see text and captionROUEN CATHEDRAL.Though copper-plate engraving has a great advantage over wood when applied to the execution of maps, in consequence of the greater delicacy that can be given to the different shades and lines, indicating hills, rivers, and the boundaries of districts, and also from the number of names that can be introduced, and from the comparative facility of611executing them; yet, as maps engraved on copper, however simple they may be, require to be printed separately, by means of arolling-press,the unavoidable expense frequently renders it impossible to give such maps, even when necessary, in books published at a low price. Under612such circumstances, where little more than outlines, with the course of rivers, and comparatively few names, are required, wood engraving possesses an advantage over copper, as such maps can be executed at a very moderate expense, and printed with the letter-press of the work for which they are intended. As the names in maps engraved on wood are the most difficult parts of the subject, the method of drilling holes in the block and inserting the names in type—as was adopted in the maps to Sebastian Munster’s Cosmography, Basle, 1550,IX.22—has recently been revived. The names in the outline maps contained in the Penny Cyclopædia are inserted in this manner. Had those maps not been engraved on wood, it would have been impossible that any could have been given in the work, as the low price at which it is published would613not have allowed of their being engraved on copper, and, consequently, printed by means of a rolling-press at an additional expense.see textWhen, however, a map is of small dimensions, and several names in letters of comparatively large size are required to be given, this method of piercing the block can scarcely be applied without great risk of its breaking to pieces under the press, in consequence of its being weakened in parts by the holes drilled through it being so near together.IX.23This inconvenience, however, may be remedied by engraving the names inintagliowhere they are most numerous, and afterwards cutting atintover them, so that when printed they may appear white on a dark ground. Other names beyond the boundary of the map can be inserted, where necessary, in type. The preceding skeleton map of England and Wales, showing the divisions of the counties and the course of the principal rivers, has been executed in this manner: all the names on the land, and the courses of the rivers, were first engraved on the smooth surface of the block inintaglio—in less than a third of the time which would have been required to engrave them in relief; the tint was next cut; and lastly, the block was pierced, and all the other names inserted in type, with the exception of the word “ENGLAND” in the title, which was engraved in the same manner as the names on the land.As what has been previously said about the practice of the art relates entirely to engraving where the lines are of the same height, or in the same plane, and when the impression is supposed to be obtained by the pressure of a flat surface, I shall now proceed to explain the practice of lowering, by which operation the surface of the block is either scraped away from the centre towards the sides, or, as may be required, hollowed out in other places. The object of thus lowering a block is, that the lines in such places may be less exposed to pressure in printing, and thus appear lighter than if they were of the same height as the others. This method, though it has been claimed as a modern invention, is of considerable antiquity, having been practised in 1538, as has been previously observed atpage 462. Instances of lowering are very frequent in cuts engraved by Bewick; but until within the last five or six years the practice was not resorted to by south-country engravers. It is absolutely necessary that wood-cuts intended to be printed by a steam-press should be lowered in such parts as are to appear light; for, as the pressure on the cut proceeds from the even surface of a metal cylinder covered with a blanket, there is no means ofhelpinga cut, as is generally done when printed by a hand-press, by means ofoverlays. Overlaying consists in pasting pieces of614paper either on the front or at the back of the outer tympan, immediately over such parts of the block as require to be printed dark; and the effect of this is to increase the action of the platten on those parts, and to diminish it on such as are not overlaid. When lowered blocks are printed at a common press, it is necessary that a blanket should be used in the tympans, in order that the paper may be pressed into the hollowed or lowered parts, and the lines thusbrought up. The application of the steam-press to printing lowered wood-cuts may be considered as an epoch in the history of wood engraving. Wood-cuts were first printedby a steam-pressat Messrs. Clowes and Sons’ establishment,IX.24and since that timeloweringhas been more generally practised than at any former period.see text615By means of simply lowering the edges of a block, so that the surface shall be convex instead of plane, the lines are made to diminish in strength as they recede from the centre until they become gradually blended with the white paper on which the cut is printed. This is the most simple mode of lowering, and is now frequently adopted in such cuts as are termedvignettes,—that is, such as are not bounded by definite lines surrounding them in the manner of a border. In the preceding cut, representing a group from Sir David Wilkie’s painting of the Village Festival, in the National Gallery, the light appearance of the lines towards the edges has been produced in this manner.Mr. Landseer, in his Lectures on Engraving, observes that hard edges are incident to wood-cut vignettes. He was not aware of the means by which this objectionable appearance could be remedied. The following are his observations on this subject: “A principal beauty in most vignettes consists in the delicacy with which they appear to relieve from the white paper on which they are printed. The objects of which vignettes consist, themselves forming the boundary of the composition, their extremities should for the most part be tenderly blended—be almost melted, as it were, into the paper, or ground. Now, in printing with the letter-press, the pressure is rather the strongest at the extremities of the engraving, where we wish it to be weakest, and it is so from the unavoidable swelling of the damp paper on which the impressions are worked, and the softness of the blankets in the tympans of the press. Hence, hard, instead of soft edges, are incident to vignettes engraven on wood, which all the care of the printer, with all the modern accuracy of his machine, can rarely avoid.”Mr. Landseer’s objection to vignettes engraved on wood applies only to such as are engraved on a plane surface, since by lowering the block towards the edges, lines gradually blending with the white paper can be obtained with the greatest facility. For the representation of such subjects,—supposing that their principal beauty consists in “the delicacy with which they appear to relieve from the white paper,”—wood engraving is as well adapted as engraving on copper or steel. Though it is certainly desirable that the lines in a vignette should gradually become blended with the colour of the paper, yet something more is required in an engraving of this kind, whether on wood or on metal. Much depends on its form harmonizing with the composition of the subject: a beautiful drawing reduced to an irregular shape, and having the edges merely softened, will not always constitute a good vignette. Of this we have but too many instances in modern copper-plate engravings, as well as wood-cuts. Of all modern artists J. M. W. Turner, R.A., and W. Harvey appear to excel in giving to their vignettes a form suitable to the composition.616Perhaps it may not be out of place to say a few words here on the original meaning of the wordvignette, which is now generally used to signify either a wood-cut or a copper-plate engraving which is not inclosed by definite lines forming a border. The word is French, and is synonymous with the Latinviticula, which means a little vine, or a vine shoot, such as is here represented.see text and captionCapitalletters in ancient manuscripts were called by old writersviticulæ, orvignettes, in consequence of their being frequently ornamented with flourishes in the manner of vine branches or shoots. The letter C, forming the commencement of this paragraph, is an example of an old vignette; it is copied from a manuscript apparently of the thirteenth century, formerly belonging to the monastery of Durham, but now in the British Museum. Subsequently the word was used to signify any large ornament at the top of a page; in the seventeenth century all kinds of printer’s ornaments, such as flowers, head and tail-pieces, were generally termed vignettes; and more recently the word has been used to express all kinds of wood-cuts or copper-plate engravings which, like the group from the Village Festival, are not inclosed within a definite border. Rabelais uses the word to denote certain ornaments of goldsmith’s work on the scabbard of a sword; and our countryman Lydgate thus employs it in his Troy618Book to denote the sculptured foliage and tracery at the sides of a window:“And if I should rehearsen by and byThe corve knots, by craft and masonry,The fresh embowing with virges right as lines,And the housing full of backewines,The rich coining, the lusty battlements,Vinettesrunning in casements.”Page imageshowing original layout.[617]decorative capitals: O Q H I E F F D G V BThe additional specimens of ornamental capitals on the preceding page are chiefly taken from Shaw’s Alphabets, in which will be found a great variety of capitals of all ages.Before introducing any examples of concave lowering in the middle of a cut, it seems necessary to give first a familiar illustration of the principle, in order that what is subsequently said upon this subject may be the more readily understood.