Print of the Month - September 2021

Love at First Sight

Printed by George Cargill Leighton using the Baxter Process.

George Cargill Leighton was apprenticed to George Baxter and subsequently unsuccessfully opposed the renewal of Baxter’s patent in 1849.

The signature and stamp help us to date this print to between 1855 and 1857, the period George Cargill Leighton was trading from Red Lion Square in his own name. Leighton was never a licensee of Baxter's and only produced prints by the Baxter Process after the expiry of the patent in 1854.

This print is signed "George C. Leighton" bottom right. It can be found on a mount bearing the stamp "E. Gambart & Co. London" the firm of the well-known art dealer Ernest Gambart.

This is one of only 15 Baxter Process prints that we think were produced by Leighton. If you know of others we would love to hear about them.

Although we know this print as "Love at First Sight" it would appear to have also been known by other names!

George Cargill Leighton / Leighton Brothers are best known for introducing colour printing to the "Illustrated London News". Most of their prints were relief block prints (without the key plate used in the Baxter Process) although later on they also printed by chromolithography.

Size 11 x 14.5 cm.