Benjamin Fawcett
Benjamin Fawcett (1808-93) was the finest of the nineteenth century woodblock colour printers. Fawcett first made his name with colour with own wood-engraved illustrations and then by printing in colours from multiple wood-blocks. Fawcett’s colour prints, usually unsigned, are highly recognizable. His style was imposed, not by his drawing or the quality of the engraving—but by his colour sense, and the ink he used, which were chosen, bought, ground, and mixed with the utmost particularity. Fawcett was a perfectionist who examined and retouched every print, and who would never print cheap ‘yellow-back.’ Fawcett died in 1893 and buried in Driffield Cemetery. In 1895 his printing plant, machinery, type, and fittings were sold at auctions in East Lodge by W. Phelps & Son of Birmingham. By that time the era of commercial printing from woodblocks was finished as photo-mechanical line had taken over. All books within this case are part of our Ruari McLean Collection in the Robertson Davies Library at Massey College.
Titles
- A History of the Fishes of the British Island by Jonathan Couch. Printed by Benjamin Fawcett. [1862-1965].
- Alpine Plants: Figures and Descriptions of Some of the Most Striking and Beautiful of the Alpine Flowers. Edited by David Wooster. Engraved and Printed by Benjamin Fawcett. [1872].
- Alpine Plants: Figures and Descriptions of Some of the Most Striking and Beautiful of the Alpine Flowers. Edited by David Wooster. Engraved and Printed by Benjamin Fawcett. [1874].