—The crown-piece of George IV., which every reader can refer to, will afford the necessary illustrations. As the head of the King on the obverse, and the figures of St. George, the horse, and the dragon, on the reverse, are inrelief,—that is, higher than the field,—it is evident, that if the coin were printed, each side separately, by means of pressure from an even surface, whether plane or cylindrical, covered with a yielding material, such as a blanket or woollen cloth, so as to press the paper against the field or lower parts, the impressions would appear as follows,—that is, with the parts in relief darkest, and the lower proportionably lighter from their being less exposed to pressure.see text and captionIMPRESSIONS FROM A SURFACE WITH THE FIGURES IN RELIEF.If casts be taken of each side of the same coin, the parts which in the original are raised, or inrelief, will then be concave, or inintaglio;IX.25and if such casts be printed in the manner of wood-cuts, the impressions will appear as in the opposite page,—that is, the field619being now highest will appear positively black, while the figures now inintaglio, orlowered, as I should say when speaking of a wood-cut, will appear lighter in proportion to the concavity of the different parts.see text and captionIMPRESSIONS FROM A SURFACE WITH THE FIGURES LOWERED, OR IN INTAGLIO.Upon a knowledge of the principle here exemplified the practice of lowering in wood engraving entirely depends. When a block is properly lowered, there is no occasion for overlays; and when cuts are to be printed at a steam-press,—where such means to increase the pressure in some parts and diminish it in others cannot be employed without great loss of time,—it becomes absolutely necessary that the blocks should be lowered in the parts where it is intended that the lines should appear light.In order that a cut should be printed properly without overlays, either at a common press with a blanket in the tympans, or at a steam-press where the cylinder is covered with woollen cloth, it is necessary that the parts intended to appear light should be lowered before the lines seen upon them are engraved; and the mode of proceeding in this case is as follows:—The designer being aware of the manner in which the cut is to be printed, and understanding the practice of lowering, first makes the drawing on the block in little more than outline,IX.26and washes in with flake-white the parts which it is necessary to lower. The block is then sent to the engraver, who, with an instrument resembling a sharp-edged burnisher, or with a flat tool or chisel, scrapes or pares away the wood in the parts indicated. When the lowering is completed, the designer finishes the drawing, and the cut is engraved. It is necessary to observe, that unless the person who makes the drawing on the block perfectly understand the principle of lowering, and the purposes for which it is intended, he will never be able to design properly a subject intended to be printed by a steam-press.620see textWhen an object is to be represented dark upon a light ground, or upon middle tint, the first operation in beginning to lower the block is to cut a delicate white outline round the dark object, and proceed with a flat tool or a scraper, as may be most convenient, to take a thin shaving or paring off those parts on which the background or middle tint is to be engraved. The extent to which the block must be lowered will depend on the degree of lightness intended to be given to such parts. In Bewick’s time, when the pressmen used leather balls to ink the cuts and types, it was only necessary to take a very thin shaving off the block in order to produce the desired effect; as such balls, from the want of elasticity in the leather, which was comparatively hard and unyielding, would only touch lightly such parts as were below the level of the other lines and the face of the types: had the block been lowered to any considerable depth, such parts would not have received any ink, and consequently would not have shown the lines engraved on them in the impression. In the present day, when composition rollers are used, it is necessary to lower the parts intended to appear light to a much greater depth than formerly;IX.27as such rollers, in consequence of their greater elasticity, are pressed, in the process of inking, to a considerably greater depth between the lines of a cut than the old leather balls. The preceding cut—a Shepherd’s Dog, drawn by W. Harvey,—is printed from621a block in which both the fore-ground and distance are lowered to give greater effect to the animal. If such a cut, printed in the same page with types, as it appears here, were inked with leather balls, a considerable portion of the lowered parts would not be visible. This cut illustrates the principle of printing from a surface—such as that of a coin—in which the head or figure is in relief.In the next cut, an Egret, from a drawing by W. Harvey, the figure of the bird appears white on a dark ground,—the reverse of the cut of the Shepherd’s Dog,—and is an example of lowering the block in the middle in the manner of a die with the figures in intaglio, or a cast from a coin in which the head or figures are in relief.see textIn a cut of this kind the general form of the principal object required to be light is first lowered out, and the drawing of the figure being next completed upon the hollowed part, the engraver proceeds to cut the lines, beginning with the back-ground and finishing the principal object last. In cutting the lines in the hollowed part, the engraver uses such a tool, slightly curving upwards towards the point, as has been previously described at page 579. In lowering the principal object in a cut of this kind, the greatest attention is necessary in order that the hollowed parts may be gradually concave, and also of a sufficient depth. In performing this operation, the engraver is solely guided by his own judgment; and unless he have some practical knowledge of the extent to which composition balls and rollers will622penetrate in such hollowed parts, it is almost impossible that he should execute his work in a proper manner;—should he succeed, it will only be by chance, like a person shooting at a mark blindfolded. In such cases, though no special rules can be given, it is necessary to observe that the part lowered will, in proportion to its area, be exposed to receive nearly the same quantity of ink, and the same degree of pressure, as the lines on a level with the types. Thedepthto which such parts require to be lowered will consequently depend on their extent; and the degree of lightness intended to be given to the lines engraved on them. This, however, will be best illustrated by the annexed diagram. If, for instance, the part to be lowered extend fromAtoB, it will be necessary to hollow the block to the depth indicated by the dotted lineAcB. Should it extend fromAtoD, it will require to be lowered to the depth of the dotted lineAeDin order to obtain the same degree of lightness in colour as in the lowered partAcBof less area,—that is, supposing the engraved lines in both cases to be of equal delicacy.see textAs overlaying such delicately engraved cuts as require the greatest attention in printing occupies much time, and lays the press idle during the process, the additional sum charged per sheet for works containing a number of such cuts has frequently operated to the disadvantage of wood engraving, by causing its productions to be dispensed with in many books where they might have been introduced with great advantage, both as direct and incidental illustrations. It is, therefore, of great623importance to adapt the art of wood engraving to the execution of cuts of all kinds, whether comparatively coarse or of the greatest delicacy, so that they may be properly printed at the least possible expense.see textThe preceding cut, with the two following, which have all been lowered, would, if printed at a steam-press, appear nearly as well as they do in the present work, where they have been printed by means of a common press with a blanket. But such a subject—a winter-piece, with an ass and her foal standing near an old outhouse,—cannot be properly represented without lowering the block; for no overlaying would cause the lines indicating the thatch on the houses and the stacks, as seen through the snow, to appear so soft as they now do.see textIn this cut of a Salmon Trout, with a view of Bywell Lock, on the river Tyne, both the fore-ground and the distance are lowered; the objects which appear comparatively dark in those parts are the least reduced, while those that appear lightest are such as are lowered to the greatest extent. The back of the fish, which appears dark in the impression, is in the block like a ridge, which is gradually lowered in a hollow curve towards the lower line. In such a cut as this, particular care ought to be taken not to lower too much those parts which come into immediate contact with a strong black outline, such as the back of the Salmon; for where the lowering in such parts is too abrupt, there is great risk of the lines engraved on them not beingbrought up, and thus causing the figure in relief to appear surrounded with a white line, as in the impressions from the crown-piece at page 618.By means of lowering, the black pony, on which a boy is seen riding, in the following cut, is much more effectively represented, than if the624whole subject were engraved on a plane surface. The grey horse, and the light jacket of the rider, the ground, the garden wall, and the lightest of the trees, are all lowered in order to give greater effect to the pony.see textA cut which is properly lowered may not only be printed by a steam-press without overlays, but will also afford a much greater number of good impressions than one of the same kind engraved on a plane surface; for the more delicate parts, being lower than those adjacent to them, are thus saved from too much pressure, without the necessity of increasing it in other places. The preceding cut will serve to show625the advantages of lowering in this respect. It was originally engraved, from a drawing by William Harvey, for the Treatise on Cattle, published under the direction of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge. Though twelve thousand impressions have already been printed from it by means of Messrs. Clowes and Sons’ steam-press, it has not sustained the slightest injury