Pink-footed Goose, engraved and colour-printed by Benjamin Fawcett c1864.

by Fawcett, Benjamin

Fine Pink-footed Goose antique print by Benjamin Fawcett.

Original colour-printed woodblock by Benjamin Fawcett (1808-1903) and Alexander Francis Lydon for British Game Birds & Wildfowl by Beverly Robinson Morris, published in London circa 1864. (Beverly Morris was the younger brother of the Reverend Frederick Orpen Morris who founded the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds in Britain.)

Benjamin Fawcett devised a technique of colour printing on the end grain of the finest Turkish boxwood which he imported, seasoned and prepared. He meticulously produced his own inks and watercolours by grinding minerals and mixing powders with water. By using varnish and oxgall Fawcett produced beautiful colours that survive the test of time. Contemporaries and historians declared him "the finest of Victorian colour printers". Known as chromozylography, Fawcett's colour-printed illustrations on fine quality paper are still some of the highest quality ever produced.

In the mid-1850s Fawcett engaged Alexander Francis Lydon (1836-1917) as an apprentice at the age of 14. Fawcett trained and supported Lydon who proved to be a gifted artist and engraver, and skilled in analysing colours by the time he had completed his apprenticeship in the late 1850s. Lydon showed the same dedication and commitment to his work as Fawcett, and assumed the role of principal artist and engraver.

Page measure 245 x 300mm (9 5/8 x 14 inches).