 Edward VI, 67, 68, 70 Ehrenbreitstein, 59 Eighteenth - century colour iJ,Printf,s' 4' 6- 7- 9- "? Ellens Isle, 54 Elliot, L. A. & Co., 15, 16, 17, 24 GENERAL INDEX 135 Embossing, 21, 36, 51, 81, 82, 85, 86 Engraving, various methods of, 4, 6 in hne, in colours, 4 Eton, 71 Eugenie, Empress, 80 Exhibition and sale of prints at Birmingham. See ' Mockler.' Great, of 1851, 13, 35, 48, 78,79 Great, of 1862, 83 First pulls from plates. See Baxter, George, and Le Blond & Co. ' First pulls.' Forms, 19, 20 Foundation plates. See ' Key, foundation, &c, plate.' Frame, 20 France, colour printing in, 4, 7 revolution in, 5, 7 Frederick William of Prussia, Emperor and Empress, 68 Galway county, 54 George III, 65 Girnock Glen, 68 Giudecca, Canale della, 58 Gleadah or deader, Mr., 87 . Goar, Saint, 59 Grand Canal, Venice, 58 Gregory, Mr., 118 Gregory, Collins and Reynolds, Messrs., 118 Hanover, 65 Haslar, 64 Hatto, Bishop, 58 Hawking party, the print of, 120 Hawkins, Waterhouse, Mr., 80 Helvellyn, 54 Henry VII, 65 ' Hints on Decorative Printing,' 3 Holes, point, 21 Horloge, the, 59 Horses, black and cream, 65 Huguenot stock, Le Blond of, 9 Inks. See Baxter, George, f Inks,' and Le Blond & Co., ' Inks,' 2, 4 Inland Printer, the, 10, 18 Inversnaid, 55 Jackson, John Baptist, 2, 5 Journeyman, 20 Kensington, 76 Keswick, 53 Key, foundation, or master plate, 4, 5, 6, 19 Kingston-on-Thames, n, 21 Kirkstone Pass, 52 Kronheim & Co., 21, 70, 114 118, 120, 121, 122, 126 Langdale Pikes, the, 53 Le Blon, James Christopher, 4 5 6, 7, 9 Le Blond, Abraham, 9, 10, n, 15, 16, 18, 86 Le Blond, Robert, 9, 10, 18 Le Blond, Robert E., 18, 22 Le Blond, R. K., Machine Tool Co., 10 Le Blond & Co. — Baxter's plates. See Le Blond & Co., ' Plates.' blocks, their, 14, 15, 19, 88 book illustrations, their, 22, 24 Budge Row and Walbrook premises, their, 8, 9, 10, 18, 19 Carron House premises, their, 11 catalogue of oil prints, their, 13, 23, 31, 108, 109 cessation of their business. 86 cessation of their interest in Baxter's plates, 15 cessation of Robert's interest in firm, 10 chronological list of their own prints, 23, 25, 27 colour print department, their, 19, 20, 21, 22, 63, 87 commercial and ephemeral uses of their prints, 14, 35, 36 company, firm becomes a, 11, 18 dated print, only, 13 dates of their prints, 13, 35, 48, 82, 83 136 THE LE BLOND BOOK, 1920 Le Blond & Co.— cont. depth of colour, their, 48, 63 distinctive numbers. See Le Blond & Co., ' Numbers, print.' Elliot & Co. See ' Elliot, L. A. & Co.' fancy names as titles, our, ,24, 25, 27 finest print, their, 104 first hcensees, were, 13 first print in the process, their, 7i, 78 first pulls from plates, their, 36, 37 imitators of Baxter, were, 22, 37, 48, 49, 5i, 63, 73 inks, 19, 20, 21, 87, 88 insolvency of, 11, 16, 17 label, blue, their, 14, 103, no, in landscapes, small, their, 13, 14, 22, 36, 48, 49, 51, 64, 83 . large prints, their, 14, 22, 102 last printers in Baxter's pro cess, were, 7, 8 licence, their. See ' Licensees,' line round their prints, 103 mounts, their, 14, 24, 25, 26, 36, 