Studies From the Great Masters, Engraved and Printed in Colours by William Dickes

[1862?]. 40pp plus 18 leaves of tissue-guarded plates (chromoxylographs). Plates engraved and printed by William Dickes after Sir Joshua Reynolds, Thomas Stothard, Thomas Gainsborough, and other old masters, with prose illustrations by Rev Bennet George Johns. Blue cloth boards with extensive gilt decoration and lettering. All edges gilt. Large folio. Boards rubbed and worn, especially at corners and spine ends, where there is some fraying and minor loss, a couple of small indentations along upper edge on verso, mild marks. Front free endpaper absent, gutter cracked between endpapers. One plate loose. Others have left impression on protective leaves. Binder's ticket on rear endpaper - Westleys & Co., London. Prints were first issued in monthly parts, separately mounted, 1859-1862. Dickes biographer, Alfred Docker, bequeathed 1370 of Dickes' works to the British Museum in 1931. Scarce, hard to find title. LHD notes five copies : British Library, National Library of Scotland, V&A Libraries and Oxford and Cambridge Universities.