Jay T. Last (1929–2021)

Being an encyclopedia of nineteenth-0cernury American lithography. By far the major section of the book is a listing of lithographic firms, which is divided between important and unimportant ones; the former is well-illustrated, the latter is not.. Shorter chapters basically repeat the information in synoptic form but offer subject and geographic approaches. Several extraordinarily uninteresting chapters describe lithographic processes and the economics of the industry. It seems churlish to criticize a book which achieves its purpose so completely; as an art book, it's a great browse, and as a reference book, it is surely definitive, albeit one which could be useful only to the narrowest imaginable audience of collectors, catalogers, and academics. But it simply is a tiresome read; I actually did find the entries to be slightly more interesting than I expected, but that is setting the bar very low. As a browse, it's pleasant, though; the illustrations are pretty and the scenes and products depicted are charmingly nostalgic.… (more)