The Sun.
London, England, 1866-03-24 00:00:00

THE ROYAL HERALDIC ALBUM.

Published by. Dean and Son, Ludgate Hill.
A magnificent volume, entitled The Royal
Heraldic Album, has already, we find, been issued
from the press by the Messrs. Dean and Son, of
Ludgate-hill—the publishers, among other works, of
Debrett's Peerage, and Baronetage, and Knightage.
A ponderous and costly tome it is, too, this Royal
Heraldic Album. A veritable edition de luxe, clad
externally in a gorgeous bevilled binding, richly
emblazoned, and internally illuminated with great
splendour in the opening pages, at least, in the
leaves that is immediately following the explana-
tory letterpress conveying to the reader's appre-
hension, in a very distinct way, indeed, all the
more important rudiments of the science of
heraldry this letterpress, moreover, being
illustrated in its turn with a profusion of
appropriate woodcuts. half-a-dozen .leaves of
the album, in fact, are illuminated in the
manner we have described—half-a-dozen, including
among them the exquisite title-page. The five
coats-of-arms thus displayed to view in all the
radiance of gilding and rainbow dyes, are those of
the Sovereign, of the Prince of Wales, of the Earl
of Clarendon, of the Earl of Derby, and of the late
Viscount Palmerston. These five being given thus
simply as specimens. The rest of the volume, con-
sisting of blank leaves, with (in each) a " mount"
—something after the fashion of the carte-de-
visite albums, only of a quarto-size instead of
being like the carte-de-visites simply in minia-
ture. The Heraldic Album is thus arranged, or
" appointed," of course, after this fashion, so as
to enable the amateur illuminator to insert at
pleasure in the after pages of the volume, card by
card, other coats-of-arms, accordingly as those other
coats of arms are selected and completed. The
idea which suggested to thepublishers of " Debrett,"
the issuing from the press of this very beautiful
volume, is in some measure akin to that which a
few weeks since prompted our own suggestion in
the columns of The Sun, that the ladies of England
having a taste, and having also leisure for these
elegant avocations, should, in preference to the
mere collection of postage-stamps and monograms,
open to themselves a new source at once of amuse-
ment and instruction, by undertaking the illumina-
tion, page by page, of the heraldic designs adorning
just such a popular Peerage as that of Debrett's. It
is akin, we say, the idea of this Heraldic Album, to
the thought that prompted our own suggestion--
but it is no more than akin to it. It is, in other words,
not the thought itself, much less the actual anticipation
or realisation of our suggestion. The Royal Heral-
dic Album is too costly a work to come within the
category of what we ourselves proposed. It is a
volume too magnificent, and yet, at the same time,
too incomplete, too much of a mere selection, to
fall within the reach of ordinary purchasers.
What we proposed, and what we would still urge
upon the consideration of those in any way inte-
rested in the study of heraldry on the one hand,
and of illumination upon the other, is the em-
bellishment or emblazonment by the hands of ama-
teur illuminators of either an ordinary copy of
such a work as Debrett's Peerage, published at
seven and sixpence ; or better still, perhaps, of an
exceptional edition of the same work, printed upon
thicker paper (for the purpose of illumination), say
at half a guinea; or, best of all, perhaps, as render-
ing such a work permanent instead of merely fugi-
tive in its character—an edition of Debrett contain
ing within it the family crests, and coats-of-arms, and
supporters of the various noble houses numbered up
in the Peerage, simply with their titles attached
and the dates of their original ennoblement.
Such an edition of the Peerage, without
in any way interfering with a costly publication like
the one here immediately under notice, would, or we
are very much mistaken, open up a new branch of
elegant industry—superseding the mere collection
and arrangement of postage stamps and mono-
grams, effecting this change by awakening a prefer-
ence for the superior graces and beauties of heraldic

MAYALL'S LIFE-SIZE PHOTOGRAPES.

