The grant of arms to the Barber Surgeons' Company, 1569. Colour photolithograph by W. Griggs, 1885.

1885

1 print : photolithograph, printed in colours ; image 59.2 x 88 cm

To all and singuler as well Kinges Herehaultes, and Officers of Armes, as nobles, gentlemen, and others to whome these presentes shall come ...

"He [William Griggs] also devised a practicable colour photolithographic process, by first printing from a photolithographic transfer a faint impression on the paper to serve as a ‘key’, separating the colours on duplicate negatives by varnishes, then photolithographing the dissected portions on stones, and finally registering and printing each in its position and particular colour, with the texture, light, and shade of the original. Griggs greatly reduced the cost of producing colour work by a simplified form of this innovation, namely by a photolithographic transfer from a negative of the original to stone, printed as a 'key'’ in a suitable colour, superimposing thereon, in exact register, transparent tints in harmony with the original. Opaque colours, when necessary, were printed first."-- Oxford dictionary of national biography, s.v. Griggs, William

George Lambert, A paper read before the British archaeological association ... at Barber Surgeons' hall, Monkwell Street, London, on Saturday, October 15th, 1881, 2nd edition, London 1882, pp. 50-55 (transcription of the present work)

Sidney Young, Annals of the Barber-Surgeons, London: Blades, East & Blades, 1890 p. 437 ("12th June 1569. The grant of arms by Dethick etc. is a beautifully artistic production, though, unfortunately, slightly damaged, and the seals are missing. In 1885 the Company had it reproduced in chromo-photography, by Mr William Griggs,whose work has been so skilfully executed that it is difficult to observe the least difference between the original and the copies.")

Wellcome Collection 574943i