in any part; and the present impression is scarcely inferior to the first proof. With the exception of clearing out the ink in two or three places, it has required no preparation or retouching to give it its present appearance. Had such a work as the Treatise on Cattle been printed at a common press without the blocks having been lowered, the cost of printing would have been at least double the sum charged by Messrs. Clowes; and the engraving, after so great a number of impressions had been taken, would have been considerably injured, if not quite spoiled.see textIn complicated subjects, consisting of many figures, and in which the light and shade are much diversified, it becomes necessary to combine the two principles of lowering, which have been separately illustrated by the Dog and the Egret, and to adapt them according to circumstances, forming some parts convex, and making others concave, respectively, as the objects engraved on them are to appear dark or light. In order to illustrate this process of combined lowering, I have chosen a subject from Rembrandt—the Descent from the Cross—in which several figures are introduced, and in which the lights and shades are so much varied—in some parts blended by a delicate middle tint, and in others strongly contrasted—as to afford the greatest possible scope for the illustration of what is termedloweringin a wood engraving.The cut on the next page shows the appearance of an impression taken from the block before a single line had been engraved, except thewhiteoutline bounding the figures. All that is here seen has been effected by the flat tool and the scraper; the lightest parts are those that are most concave, the darkest those that are most convex. The parts which have the appearance of a middle tint are such as are reduced to a medium between the strongest light and the darkest shade. The impression in its present state has very much the appearance of an unfinished mezzotint.see textIn order to render this example of complicated lowering more intelligible to those who have little knowledge of the subject, it seems necessary to give a detailed account of the process, even at the risk of repeating some previous explanations. In complicated as well as in simple subjects intended to be lowered, the design is first drawn in outline on the wood. In such a subject as that which is here given, the Descent from the Cross, it is necessary to cut a delicatewhiteoutline—such as is seen in the ladder—round all those parts where the true626outline appears dark against light, previous to lowering out those light parts which come into immediate contact with such as are dark. When a white outline has been cut where required, a thin shaving is to be taken off those parts which are intended to be a shade lighter than the middle tints,—for instance, in the rays of light falling upon the cross, and in the lower part of the sky. After this, the light parts of the ground and the figures are to be lowered; but, instead of taking a mere shaving off the latter, the depth to which they are to be hollowed out will depend on the form and size of the parts, and the strength of the light intended to appear on them; and where a series of delicate lines are to run intopure white, great care must be taken that the wood be sufficientlybevelledor rounded off to allow of their blending with the white, without their extremities forming a distinct line, more especially where rotundity is to be represented. In a block thus lowered, the parts intended to be lightest will be the most concave, and those intended to be darkest the most in relief; and, when printed, the627impression will appear as in the following cut, in consequence of the lowered parts, in proportion to their depth, receiving both less ink and less pressure; while those that are to appear positively white are lowered to such an extent as to be neither touched by the ink, nor exposed to the action of the platten or cylinder.see textWhen the block has been thus prepared, the subject is drawn upon it in detail, and the engraving of the lines proceeded with. The sky, and the lighter and more distant objects, should be engraved first: and care ought to be taken not to get the lines too fine at the commencement, for, should this happen, there is no remedy for the defect. By keeping them comparatively strong, the darker objects can be executed in a corresponding degree of boldness; and should the proof be generally too dark, the necessary alterations can be easily made. The above cut of the Descent from the Cross is printed from the finished block; all the positive lines here seen having been engraved subsequent to the process of lowering.628It is necessary to observe that the process of engraving upon an uneven surface—such as that of the lowered block of the Descent from the Cross—is much more difficult than on a surface which is perfectly plane; for the graver in traversing such parts as are lowered is apt to lose its hold, and to slip in descending, while in ascending it is liable to take too much hold, and totearrather than to clearly cut out the wood in certain parts, thus rendering the raised lines rough at the sides, and sometimes breaking them quite through. In order to remedy in some degree such inconveniences, it is necessary to use a graver slightly curving upwards towards the point.The process of lowering, as previously explained, is peculiarly adapted to give the appearance of proper texture to objects of Natural History, and in particular to birds, where it is often so desirable to impart a soft downy appearance to the plumage. Such softness can never be well represented by lines engraved on a perfectly level surface; for, however thin and fine they may be, they will always appear too distinct, and want that softness which can only be obtained by lowering the block, and printing it with a blanket in the tympans at a common press. Those who in engraving birds on a plane surface are fond of imitating the delicacy of copper-plate or steel engravings, always fail in their attempts to represent that soft appearance so peculiar to the plumage of birds, whatever may be its colour. Bewick’s Birds, in this respect, have never been equalled; and the softness displayed in the plumage has been chiefly obtained by lowering, and thus preventing such parts receiving too much ink or too much pressure. The characteristic expression of the bird, and the variety of texture in the plumage, are not indeed entirely dependent on this process; but the appearance of softness, and the general effect of the cut as a whole,—as exemplified in the Birds of Bewick,—are not otherwise to be obtained. Any wood engraver who doubts this, should attempt to copy, on an unlowered block, one of the best of Bewick’s birds; on comparing a printed impression of his work with the original, he will be likely to discover that he has thought too highly of his own practice, and too lightly of Bewick’s.Though chiaro-scuro drawings can be faithfully copied by means of wood engraving; yet the art, as applied to the execution of such works, has met with but little encouragement in this country, and has consequently been little practised. From 1754—the date of J. B. Jackson’s tract on the Invention of Engraving and Printing in Chiaro-scuro—to 1819, when the first part of Mr. Savage’s Hints on Decorative Printing was published, the only chiaro-scuro wood engravings which appear to have been published in England were those executed about 1783, by an amateur of the name of John Skippe. The chiaro-scuros engraved by629Mr. Skippe do not appear to have been numerous; I have only seen three—St. John the Evangelist, St. Paul, and Hebe, all after drawings by Parmegiano. The latter is printed from four blocks, and each of the others from three. In point of execution, that of St. John is decidedly the best: it is much superior to any of the specimens given in J. B. Jackson’s work, and will bear a comparison with some of the best chiaro-scuros of Nicholas Le Sueur.Savage’s Hints on Decorative Printing, in two parts, 1819-1823, contains several specimens, not only of chiaro-scuro wood engravings, but also of subjects printed in positive colours from several wood-blocks, in imitation of coloured drawings. Some of the chiaro-scuros, properly so called, are well executed, though they generally seem too soft andwoolly. The following are those which seem most worthy of notice:—A female Bacchante, from a bas-relief in the British Museum; Theseus, from the statue in the Elgin Collection of Marbles, in the British Museum; Copy of a bust in marble in the British Museum; Bridge and Landscape; Passage-boats; and a River Scene. For the representation of such subjects as the preceding, when drawn in sepia, wood engraving is peculiarly adapted.The simplest manner of representing a chiaro-scuro drawing is by printing a tint, with the lights cut out, from a second block, over the impression of a cut engraved in the usual manner. Chiaro-scuros of this kind have the appearance of pen-and-ink drawings made on tinted paper, and heightened with touches of white. The illustrations to an edition of Puckle’s Club were thus printed in 1820,—the year after they had appeared printed in the usual manner in a new edition of the work—but many of them are spoiled by the badly-chosen “fancy” colour of the tint.From the time of the publication of the second part of Savage’s Hints, and the tinted illustrations of Puckle’s Club, no further attempts appear to have been made to improve or extend the practice of chiaro-scuro engraving and printing in colours till Mr. George Baxter turned his attention to the subject. His first attempts in chiaro-scuro engraving are to be found in a History of Sussex, printed by his father at Lewes, in 1835. Mr. Baxter tried various experiments, and at length succeeded so much to his satisfaction, that he took out a patent for printing in oil-colours. The manner in which he executes picture-prints in positive colours, after drawings or paintings in oil, isnearlythe same as that in which Kirkall executed his chiaro-scuros. The ground, the outlines, and the more minute details, are first printed in neutral tint from a plate engraved in aquatint; and over this impression the proper colours are printed from as many wood-blocks