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Sketches of Scenery in Perthshire

Printer: Hullmandel, Charles Joseph · b. 1789Printer: Robertson, JohnPrintmaker: Hill, David Octavius, RSA · 1802-1870Publisher: Hill, Thomas

Sketches of Scenery in Perthshire

Hill was only 19 when the first Part was issued. His Sketches of Scenery in Perthshire remains the most ambitious early publication using the medium…

Hill was only 19 when the first Part was issued. His Sketches of Scenery in Perthshire remains the most ambitious early publication using the medium of lithography in Scotland

The lithographs were originally issued in 6 Parts over a period from October 1821 until c.1823. Each Part comprised 5 prints hand stitched into a printed paper wrapper. Over the course of the publication no less than three different wrapper designs, again to D O Hill's designs were produced. The example present here is that printed by Hullmandel and used for Parts 4, 5 and 6. Following the issue Thomas Hill appears to have assembled together the unsold prints and bound them in the manner here preserved. Hill sold his Perth shop in May 1824 and removed to Edinburgh where he carried on his former business. The label gives his Perth address which must place the binding to before that date. The prints do not neccessarily follow the strict order of publication in such albums. A similar set of boards with the same printed label to the front survives in Perth Museum and Art Gallery collections though detached from the prints it originally contained. The style of label bears interesting comparison to that used by Andrew Geddes (1826) and Sir David Wilkie (1824) on their lifetime issues of etchings which were published about this time (vide scarce examples of both in Perth Museum and Art Gallery collection and of the Wilkie set in RSA collection (ref 1996.040.1-7 inc)). The Sketches of Scenery is often misleadingly referred to as a book however there was never any text issued to accompany Hill's plates.