Explanation of terms used on this site
Baxter Print - Prints from the original plates and presses of George Baxter.
Le Blond Print - Prints from the original plates and presses of Abraham & Robert Le Blond, Le Blond & Co London. They produced some 125 original designs including 32 highly collectable oval prints. They purchased a licence from Baxter to use his method of printing which came with some unknown degree of training.
Le Blond-Baxter - A print from Baxter's plates but printed by Le Blond who purchased many of Baxter's plates after his death. For commercial reasons Le Blond omitted some of the colour blocks. They are generally not quite to Baxter's high standards yet some do equal Baxter showing that Le Blond had, arguably, as much ability as Baxter. His set of 32 ovals confirms this. Le Blond printed from approximately 60-70 of Baxter's plates, the majority of which he signed. During the late 1890's through to the 1920's a vast majority of these Le Blond-Baxters had their signatures removed by trimming a small portion from the bottom of the print. Presumably this was to enable them to be passed off as Baxter's own work. A signed version is now somewhat of a rarity and many Le Blond-Baxters are still unwittingly sold today as genuine Baxter Prints.
Licencee - A print by one of the printers who purchased a 'licence' from Baxter during the period of his patent. They were Le Blond & Co, Kronheim & Co, Bradshaw & Blacklock, William Dickes, Joseph Mansell and Myers & Co.
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Red Seal Mount (RSM) - An original mount with a red or deep brown printed oval seal surmounted by a crown stating printed by George Baxter and including the title of the print. Various forms exist usually appearing in the bottom left hand corner of the mount to which the Baxter print is mounted.
Stamped Mount (SM) - An original mount with an embossed oval seal surmounted by a crown stating printed by George Baxter with separate embossed title of the print underneath. Various forms exist usually appearing at the bottom left hand corner of the mount to which the Baxter print is mounted or under the centre of the print. Examples of prints exist with a fake embossed seal, with or without print titles. They have been seen together with 'modern' mechanical and photographically produced Baxter Prints faked during the 1920's. Also on Le Blond prints especially his needle box prints - please see our fakes and forgeries page
Blue Line Mount (BLM) - An original mount with a plain blue line drawn around the edge of the print. Baxter noticed that many people were removing his prints from the books in which they were issued to put into the family's parlour scrapbook, a popular pastime in Victorian times. He then started to issue theses prints in this format specifically for that purpose.
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Pocket Book Lettering (PBL) - Many of Baxter's and Le Blond's prints were meant as illustrations for small pocket books or almanacs. Prints, which are the complete pages from these books, which still show the title and usually the printers name are referred to as PBL. We use this term slightly more loosely to describe any print, originally issued in a book, when complete with its original book lettering.
Music or Music Cover - A number of Baxter's prints were used as illustrations to the front sheet of music covers. These are quite rare, even rarer when complete with the actual music.
Signed - Refers to the printers name being an integral part of the print i.e. a signed Baxter will have something like 'Printed by George Baxter, Northampton Square' printed within the image usually somewhere along the bottom. Please be aware that there are some forgeries about with the 'signature' bottom right under the image. For more details please see our Fakes and Forgeries page.
CL No. - Refers to the print number allocated to it by Courtney-Lewis, the Baxter collector who wrote the first book and full catalogue of Baxter Prints in 1908.
LB No. - Refers to the number allocated to the prints of Le Blond & Co and used by Courtney-Lewis in his Le Blond Book of 1920.
Foxing - Brown marks or spots on the print or mount caused by natural acids or moisture. Unfortunately quite common in any old paper based item