The first time I encountered "H. Bourne" was sometime in the mid-1990s when I stumbled across an engraving called The Tambourine in a frame shop in Idaho Springs, Colorado.

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By that time, I owned a few engravings created by bank note engravers, but I had never encountered anyone named Bourne. The staggering skill exhibited in The Tambourine told me I needed to learn more. Since that time, I have found over 70 works attributed to "H. Bourne."

 

It turned out to be much easier to discover Bourne's prints than it was to learn who Bourne was. Only one engraving showed his given name as "Herbert." That name was further confirmed in a 1980 biography in Chats on Postage Stamps by Fred J. Melville, a friend of Bourne.

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More research proved that British art lover's had been familiar with Bourne's name throughout the 1860s, 70s and 80s through his many engraved reproductions of famous paintings that had appeared in the Art Journal. Additionally, advanced stamp collectors knew of Bourne through his small portraits displayed on a host of postage stamps used in several countries across the British empire.

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This site is dedicated to Bourne and his engravings and represents the entire current extent of my knowledge. Please write me at tcox @ coxrail.com (without the spaces, of course) if you have additional knowledge you'd like to share with the world.

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Terry Cox

author of Collectible Stocks and Bonds of North American Railroads, 3rd edition