as there are different tints. The best specimens of Mr. Baxter’s printing in oil-colours, from wood-blocks over630an aquatint ground, are to be found in the Pictorial Album, published by Chapman and Hall, 1837; and among these the following appear to be most deserving of distinct enumeration:—Interior of the Lady Chapel, Warwick; Lugano; Verona; and Jeannie Deans’s Interview with the Queen. In some of the most elaborate subjects in this work, the colours have been communicated by not less than twenty blocks, each separately printed. So far as regards the landscapes, nothing of the same kind previously done will bear to be compared with them. But since this period, Mr. Baxter has brought his peculiar art to still greater perfection, and both large and small examples are to be met with abundantly. One of the most popular is his “Holy Trinity, after Raphael,” a small plate of which no fewer than 700,000 copies have been sold. The subscribers to Bohn’s Scientific Library will find a good specimen in the View of Chimborazo, prefixed to Humboldt’s Views of Nature.Another recent invention is that of “Knight’s Patent Illuminated Prints and Maps.” In every instance hitherto of surface-printing in colours, each colour, having a separate block, had to be worked off separately, which rendered such productions extremely expensive.IX.28The new process has one great advantage over all its predecessors, in cheapness, and the facility with which it can multiply impressions. The general nature of the process will be best understood from a description of the mode of completing a coloured print.In the first place, a subject is engraved upon wood in the usual manner, and the impression is coloured by a skilful artist. We will suppose four principal colours are introduced, red, blue, yellow, and brown. Separate and exact drawings of each colour are then made; and four polished plates are prepared, each plate carrying one colour. These four plates are then firmly fixed in an ingeniously contrived frame, or table, moving upon the table of a common press, the motion being regulated by machinery, which ensures the most exact register, after it has once been obtained, and affords the greatest facility in obtaining it. The colours are then applied to their respective plates in precisely the same manner as ink to type, by means of rollers; and four sheets of paper of the size intended for the print (or, for convenience, one large sheet to be afterwards cut up) are then placed on the frisket, which631is then turned down on the plates, and the pull applied. The table is then turned one quarter round, and the process is repeated, till each colour has, in succession, been printed upon the four sheets. Six or seven colours are sometimes produced by the same process, and from the same plates, by combination; and the union of two colours to produce a third is effected perfectly, in consequence of the rapidity of the process, which does not allow the colours to dry and become hard. The bright whites are, of course, formed by removing the surface in the requisite parts from all the plates, and suffering the ground to appear. Eight, or indeed any number of colours, can be introduced by using another press, or presses; in which case the frisket with the sheet or sheets fixed, is passed from one press to the other. The block of the drawing is always the last impressed.From its extreme exactitude this invention seems peculiarly adapted for designs of patterns for shawls, ribbons, printed cottons, carpets, and such manufactures as have hitherto apparently been left to the fancy of the workman, or his employers, who in matters of art have frequently quite as little taste as the workman.But probably the most favourable field for the display of the perfections of this invention, would be in subjects where only light and shade, or at most what are called neutral tints, are required, such as architectural drawings and sculptures, either statues or in relief. For such purposes the depth of tone obtainable, and the sharpness of the lights, seem peculiarly adapted.IX.29What is termed metallic relief engraving consists in executing subjects on plates of copper, or any other metal, in such a manner that the lines which form the impression shall be in relief, and thus allow of such plates being inked and printed in the same manner as a wood-cut. Since the revival of wood engraving in this country several attempts have been made toetchin metallic relief, and thus save the time necessarily required to cut out all the lines in a wood engraving. In etching upon copper, in order that the subject may be represented by linesin relief,—the reverse of the usual procedure in copper-plate engraving,—and that the plate may be printed in the same manner as a wood-cut, there are several methods of proceeding. In one, the subject isdrawnupon the plate in Burgundy pitch, or any other substance which will resist the action of aquafortis, in the same manner632as copper-plate engravers in the ordinary processstop outthe parts intended to be white. When the substance in which the drawing is made becomesset, or sufficiently hard, the plate is surrounded with awall, as it is technically termed, and aquafortis being poured upon it, all the unprotected parts are corroded, and the drawing left in relief.This was the method generally adopted by William Blake, an artist of great but eccentric genius, in the execution of his Songs of Innocence, the Book of Thel,IX.30the Gates of Paradise, Urizen, and other works, published between 1789 and 1800. The following account of the origin of this new mode of engraving or etching in metallic relief, by corroding the parts intended to appear white in the impression, is extracted from the Life of William Blake, in Allan Cunningham’s Lives of British Painters, Sculptors, and Architects:—“He had made the sixty-five designs of his Songs of Innocence, and was meditating, he said, on the best means of multiplying their resemblance in form and in hue; he felt sorely perplexed. At last he was made aware that the spirit of his favourite brother Robert was in the room, and to this celestial visitor he applied for counsel. The spirit advised him at once: ‘Write,’ he said, ‘the poetry, and draw the designs upon the copper, with a certain liquid, (which he named, and which Blake ever kept a secret,) then cut the plain parts of the plate down with aquafortis, and this will give the whole, both poetry and figures, in the manner of stereotype.’ The plan recommended by this gracious spirit was adopted, the plates were engraved, and the work printed off. The artist then added a peculiar beauty of his own: he tinted both the figures and the verse with a variety of colours, amongst which, while yellow prevails, the whole has a rich and lustrous beauty, to which I know little that can be compared. The size of these prints is four and a half inches high by three inches wide. The original genius of Blake was always confined, through poverty, to small dimensions. Sixty-five plates of copper were an object to him who had little money.”Blake subsequently executed, in the same manner, “the Gates of Paradise,” consisting of sixteen small designs; and “Urizen,” consisting of twenty-seven designs. The size of the latter is four inches by six, and they are dated Lambeth, 1794. In 1800 he also engraved by a similar process, combined with the usual mode of etchingthrougha prepared ground laid over the plate, two subjects to illustrate a song of his own writing, which was printed with them also from metallic relief. The title of this song is “Little Tom the Sailor,” and the date is October 5, 1800. It appears to have been a charitable contribution633of Blake’s to the “Widow Spicer of Folkstone,” the mother of little Tom; and we learn from the imprint at the bottom that it was printed for, and sold by her for the benefit of her orphans.Blake’s metallic relief engravings were printed by himself by means of a rolling or copper-plate press, though the impression was obtained from the lines in relief in the same manner as from a wood-cut. The only difference in the printing consisted in the different manner in which the pressure was applied. As it is difficult, according to Blake’s process, to corrode the large white parts to a depth sufficient to prevent their being touched by the dauber or ball in the process of inking, and thus presenting a soiled appearance in the impression, he was accustomed to wipe the ink out where it had touched in the hollows. As this occupied more time than the mere inking of the plate, his progress in printing was necessarily slow.In another mode of engraving in relief on a plate of copper, the plate is first covered with an etching ground in the usual manner, and to this ground an outline of the subject is transferred by passing the plate with a pencil-drawing above it through a rolling-press. The engraver then proceeds to remove with his etching-point, or some other tool, as may be necessary, all such parts as are intended to bewhite. When this process, which may be termedreverse etching, is completed, the parts intended to be white are corroded by pouring aquafortis upon the plate in the usual manner, while the lines which represent the object remain in relief, in consequence of their being protected at the surface by the coating of etching ground.Several persons have made experiments in this mode of metallic relief engraving. It was tried by Bewick, and also by the late Robert Branston; but they did not succeed to their satisfaction, and none of their productions executed in this manner was ever submitted to the public. About twenty years ago, Mr. W. Lizars of Edinburgh appears to have turned his attention to the subject of metallic relief engraving, and to have succeeded better than either Bewick or Branston. One of the earliest-published specimens of his engraving in this style is the portrait of Dr. Peter Morris, forming the frontispiece to Peter’s Letters to his Kinsfolk, printed at Edinburgh in 1819. This portrait has every appearance of being executed by the process of reverse etching,—that is, by first covering the plate with etching ground, and then removing the parts that are to be white, and leaving the lines that are to appear black in relief. The plate was printed by a