The first of Pickering's books in which anything of a very ornamental character occurs is _The Bijou, or Annual of Literature_, a publication which fixes very clearly his association with Whittingham. _The Bijou_ first appeared in 1828, printed by Thomas White, with one or two charming head-pieces designed by Stothard. The volume for 1829 was also printed by White, and is noticeable as having the publisher's Aldine device, showing that this came into use during the year 1828. The volume for 1830 was printed by C. Whittingham of Took's Court. The meeting between the two men had been brought about by Basil Montagu in the summer of 1829. They found themselves kindred spirits on the subject of the artistic treatment of books, and a friendship sprang up between them, that ceased only with Pickering's death in 1854, and was productive of some of the most beautiful books that had ever come from an English press. Mr. Arthur Warren in his book, _The Charles Whittinghams, Printers_ (p. 203), tells us: 'The two men met frequently for consultation, and whenever the bookseller visited the press, which he often did, there were brave experiments toward. The printer would produce something new in title-pages, or in colour work, or ornament, and the bookseller would propound some new venture in the reproduction of an ancient volume.... They made it a point, moreover, to pass their Sundays together, either at the printer's house or at Pickering's.' [Illustration: FIG. 36.--Early Chiswick Press Initials.] In the artistic production of books they were ably assisted by Whittingham's eldest daughter Charlotte, and Mary Byfield. The former designed the blocks, many of which were copied from the best French and Italian work of the sixteenth century, and the latter engraved them. Among the notable books produced by these means were the _Aldine Poets_, editions of Milton, Bacon, Isaak Walton's _Complete Angler_, the works of George Peele, reprints of Caxton's books, and many Prayer-books. In 1844 Pickering and Whittingham were in consultation as to the production of an edition of _Juvenal_ to be printed in old-face great primer, and the foundry of the latest descendant of the Caslons was ransacked to supply the fount. The edition was to be rubricated and otherwise decorated, and this, or the printer's stock trouble, 'lack of paper,' occasioning some delay, the revived type first appeared in a fiction entitled _Lady Willoughby's Diary_, to which it gave a pleasantly old-world look in keeping with the period of which the story treats. By the kindness of Mr. Jacobi, the present manager of the Chiswick Press, an exact copy of the title-page of this book is here given, and with it, examples of the decorative initials and devices, in the revival of which also the Chiswick Press led the way. [Illustration: FIG. 37.--Early Chiswick Press Devices.]