Comments:

Ad Stijnman describes: ‘George Bickham, The Universal Penman, London: Bickham, [ca. 1740–1743], 212 plates. The vignet of plate [35] shows an intaglio printshop. The series of prints was published in installments from 1733. Contents therefore differ per copy. The 1941 facsimile constitutes an ‘ideal’ copy of 212 plates with given continuous numbering.

Technique:

Engraving

Literature:

George Bickham (1733 onwards) The Universal Penman, London.

George Bickham (1941) The Universal Penman: Engraved by George Bickham, London 1743, introd. essay by Philip Hofer, Ontario: Struck; London: Constable.

George Bickham (1954) The Universal Penman, New York: Dover (Dover Pictorial Archive Series) and reprinted without changing the date.