BAXTER PRINTS

Hutt News, Volume 3, Issue 25, 13 November 1930, Page 12

BAXTER PRINTS

The following information will prove of interest to fehose who admire colour prints, but do not know a great deal about,.them, and few now-adays, save the connoisseur, do know much. a/bout the way they -wejre produced. Ait a small exhibition in a neighbouring town recently a genuine Baxter print and also a print ty one of Baxter's pupils' (Le Blond), were shown. , The process of printing in colours iras a heritage from, the early "Victorian colour-printer, George Baxter, whose products were the inai'vel and delight not only oif the children of the early part of the 19th century, but of their elders as well. Nearly every shelf of old books of'the cosy family sort, which still repose in old bookshelves, where their original owners placed them, will reveal examples of this fascinating art, as tfrontis-' pieces to, well known book's of. vfehat period. : The Baxter print—in its earlier form, was produced by the over-impressions of numerous wood blocks, engraved for the separate colours. Copper pla/tes, steel-faced, were used as key plates, in later work. Many of the Baxter prints /required some 24" blocks to prodttce .them, while even the* simplest generally required not loss than ten. ♦.'■..■:" From 1830 to 1836 Baxter used woodengraivediblocks'entirely for his prints. Throughout the process each colour was allowed to thoroughly dry. The positive hloclts are impressed from, aa many WK>od blocks as tßiero are -distinietive finite' in the picture, the very tint of the paper upon .which, each initiative paint-. ing appears to be mounted, is <eomin)u<nieated, from a smooth plate' of copper, which receives the, colour,, and is printed An the same manner as a wood) block. /J>he nicety with which the coloiiTs fit into t&eir places awakens admiration and wonderment. That Baxter' was a, genius no one will gainsay. The collector will find the finest Bax-' ter prints on special mounts, and printed or emibossed in a colourless impression on the pictlre is . ' 'The Baxter legend," "Printed in Oil Colour by Gteo Baxter. '' Or " Gr. Baxter, Patentee,'' together with the following address: 29 King Square, 3 Charterhouse SquaTe, 11 Noi'thamptton Square.,.ll and 12 Nor-tha-nipton Square.