August, 1918 
15 
“Queen Victoria at the House of Lords,’’ a 
Baxter print that stands as an achievement 
of color printing. In normal times a good 
copy at public sale would fetch $250 
“First Impressions,’’ an unsigned print 
about which there has been considerable 
dispute as to its producer. It was prob¬ 
ably a very late print by Baxter 
admiration and wonderment even in our 
own day. The colors, too, were chosen 
with reference to their durability. 
In 1837 Chapman & Hall published 
a small quarto “Pictorial Album or Cabi¬ 
net of Paintings” by Baxter, in the pref¬ 
ace to which is Baxter’s own reference to 
his process as follows: “The first im¬ 
pression, forming a ground, is from a 
steel plate, and above this ground is usu¬ 
ally a neutral tint, the positive colours 
are impressed from as many wood blocks 
as thqre are distinctive tints in the pic¬ 
ture . . . the very tint of the paper 
upon which each initiative painting ap¬ 
pears to be mounted is communicated 
from a smooth plate of copper, which re- 
“The Belle of the Village,” 
a Baxter print appearing on 
a sheet of music, “Belle of 
the Village Valse,” 1854. 
Over ten blocks were used 
in making this print 
wood blocks engraved for the 
separate colors. Copper plates, 
steel-faced .were used as key- 
plates in later work. Many of 
the Baxter prints required some 
twenty-four blocks to produce 
them, while even the simplest gen¬ 
erally required not less than ten. 
The prints were all printed on 
hand-presses. Philip Gilbert 
Hamerton in “Etchings and 
Etchers” remarked, “Readers may 
think that Processes do not con¬ 
cern them. . . . But the 
truth is, that ‘Processes’ concern 
ever) 7 one who cares about art, or 
even talks about it. No one can 
speak with justice of the merits of 
any artist unless he clearly under¬ 
stands, and always takes into con¬ 
sideration, the technical condi¬ 
tions under which the artist has 
worked. ... No one who is 
aware how closely the nature of Processes is 
involved in all that is best and highest in the 
Fine Arts can think of the general ignorance of 
them without regret, and a desire to help in re¬ 
moving them.” 
From 1830 to 1836 Baxter used wood-en¬ 
graved blocks entirely for his prints. In 1836, 
or thereabouts, he added, as a primal color, 
a tint impression from a steel-faced copper 
plate. This first, or key-plate, was printed 
in black, brown or purple. Superimposed on 
this were impressions from various blocks in 
turn until- the whole was “built up” and finally 
“knit together” by the impression from the last 
block. Throughout the process each color was 
allowed thoroughly to dry in turn. The regis¬ 
tration, that is to say, the nicety with which 
the colors exactly fit into their places, awakens 
From a painting by Halle, 
Baxter made his print “The 
First Lesson.” It required 
a dozen blocks to print and 
was issued in 1855. Original 
printing is quite valuable 
ceives the colour and is printed in 
the same manner as a wood 
block.” 
A Genius for Supervision 
Probably the real “secret” of 
Baxter’s process lay in his un¬ 
flagging and conscientious per¬ 
sonal attention to every step of 
the work in progress. It was this 
vigilant and constructive super¬ 
vision combined with his own ar¬ 
tistic resources that enabled him 
to produce these exquisite works 
of distinction that have come to 
be so dear to the heart of the col¬ 
lector. Baxter is believed to have 
ground and to have mixed his 
own colors. His knowledge of 
engraving was gained through 
practical experience in the actual 
art. He was also a fine judge of 
the suitability of various papers 
for the results he had in mind. Even then his 
genius seemed to find him successful with sur¬ 
faces and qualities that completely baffled the 
skill of those who also tried his methods. Bax¬ 
ter was never content to let “well-enough” 
alone. Constantly he improved his plates and 
blocks. 
The Miracle of the Patent 
That Baxter was a genius no one will gain¬ 
say. Who else but a genius could have pro¬ 
duced a Royal Patent for what was, after all, 
hardly a thing that would have been given 
protection to another, since Baxter’s “Process” 
seemed nothing new except in its results! Many 
predecessors of Baxter had produced color- 
prints from superimposed wood - engraved 
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