Link to Warwickshire Water Colours by Fred Whitehead
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1FtSqmUGXwDQPZPJeZ9eiSH_06Qy6Gndl/view?usp=sharing
This
Warwickshire Water-Colours Book by Fred Whitehead R.B.A (March 1916) was found
in a charity shop in a very poor state. So this is an incomplete copy of the
book. Many pages were seriously water damaged with damp, the binding was
falling apart, the Frontispiece (Kenilworth Castle) was torn and the board
covers damaged with the picture on the Front Cover (Ann Hathaway’s Cottage)
seriously faded. But surprisingly the water colour paintings inside the book
had been printed on a glossy high quality paper so on this basis I decided to
digitise and share. The key to the survival of these prints is the paper and
ink used. The paper has been coated with China clay in manufacture also it was
a higher weight (100 gsm) and thereby thicker (0.08 mm). Printing on this type
of paper is more difficult since more care has to be taken because the ink
dries more slowly not being as readily absorbed by the papers surface. I
suspect it was printed using a Chromolithography technique which was commonly
used for the reproduction of works of art. It is this technique that has now
allowed for such an excellent digitisation of the original prints in the book.
The only thing I have done in the digitisation process is reorientate some of
the paintings so they are correctly presented to you as you scroll through the
PDF. In the original many were printed so you had to turn the book through 90
degrees to view them correctly orientated.
Now
to the water colour paintings. Fred Whitehead (1853-1938) was born in
Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, United Kingdom although he is best known for his
paintings of the Dorset countryside. For more detail read the Wikipedia entry
for him by using the link below.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_Whitehead
On
my to do list is to go back and take up to date photographs of these locations.
But I already have one from another book project of mine looking at the History
of Warwick. This is the Leicester’s Hospital, Warwick (Plate 4) below today with Fred Whitehead's water colour shown below it for comparison.
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