Print of the Month - April 2019

Sketched by Baxter at the ceremony on June 28th, 1838, from the gallery occupied by the Foreign Ambassadors in the Abbey.

This print was “Dedicated by Command to the Royal Family.”

Printed by George Baxter using his patented process and published October 1st 1841.

The “Patriot” newspaper of May 17th, 1841, said: - “Mr. Baxter has taken no fewer than 200 likenesses from life, which will have the advantage over all other representations of the imposing scene of being literally accurate down to the minutest details.”

It is probably these likenesses, and the individual sittings for them, that account for the three-year production time of this particular subject.

The print was issued in 12 different states including a full height print and a half height print with domed top (like the one pictured here), both of which could be had varnished or unvarnished.

Prices were £5 5s. large size and £3 3s. small size and highly finished proofs were sold for £10 10s.

It is unsigned but when uncut can be found with the following lettering under the print: -
“Designed, Engraved, Printed & Published by the Proprietor, George Baxter, Patentee of Oil Colour Printing, 3, Charterhouse Square, London, on the 1st of October, 1841”; and in the centre, below the print in two lines, is the above title, and below that is “Dedicated by Command to the Royal Family.”

This print is one of over 150 exhibits in the New Baxter Society Spring Feature Exhibition, at Arts & Antiques for Everyone at the NEC 4th to 7th April, 2019.

Please come along and see us there.