ABSTRACT
This chapter outlines the part played in the production of the steel-engraved book by the engraver, artist and the author. The most popular kind of illustrated book by far was that containing views, mainly topographical works. The illustrations of Constantinople and the Near East, Palestine, India, China, Spain, Switzerland, Italy, France, the Low Countries, North America and Germany were all reworked time after time, but the attention devoted to the British Isles in its regional, mountain and coastal scenery was even greater. The next largest category was literature, chiefly English, with poetry as the most popular. Books on architecture, heraldry, cookery, natural history, zoology, botany, sport and technical subjects, together with some periodicals, encyclopaedias and dictionaries were among other categories illustrated by steel engravings.