common printing-press at the office of Ballantyne and Co. In the preface the “new invention” of Mr. Lizars is thus mentioned:—“The portrait of Dr. Morris is done in this new style; and, had the time permitted, the others would have all been done so likewise. It is thrown off by the common printing-press, as the634reader will observe—but this is only one of the distinguishing excellences of this new and splendid invention of Mr. Lizars.”Within the last three or four years several plans for executing engravings in metallic relief have been devised; and it has been prophesied of each, that it would in a short time totally supersede wood engraving. The projectors of those plans, however, seem to have taken too narrow a view of the subject; and to have thought that the mere novelty of their invention was sufficient to ensure it success. They appear not to have considered, that it was necessary that their metallic relief casts should not only be cheaper than wood-cuts, but that they should be also as well executed.Mr. Woone has taken out a patent for his invention, and the principle upon which it is founded is that of taking a cast from a copper-plate, whereby the lines engraved inintaglioare in the cast inrelief. His process of metallic relief engraving is as follows:—A smooth plate of metal is covered with a coating of plaster of Paris, about equal in thickness to the depth to which the lines are cut in engraving on copper or steel. Upon this surface of plaster the engraver, with a fine point, as in etching, cuts the lines of the subjectthroughto the plate below. When this plaster etching is completed, a cast is taken from it in type-metal; and, after beingcleared out, the subject in metallic relief can be printed at a common press in the manner of a wood-cut. According to this plan onlyonecast can be taken of each subject, as the plaster is destroyed during the process, so that there is nothing left from which a second mould can be made, as in the case of a wood-cut. The chief advantage of this invention consists in the lines being of equal height in the cast, in consequence of their being etched through the plaster to the level surface of the plate beneath. As the coating of plaster is, however, extremely thin, it is generally necessary to clear out with a graver the interstices of the cast in order to prevent their being touched by the inking roller.A Mr. Schonberg has also made several experiments in metallic relief engraving by means of etching on stone, and afterwards taking a cast from his work. Though he has been for several years endeavouring to perfect his invention, he has not up to this time succeeded in producing anything which it would be fair to criticise.Many of the cuts of trees and shrubs in Loudon’s Arboretum et Fruticetum Britannicum are printed from casts in metallic relief, executed by Mr. Robert Branston. The mode of procedure, according to Mr. Branston’s method, is extremely simple; the subject is first etched on copper, and bit in by aquafortis in the usual manner; and from this etching a cast is afterwards taken in type-metal. As the plate is not corroded to an equal depth in every part, it is necessary to rub on a635stone the faces of the casts thus obtained in order to reduce the raised lines to the same level. There is also another inconvenience that attends casts in metallic relief taken from an etched copper-plate; for, as the aquafortis acts laterally as well as vertically, it is difficult to corrode the lines to a sufficient depth, without at the same time getting them too thick. It is hence necessary to clear out many of the hollow parts of such casts with a graver, in order to prevent their being touched by the balls or inking-roller, and thus giving to the impression a soiled appearance.Casts in metallic relief from etchings always appear coarse; and, from the experiments hitherto made, it seems impossible to executefinework in this manner. So far as relates to cheapness, such casts, however well they may be executed, being of a level surface, cannot be printed properly by a steam-press in the manner of lowered blocks, or casts from lowered blocks. For a work of extensive circulation, printed by means of a steam-press, a lowered block, or a cast from it, would be cheaper at five pounds, than a cast from an etching at four, even admitting that both were equally well executed.The principal feature in Mr. C. Hancock’s patent metallic relief engraving, which is quite original, is, that subjects resembling mezzotints can be inserted and printed with the text in the same manner as wood engravings. A mezzotint plate, if printed in the usual manner previous to being engraved upon, would appear black. On the other hand, if submitted to the same kind of printing as a wood-cut, it would scarcely discolour the paper. Upon this plate Mr. Hancock draws his subject with a broad steel point or burnisher, which polishes down the small prominences to a smooth surface in proportion to the pressure used in drawing. In proportion as the surface becomes smooth, so does it print dark, and have the appearance of a mezzotint. The reader will perceive that, according to this plan, Mr. Hancock can take a proof of his subject at any time, and procure eitherdarkorlightat pleasure, as the subject may appear to require it. The sparkling light can be touched in with the graver, in the same manner as on wood; so that such touches appear much sharper than in common mezzotint, where the lights are got by burnishing. As Mr. Hancock has not as yet brought anything before the public, it would be unfair to anticipate him, by introducing anything more in this place than a description of his process.Wood engraving is necessarily confined, by the size of the wood, to the execution of subjects of comparatively small dimensions; and this limitation, together with the difficulty of printing even tints in positive colours, have combined to prevent it from being made extensively available in the production of works in chiaro-scuro, of large size, by the ordinary modes of surface-printing. Latterly, however,636the demand which the progress of education has created for maps, school prints, elementary examples of fine art, and illustrationson a large scalefor the illustrated newspapers, having called the attention of artists to the subject, many attempts have been made, and in some cases with success, to produce relief engravings on metal; and also to combine that mode of engraving with analogous apparatus for the production of works in tints or colours, separate, combined, or mixed with line plates, in such degrees as particular cases might require. Several of these persons have been already named, and their processes described; it only therefore remains to state, that Mr. Stephen Sly, in connexion with other artists, has for some years past been steadily engaged in making a series of experiments for giving a practical value, by various inventions, to the discoveries and experience of their predecessors in the art; and with every prospect of success. Their method of procedure is: 1. To produce a finished drawing, in simple or crossed lines, with etching varnish on a plate prepared for the purpose; 2. To bite away, with a compound acid, the spaces between the varnish lines; and 3. To deepen and finish the work so produced, by the use of engraving tools, in the ordinary manner. The great difficulties in the way of these apparently simple operations have been, 1. To castsoundand durable plates of a large size, and of a texture sufficiently compact to produce sharp lines by the etching process, and at the same time soft enough to permit the surfaces to be lowered, and the cutting to be executed with facility; 2. To remove the oxide formed by the combination of the acid with the metal from between the lines; and 3. To carry the biting to a depth sufficiently great to permit the plate, with the addition of a small quantity of graver-work, to yield a clear impression.Metallic relief engraving has not unfrequently been practised at Paris of late years. I have now lying before me an impression from a plate engraved in this manner by Messrs. Best, Andrew, and Leloir, of that city. The subject is a wild turkey, and it was engraved about three years ago for Mr. Audubon. Though it is the best specimen of metallic relief engraving that has come under my notice, I am yet of opinion that the subject could be better engraved on wood, and at a less cost. Ornaments and borders are sometimes engraved on solid brass by means of chisels and gravers in the same manner as a wood-cut. The head of Buchanan, and the border on the wrapper of Blackwood’s Magazine, were engraved on brass in this manner, more than twenty years ago, by Messrs.Vizetelly, Branston, and Co. They were originally engraved on wood by Bewick. The greater durability of ornaments engraved on brass, compensates for their additional cost. Thecheapestmode, however, is to have such ornaments first engraved on wood, and casts afterwards taken from them in type metal. One great objection tocutting637on metal with the graver is, that the metalcuts the paperin printing from it.Duplicates of wood engravings may be readily obtained by means of casts from the original blocks; and within the last twenty years, the practice of thus multiplying subjects originally engraved on wood, has become very prevalent both in this country and in France. Casts can be obtained from wood engravings by two different processes, and both are practised by two or three stereotype printers, to whom this business is usually entrusted. By the one mode, a mould is first made from the block in plaster of Paris, and from this mould or matrix a cast is afterwards taken in type metal. By the other mode—termed by the FrenchclichageIX.31—the mould or matrix is not formed of plaster; but is obtained by letting the block fall, with its engraved surface downwards, directly on a mass of metal,IX.32just sufficiently fluid to receive the impression, and which becomes solid almost at the very instant it is touched by the block. From this mould or matrix a cast is afterwards taken in the same manner. In order to prevent the surface of the block becoming charred by the heat, it is previously rubbed over with a composition of common yellow soap and red ochre.
