Prints, Politics and People: The English Satirical Print, 1600-1832

Not least east amongst the diverse contributions of the British Museum and British Library to scholarship are their splendid catalogues of particular collections and genres among their holdings. Outstanding is the Catalogue of Political and Personal Satires edited in eleven volumes between 1870 and 1954 by F.G. Stephens and M.D. George. It lists and comments upon some 17,000 items produced by 1832, reaching with Volume V the eighteenth century, when artistically, stylistically, technically and in demand and distribution the satirical print came into its own. In 1978 the Museum reprinted the Catalogue to accompany Charles Chadwyck-Healey Ltd's vast microfilm edition of English Cartoons and Satirical Prints, access to which, obviating the necessity of protracted trips to London, has already proved a boon to scholars in a whole range of disciplines. But all too few institutions, to say nothing of individuals, can afford to invest in the set, or in similar proliferating collections (all subject to VAT) by Harvester