Great British Houses

These prints are the first four collotypes (of what were intended to be many more) drawn by Michael Pickwoad (1945-2018) to mark European Architectural Heritage Year in 1975 – when Britain was an important member of the European Union. They were made by the last collotype printworks in Britain – Cotswold Collotype at Wooton-under-Edge, Gloucestershire, which was closed in 1980. A collotype is a dichromate-based (i.e. oxidising) process that uses a sheet of light-sensitive gelatine exposed photographically to the image without using a screen. Invented by Alphonse Poitevin in 1856 it was used for volume mechanical printing before offset lithography. Results can be difficult to distinguish from metal-based photographic prints. Many old postcards are collotypes. Pickwoad, an engineer, became a distinguished art director and Bafta nominee, well known as a Production Engineer in film and television.