The Old Book Appreciator

Now here is a beautiful (and art-historical) book. (Read the gorgeous 1841 edition of it here.)

Scottish writer John Gibson Lockhart’s translations of classic Spanish poems, Ancient Spanish Ballads was initially published by William Blackwood and Sons of Edinburgh in 1823. Lockhart (1794 – 1854) is one of those major-minor figures of English literary history who doesn’t get talked about much despite his relative importance. He was an essayist and critic for Blackwood’s Magazine, and authored four novels, as well as The Life of Sir Walter Scott, a biography of his uncle, which has been called the second greatest biography in the English language after Boswell’s life of Johnson.

This stunning 1841 edition of Ancient Spanish Ballads is copiously illustrated by a large team of illustrators headed up by the great Owen Jones (1809 – 1874) (credited on the title page with creating the “borders and vignettes.”) Jones produced the designs for this edition while studying at the Alhambra in Granada and preparing his own Plans, Elevations, Sections and Details of the Alhambra. (Jones went on to produce his masterpiece in 1856, The Grammar of Ornament, which to this day remains the standard book on the subject.)

At this same time, in 1837, chromolithography was invented in France by Alois Senefelder. The technique was only a couple years old when Jones and his team of chemists and illustrators began to use it for illustrations of major deluxe books like this one.

Alice H.R. Beckwith, who wrote a book about 19th century illuminated books, discusses some more of the history behind this book and Jones here.

Note: These images are in the public domain. For more information, see A Primer on Image Rights on OBA.