Decorative Sunday
Today we are featuring some beautiful early chromolithographic plates from the second volume of Wyatt’s Industrial Arts showcasing wallpaper, fabric, and carpet design items from the 1851 Great Exhibition, published in 1853 by Day & Son of London. Day & Son was run at the time by William Day the younger, also known as WJ Day. His father, William Day the elder, founded the firm in 1824 and had established himself as one of the premier lithographic printers in Britain. In 1938, the firm was appointed as “lithographer to the Queen,” a designation maintained by WJ Day. The letterpress was printed by George Barclay of Castle Street, London.
WJ Day approached Secretary of the Great Exhibition, Matthew Digby Wyatt, about the project, hoping to demonstrate the utility of chromolithography to the industrial sector. The result, in the words of Wyatt, was “the most important application of Chromo-Lithography to assist the connexion which should subsist between Art and Industry.” In a postscript, Wyatt describes the 18-month publication process, focusing especially on impressive labor of the lithographers, most full-time employees of Day & Son’s. The two volumes were produced in an edition of 1,300, containing 160 plates that required an average of 7 printings per plate. In all, the entire run required 1069 stones, 17,400lbs of paper, and 1,350,500 pulls!
View past posts about Wyatt’s The Industrial Arts of the Nineteenth Century here.
View more Decorative Sunday posts here.
-Olivia, Special Collections graduate intern.