LONDON:
PRINTED BY DALZIEL AND CO., LTD.
CAMDEN PRESS, 110 HIGH STREET, CAMDEN TOWN.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
[PREFACE.]
[LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.]
[CHAPTER I.]
[CHAPTER II.]
[CHAPTER III.]
[CHAPTER IV.]
[CHAPTER V.]
[CHAPTER VI.]
[CHAPTER VII.]
[OUR PUPILS.]
[THE PRINTING OFFICE.]
[LIST OF FINE ART AND OTHER ILLUSTRATED BOOKS PRODUCED BY AND UNDER THE ENTIRE SUPERINTENDENCE OF THE BROTHERS DALZIEL.]
[FINE ART BOOKS PARTLY THE WORK OF THE BROTHERS DALZIEL.]
[INDEX.]
[TRANSCRIBER'S NOTES.]
[PREFACE.]
Thomas Bewick, who revived the art of wood engraving in England, was apprenticed to Ralph Beilby, as a copperplate engraver, in 1767. About 1770 he began to engrave on wood. The work at first was rough, and chiefly for newspaper advertisements; but he soon saw the capabilities of the material, and he rapidly developed into the great master of his art. The excellence of his wood engraving may be said to have culminated in his "Book of British Birds," the first volume of which was published in 1797. For a century from that date the art of wood engraving has been the most popular as well as the best method for the reproduction of all classes of drawings, and during that hundred years much beautiful work has been done.
Bewick's pupils were all artists in the fullest meaning of the word—John Bewick (his brother), Robert Johnson, Luke Clenell, Charlton Nesbit, Isaac Nicholson, and William Harvey. What a grand start the first half of the century of wood engraving had with such great men!