Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 1.djvu/595

 Kps.LJcNEi8.i90i.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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productions were much sought after as illustrations to books and pictures for house decoration, the smaller prints being used for needle packets and workboxes. Over 200 examples of his work are known, and a fairly representative collection has been given to the British Museum, and can be seen at any time at the Print Department.

The excellence and conscientiousness of his workmanship, the superiority of the materials he employed, the scrupulous care he expended upon the production, and his artistic choice or subject and colour, have earned for him the admiration of all who have seen his work, and the reputation of having produced (on hand presses) pictures in colours as fine as, if not more perfect than, any that can be produced to-day, notwithstanding the aid of modern science and the great improvements of recent years in printing machinery. It is interesting to note that among his admirers and patrons were the late Queen and the Prince Consort, of whom he printed several portraits. He received diplomas at the Great International Exhibition, and was awarded a gold medal by the King of Sweden. Harrison Weir was one of his apprentices.

In the British and Colonial Printer and Stationer, vol. liv. No. 13, will be found an article upon George Baxter which goes more fully into his process and the history of its inventor. FRANK W. BAXTER.

170, Church Street, Stoke Newington, N.

More than fifty years ago, when a small boy, I had two Baxters among my school- fellows, one of whom gave me a considerable number of the pretty polychromes, including one of the 1851 Exhibition. If memory serves, the donor was a son of George Baxter, whose place of business was in or near Oxford Street. I well remember the report that Baxter's secret had died with him. This must have been, 1 think, before 1857.

C. S. WARD.

See the 'Dictionary of National Biography,' the Athenceum, 19 January, 1867, the Gentle- man's Magazine of the following month, and N. &Q,'8 th S. x. 133; xi. 291.'

EVER ARC HOME COLEMAN.

71, Brecknock Road.

Up to 1835 Baxter's work is inscribed 44 Printed in Oil Colours," but subsequent productions have the word " Patented " added, the patent being granted in 1836. In 1849 Baxter commenced granting licences to several publishers, the fee being 2001. His catalogue enumerates 253 works, some very elaborate, particularly the ' Coronation of Queen Victoria,' published at 15 guineas. In

the 'Great Exhibition Official Catalogue,' 1851, occurs the following appreciative note :

"Nothing can be more beautiful and more perfect in execution than the charming plates printed in colours by Mr. Baxter's process."

It is a matter of conjecture whether Baxter's secret lay in the mixing of his colours, for although Vincent Brooks and Le Blond (both capable men) had the original plates to work from, they failed to reach Baxter's high state of excellence. Baxter married a daughter of Mr. Harrild, the manufacturer of rollers for printing machines.

Most of this information I extract from a brockureby Charles F. Bullock (Birmingham, 1901). CHAS. G. SMITHERS.

[Several other correspondents thanked for replies. ]

SELLINGER (10 th S. i. 428). DR. BIMBAULT, in 3 rd S. ii. 481, refers to a passage in Middleton's 'Father Hubbard's Tales/ about "dancing Sellenger's Round in moonshine about Maypoles." Will that reference, as also 3 rd S. iii. 8, be of assistance to your correspondent 1

EVERARD HOME COLEMAN.

71, Brecknock Road.

Sellinger is put for St. Leger. In 1730 two of this family were distinguished, viz., Arthur, second Viscount Doneraile ; and his uncle Sir John St. Leger, a Baron of the Irish Exchequer. A. H.

Is not this name merely St. Leger spelt phonetically ] YGREC.

4 DIE AND BE DAMNED' (10 th S. i. 328). Thomas Mortimer was a miscellaneous and voluminous writer, chiefly on economic subjects, who was for some time British vice- consul in the Netherlands. His largest work was ' The British Plutarch ' (6 vols. 8vo, 1762; second edition, revised and enlarged, 1774 ; translated into French by Madame de Vasse, 1785-6, Paris, 2 vols. 8vo), which contains lives of eminent inhabitants of Great Britain from the time of Henry VIII. to that of George II. 'Die and be Damned' is a confutation of the Calvinistic doctrine of eternal punishment (see pp. 49-50).

J. HOLDEN MAcMlCHAEL.

MARLOWE : DATE OF HIS BIRTH (10 th S. i. 408). Marlowe was born on 6 February, 1564, New Style, and christened on the 26th of the same month at the church of St. George the Martyr, Canterbury. A facsimile of the entry in the church register is furnished in