Printmaking in Scotland in the 18th Century
Welcome to the website for Printmaking in Scotland in the 18th Century. This is the result of a collaborative project and we hope the site will be a hub for continued collaboration with visitors to the pages.
The site contains a database of Scottish printmakers and related occupations and a database of illustrated books published in Scotland in the eighteenth century. There is also a bibliography and a timeline. These are all works in progress and we hope that visitors will contribute new material and offer amendments, send articles and images, news and events and links to useful resources.
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Please submit new information, edits and amendments, articles, images or comments using the Contacts page. Thank you.
The Printmakers database can be searched by Name and Date. The database of Scottish illustrated books can be searched by Classification, Format, Collection and Place.
This contains dates for significant events, people and publications.
First published in 1771 by Andrew Bell and Colin MacFarquhar. It was advertised in a proposal dated June 8 1768 and would be in quarto format with 150 illustrations. Every number was to contain twenty-four quarto pages, printed with an elegant new type, on good demy paper and would cost 6d or 8d on superfine paper, the whole to be completed in 100 numbers, “and will make three handsome volumes.”
In 1697, Sir William Hope lamented that he was unable to find a good engraver in Scotland to make the plates for his book, The Scots fencing master or compleat small-sword-man. He wrote this apology in the introduction: “Courteous Reader, You are earnestly desired not to criticise to much upon the cuts which are in […]