Some time ago a friend gave me a photocopy of a very unusual item – A invoice given by George Baxter on the 24th March 1843 to James Alsop Esq of Leek.

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The invoice is for “1 pair prints in Oil Colours – (Williams & Moffat)” at £1 1s and 1 pair of gold frames at the same price.

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Interesting to see that Baxter describes himself as ‘inventor & Patentee of Oil Colour printing’ even on his invoice. We can safely assume that this invoice including the crest would have been printed in his own workshops – so technically a monochrome Baxter print in its own right? – Steel or wood engraving? We can’t tell from the photocopy but I feel the detail, especially of the crest could only have been gained from an engraving in metal.
 

Alsop was obviously a ‘subscriber’ to Baxter’s new works, as the invoice is dated 8 days prior to the prints official publication on 1st April. Courtney Lewis quotes the original published prices for each print as “to subscribers 10s. 6d., proofs 15s. and to non-subscribers 12s. proofs £1 1s.”
 

So although Alsop was ordering these prints prior to their official publication he was paying the non-subscribers price. From my understanding subscribers were people who ordered their prints in advance of them even being prepared. In the case of the Abolition of Slavery the required number of 150 subscribers was not reached and the print never got past the initial sketching stage.