ABSTRACT

The core of the ‘incunabula’ of steel-engraved book illustration consists of the 70 or so plates published in 20 works by Longman, who from the beginning, realized the commercial importance of the new metal, and used it to extend the editions of popular works in their repertoire. They had acquired the list of popular works previously issued by Sir Richard Phillips, who had, under a number of pseudonyms, published cheap educational books, such as The Universal Preceptor issued under the nom deplume of Revd David Blair. The twelfth edition (1820) carried a folding frontispiece of the

solar system, engraved by Wilson Lowry, which was probably the second illustration to be engraved on steel. The Revd William Fordyce Mavor, Rector of Woodstock, became one of Phillips’s authors, and one of his most famous contributions was The English Spelling Book . . . which in 1821/22 acquired a steel-engraved frontispiece.