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Nineteenth-century jobbing: the printing methods of Gye and Balne

This article is the outcome of archival research at a number of institutions including the Bodleian Library, British Library, British Museum, Harvard University, University of Reading, and Yale University. It is a detailed case-study of the working methods of several related jobbing printers operating in Bath and London between 1771 and 1844. The article reconstructs their likely methods of production and examines the ways in which they broke new ground by pushing the limits of letterpress technology. These firms specialised in colour printing at a time when most printing was still in monochrome. However, they were pioneers not only in colour printing but also in the use of wood type and the production of designs in which text and image were integrated.