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Herring's Fox-Hunting Scenes

Glass Coloured Print
19th century (made)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

This is a glass print, sometimes called a glass picture. Its maker had to soak a black and white print in water, stick it face down onto the back of a sheet of glass, rub most of the paper away from the back leaving a thin transparent layer of paper and the ink making the image. The next stage was to colour the image from the back in oil colours. This was then fitted into a frame and the buyer could then hang it up on his or her wall straight away. Because the print is stuck to the back of the glass, if the glass gets cracked or broken, it cannot be replaced.

English writers of artists' manuals describe how to make glass prints from the 1680s onwards. The period of their greatest popularity was from about 1760 to 1790. Much of the appeal of glass prints to shoppers was their relative cheapness compared to framed oil of watercolour paintings, which were entirely painted by hand. Glass prints were clearly made on a commercial basis, because certain prints on paper are regularly found turned into glass prints.


Object details

Categories
Object type
TitleHerring's Fox-Hunting Scenes (series title)
Materials and techniques
Lithograph transferred to glass and painted, in moulded bird's-eye maple frame with gilt filet
Brief description
Framed glass picture - The Death
Physical description
Glass picture
Dimensions
  • Frame size height: 34cm (average size of set)
  • Frame width: 43.7cm (average size of set)
Marks and inscriptions
  • HERRING'S FOX-HUNTING SCENES: THE DEATH (Lettered)
  • Painted by J.F. Herring Senr. / After the engraving by J. Harris (Lettered)
Credit line
Given by Teddy Dawe
Object history
RP No. 96/1175.

According to Sitzer (see references), John Harris published two sets each of four prints of Hunting scenes by J.F. Hering in 1852 and 1874
Subjects depicted
Summary
This is a glass print, sometimes called a glass picture. Its maker had to soak a black and white print in water, stick it face down onto the back of a sheet of glass, rub most of the paper away from the back leaving a thin transparent layer of paper and the ink making the image. The next stage was to colour the image from the back in oil colours. This was then fitted into a frame and the buyer could then hang it up on his or her wall straight away. Because the print is stuck to the back of the glass, if the glass gets cracked or broken, it cannot be replaced.

English writers of artists' manuals describe how to make glass prints from the 1680s onwards. The period of their greatest popularity was from about 1760 to 1790. Much of the appeal of glass prints to shoppers was their relative cheapness compared to framed oil of watercolour paintings, which were entirely painted by hand. Glass prints were clearly made on a commercial basis, because certain prints on paper are regularly found turned into glass prints.
Bibliographic reference
Sitzer, F. The Story of British Sporting Prints. London, 1925
Collection
Accession number
E.592-1997

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Record createdApril 8, 2009
Record URL
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