Le Blond issued most of his smaller subjects on mounts either with embossed or gold borders of various designs with title cartouches and very often the print number. One thing they all have in common is that the prints are always cut out and stuck on to the mounts.
However some time ago I acquired a copy of Tyrolean Waltz that was totally different, instead of the print being stuck to the gold mount, the ‘mount’ was in fact printed over the print. On comparison to a print with the normal pocket book letting you can see how Le Blond utilised the already printed title and fitted the gold overlay over this. You can also see the traces of the ‘Printed in oil colours by Le Blond & Co” and ‘Licensees London’, that are under the oval print, through the white design in the gold over mount. Courtney Lewis doesn’t mention this type of mount and I feel it was most probably experimental, this was one of their earliest prints and numbered No 1 by them.
This print was on the same plate as Brothers Water, Venice and Her Majesty at Balmoral but I can’t see how this type of overlaid design (using the title on the printed page to be visible through the mount) would work as well on any of the other prints.
The principle of printing a gold overlay onto a print wasn’t completely wasted. Le Blond used the same method to print gold fabric labels over prints on some of his small ladies, no titles or lettering required or visible to complicate matters.
Since originally writing this piece I have acquired three other copies, all with the same gold over mount, from a large collection of Le Blond prints. So perhaps not experimental but still very rare.
Currently I have some copies available for sale, please contact me if you are interested in purchasing an example