William Dickes

He studied at the Royal Academy Schools in 1835 and displayed examples of oil-colour printing at the Great Exhibition.

William Dickes was one of a group of London-based wood-engravers who saw in the developing market for illustration a great opportunity to profitably use their technical and artistic skills - the burgeoning book and periodical trade in London created an insatiable demand for images.

Dickes assembled a team of wood-engravers between 1842 and 1847 to illustrate the Abbotsford edition of Walter Scott's work.

[1] Dickes specialised in illustrating books on natural history—such as works by Anne Pratt— and was a licensee of the Baxter Process of printing.

[2][3] His biographer, Alfred Docker, bequeathed 1370 works by Dickes to the British Museum in 1931 and these are kept at Blythe House.