any of the business archives of Victorian publishers have survived, in part or in their entirety, and are lodged in a number of university and national collections. For example, the dealings of Smith Elder are held in the National Library of Scotland in Edinburgh, the University of London is the holding institution for the archives of George Routledge and Co, and Longman’s are preserved at Reading University. Studied at length by Alexis Weedon in her monumental Victorian Publishing: The Economics of Book Production for a Mass Market 1836–1916, all such depositories are a rich source of information, allowing scholars to determine the business arrangements between authors, artists and publishers, as well as revealing concrete details of print runs, the costs of engraving and binding, and other pragmatic considerations.
This type of information has been explored in numerous studies, among them Royal Gettman’s study of the Richard Bentley Papers (1960) and Patricia Thomas Srebrnik’s analysis of the house of Strahan (1986), which draws on several archives. Less well-known are the transactions between artists, authors, and the minor houses. Papers relating to these arrangements were often lost or dispersed as the lesser publishers were absorbed into larger concerns or ceased business, and surviving documentation from those at the lower end of the market is decidedly scarce.
A rare survivor is a contract between the book-cover artist and illustrator, John Leighton (‘Luke Limner’) and the small-scale publisher of ‘light’ literature and juveniles, Grant and Griffith (Private Collection). Drawn up and written by Leighton in his distinctive hand, with corrections and additions by one or both of the publishers, it reveals the business involved in the publication of his picture-book, The London Cries and Public Edifices from Sketches on the Spot (usually date 1847, but 1848), with visual material by Leighton, and a text also written by the artist. The following is a transcribed copy, preserving the original spelling and punctuation:
Agreement with John Leighton Jr. Dec. 1848 Cries of London
Agreement between Messrs Grant and Griffith Publishers of St Pauls Church Yard on the one part and Mr John Leighton Junior Artist of 19 High Street Camden Town on the other
Messrs Grant and Griffith to publish a work entitled “The Cries of London and Public Edifices” they to pay all the expences of printing, paper and bookbinding. Mr Leighton to furnish twenty four drawings on zinc with tint stones to the same, also to supply frontispiece title and cover drawn on stone with tint stone and two colour stones, Mr Leighton to supply a coloured copy as guide to colourers in consideration that Messrs Grant and Griffith pay Mr Leighton at the rate of six-pence for every copy disposed of, or twenty five pounds for the first thousand copies and at the rate of four pence for every copy sold after that [.] number expences [sic] and profits to remain in the hands of Messrs Grant and Griffith accounts to be made up every six months viz to June 30 & December 31 such account to be settled in cash three months after delivery.
December 18th 1848 John Leighton
This brief document reveals important details about the nuts-and-bolts practicalities of publishing an illustrated book, specifying what Leighton agreed to produce. What is surprising, however, is the absence of any mention of his written accompaniment, which takes the form of a series of descriptions to match the lithographs. This seems an odd omission, given that he would have had to invest a considerable amount of time in producing these as well.
The terms of the contract are otherwise closely defined, with most of the power vested in the publisher, a situation which characterizes all of mid-Victorian dealings with publishers. Nevertheless, Leighton’s remuneration is reasonably good for a book of the period: the publication sold for half a crown plain and five shillings coloured, out of which the artist could be paid a royalty of sixpence for every sale if he chose this option, or £25 for the first thousand and four pence per copy thereafter. Given that the book went into a second edition in 1851 and was later republished, Leighton would have made a reasonable amount of money out of the transaction if he went for the sixpenny arrangement, although we have no way of knowing (in the absence of the company’s records) of precisely how many copies were ‘disposed of.’
Leighton’s front cover for The Cries of London [1848].
This was Leighton’s first work for the company, and he must have been sufficiently satisfied with the book’s earnings to do more. He went on to provide covers for nine additional publications, among them Anna Bray’s A Peep at the Pixies (1854) and Julia Maitland’s Cat and Dog (1854). Grant and Griffith itself seems to have changed hands by the mid-1850s and thereafter became the more famous and productive ‘Griffith and Farran.’
Acknowledgments
I am indebted to Graham Dry and Edmund King for their help in the preparation of this short account.
Links to Related Material
Bibliography
Primary Material
Luke Limner [John Leighton].The London Cries aand Public Edifices from Sketches on the Spot. London: Grant and Griffith [1848].
Original MS. contract, kindly shared by a private collector.Secondary Material
Gettman, Royal. A Victorian Publisher: A Study of the Bentlry Papers. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1960.
Srebrnik, Patricia Thomas. Alexander Strahan: Victorian Publisher. Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press, 1986.
Weedon, Alexis. Victorian Publishing: The Economics of Book Production for a Mass Market 1836–1916. Farnham: Ashgate, 2003.
Created 7 June 2023