[Woodburytypes]

Reports from Commissioners, Inspectors, and others... Local Government Board - continued. Session: 5 December 1878 - 15 August 1879... [Comprising] Eighth Annual Report of the Local Government Board, 1878-79. Supplement containing the Report of the Medical Officer for 1878

London, HMSO, 1879.

Folio, [iv], xvi, 348 pages with numerous illustrations plus approximately 40 plates (mainly engravings, many of them folding and in colour) and 3 superb large-format Woodburytypes (each 120 × 190 mm).

Contemporary quarter calf and cloth, retaining the original printed paper spine as a title-label; cloth a little marked and unevenly discoloured; leather a little rubbed, with minor loss to worming at the head of both joints, and a minor surface blemish where a small modern label has been cleanly removed; contemporary institutional library stamp on the title page (with the name of the institution stamped in gilt at the foot of the spine); new endpapers; a very good copy (internally fine).

British Parliamentary Paper C2452 of Volume 29 of Session 1878-79. The bulk of the supplement is the 'Report by Dr. Ballard on the Effluvium Nuisances arising in connexion with various manufacturing and other branches of industry. Part III' (280 pages). This report deals primarily with industries in which mineral substances are principally discussed; virtually all of the plates accompany this report and many of them are attractive examples of nineteenth century technical drawing.

The three Woodburytypes illustrate a section of the report dealing with the problem of the disposal of spent lime in the production of coal gas. The Woodburytype is a patented form of photomechanical reproduction resulting in a highly detailed pigment print often indistinguishable from an original photograph, but which did not faded and lent itself to book illustration because it required mounting on a support. The chocolate-brown tone of the images is one of the most pleasing aspects of this process. The original photographs were taken at the Gaslight and Coke Company, Fulham in April 1879, and the resulting Woodburytypes show workmen loading waggons with spent lime, positioning a waggon upon a platform over a barge, and discharging the spent lime from the waggon into the barge. No imagination is required (and the devil is in the detail).

Item #73395

Price (AUD): $1,500.00
other currencies