Asta Bidspirit | Young Queen Victoria – Rare

Young Queen Victoria – Rare Early Colour Print by George Baxter, Produced by the Baxter Process – c.1850 – with Baxter’s Original Embossed Seal - A rare early colour print depicting a young Queen Victoria (1819–1901), by George Baxter (1804–1867), one of the most important pioneers in the history of commercial colour printing in Britain. The young Queen is portrayed in an imposing royal portrait, wearing an elegant dark dress, jewellery and royal decorations. Across her breast is the blue sash of the Order of the Garter, while the royal crown is prominently displayed beside her. The image belongs to the iconography of the young Victoria, many years before the sombre black mourning dress of her widowhood became her most familiar public image. George Baxter developed an innovative method for producing high-quality colour prints, combining a key impression with successive applications of colour from numerous printing blocks or plates. In 1835, he obtained a patent for his colour-printing process. The technique made possible richly coloured and highly detailed images at a period when commercial colour reproduction remained technically difficult and expensive. The process was labour-intensive and costly, and the subsequent development of cheaper colour-printing techniques contributed to its decline. Original Baxter prints consequently occupy an important place in the history of nineteenth-century colour printing. The coloured image is printed on substantial paper mounted onto a card support. Of particular importance, the lower portion of the mount retains George Baxter’s original embossed seal, incorporating a crown and wording associated with his patented process – an important identifying feature of an original Baxter production. The reverse shows extensive remnants of old paper/mounting material, indicating that the piece was formerly mounted.  An attractive and historically significant piece combining a youthful portrait of Queen Victoria, rich early Victorian colour printing, George Baxter’s pioneering patented process and the original Baxter embossed seal.