At a Puttick & Simpson auction in London on 8th April 1926 one Lot was particularly intriguing:

“Baxter Licensees - Bradshaw and Blacklock - Winn’s George Hotel, York, red seal mount, unrecorded.” It sold for £10 10s. equivalent to about £575 today so a substantial amount.

When the New Baxter Society published their physical catalogue of Bradshaw & Blacklock’s prints in 2007, it was stated in the foreword that “we have heard of three prints said to be by B&B – Bamborough (which was then listed, but not illustrated, as No 109 in the catalogue) Mountain of the Grande Chartreuse from Grenoble and Winn’s George Hotel, York but have been unable to locate them” (the latter two prints were not catalogued presumably because of greater doubt of their existence).

Some years later I came across a copy of the print - Winn’s George Hotel and under the print is stated:

“This Plate represents the interior of the State Dining Room at the George Hotel, Coney Street, which has been for Two Centuries and a half the principal Hotel in the City of York. It is contiguous to the Cathedral, The Museum, Ruins of St Mary’s Abbey, City Walls & c. &c.”

The print is unsigned but a B&B seal appears in the bottom left hand corner and states “Printed in oil colours by Bradshaw & Blacklock Licensees by Baxters Patent Process” It gives a London address being that of W J Adams & Co, who published many of their books, prints and publications, but doesn’t state their own Manchester address. The size of the actual print is approximately 31 cm x 22cm.

To me, with the titling as described, it is unlike anything else they have done. It is obviously rare as, at that time, it was the only known copy and the first time the print had been seen. Perhaps this was a commission for the hotel, a possible tourist souvenir of their visit to the hotel? Sometime later the New Baxter Society Newsletter for July 2023 had pictures of another copy of the print but this time the text under the title was in German supporting the ‘tourist souvenir’ idea.

The streetlifeyork.uk website gives an excellent history of the building which was built in 1455. By 1580 it had become ‘The George’. The Winn family seemed to have owned the hotel from the early 1700’s and it later became known as the ‘The Winn Family Hotel’. The website continues:

“With the coming of the railways which superseded both the passenger stage coaches and the mail coaches the hotel began to struggle. In 1855 the Inn was sold in 5 lots; 4 of which were bought by Leak and Thorpe and the 5th by the Horsley & Son gun manufacturers. Mr Winn, obtained a new hotel ‘Opposite and adjoining the railway station’ with ‘Porters always in attendance to convey the luggage from the trains’, which he named‘ WINN’S GEORGE HOTEL’.”

This is slightly confusing as it infers the ‘Winn’s George Hotel’ denotes the new building after 1855 but the room in the print is definitely of greater age and shows people in clothing of the 1600-1700’s. Why would anyone produce a print after 1855 showing a hotel that was no longer there?

I did come across another print which is virtually identical to the B & B copy. This time it is described as “The Interior of a room in Winn’s George Hotel, Coney Steet York” Lithographed by Day & Son Published April 28th 1851 by R Sunter. Confirming more logically that they were using the name of Winn’s George Hotel prior to 1855. An invoice dated 1853 states ‘Winn’s George Inn and Family Hotel’ therefore confirming ‘Winn’s George Hotel’ and ‘The Winn Family Hotel’ are just shortened versions of the full name and both ‘correct ‘and in use again before 1855. The invoice interestingly also states “This Hotel contains the finest Antique Room in the City, of the time of Charles II.” Charles II reigned between 1630 – 1685 which must refer to the room, AND the period, depicted in this print.

The history of the building does appear to have been confused over the years and even some York historical websites refer to Winn’s George Hotel as having been The George Hotel in Tanner Street which is the other side of the river. This wrong attribution has then been copied onto many, many other websites. It is only these two prints as well as the 1853 invoice that confirms that Winns’ is actually The George Hotel in CONEY STREET.

B&B‘s print, as stated is by the Baxter process, so must be from a metal key plate and colour blocks, the Day & Son version is stated as being a Lithograph. Day & Son would have printed from stone blocks but I can’t confirm whether the colour was printed by the same method, i.e. Chromolithography or coloured by hand. The print has a very blue tone which could be its original colour, although unlikely, or it could be completely faded, as the blue is usually the most resilient to sunlight and the last to remain.

The date of the Day & Son Lithograph being 1851 means that it is most probably the earlier print as B&B’s very first print by Baxter’s process was in that same year. They stopped using Baxter’s process for this type of work circa 1856. As this earlier building was sold in 1855, the Day & Son print dated 1851 and it being very unlikely both prints would be produced within the same year the B&B print most probably dates from between 1852-1854.

Winn’s George Hotel by Bradshaw & Black is now listed and illustrated in The New Baxter Society’s online catalogue of prints.