So most people know how mad I am about local history, and over the years I have had various copies of the different reproduction historical books of the 1831 TT Bury “Coloured views on the Liverpool and Manchester railway” but have never been able to buy or afford an original book, which sell with 6 to 12 prints at anything from 6000 to 12000 pounds.
But, I think that I’ve managed to buy an original 1831 Ackerman of Plate 4, showing the “Viaduct across the Sankey Valley” which is brilliant for me as the viaduct is In the local town.
On the back of the framed print it had a typed note saying it was guaranteed to be over 140 years old, but I just wanted to check.
I have a cased and leather bound repro of the original book from the 70s which probably has the best set of repro prints available, so I started to compare the old framed print to these recent repro versions.
The older framed print is so much finer quality, text, edging lines and the actual image is so much more detailed, it does seem to be a tinted print from the etching, rather than a printed coloured page.
I have included a few photos showing the older print and similar view print from what I know is a modern reproduction..
This is the print I bought sitting alongside a 1970s cased and leather bound repro of the old book, which the old print would have been removed and mounted, this removal of old prints from these books happened lots, so that now not many of the complete 1831 books now exist in a complete condition.
This shows the 1970s repro book and its image on the left, and the ‘original’ old print on the right.
I already owned this old book “Centenary History of the Liverpool to Manchester Railway”. This book was the key to identifying the old prints age and that it is authentic.
Page 128 of this publication explains that over the different years, the new editions of the book that were printed in the 1830s were different in that the address for Ackerman’s the printers of the book, changed over the different editions as they moved premises, changed names or added and removed partners to their business.
This page shows that the 1831 edition listed as: “State 4” has the numbered corner as “4 .” and that the publishers address at the very bottom centre, below the title will be 69mm in length.
The smaller repro image on the left shown in the Centenary History book, and the larger image which I purchased is in its frame on the right side of the image.
This shows clearly that the old print has lots better defined details, It has sharper lines and edges, It even shows a little more detail on the train than the modern repro images.
Again the older print has much sharper lines and details, it shows a bit more detail in the train, and also in the farmhouse, windows etc everything is more defined, even the pyramid top on the end of the pillar of stone that’s to the left of the house, is much clearer on the older print, the modern reprint is more colourful, but more blurred almost smudged showing less concise detail.
This image shows that on the older framed tinted print I purchased the page number is shows as just “4 .” where on the more modern reproductions it will most likely like the book repro have “Plate 4”. This fits with the descriptions of the different ages and variations of the prints.
This shows the photo of the snippet from the Centenary History book page which explains the publishers address text should be 69mm in length.
The older framed print is much sharper, and on the corner actually shows a small error in the etching where the vertical edging li e has been scribed just a little too low, past the bottom edge
This photo shows the publishers address matches the “Line B” version at 69mm, as detailed that it should be in the Centenary History book
This shows the publishers full address at the middle bottom of the old print, matches the “Line B version” of the different address’s used by the publishers across the different editions, as detailed in the Centenary History book
Old and new, the older hand tinted framed image is at the top, and a good reproduction of the image, in a very classy limited edition cased and leather bound book is at the bottom
The older tinted etching is at the top, it’s a much more fine font, and obviously sharper edge lines, the tinted print shows a few issues where the artist who hand coloured it was a little over careful to not go over the edging line, the newer repro image is at the bottom, yes, its more colourful but over all it has much less detail and again looks slightly blurred or smudged
The older 1831 hand tinted printed etching.
The recent 1970s reproduction.
I think I really did manage to get an original Ackerman printed TT Bury print, I believe I can show and be certain, that it is actually an original print, being a version from Line B, State 3 from 1831, as sown and detailed in the book “Centenary History of the Liverpool to Manchester Railway”
It’s almost like it found me, when I was not actually searching, gave up years ago looking for an original print of this
