Two further references about the hand-colouring of plates:
1. Geoffrey Wakeham's Victorian Book Illustration (Detroit: Gale Research
Company, 1973) discusses hand-colouring in his section on etching (pp.
22-28). After mentioning Cruikshank and his work, he states:
"Another illustrator of The Ingoldsby Legends was John Leech (plate
7), best remembered perhaps for his etchings to Surtee's sporting novels,
such as Mr. Sponge's sporting tour, 1853, and Handley Cross, 1854,
hand-coloured in the tradition of sporting prints. Hand-colouring, of
course, increased the cost of the plates, and books containing them were
generally from half as much again to twice the cost of uncoloured copies.
W.M. Thackeray's Dr. Birch and His Young Friends, 1849, illustrated with the
author's own soft ground etchings, cost 5s. plain and 7s 6d coloured (plate
8)."
2. Simon Houfe's The Dictionary of British Book Illustrators and
Caricaturists 1800-1914 (Woodbridge, Suffolk: Antique Collectors Club, 1978)
discusses the Ackermann firm in great detail, particularly working methods
for hand-coloured book plates. In his discussion on aquatints (p. 18), Houfe
notes that
"Aquatint was favoured not only because it was a perfected process
but because it imitated the brushwork obtainable with watercolour.... The
plate might be printed in brown, olive, green or red, sometimes in two or
three colours, before being tinted by hand. It is known for example that in
Ackermann's last major work The History of the Royal Residences, 1829, the
interior views of the palaces were printed in one colour and the exterior
views in two, blue and brown, for the sky and buildings. The process from
original drawings by C. Wild, J. Stephanoff or W. Westall would have run
thus: when the watercolour was handed to the engraver an aquatint would be
made of it, and a proof returned to the artist for colouring; this would
then be used as a model by Ackermann's large staff of experienced colourists
(Colour Plate II).
The publisher's other great discoveries were Thomas Rowlandson,
1756-1827, already referred to and William Combe, 1741-1823, whose talents
he brought together... In this way Dr. Syntax in Search of the Picturesque,
1812, was born and became one of the classic illustrated books of its period
(Colour Plate III). The black-clad doctor on his awkward horse became the
hero of a whole generation and started a fashion for aquatint engravings
opposite rhyming texts..... Pursuing this further one would arrive at the
episodic literature of the late Regency, Pierce Egan's Real Life in London,
1827, with coloured plates by Heath, Dighton, Alken and Rowlandson....."
The use of the term "coloured plates" rather than "colour" plates indicates
that these were normally hand-coloured over colour aquatints. In a further
part of his essay, Houfe discusses caricaturists like Cruikshank, Heath,
Rowlandson, and Newton, noting (p. 33) that their printed caricatures, "the
forerunners of the illustrated papers... were sold at a penny plain and
tuppence coloured but not yet in book form."
None of this settles the argument about whether the hand-colouring varied
because of individual taste, the ability of the individual doing the
hand-colouring, or because the hand-colouring may have been done after the
fact, but it does add some information to the discussion, especially as to
whether book illustrations were sold both uncoloured and coloured, as well
as to the working methods employed in the Ackermann publishing house.
Looking forward to more input from others.....
Jim Burant, Library and Archives Canada
Ottawa, ON K1A 0N4
(819) 934-6841
(819) 934-6810
courriel/e-mail: ***@lac-bac.gc.ca