Joseph Grego

Joseph Grego (23 September 1843 – 24 January 1908) was an art collector and exhibitor, author and journalist, inventor and graphics expert.

Family origins and company directorships

He was born in 1843, at 23 Granville Square, Clerkenwell, London, the elder son of Joseph Grego (1817–1881) and his wife Louisa Emelia Dawley. His grandfather, Antonio Grego, a native of Como in Italy, settled in London before 1821 as a looking-glass manufacturer, the firm becoming Susan Grego and Sons in 1839, and Charles & Joseph Grego in 1845. Joseph Grego invented the 'Colour Photo-Copier', a system of reproducing 18th-century colour prints in such exact facsimile that they have often been mistaken for originals. He was also Director of photo-engravers Carl Hentschel Ltd, 1899–1908. [1896 Patent: No 2013: “Improvements in the Production of Zink or other Metal Blocks for Printing Purposes.”] Grego was also a Director and substantial shareholder of Kegan Paul & Co. from 1903 and The Graphic Company, until his death.

Writer and editor

After a private education, Grego worked briefly at Lloyd's, the underwriters. As an art journalist and author, he specialised as a writer and collector in the works of James Gillray, Thomas Rowlandson, George Morland, Charles Dickens and George Cruikshank, and was an acknowledged authority on all of them. Chiefly responsible for the edition of James Gillray's works (1873), and editing 'Rowlandson the Caricaturist' (1880), both cited as standard books of reference. He collected much material for a life of Morland, which he did not complete. In 1903, he published 'Cruickshank's Water Colours' with reproductions in colour (published by A.&C. Black, London, MCMIII (on the title page), on the verso of the title page, mentioned Published November 1903). In 1874, he compiled a volume of 'Thackerayana;' (600 sketches) (1875 suppressed – reissued 1898).