Barker, Thomas
Thirty two lithographic impressions from pen drawings of landscape scenery. Only fifty copies printed. Printed under the direction of Mr. Barker by D. Redman. Published at Bath, 1814. Lithogr. title, 2 ll. letterpress text (‘advertisment‘ und ‘index‘), 32 lithogr. plates mounted on cardboards.
bound with:
Barker, Thomas
Forty lithographic impressions from drawings by Thomas Barker, selected from rustic figures after nature. Published by subscription at Bath. December 1813. (3) ll., letterpress text (title, ‘advertisment‘ and ‘subscriber’s list‘), 40 lithogr. plates on tinted paper with sepia wash added by hand mounted on cardboards. Cont. green morocco spine with gilt title, mounted gilt morocco label to front cover. Binder’s stamp of “David Chivers, Bath, Greenstreet 20“ on front fly-leaf. Folio. Spine renewed with original spine laid down. Inner hinges strenghtened.
Ad I. Twyman, 181/182. Not in Abbey, Life in England, Aufseesser collection and Grolier Club (ed.), Catalogue of a centenary of artistic lithography 1796-1896. One of only 50 copies. “One early example from the incunabula of lithography in the pen and ink style deserves mention ... since it was the first important collection of landscape lithography to be published in England. ... At the time Bath possessed what was probably the only lithographic press in England which catered for the printing of artists‘ drawings ... “ (Twyman p. 181 and 182). Cardboards heavily browned due to glue, plates not affected. With one variant of plate XI loosely laid in mounted on new cardboard.
Ad II. Twyman 182. Not in Abbey, Life in England, Aufseesser collection and Grolier Club (ed.), Catalogue of a centenary of artistic lithography 1796-1896. One of two hundred copies. Bonhams, Cat. Masters of hte Lithograph, the Winkler collection part I no. 94 “It is thought that only 30 copies were produced with the sepia wash, probably supplied by the artist himself”. Minor brown spots to margins else fine. “This is the most substantial English album of lithographic incunables“ (Ray, England 80). Thomas Barker's (1769-1847) 'Forty Lithographic Impressions From Drawings by Thomas Barker, Selected from His Studies of Rustic Figures After Nature' (1813), is the first one-man collection of lithographs ever printed in England. Many of the stones, still bearing Barker's original drawings, are in the Victoria Art Gallery, Bath. Barker was born in Wales but known as "Barker of Bath", after the city he moved to as a young man. As an expert on fresco technique, Barker advised on the redecoration of the Houses of Parliament in 1841. From the Winkler collection with his small faint stamp on verso of plate VI, but not included in the sale of part of his collection at Bonhams in 1998. A nice sammelband with two early English incunables of lithography.