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William
Dickes (1815-1892) was an English illustrator, engraver,
printmaker and lithographer.
Dickes worked as apprentice to the wood-engraver Robert
Edward Branston, Allen Robert Branston's son, in about
1831. He studied at the Royal Academy Schools in 1835
and displayed examples of oil-colour printing at
the Great Exhibition. He founded William Dickes &
Company in London about 1864, his workshop and office
being at 48 Salisbury Square, Fleet Street, London
(1846–48); 4 Crescent Place, Bridge Street, Blackfriars,
London (1849–51); 5 Old Fish Street, Doctor's Common,
London (c.1852); 109 Farringdon Road, London
(c.1867-1875). Dickes retired in 1873.
William Dickes was one of a group of London-based
wood-engravers who saw in the developing market for
illustration a great opportunity to profitably use their
technical and artistic skills - the burgeoning book and
periodical trade in London created an insatiable demand
for images. Dickes assembled a team of wood-engravers
between 1842 and 1847 to illustrate the Abbotsford
edition of Walter Scott's work.
Dickes specialised in illustrating books on natural
history —such as works by Anne Pratt— and was a licensee
of the Baxter Process of printing. His biographer,
Alfred Docker, bequeathed 1370 works by Dickes to
the British Museum in 1931 and these are kept at Blythe
House.
Dickes collected many awards for the quality of his
lithography. Although starting with wood-engraving, he
moved to and developed new processes in colour
lithography using copper plates. His work was exhibited
at International Exhibitions in London, Dublin and Paris
in the 1860s.
Chromolithography reached its pinnacle toward the end of
the 1800s. Colour images were printed using multiple
stones, each printing a different colour in a process
calling for precise alignment. |
