The Immeasurable Wilds: Travellers to the Far North of Scotland

The Victorian Popular Print

I am a great fan of what comes under the broad heading "The Popular Print." I have no idea why, but I get particularly excited when I come across these often naive images, and I always have been. While others at University were buying Black Sabbath Albums, I would delight in some obscure Victorian print I had found in an antique shop. "Popular Prints" are classed as cheap, massed-produced images that found a wide market during the 19th century, and at a technical level, they exhibit as well as anything the development and improvement in colour printing techniques. Another similar field that delights me is that of the Victorian illustrated music sheet, as is evident in my sub-page on this website. There is something about the colours, the texture, and often the energy of the images that thrills me even if the art is not of the highest quality - and it often isn't! I thought I would highlight the category on a page in this website, in the hope that I am not alone in this enthusiasm, and maybe even add a few converts to the subject.

Nothing excites me more in this field than this print I have recently acquired, presumably titled The Highlanders Return. There is just a small imprint at the bottom, slightly tatty and difficult to make out: "Published by F. Silber, Berlin Lomsen (or Lornsen) strasse 53." There is no title, nor a date, but I have found another Silber print online, which is dated 1855. That seems about right for this one. It is quite a large print, approx. 55cms x 42cms, and very fragile: it fell to pieces when I removed it from the frame, and has had to be pieced together by the astonishingly skilled paper restorer that I am lucky enough to know. Being mass-produced, such popular prints were often of a poor quality which explains this one's fragility, and why they are often very scarce. I can't find any other example of this one online.

I bought the print from America, which found a market for such sentimental images - and many of these popular prints have a sentimental quality. The United States and Canada had, of course, become home to many migrants from Scotland at this time. Here is another Highland Lass, published by the famous American firm of Currier and Ives.

"Scotland". Another of my favourites, with wonderfully extravagant original hand-colouring. It is cropped a little at the bottom, but a companion engraving, "Ireland", declares the publisher to be R. Lloyd, 40 Gibson Street, Lambeth, near the Coburg Theatre. There is also a date, June 7th, 1830. These are very scarce images that have done well to survive.