First and only edition of a beautiful, important and much sought practical manual of "decorative" printing (fine printing, colour printing, decorative ornament and illustration) compiled by the English printer and wood-engraver William Savage (1770-1843). It discusses printing presses, presswork (including the first clear and detailed description of make-ready), ink, types, paper and especially colour printing from multiple woodblocks, and is an essential reference for practicing fine printers, for the study of early 19th-century practice and for anyone with a practical, historical or bibliophile interest in colour printing. It is a pioneering work of colour printing, showing the author's latest experimental techniques and materials. The wood-engraved illustration plates, some from designs by A.W. Callcott, John Varley, John Thurston, (Thomas?) Willemont and W.H. Brooke, show a wide variety of subjects and demonstrate the effects that can be achieved with different colours.
One of the 127 copies printed on Demy wove paper. A front endleaf has the handwritten signature of William Savage, accompanied by the copy number 58. With a bookplate on the front paste-down. Lacking the plate with the Earl Spencer's arms and one text leaf, but otherwise a very good copy, with the fore-edge and foot margins untrimmed. Some leaves slightly browned or faintly stained along the outer edge of the margins, not approaching the text or images. Spine and boards with faded patches. A pioneering work of colour printing and an essential reference for early 19th-century printing practices, with an emphasis on fine printing. Abbey, England 233; Bigmore & Wyman II, pp. 297-301; Printing and the mind of man (1963), part 2, 141.