see text and captionROUEN CATHEDRAL.
see text and caption
ROUEN CATHEDRAL.
Though copper-plate engraving has a great advantage over wood when applied to the execution of maps, in consequence of the greater delicacy that can be given to the different shades and lines, indicating hills, rivers, and the boundaries of districts, and also from the number of names that can be introduced, and from the comparative facility of611executing them; yet, as maps engraved on copper, however simple they may be, require to be printed separately, by means of arolling-press,the unavoidable expense frequently renders it impossible to give such maps, even when necessary, in books published at a low price. Under612such circumstances, where little more than outlines, with the course of rivers, and comparatively few names, are required, wood engraving possesses an advantage over copper, as such maps can be executed at a very moderate expense, and printed with the letter-press of the work for which they are intended. As the names in maps engraved on wood are the most difficult parts of the subject, the method of drilling holes in the block and inserting the names in type—as was adopted in the maps to Sebastian Munster’s Cosmography, Basle, 1550,IX.22—has recently been revived. The names in the outline maps contained in the Penny Cyclopædia are inserted in this manner. Had those maps not been engraved on wood, it would have been impossible that any could have been given in the work, as the low price at which it is published would613not have allowed of their being engraved on copper, and, consequently, printed by means of a rolling-press at an additional expense.
see text
When, however, a map is of small dimensions, and several names in letters of comparatively large size are required to be given, this method of piercing the block can scarcely be applied without great risk of its breaking to pieces under the press, in consequence of its being weakened in parts by the holes drilled through it being so near together.IX.23This inconvenience, however, may be remedied by engraving the names inintagliowhere they are most numerous, and afterwards cutting atintover them, so that when printed they may appear white on a dark ground. Other names beyond the boundary of the map can be inserted, where necessary, in type. The preceding skeleton map of England and Wales, showing the divisions of the counties and the course of the principal rivers, has been executed in this manner: all the names on the land, and the courses of the rivers, were first engraved on the smooth surface of the block inintaglio—in less than a third of the time which would have been required to engrave them in relief; the tint was next cut; and lastly, the block was pierced, and all the other names inserted in type, with the exception of the word “ENGLAND” in the title, which was engraved in the same manner as the names on the land.
As what has been previously said about the practice of the art relates entirely to engraving where the lines are of the same height, or in the same plane, and when the impression is supposed to be obtained by the pressure of a flat surface, I shall now proceed to explain the practice of lowering, by which operation the surface of the block is either scraped away from the centre towards the sides, or, as may be required, hollowed out in other places. The object of thus lowering a block is, that the lines in such places may be less exposed to pressure in printing, and thus appear lighter than if they were of the same height as the others. This method, though it has been claimed as a modern invention, is of considerable antiquity, having been practised in 1538, as has been previously observed atpage 462. Instances of lowering are very frequent in cuts engraved by Bewick; but until within the last five or six years the practice was not resorted to by south-country engravers. It is absolutely necessary that wood-cuts intended to be printed by a steam-press should be lowered in such parts as are to appear light; for, as the pressure on the cut proceeds from the even surface of a metal cylinder covered with a blanket, there is no means ofhelpinga cut, as is generally done when printed by a hand-press, by means ofoverlays. Overlaying consists in pasting pieces of614paper either on the front or at the back of the outer tympan, immediately over such parts of the block as require to be printed dark; and the effect of this is to increase the action of the platten on those parts, and to diminish it on such as are not overlaid. When lowered blocks are printed at a common press, it is necessary that a blanket should be used in the tympans, in order that the paper may be pressed into the hollowed or lowered parts, and the lines thusbrought up. The application of the steam-press to printing lowered wood-cuts may be considered as an epoch in the history of wood engraving. Wood-cuts were first printedby a steam-pressat Messrs. Clowes and Sons’ establishment,IX.24and since that timeloweringhas been more generally practised than at any former period.
see text
By means of simply lowering the edges of a block, so that the surface shall be convex instead of plane, the lines are made to diminish in strength as they recede from the centre until they become gradually blended with the white paper on which the cut is printed. This is the most simple mode of lowering, and is now frequently adopted in such cuts as are termedvignettes,—that is, such as are not bounded by definite lines surrounding them in the manner of a border. In the preceding cut, representing a group from Sir David Wilkie’s painting of the Village Festival, in the National Gallery, the light appearance of the lines towards the edges has been produced in this manner.
Mr. Landseer, in his Lectures on Engraving, observes that hard edges are incident to wood-cut vignettes. He was not aware of the means by which this objectionable appearance could be remedied. The following are his observations on this subject: “A principal beauty in most vignettes consists in the delicacy with which they appear to relieve from the white paper on which they are printed. The objects of which vignettes consist, themselves forming the boundary of the composition, their extremities should for the most part be tenderly blended—be almost melted, as it were, into the paper, or ground. Now, in printing with the letter-press, the pressure is rather the strongest at the extremities of the engraving, where we wish it to be weakest, and it is so from the unavoidable swelling of the damp paper on which the impressions are worked, and the softness of the blankets in the tympans of the press. Hence, hard, instead of soft edges, are incident to vignettes engraven on wood, which all the care of the printer, with all the modern accuracy of his machine, can rarely avoid.”
Mr. Landseer’s objection to vignettes engraved on wood applies only to such as are engraved on a plane surface, since by lowering the block towards the edges, lines gradually blending with the white paper can be obtained with the greatest facility. For the representation of such subjects,—supposing that their principal beauty consists in “the delicacy with which they appear to relieve from the white paper,”—wood engraving is as well adapted as engraving on copper or steel. Though it is certainly desirable that the lines in a vignette should gradually become blended with the colour of the paper, yet something more is required in an engraving of this kind, whether on wood or on metal. Much depends on its form harmonizing with the composition of the subject: a beautiful drawing reduced to an irregular shape, and having the edges merely softened, will not always constitute a good vignette. Of this we have but too many instances in modern copper-plate engravings, as well as wood-cuts. Of all modern artists J. M. W. Turner, R.A., and W. Harvey appear to excel in giving to their vignettes a form suitable to the composition.
