A new illustrated hand-book of phrenology, physiology and physiognomy / by R.B.D. Wells.
A phrenology and physiognomy handbook by R. B. D. Wells, published in London by H. Vickers around 1870, aimed at general readers interested in reading character from the head and face. The pictures are small wood-engraved portraits of men shown as head-and-shoulders busts, some in profile, with dense hatched shading on the faces and coats. A designer could take from them a compact vocabulary of nineteenth-century engraved portrait conventions, such as oval vignettes, paired profiles and cross-hatched tone.
