Practical Hints on Decorative Printing, with illustrations engraved on wood and printed in colours at the type press by SAVAGE, William (1770-1843) - 1823

London: published for the Proprietor by Messrs. Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme and Brown [and others], 1823. Folio. (14 5/8 x 10 3/8 inches). Letterpress title printed in red and black within a typographic border, 3pp. list of subscribers, 1p. Address dated 25 March 1823. Additional title printed in gold and colours (on india paper mounted), dedication to Earl Spencer printed in colours (on india paper mounted), 52 plates (most printed in two or more colours, one heightened with gold, and including the 9 cancelled plates on 5 sheets), 3 illustrations, and 6 colour-printed head-pieces. Expertly bound to style in half red straight grain morocco over period plain cream paper covered boards, spine with raised bands in six compartments, lettered in the second compartment, the others with a repeat decoration in gilt Provenance: Charles C. Bubb (bookplate) Very rare large-paper copy of Savage's extraordinary tour-de-force: an influential and beautiful work on colour-printing. The whole edition was to have been limited to no more than 335 copies, but in the end only 227 copies were subscribed for and this can be stated with certainty as being the actual number produced as Savage deliberately destroyed the blocks in order to ensure that no more copies could be printed. The edition was issued in two forms: 127 copies in quarto (the Abbey copy is 10 1/8 inches tall) at 5 guineas and 100 copies on large paper, as here, at 10 guineas. The large paper issue of this work was limited to 100 copies and is rare. The underlying reason for the work is quite interesting: Savage wished to present his new oil-free printing ink in a form which allowed for its full potential to be demonstrated. The result is a masterpiece . "Savage's magnum opus, which was announced in 1815, appeared in parts between 1818 and 1823. It is both a highly idiosyncratic volume and a notable landmark in the history of color printing from wood, anticipating Baxter by about ten years" (Ray, The Illustrator and the Book in England ). The technical aspects of the work are truly extraordinary: one highlight amongst many is a colour print, which Burch notes is printed from twenty-nine separate blocks, and which therefore qualifies as "the most complicated print ever printed in colours from wood blocks." This copy with appropriate provenance to the library of Arts and Crafts Movement printer Charles C. Bubb, the founder of the Clerk's Press. Abbey Life 233; Bigmore & Wyman, II, pp. 297-301; Burch Colour Printing pp.116-121; Friedman 35-38; Lowndes III, p.2194; Printing and the Mind of Man 141; Ray The Illustrator and the Book in England 99.