Perhaps it may not be out of place to say a few words here on the original meaning of the wordvignette, which is now generally used to signify either a wood-cut or a copper-plate engraving which is not inclosed by definite lines forming a border. The word is French, and is synonymous with the Latinviticula, which means a little vine, or a vine shoot, such as is here represented.
see text and caption
Capitalletters in ancient manuscripts were called by old writersviticulæ, orvignettes, in consequence of their being frequently ornamented with flourishes in the manner of vine branches or shoots. The letter C, forming the commencement of this paragraph, is an example of an old vignette; it is copied from a manuscript apparently of the thirteenth century, formerly belonging to the monastery of Durham, but now in the British Museum. Subsequently the word was used to signify any large ornament at the top of a page; in the seventeenth century all kinds of printer’s ornaments, such as flowers, head and tail-pieces, were generally termed vignettes; and more recently the word has been used to express all kinds of wood-cuts or copper-plate engravings which, like the group from the Village Festival, are not inclosed within a definite border. Rabelais uses the word to denote certain ornaments of goldsmith’s work on the scabbard of a sword; and our countryman Lydgate thus employs it in his Troy618Book to denote the sculptured foliage and tracery at the sides of a window:“And if I should rehearsen by and byThe corve knots, by craft and masonry,The fresh embowing with virges right as lines,And the housing full of backewines,The rich coining, the lusty battlements,Vinettesrunning in casements.”
Capitalletters in ancient manuscripts were called by old writersviticulæ, orvignettes, in consequence of their being frequently ornamented with flourishes in the manner of vine branches or shoots. The letter C, forming the commencement of this paragraph, is an example of an old vignette; it is copied from a manuscript apparently of the thirteenth century, formerly belonging to the monastery of Durham, but now in the British Museum. Subsequently the word was used to signify any large ornament at the top of a page; in the seventeenth century all kinds of printer’s ornaments, such as flowers, head and tail-pieces, were generally termed vignettes; and more recently the word has been used to express all kinds of wood-cuts or copper-plate engravings which, like the group from the Village Festival, are not inclosed within a definite border. Rabelais uses the word to denote certain ornaments of goldsmith’s work on the scabbard of a sword; and our countryman Lydgate thus employs it in his Troy618Book to denote the sculptured foliage and tracery at the sides of a window:
“And if I should rehearsen by and byThe corve knots, by craft and masonry,The fresh embowing with virges right as lines,And the housing full of backewines,The rich coining, the lusty battlements,Vinettesrunning in casements.”
“And if I should rehearsen by and byThe corve knots, by craft and masonry,The fresh embowing with virges right as lines,And the housing full of backewines,The rich coining, the lusty battlements,Vinettesrunning in casements.”
“And if I should rehearsen by and by
The corve knots, by craft and masonry,
The fresh embowing with virges right as lines,
And the housing full of backewines,
The rich coining, the lusty battlements,
Vinettesrunning in casements.”
Page imageshowing original layout.
Page imageshowing original layout.
decorative capitals: O Q H I E F F D G V B
The additional specimens of ornamental capitals on the preceding page are chiefly taken from Shaw’s Alphabets, in which will be found a great variety of capitals of all ages.
Before introducing any examples of concave lowering in the middle of a cut, it seems necessary to give first a familiar illustration of the principle, in order that what is subsequently said upon this subject may be the more readily understood.—The crown-piece of George IV., which every reader can refer to, will afford the necessary illustrations. As the head of the King on the obverse, and the figures of St. George, the horse, and the dragon, on the reverse, are inrelief,—that is, higher than the field,—it is evident, that if the coin were printed, each side separately, by means of pressure from an even surface, whether plane or cylindrical, covered with a yielding material, such as a blanket or woollen cloth, so as to press the paper against the field or lower parts, the impressions would appear as follows,—that is, with the parts in relief darkest, and the lower proportionably lighter from their being less exposed to pressure.
see text and caption
IMPRESSIONS FROM A SURFACE WITH THE FIGURES IN RELIEF.
If casts be taken of each side of the same coin, the parts which in the original are raised, or inrelief, will then be concave, or inintaglio;IX.25and if such casts be printed in the manner of wood-cuts, the impressions will appear as in the opposite page,—that is, the field619being now highest will appear positively black, while the figures now inintaglio, orlowered, as I should say when speaking of a wood-cut, will appear lighter in proportion to the concavity of the different parts.
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IMPRESSIONS FROM A SURFACE WITH THE FIGURES LOWERED, OR IN INTAGLIO.
Upon a knowledge of the principle here exemplified the practice of lowering in wood engraving entirely depends. When a block is properly lowered, there is no occasion for overlays; and when cuts are to be printed at a steam-press,—where such means to increase the pressure in some parts and diminish it in others cannot be employed without great loss of time,—it becomes absolutely necessary that the blocks should be lowered in the parts where it is intended that the lines should appear light.
In order that a cut should be printed properly without overlays, either at a common press with a blanket in the tympans, or at a steam-press where the cylinder is covered with woollen cloth, it is necessary that the parts intended to appear light should be lowered before the lines seen upon them are engraved; and the mode of proceeding in this case is as follows:—The designer being aware of the manner in which the cut is to be printed, and understanding the practice of lowering, first makes the drawing on the block in little more than outline,IX.26and washes in with flake-white the parts which it is necessary to lower. The block is then sent to the engraver, who, with an instrument resembling a sharp-edged burnisher, or with a flat tool or chisel, scrapes or pares away the wood in the parts indicated. When the lowering is completed, the designer finishes the drawing, and the cut is engraved. It is necessary to observe, that unless the person who makes the drawing on the block perfectly understand the principle of lowering, and the purposes for which it is intended, he will never be able to design properly a subject intended to be printed by a steam-press.
see text
When an object is to be represented dark upon a light ground, or upon middle tint, the first operation in beginning to lower the block is to cut a delicate white outline round the dark object, and proceed with a flat tool or a scraper, as may be most convenient, to take a thin shaving or paring off those parts on which the background or middle tint is to be engraved. The extent to which the block must be lowered will depend on the degree of lightness intended to be given to such parts. In Bewick’s time, when the pressmen used leather balls to ink the cuts and types, it was only necessary to take a very thin shaving off the block in order to produce the desired effect; as such balls, from the want of elasticity in the leather, which was comparatively hard and unyielding, would only touch lightly such parts as were below the level of the other lines and the face of the types: had the block been lowered to any considerable depth, such parts would not have received any ink, and consequently would not have shown the lines engraved on them in the impression. In the present day, when composition rollers are used, it is necessary to lower the parts intended to appear light to a much greater depth than formerly;IX.27as such rollers, in consequence of their greater elasticity, are pressed, in the process of inking, to a considerably greater depth between the lines of a cut than the old leather balls. The preceding cut—a Shepherd’s Dog, drawn by W. Harvey,—is printed from621a block in which both the fore-ground and distance are lowered to give greater effect to the animal. If such a cut, printed in the same page with types, as it appears here, were inked with leather balls, a considerable portion of the lowered parts would not be visible. This cut illustrates the principle of printing from a surface—such as that of a coin—in which the head or figure is in relief.
