Annan photographed some of the ‘Glasgow Boys’ for The Glasgow School of Painters, published in 1908. The title page announces ’74 reproductions and portraits in photogravure by J. Craig Annan’. The Glasgow Herald’s review of the book was full of praise, proud that the city had produced the artists, printers and binders responsible for the ‘sumptuous tome’ with the superb set of plates produced by an engraver who is himself in such close touch with the aims and work of the artists illustrated. It was described as a labor of love by Annan, someone who delighted in fine bookmaking. Among the fifty-four works of art reproduced was one belonging to Annan himself, Macaulay Stevenson’s Springtime. Annan thought so highly of the project that he sent a presentation copy to Stieglitz by way of an exchange for copies of his quarterly Camera Work. [1]

Painters and photographers alike will do well to obtain a sumptuous book that has just been published by James MacLeose and Sons of Glasgow. Apart from it being an authoritative volume on the work of this notable school, it has especial interest for us in the fact that the seventy-four superb reproductions and portraits in photogravure with which it is illustrated are the work of James Craig Annan. While Craig Annan’s masterly photographic portraiture is well known to most visitors to the Photographic Salon and other exhibitions, his even greater work in photogravure is not so well know in the same circle. A combination of artist, photographer and craftsman of the caliber of Craig Annan is not a frequent occurrence, and the most casual inspection of his output makes it evident that here is production stamped with the cachet of something more than mere talent… In a review of the work, appearing in the Glasgow Herald we read, “It is difficult to speak too highly of these plates, for Mr. Annan has been triumphantly successful in seizing the essential qualities of each of the pictures reproduced. Indeed it might not be too much to affirm that in some cases the original work has lost nothing, and may also be said to have gained something, in passing through the hands of such a trained and sympathetic translator. [2]

100 copies were printed on large paper, with proofs of all plates on Japanese. 3/4 cream vellum on blue cloth. Measures 15.5" x 19.25" x 2" thick. A majestic and beautiful book.