49, 5i, 64, 73, 81, 82, no mounts, their, with filigree gold borders, 24, 36, 51 • music, prints for, 14, 25, 35, 36 needle-box prints, their, 36, 73'7g , , . numbers, of their catalogue they did not use, 25, 30, 34 numbers, print, 14, 25, 26, 27, 35, 36, 51, 78, 79; 82 ovals, their. See Ovals. paper, their, 19, 20, 22, 87 patent oil pictures, their, 108 period of their labours, 22 plates, their, .76, 87 plates, Baxter's, they buy, 15, 108, 109 plates, Baxter's, they never had, in, 112 pocket - books. See ' Pocket- Books.' prints, list of original designs, 13, 25, 27, 37, 62, 84 prints, Ust of original designs, unnumbered, 31 prints, list of Le Blond Baxter's, 31 Raphael cartoons, 76 Royalty portraits, 14, 22, 48, 63, 83 seal or stamp, their, 51 series of prints, they begin a, 13, 14, 27 signature, their, on prmts, 17, 18, 24, 49, 82, 88, 109, no, m, 112 sizes of prints, 24 skilled men from Baxter go to them, 63, 86, 87, 88 titles of their prints, 24, 25, 27 Le Blond Baxter's, 13, 14, 16, 17, 22, 25, 31, 102, 108, 109, no, 112, 113 Leighton, George Cargill, 12, 115, 118, 119, 120, 127 . Leighton, Lord, 16 Leopold, Prince, 62 Lettering on plates. See * Plate margins, lettering on.' Lewes, 1 Licensees, 6, 8, 12, 13, 18, 21, 49, 50, 51, 52, 81, 83, 87, 114, 115, 118, 120, 121, 122 Lomond, Loch, 55 London Museum, the, 69 Louis Philippe and his Queen, 11 Lin-lei, the, 59 Mansell, Joseph, 114, 120, 121, 123 Master plate. See ' Key, founda tion, or master plate.' Melrose, 56 Menai Straits, 55 Metal plates. See * Plates.' Minton's china works, 118 Mockler, F. W., and his ex hibition and sale at Birming ham, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18 Modern coloured prints, 1 Monochrome, 5 Mont Blanc, 60 Mouse Tower, 58 Muller, 20 Myers & Co., 114, 127 Napoleon I, 65 Napoleon III, 80 Natural and proper colours, printing in. See Colours.' GENERAL INDEX 137 Naval College, Royal, 68 Needle-box prints. See ' Baxter George/ and ' Le Blond & Co. Nevada Sierras, 60 Oil colour picture printing, 5, 12, 22, 87, 115, 119 inks, 6 paintings printed, 5 pictures, patent, Le Blond's, 108 print department, 18, 19, 20, 21 print process, 22 print republication of, 108 prints, 18, 19 Osborne, 67 Ovals, dates of production of, 82, 83 Elliot, L. A., & Co. See 'Elliot, L. A., & Co.' mounts of, 82, 85, 86 originality of, 81, 83, 84, 122 pin-holes for blocks, 86 plate lettering, no, 86 prices of, 23 reasons why good, 81, 86, 87, 88 register of, 84 reprints, modern, 86 separate plates for, 85 signature of, 17, 82, 88 uncut, 85 upright, 99 Overlays, 22 Pad composition, 19 Paintings, printing, 4 Parliament, Houses of, 65, 71 Patterdale, 54 Peace of 181 5 and colour print ing, 5 Peacock, Mansfield & Co.'s pocket-books, 36, 37, 41, 42, 50, 53, 55, 58, 60, 64 Peel, Sir Robert, 65, 68 Penny & Sons' pocket-books, 46 Photography, 1 Pictures copied. See also 'Artists,' 37, 48, 50, 82, 84 mechanically produced, 2 natural and proper colours, in. See ' Colours.' ' Picture Printer of Nineteenth Century,' 1, 12, 82, 87, 108, 112 printing in