Gordon,

Following on from your comment in the Pinkie House topic regarding the Billings' prints, why do you think there are so few on the web?

Heatons of Tisbury has a number of these for sale, including one of Caerlaverock Castle. I have not purchased any of these prints because they are too large to fit in my acid-free album.

I don't think that many books were produced originally. I 've been trying to confirm a snippet of information from the dark recesses of my memory, that the National Museum of Scotland has publishing rights and are copyright holders for most of his Scottish work. He has done some English sites, I found a print of Durham Cathedral on-line. I haven't found anything yet to confirm the museums thing, and I might be getting confused with Slezer, they do have the copyright on his work.....it is in some circumstances possible to copyright such work beyond the normal 60 years rule, particularly if you have a virtual monopoloy on source material.

Pic of the bindings of Stanford University's copy of the book.

There do seem to be a few prints available at Heatons, some sourced and credited to the book. The ones I'd found previously were credited as engravings by other people from Billing's drawings.
In addition, Florida State University have the four volume set and there are no doubt others elsewhere.
I think I must have been getting confused with Slezer, although a lot of his stuff is shown on-line, so I can't explain why there is so relatively few of Billing's drawings on-line.

A wee bit explaining how Billing's work influenced Scottish Architecture in the Victorian era.
David Bryce

Thanks for all that Gordon. If I find any of his works (decent images) I'll post them here.

I searched for RW Billings and got maybe 1/2 dozen images, only Cawdor & Kildrummy were castles, but search for the book produced a few more, almost all at Heatons, and 3 at Scran.

I'm not sure that the images on line do his work justice, but yes, it would be good. I'll do some too.
We need to convert most of the images, they are BMPs.

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Dirleton x2

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Pinkie

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Tantallon

Also Wintoun House.

Huntly Castle

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Elcho

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Huntly

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Ruthven

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Castle Stuart x2

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Tantallon#2

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Tolquhon

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Winton House

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Auchans

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Crossraguel (did have a fortified tower..so it counts!)

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Kelburn

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Maybole x2

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Aberdour

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Airth

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Cambuskenneth

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Doune x2

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Stirling ( Argyll's Lodging)

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Stirling ( The Castle)

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Stirling ( Mar's Wark)

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Balveny

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Dysart

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Falkland Palace

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Newark (Port Glasgow) x2

Some non-castle prints by Billings.
Sweetheart Abbey, Melrose Abbey,

Iona, Elgin Cathedral

and Arbroath Abbey.

Found a number of prints on the RIBA website.
Burgie Castle and Borthwick Castle

Two of Caerlaverock Castle.
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Two of Cawdor Castle.
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Clackmannan Tower
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Castle Campbell
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Castle Stuart
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Craigievar Castle
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Craigmillar Castle
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Crathes Castle
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Two of Crichton Castle
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Well there's ceratinly more than I thought, good stuff, I'm enjoying these. Your batch are better quality than the others, I'll dig some out from a dusty old tome or two.

Two of Tantallon Castle
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Two of Pinkie House
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Dalpersie or Terpersie Castle
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Leuchars
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Huntingtower or Ruthven Castle
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Linlithgow Palace
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Elgin Tower House
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Roslyn Chapel

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Sweetheart Abbey

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Udny

More non-castle Billings' prints.

Melrose Abbey
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Cambuskenneth Abbey
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Church of St Regulus, St Andrews
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Dairsie Church
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George Heriot's Hospital, Edinburgh
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Holyrood Abbey
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Iona Abbey
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King's Colllege Chapel, Aberdeen
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Michael Kirk, near Elgin
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Rosslyn Chapel
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St Salvator's Church, St Andrews
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St. Andrew's Cathedral
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Leuchars Parish Church
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Some of these are in Keay's, but it's nice to see them on screen. I'm working over thw weekend, so I'll do more early next week. Loads of ecclesiastical sites not here yet. Given that you've upped the quality and my scans are better, I'll give Heaton's a miss. Their images don't do him justice.
Love that Iona one particularly, I've got plans for that!

The quality may be good, but it's a shame to have RIBApix written across them all. And yes, Heatons are very poor quality images. However, their service is pretty good, having bought a few prints from them in the past.

Hope the weekend goes well.

These are scanning well, considering the original image is only about 2 x2 inches.

Enjoy.


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Airth Castle

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Arbroath Abbey

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Auchans

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Balvenie, note the Yett

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Kings College Aberdeen

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St Machar's Cathedral Aberdeen

Found a couple on www.antiqueprints.com website.

Tolquhon Castle
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Towie Barclay Castle
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Udny Castle
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The Stirling set.
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It's the way he uses the light that I like about Billings, it highlights everything.
The Tolquhon image is great.

Found one of Hylton Castle (Durham) on eBay.

That'll be the Hylton Castle in Sunderland that featured on Time Team, I liked that one.

A better view of the Auchans print.


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Craigmillar

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Trinity College Church

and some of Rosslyn Chapel

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Thanks for all those. It's great to see the variety.

That last one could almost pass for a B/W photo. He was good.

Maybole, Castle and Tollbooth.

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I've seen some more Billings prints on e-Bay - 2 each of Midmar, Maybole and Newark Castles. The one of Hylton Castle is going haywire with the bidding, so I expect the same will happen to these ones at the last moment.

I guess they're popular then.

I've put in bids for Midmar, Maybole and Newark Castles, but I expect to be outbid before bidding closes.

I'll wish you luck with them, one day when 'Taz' grows up and it's safe to put nice things on the wall........
Which Newark?

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Newark, Port Glasgow.

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Maybole

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Midmar

Good one. They are nice.

It's because they are nice that I suspect I won't get them. I'll wait and see.

Fingers crossed.

Well - I got all five, for a total of £5.72, inclusive of postage and packing. Not a bad deal at all.

Heck no that aint bad, thats one great deal!

£5.72 ? you got them for nothing and just payed the postage!
Sure you haven't typo'd and moved the decimal points two places left................

No typo, despite being very tired. But they are not mounted or framed.

The same seller has some other old prints / engravings from Grose's Antiquities for sale at knock-down prices, so I've bid for some of those too. My guess is that the seller either doesn't really know what they are selling, or it's a con and I won't actually get anything for my money. I suspect it is the former, but I'll let you know when (or if) they arrive.

Yup, something doesn't ring true.

If it's a con - then I won't actually lose a great deal, but will have learned my lesson. If the offers are genuine, then

Agreed, £ 5.72 isn't much of a gamble, it might well pay off.

The gamble it seems, has paid off. These five items do appear to be from the original publication. I will scan them and place them here and in the gallery.