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Photographic Portraits the full size of life have,
no doubt, often before now been produced. But
they have certainly never been produced with such
brilliant success—as works at once of Art and
Nature—as by Mr. Mayall's New Solar Camera Pr o -
cess, a process the results of which are not only life-
size, but life-like. From a negative not larger in
its dimensions than one inch square there can be
produced—nay, for that matter, there have been
produced .(what are now actually on view at Mr.
Mayall's establishment in Regent-street) a series
of Eight different sized photographic portraits,
each larger than its predecessor—beginning (this
wonderful series) with a portrait exactly the size of
the one inch square negative, and so on, larger and
larger by regular gradations, up to the full-size of
life, up to the eighth and last in this magical series,
to a portrait the veritable alter ego of the individual
represented. The series here referred to as being
now on view at Mr. Mayall's Photographic Gallery,
224-226, Regent-street, gives us in this, marvellous
way eight distinct shadowings forth of the noble
head of the Poet Laureate. The original process for
magnifying minute negatives by means of enormous
reflectors and condensers, was contrived some
years ago in Belgium by Monckhoven, but to
Mr. Mayall we are indebted for the adaptation
of that original process to this latest improvement
of all in the photographic art, the one called by
him the process of the New Solar Camera. The
enlarged portraits thus produced are no longer
than what enlarged photographic, portraits used
to be until this new process was hit upon—
namely, coarser and coarser in proportion to the
larger and larger size to which the original negative
was expanded by the huge reflectors and condenser
employed. Now—thanks to Mr. Mayan's admirable
process—the largest size of all, namely, the life-sized
portrait, (saving only in the noticeable difference
of size) is simply identical in appearance with the
one-inch-square imprint taken from the original
negative. It marks a triumph—this new Solar-
Camera Process—in the general advancement and
development of the Photographic Art, upon the
successful accomplishment of which Mr. Mayall
may very well be congratulated.

TEE HOUSE OF COMMONS IN 1860.

Painted by John Philip, R.A.

At Mr. McLean's new Gallery, 7, Haymarket,
there is now on view Mr. Phillip's masterly painting
of The House of Commons in 1860, a picture that
many will remember to have seen three years ago,
namely, in 1863, on the walls of the Royal
Academy. Hardly ever, even for a few minutes at
a time, could it be seen there during that season's
Royal Academy Exhibition to anything at all like
advantage. And this simply because of its popu-
larity, because of its very attractiveness. It was
the show picture of the year, the one about which
the visitors to the gallery of the Royal Academy
collected in crowds, so that not one of them could-
contrive to see it beyond just a little bit at a time.
Insomuch was this literally the case, that we hardly
seemed to have seen it at all until we had the satisfac-
tion of examining it at our leisure where it now is,
namely' in the inner room at No. 7 in the Hay-
market. And a masterpiece the picture is in its way,
not only as a work of art, but as a vivid repre-
sentation of the age we live in. "The very age and
body of the time, its form and pressure," are there
pourtrayed in the " counterfeit presentments" of the
leading rulers of the epoch. Lord Palmerston, it
may be remembered, is represented by Mr. Phillip
in his picture as addressing the House of Commons
on a Wednesday morning's debate during the ses-
sion of 1860. Mr. Speaker (the Right Hon. Evelyn
Denison) occupies the central position in the back-
ground—seated there wigged and robed in his
peen chair of authority. At his right hand
there stands, noticeably equipped in sword and
bag-wig, and silk stockings, the Sergeant-at-
Arms, Lord Charles Russell. Seated at
the table, in front of these, are the
three clerks of the House—Mr. Ley, Mr. May,
and Sir Denis Le Marchant. On the spec-
tator's left hand (to the Speaker's right) are the oc-

cupants of the Treasury bench—on the Spectator's
right (to the Speaker's left) are the occupants of
the front bench of the Opposition. Conspicuously
placed in the foreground, among the ranks of the
Government, notebook in hand, is seated Sir George
Cornewall Lewis. Confronting him, hardly less
conspicuously placed, is the Right Hon. Gentleman
the Leader of her Majesty's Opposition. Grouped
around Lord Palmerston—who, as we have said, is
in the act of addressing the house—are the late Pre-
mier's chief colleagues, including among them Earl
Rutsell (Lord John, as he was then), Mr Gladstone,
Sir George Grey, Mr. Villiers, and Sir Charles
Wood, now Lord Halifax. Behind them are Mr.
Cardwell and Sir Roundell Palmer. Further back
is Mr. Milner Gibson. Below the Gallery, standing
side by side, are Mr. Cobden and Mr. Bright. Next
to Mr. Disraeli, ranged on the front opposition bench
in due sequence, are Lord Stanley, General Peel, and
Sir Bulwer Lytton. Near them are standing Sir
Hugh Cairns and Sir John Pakington. On the back
benches, among others, are Mr. Walpole, Mr. Henley,
and Lord John Manners. The management of the
whole picture is a masterpiece of ingenuity. The
painting of it in all its minute technical details is
exquisite as a piece of artistic manipulation.
Its chief historical value and importance„ how-
ever, consist in the extraordinary accuracy of
the portraitures of the great leaders of party in the
middle of this nineteenth century, here in England,
such men as Lord Palmerston and Mr. Disraeli, as
Lord Russell and Lord Stanley, as Mr. Gladstone
and Sir Bulwer Lytton, the first and foremost
among the law-makers and administrators of Eng-
land during the reign of Victoria. When engraved
—and .the engraving, by the way, is now being exe-
cuted in the highest style of art by Mr. Barlow—
the picture will be as popular, we feel certain, as
any work of art of a political character that has
ever been produced.