The Best of Baxter Exhibition, 2001

The 2001 summer meeting of the New Baxter Society was an exhibition of prints by the great man himself, George Baxter, aiming to show many of his best and rarest works.

Below is an article by John Gooderson who organised the event:-

Attended by 56 members and guests, the venue this year was the Jarvis International Hotel near Redbourn in Hertfordshire where the exhibition was held in The Garden Room. As usual it was our own members who provided the 250 or so exhibits and, as one member said, we managed to put on a display of prints of a standard that could, probably, not be seen anywhere else in the world.

George Baxter produced prints depicting a great variety of subjects so we decided that the best way to display his work would be to group them by category: -

Early Prints

Of the 35 prints that we had in this category the star must have been a near perfect copy of "Butterflies", however there were other gems on which to feast our eyes. "The Cabinet of Paintings", the original watercolour of "Caroline Mordant" next to the print itself, "The 'Conqueror' of Europe", "Passion Flowers and Roses" and the bizarre "Advice on Teeth"

Missionary Prints

All the heroes of the Missionary Society were here, Knibb, Moffat, Pritchard and Williams. There was the first variety of "The Wreck of the Reliance, "The Departure of the Camden" and the rare "Ordinance of Baptism" with no sail.

Needle Box Prints

As well as a good display of prints including the rare variety of "The May Queen Set" we had a showcase full of some the best needle boxes, pin cushions and the like.

The Great Exhibition

All seven "Gems of the Great Exhibition" were on show and all but one of the "Single Gems" (we could not find a copy of "The Attack of the Eagle"). We also had the book by Carstensen & Gildemeister, containing the print of the New York Crystal Palace.

Portraits

Pride of place had to be given here to the very rare copy of "Edmund Burke" with a five line inscription. We had, of course, the "Four Ladies" plus a copy of "The Parting Look" which had George Baxter's original signature appended.

Baxterotypes

A good selection of Baxter's answer to "Daguerrotypes" were displayed including all of the Raphael Cartoons.

Interiors

There were about twenty of Baxter's interior subjects to be seen including the old favourites "News from Australia" and "Australia News from Home". We had "Puss Napping", "The First Lesson" and a fine copy of "The Gardener's Shed" on stamped mount.

Exteriors

In this section we had one of the original paintings on which Baxter based his print "The Andalusians" by Fanny Corbaux. The similarity is clear although the positions of the figures are slightly different. Also on show were "The Review of the British Fleet", "The Charge of the British Troops" and "The Dogs of St. Bernard", one of Baxter's largest prints and the last that he printed before his retirement.

Royalty

Baxter was always keen to depict royalty in his prints and members were able to see some of his finest and rarest examples. "The Launch of the Trafalgar" was on show and the two with painstaking depiction of individual figures  "The Opening of Parliament" and "The Coronation of Queen Victoria" . We had "The Insignia of Knighthood" and "His Royal Highness Prince Albert" with 'Partridge' lettering plus three portraits of Queen Victoria and a 'Blue Line' copy of "Windsor Castle".

Topographical Prints

The display of these prints was split into British Isles and Foreign and in the first section were to be seen the two different copies of "The Dripping Well", a 'Blue Line' copy of "The Duke of Buccleuch's Residence" and several of Baxter's views designed for pocket books. In the 'Foreign' section we had the four prints of the ascent of Mont Blanc together with the descriptive text, the interesting print showing the "Parhelia" or mock sun effect and the rare version of "Lake Lucerne" with no sun's rays.

Music Covers

Always a nice collectors item and we weren't to be disappointed with the selection of seven on display. One gem was the only known copy of "Winter" on the music for "This Winter's Polka".

Pocket Books

There was an interesting display of prints in the original pocket books. One that has only recently been discovered and had not been recorded by Courtney Lewis was there - Suttaby's "The Sovereign" for 1855 which contains "St. Ruth's Priory".

Miscellaneous and Ephemera

We had a wealth of items in this section, some of Baxter's excursions into photography, his designs for title pages of pocket books, the map of the "Victories of Napoleon III", notepaper with the "De La Rue Queen", a Valentine Card, a Card Basket, advertisements, etc. etc.. We also had a section on 'The Production of a Baxter Print' showing steel key plates, wooden colour blocks, progressive pulls of "The Conchologists" and an original Embossing Stamp used by Baxter.

The Chubbs

They say that one always leaves the best to the last and I certainly have in this case. I am sure that some members would have come to the exhibition just to see the two perfect portraits of Charles and Maria Chubb together with their original steel key plates. We also had some interesting ephemera about the Chubbs and the prints and the lucky owner was on hand throughout the exhibition to talk to members and guests about the display.

As well as the wonderful array of prints, the tea provided was up to the standard that members would expect and the "Bring and Buy" sale was, as always, a great success rounding off what had been one of our best exhibitions yet. We look forward to next year's event.