This three-volume bibliography of printing was published between 1880 and 1886 by E. C. Bigmore (183899) and C. W. H. Wyman (18321909), who had, unknown to each other, been working on similar projects and were brought together by the antiquarian bookseller and publisher Bernard Quaritch. The scope of the work, which quickly became a classic, includes 'typographic, lithographic, copperplate printing, etc., with the cognate arts of type-founding, stereotyping, electrotyping, and wood-engraving', but excludes the topics of paper and bookbinding. The three volumes are arranged in alphabetical order of surname of author; anonymous works are ordered by the wording of the title. Compiled with the assistance of such historians of printing as William Blades and John Southward (several of whose works are available in this series), this authoritative work is of continuing value to bibliographers. Volume 1, published in 1880, contains an introduction and covers the letters A to L.
