Stirling-Maxwell, Sir William (publisher) Examples of the Engraved Portraiture of the Sixteenth London & Edinburgh: privately printed for Sir William Stirling Maxwell, 1872. Large folio, original tan half cloth, cloth sides, title-page in red and black, 199 photolithographic facsimiles of engraved or woodcut portraits on 114 numbered sheets (many mounted), laid-in autograph letter from Sir William Fraser (1816-1896), Scottish historian, genealogist and archivist, to Stirling-Maxwell (29 November 1870; concerning woodcuts), spine rubbed, front joint partially cracked, mottling to sides, light spotting to outer leaves, front free endpaper creased

Note: Number 50 of 50 copies only; one of Stirling-Maxwell's 'pioneering books of facsimile prints using the new photolithographic methods' (ODNB). Stirling-Maxwell (1717-1878) was fascinated by printing and reproduction. The fourth volume of his Annals of the Artists of Spain consisted of extra illustrations using the Talbotype photographic process developed by William Fox Talbot. It became the first use of photography in an art history book. 'Further evidence of his commitment to the multiple image was provided by his pioneering books of facsimile prints using the new photolithographic methods, including Examples of the Engraved Portraiture of the Sixteenth Century (1872)' (ODNB). In the preface, Stirling-Maxwell draws attention to the various methods used in reproducing the prints, e.g. the photo-lithographic: the photo-type; Sun-printing, i.e. the carbon process; and the photodynamic. These masterpieces of book production appear to have been distributed by presentation to friends, notable persons and institutions. As the present and subsequent volumes all remained at Keir, there are no presentation inscriptions. Provenance: 1) Christie’s, The Property of Archibald Stirling of Keir, 22-24 May 1995, lot 712. 2) The Late Lord David Douglas-Hamilton (1952-2020).