"Lot 447 in Bass 3 provides, I think, some interesting information. Incidentally, it sold for $2100. The lot description follows:

Bradbury, Henry. NATURE-PRINTING: ITS ORIGINS AND OBJECTS. A LECTURE AS DELIVERED AT THE ROYAL INSTITUTION OF GREAT BRITAIN, ALBEMARLE STREET, ON FRIDAY EVENING, MAY 11, 1855. SIR CHARLES FELLOWS, VICE-PRESIDENT, IN THE CHAIR. London: Printed by Bradbury and Evans, Whitefriars, 1856. 28 pages.

(bound with) Bradbury, Henry. NATUR-SELBST-DRUCK: SEINEN URSPRUNG UND ZWECKEN. EIN VORTRAG VOR DER ROYAL INSTITUTION OF GREAT BRITAIN, ALBEMARLE STREET AN DEM ABENDE VON FREITAG DEN 11TEN MAI, 1855, VORGELESEN. SIR CHARLES FELLOWS, VICE-PRÄSIDENT, VORSITZENDER. London: Verlag von Bradbury und Evans, Whitefriars, 1856. 20 pages.

(bound with) Bradbury, Henry. ON THE SECURITY AND MANUFACTURE OF BANK NOTES. A LECTURE AS DELIVERED AT THE ROYAL INSTITUTION OF GREAT BRITAIN, ALBEMARLE STREET, FRIDAY EVENING, MAY 9, 1856. HIS GRACE THE DUKE OF NORTHUMBERLAND, PRESIDENT, IN THE CHAIR.

London: Printed by Bradbury and Evans, Whitefriars, Printers and Bank Note Engravers, 1856. (6), 30 pages, 3 superbly- engraved bank note facsimile plates, one printed in two colors. Quarto: 28 x 21.5 cm. Original dark maroon-brown full morocco, sides intricately paneled in gilt and blind, flat spine lettered in gilt, board edges decorated in gilt, gilt inner dentelles, recased at some time, with new endsheets, extremities a trifle worn. Fine. (1,500.00)

The author was the son of William Bradbury, of the firm of Bradbury & Evans, who were the proprietors of Punch, founder of the Daily News and other major periodicals, and publishers for Dickens and Thackeray. Born in 1831, he entered as a pupil in the Imperial Printing Office of Vienna in 1850, where he became acquainted with the art of nature printing. He subsequently employed the process in London. He also paid great attention to bank notes and the security of paper money. Bradbury wrote several works of considerable merit, culminating in 1860 with his magnum opus, Specimens of Bank Note Engraving . The above works are prominently cited in the complete title of that volume.

Tragically, as noted in the Dictionary of National Biography, "He died by his own hand 2 Sept. 1860, aged 29, leaving a business he had founded which was carried on under the name of Bradbury, Wilkinson & Co." Up to the present time, the Bradbury firm continues as a major banknote printer.

The first title is dedicated by Bradbury to Alois Auer, Director of the Imperial Court and Government Printing-Office at Vienna, "in memory of his sojourn at Vienna, and studies in the establishment over which he resides." Nonetheless, Bradbury boldly chastises Auer in the text for improperly claiming to have discovered the process of nature-printing, though he credits the Imperial Printing-Office at Vienna for bringing it to "a practical state of perfection." Bradbury cites a 1572 work as containing "the first recorded hint as to taking impressions of plants" and mentions that instructions are given in de Moncoy's 1650 Journal des Voyages. He also notes that

"Linnaeus, in his Philosophia Botanica, relates that in America, in 1707, impressions of plants were made by Hessel."

The dénouement comes on pages 26 et sequentia, where Bradbury excoriates the dedicatee of the work, Alois Auer, and accords high praise to this volume's recipient, Paul Pretsch:

"First, it is evident, that, in more circumstances than one, Councillor Auer, who has arrogated to himself the sole discovery of Nature-Printing, has given proof of a selfish and unfair desire to aggrandise himself at the expense of others: his passion for fame has led him even beyond the warrantable bounds of propriety "

And, of working manager Pretsch, Bradbury writes that Auer owes to him

"much of his present high position by reason of energetical and practical and even scientific capability."

Though "beautiful as their execution is," he is critical of American bank notes and also relates the following:

"Whilst making reference to the American Notes, I will allude to a circumstance that would most puzzle the ingenuity, in reference to the prevention of forgery. The fact of America being divided into so many States, and each State being represented by a different note, the forgers did not think it worth their while to imitate any one, and therefore concocted a note of their own."

All three of these publications appear to be extremely rare - it is the first time we have handled any of them. The author's presentation inscription coupled with the patently inappropriate dedication in the first two titles makes this volume all the more desirable as the combination may provide insight into the mental instability leading to their brilliant author's regrettable early demise."