Feature December 2014

A Generous Valuation of a Baxter Print

When George Baxter sought to renew his patent in 1847, the Committee of the Privy Council asked a well respected artist, David Roberts, R.A., to assess the actual value of one of Baxter’s shilling colour prints.

David Roberts considered view was that there was ‘nothing known that equalled the Patentee’s invention in Colour Printing’ and that the print was ‘worth half a guinea.’

George Baxter's Hindoo and Mohamedan Buildings drawn by David Roberts

This was a generous statement when we consider that the colour-lithographs of Robert’s Holy Land, printed by Louis Haghe, were in course of publication at the time.

Interestingly, one of George Baxter’s earliest colour prints, Hindoo and Mohamedan Buildings, CL No.5, is a subject from a sketch by Capt. Grindlay Drawn by David Roberts himself!