[Lumb Stocks RA.] 125 prints from his collection, by eminent London engravers (including the Findens, Heath, Cousen), mostly engravers' proofs on India paper, many before the letters, including presentations, and eighteen from J. M. W. Turner.

For a full list of named engravers, artists and publishers, see below. Lumb Stocks was, as the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography points out, 'one of the most influential exponents of steel line engraving, and his death left the Royal Academy without an engraver in its ranks'. He bequeathed his collection of prints to the British Museum;; the present collection was retained by the family, and purchased from the estate of Harold Carpenter Lumb Stocks (1884-1956), organist of St Asaph Cathedral. Stocks was born in Yorkshire, and indentured between 1826 and 1833 to the London engraver Charles Rolls, nine of whose engravings (one signed 'CR') are in the present collection, together with six by his brother Henry Rolls. In 1833, his apprenticeship at an end, Stocks set up on his own, most of his work at this time being done for the annuals. In 1853 he was elected an associate engraver in the Royal Academy, becoming a fellow in 1871. Following his death in 1892 Sir Frederick Leighton described Stocks in a speech at a Royal Academy dinner as a 'sterling and gentle man', possessed of 'many friends'. The present collection of artworks exchanged between peers bears testimony to Stocks' conviviality, and to his place at the heart of the London print trade, at a time when it was pre-eminent in the world. The greater part of the 125 prints are, as is to be expected, steel engravings, with landscapes and seascapes; rural, domestic and historical scenes; and illustrations for novels and annuals. They are characteristic of the period, and bear testimony to Stocks' taste as a connoisseur and practitioner. Three of the engravings are from old masters (Mignard, Poussin and Van Dyck), the rest being the work of contemporary English artists and engravers. There are nineteen engravings from Turner, including six by John Cousen (from ten prints by him in the collection), the others being engraved by Armytage, Barnard, Brandard, Goodall, Miller, Wallis and Willmore. Another well-represented artist is David Roberts, and there are three prints from John Martin (including a proof before the letters of a depiction of Flamborough Head in a storm, engraved by William Miller). Most are proofs 'before the name' (before the addition of the caption), and 38 have no text whatsoever below the engraving. One print, by John H. Robinson from F. P. Stephanoff's 'The Sisters' is present in two states, one with only the artist's and engraver's names, and the other with these and the caption and publication details. The two earliest engravings (by William Finden from C. R. Leslie; and by Charles Rolls from G. S. Newton) date from 1826, and a further ten (by Danforth, Ensom, Edward Finden, Golding, Goodall, Charles and Henry Rolls, Watt) from the period of Stocks' apprenticeship. The latest dated print is a historical subject by Alfred Elmore RA, engraved in 1863 by Joseph Stancliffe. With a handful of exceptions the items in the collection are on white India paper, laid down on mounts of thin white card. (One exception is an unattributed print on thin paper of a kneeling boy weeping by a coffin, captioned in pencil 'Too late'.) They range in size from a 6.5 x 5 cm image (printed on 17 x 10 cm paper; laid down on 43.5 x 30 cm mount) by Henry Rolls of a child struggling with a woman, to a 22.5 x 34 cm unattributed Mediterranean landscape (on 35 x 50 cm paper; on 47.5 x 61.5 cm mount). The collection is in fair overall condition, aged and worn, with most of the prints foxed, and several with wear or other damage to the mount (a few mounts affected by damp). Around 50 have pencil annotations to the mount (with a suggestion that others may have been rubbed out). Of these, eleven are presentation inscriptions to Stocks from James Baylis Allen of engravings (none of which feature in the V & A Collection) made by him from Turner, Roberts (3), Cattermole, Daniell and others. A seascape before the letters by Thomas Jeavons, inscribed 'To L. Stocks Esqre. | With T. Jeavons' best respects', is the print on the largest mount (50.5 x 68.5cm) in the collection. Another print on a large mount (59.5 x 44 cm) is a proof before the letters of John Cousen's 1859-61 hexagonal engraving of Turner's 'Peace - Burial at Sea' (1842). The collection also contains presentation inscriptions by the engravers Frederick Bacon, Paul Gauci (a lithograph of the German Hospital, Dalston) and Samuel Fisher ('Constantina', from Roberts). Several of the prints carry pencil notes of titles (one portrait by Sir William Ross is said to have a 'Border by Dan. Maclise R.A.'). ENGRAVERS: James Baylis Allen (1803-1876); James Charles Armytage (d.1897); Frederick Bacon (1803-1887); William Henry Bartlett (1809-1854); E. Benjamin; Joseph Clayton Bentley (1809-1851); Robert Brandard (1805-1862); H. Bourne; John Cousen (1804-1880); Ebenezer Challis (c.1831-c.1863); Moseley Isaac Danforth (1800-1862); William Ensom (c.1796-1832); Edward Finden (1791-1857); William Finden (1787-1852); Samuel Fisher (fl.1830-1855); Paul Gauci; Edward Goodall (1795-1870); Joseph Goodyear (1787-1839); Richard Hatfield (1809-1867); Charles Heath (1785-1848); Thomas Jeavons (1795-1867); Henry Le Keux (1787-1868); John Le Keux (1783-1846); William Miller (1796-1882); James Mitchell (1791-1852); Edward Portbury (1795-1885); John Pye (1782-1874); John Henry Robinson RA (1796-1871); Charles Rolls (1800-1857); Henry Rolls (fl.1831-1845); Joseph Stancliffe; Robert Wallis (1794-1878); William Wallis (1796-c.1829); James Henry Watt (1799-1867); J. & W. H. Watt; James Tibbits Willmore (1800-1863). ARTISTS: Thomas Allom (1804-1872); George Barret (1767-1842); Richard Parkes Bonington (1801-1828); William Boxall (1800-1879); J. Bright; George Cattermole (1800-1868); Alfred Edward Chalon RA (1780-1860); William Collins RA (1788-1847); Abraham Cooper RA (1787-1868); Henry Corbould (1787-1844); Francis Danby ARA (1793-1861); William Daniell RA (1769-1837); John Phillip Davis (1784-1852); James Fraser (c.1805-1841); Richard Golding RA (1785-1865); James Green (1771-1834); Charles Heath (1785-1848); Thomas Higham (1795-1844); Robert Hills (1769-1844); T. Jennings; George Jones RA (1786-1869); Sir Thomas Lawrence (1769-1830); Charles Robert Leslie RA (1794-1859); Daniel Maclise RA (1806-1870); Charles Marshall; John Martin (1789-1854); Gilbert Stuart Newton RA (1794-1835); David Roberts RA (1796-1864); Sir William Charles Ross (1794-1860); Sargeant; Robert Smirke RA (1780-1867); Francis Philip Stephanoff (1788-1860); J. M. W. Turner; Henry Warren; John Wood (1801-1870). In addition there are three engravings from old masters (Mignard, Poussin and Van Dyck). PUBLISHERS (all London): Art Union of London; Baldwin & Cradock; P. & D. Colnaghi; Fisher, Son & Co.; Hamilton, Adams & Co.; Hurst, Robinson & Co.; Robert Jennings & Co.; Longman & Co.; Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown & Green; W. Marshall; William Pickering; John Sharpe; Whittaker & Co. A few engravings carry the names of printer McQueen, and one of the printer E. Brain. Also included is a cutting from the Illustrated London News, 13 January 1872, of engravings by R. Taylor of Stocks and W. C. T. Dobson RA.