eighteenth century, 4 printing in oil colours, 5, 12 Pin-holes, 86 Plate and blocks, printing in, 5, 78 margins, lettering on, 49, 50, 86, 109 Plates. See Baxter, George, and Le Blond & Co ' Plates.' foundation. See ' Key, found ation, or master plate.' printing from, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9 steel. See Baxter, George, ' Steel plates, he uses.' various kinds of, 4 Pocket-books, 13, 14, 25, 36, 49 See also ' Peacock, Mansfield & Co.' See also ' Penny & Son.' See also ' Renshaw.' See also ' Suttaby & Co.' illustrated by Le Blond & Co., mentioned in this volume, viz. — ' Keepsake, The,' 58 ' La Belle Assembled,' 37 ' Ladies' Historical Pocket- Book, Diary, and Almanack,' 46 ' New Forget-me-Not Pocket- Book, The,' 53 ' Renshaw's Ladies* Pocket- Book, 1852,' 58 ' Renshaw's Ladies' Pocket- Book, 1854,' 57 ' Wreath, The,' 64 Points and point-holes, 19, 21 Portland Place, 80 Portraits, 63 Presses, copper-plate, hand-litho graph, and power, 19, 20 Pressman, 19, 20 Printing artistic pictures in colours, 5 in cameo and intaglio, 2 invention of, 2 paintings, 4 re-invention of coloured pic tures by, 5 Prints, prices and sizes of, 23, 24 Process, Baxter's. See ' Baxter, George, process, his, what it is.' Puerta Judiciaria, 60 138 THE LE BLOND BOOK, I92O Raphael Cartoons. See Baxter, George, and Le Blond & Co., ' Raphael Cartoons.' Register, 84 Renshaw's pocket-books, 50, 57, 58 Republication list. See Le Blond & Co., ' Catalogue of Oil Prints.' Reynolds, pupil of Baxter^ 115, 118 River Ayr, 56 > Conway, 55 Darro, 60 Derwent, 53 Foyle, 55 Hudson, 61 Moselle, 59 Nahe, 58 Rhine, 58, 59 Thames, 65, 66, 72, 103 Tweed, 56 Wear, 56 Rob Roy, 55 Roller, 19 Roman ruins, 57, 58 Salute, Sta Maria della, 58 Salvatore, Monte, 58 Savage, William, 3 Saxe-Coburg, Duke of, 67 Schoolmaster, The, 121 Scott, Sir Walter, 56 Scrap-books, 36, 49 Seal or stamp. See Baxter, George, and Le Blond & Co., ' Seal or Stamp.' Sebastopol, 89, 92 Silk-weaving machine and Le Blond, 9 Simple colours. See ' Colours.' Spain, 60 Stanley, Eleanor, Miss, 67 Stephenson, Robert, engineer, 55 Sterne, Miss S. M., 41 Strutt's ' Sports and Pastimes/ 94, I0° Suttaby & Co.'s pocket-books, 5 Teyler, Johannes, 4 Three-colour process, 4, 6, 9 Titles of Le Blond prints. See Le Blond & Co., ' Fancy Names,' &c, and ' Titles of Prints.' Touching up, 19 Transfers, 19 Trossachs, The, 54 Troutbeck, 53 Tympans, 19, 20, 21, 22 Udalrick, St., 59 Victoria (Queen), 13, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70, 7i, 74, 75, 79, 80 Journal of, 68 Victorian engine, 103 era, 7 figures on prints, 49, 121 garments, 67, 103 Wall papers, 3 Westminster, views in, 65, 71 William II of Germany, 69 Wilham IV of Great Britain, 71 Windsor, 67, 69, 70, 71, 72, 83, 103 Wine-tasters, The, 121 Wood-block printing. See ' Block printing.' Wright, Mr., 86, 87, 88 Wrightson & Co., 10 'Year-book, 1912,' 51 Printed by Spottiswoode, Ballantyne &¦ Co. LTD, Colchester, London &¦ Eton, England YALE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY 3 9002 08867 2358