Early Victorian Illustrated Books: Britain, France and Germany 1820 - 1860 - Tapa dura

Early Victorian Illustrated Books is lavishly and beautifully illustrated. It is good to see so many steel engravings in particular and to sense the authors warm enthusiasm for them. --Printing History

In this major new study, John Buchanan-Brown examines book illustration of the Romantic period. He focuses on the decorative wood- and steel-engravings, which were used as embellishments with the purpose of appealing to the sophisticated book buyer. Buchanan-Brown describes how the values of the time are reflected in the illustrations and also considers the effect of industrial developments on the printing press and the techniques for reproducing images. Foremost, however, the author demonstrates that British, French and German examples of Romantic books are a source of great aesthetic pleasure. From Britain, he looks at artists such as George Cruikshank and Hablot Knight Browne (Phiz), and each section of the book considers one of the three countries, the differing backgrounds and standards for the development of the artists, as well as the influence of the countries on each other. With over 250 examples of Victorian illustrations, this book provides a long-awaited survey of book illustration from the Romantic period.