In the next cut, an Egret, from a drawing by W. Harvey, the figure of the bird appears white on a dark ground,—the reverse of the cut of the Shepherd’s Dog,—and is an example of lowering the block in the middle in the manner of a die with the figures in intaglio, or a cast from a coin in which the head or figures are in relief.
see text
In a cut of this kind the general form of the principal object required to be light is first lowered out, and the drawing of the figure being next completed upon the hollowed part, the engraver proceeds to cut the lines, beginning with the back-ground and finishing the principal object last. In cutting the lines in the hollowed part, the engraver uses such a tool, slightly curving upwards towards the point, as has been previously described at page 579. In lowering the principal object in a cut of this kind, the greatest attention is necessary in order that the hollowed parts may be gradually concave, and also of a sufficient depth. In performing this operation, the engraver is solely guided by his own judgment; and unless he have some practical knowledge of the extent to which composition balls and rollers will622penetrate in such hollowed parts, it is almost impossible that he should execute his work in a proper manner;—should he succeed, it will only be by chance, like a person shooting at a mark blindfolded. In such cases, though no special rules can be given, it is necessary to observe that the part lowered will, in proportion to its area, be exposed to receive nearly the same quantity of ink, and the same degree of pressure, as the lines on a level with the types. Thedepthto which such parts require to be lowered will consequently depend on their extent; and the degree of lightness intended to be given to the lines engraved on them. This, however, will be best illustrated by the annexed diagram. If, for instance, the part to be lowered extend fromAtoB, it will be necessary to hollow the block to the depth indicated by the dotted lineAcB. Should it extend fromAtoD, it will require to be lowered to the depth of the dotted lineAeDin order to obtain the same degree of lightness in colour as in the lowered partAcBof less area,—that is, supposing the engraved lines in both cases to be of equal delicacy.
see text
As overlaying such delicately engraved cuts as require the greatest attention in printing occupies much time, and lays the press idle during the process, the additional sum charged per sheet for works containing a number of such cuts has frequently operated to the disadvantage of wood engraving, by causing its productions to be dispensed with in many books where they might have been introduced with great advantage, both as direct and incidental illustrations. It is, therefore, of great623importance to adapt the art of wood engraving to the execution of cuts of all kinds, whether comparatively coarse or of the greatest delicacy, so that they may be properly printed at the least possible expense.
see text
The preceding cut, with the two following, which have all been lowered, would, if printed at a steam-press, appear nearly as well as they do in the present work, where they have been printed by means of a common press with a blanket. But such a subject—a winter-piece, with an ass and her foal standing near an old outhouse,—cannot be properly represented without lowering the block; for no overlaying would cause the lines indicating the thatch on the houses and the stacks, as seen through the snow, to appear so soft as they now do.
see text
In this cut of a Salmon Trout, with a view of Bywell Lock, on the river Tyne, both the fore-ground and the distance are lowered; the objects which appear comparatively dark in those parts are the least reduced, while those that appear lightest are such as are lowered to the greatest extent. The back of the fish, which appears dark in the impression, is in the block like a ridge, which is gradually lowered in a hollow curve towards the lower line. In such a cut as this, particular care ought to be taken not to lower too much those parts which come into immediate contact with a strong black outline, such as the back of the Salmon; for where the lowering in such parts is too abrupt, there is great risk of the lines engraved on them not beingbrought up, and thus causing the figure in relief to appear surrounded with a white line, as in the impressions from the crown-piece at page 618.
By means of lowering, the black pony, on which a boy is seen riding, in the following cut, is much more effectively represented, than if the624whole subject were engraved on a plane surface. The grey horse, and the light jacket of the rider, the ground, the garden wall, and the lightest of the trees, are all lowered in order to give greater effect to the pony.
see text
A cut which is properly lowered may not only be printed by a steam-press without overlays, but will also afford a much greater number of good impressions than one of the same kind engraved on a plane surface; for the more delicate parts, being lower than those adjacent to them, are thus saved from too much pressure, without the necessity of increasing it in other places. The preceding cut will serve to show625the advantages of lowering in this respect. It was originally engraved, from a drawing by William Harvey, for the Treatise on Cattle, published under the direction of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge. Though twelve thousand impressions have already been printed from it by means of Messrs. Clowes and Sons’ steam-press, it has not sustained the slightest injury in any part; and the present impression is scarcely inferior to the first proof. With the exception of clearing out the ink in two or three places, it has required no preparation or retouching to give it its present appearance. Had such a work as the Treatise on Cattle been printed at a common press without the blocks having been lowered, the cost of printing would have been at least double the sum charged by Messrs. Clowes; and the engraving, after so great a number of impressions had been taken, would have been considerably injured, if not quite spoiled.
see text
In complicated subjects, consisting of many figures, and in which the light and shade are much diversified, it becomes necessary to combine the two principles of lowering, which have been separately illustrated by the Dog and the Egret, and to adapt them according to circumstances, forming some parts convex, and making others concave, respectively, as the objects engraved on them are to appear dark or light. In order to illustrate this process of combined lowering, I have chosen a subject from Rembrandt—the Descent from the Cross—in which several figures are introduced, and in which the lights and shades are so much varied—in some parts blended by a delicate middle tint, and in others strongly contrasted—as to afford the greatest possible scope for the illustration of what is termedloweringin a wood engraving.
The cut on the next page shows the appearance of an impression taken from the block before a single line had been engraved, except thewhiteoutline bounding the figures. All that is here seen has been effected by the flat tool and the scraper; the lightest parts are those that are most concave, the darkest those that are most convex. The parts which have the appearance of a middle tint are such as are reduced to a medium between the strongest light and the darkest shade. The impression in its present state has very much the appearance of an unfinished mezzotint.
see text
In order to render this example of complicated lowering more intelligible to those who have little knowledge of the subject, it seems necessary to give a detailed account of the process, even at the risk of repeating some previous explanations. In complicated as well as in simple subjects intended to be lowered, the design is first drawn in outline on the wood. In such a subject as that which is here given, the Descent from the Cross, it is necessary to cut a delicatewhiteoutline—such as is seen in the ladder—round all those parts where the true626outline appears dark against light, previous to lowering out those light parts which come into immediate contact with such as are dark. When a white outline has been cut where required, a thin shaving is to be taken off those parts which are intended to be a shade lighter than the middle tints,—for instance, in the rays of light falling upon the cross, and in the lower part of the sky. After this, the light parts of the ground and the figures are to be lowered; but, instead of taking a mere shaving off the latter, the depth to which they are to be hollowed out will depend on the form and size of the parts, and the strength of the light intended to appear on them; and where a series of delicate lines are to run intopure white, great care must be taken that the wood be sufficientlybevelledor rounded off to allow of their blending with the white, without their extremities forming a distinct line, more especially where rotundity is to be represented. In a block thus lowered, the parts intended to be lightest will be the most concave, and those intended to be darkest the most in relief; and, when printed, the627impression will appear as in the following cut, in consequence of the lowered parts, in proportion to their depth, receiving both less ink and less pressure; while those that are to appear positively white are lowered to such an extent as to be neither touched by the ink, nor exposed to the action of the platten or cylinder.
see text
When the block has been thus prepared, the subject is drawn upon it in detail, and the engraving of the lines proceeded with. The sky, and the lighter and more distant objects, should be engraved first: and care ought to be taken not to get the lines too fine at the commencement, for, should this happen, there is no remedy for the defect. By keeping them comparatively strong, the darker objects can be executed in a corresponding degree of boldness; and should the proof be generally too dark, the necessary alterations can be easily made. The above cut of the Descent from the Cross is printed from the finished block; all the positive lines here seen having been engraved subsequent to the process of lowering.
It is necessary to observe that the process of engraving upon an uneven surface—such as that of the lowered block of the Descent from the Cross—is much more difficult than on a surface which is perfectly plane; for the graver in traversing such parts as are lowered is apt to lose its hold, and to slip in descending, while in ascending it is liable to take too much hold, and totearrather than to clearly cut out the wood in certain parts, thus rendering the raised lines rough at the sides, and sometimes breaking them quite through. In order to remedy in some degree such inconveniences, it is necessary to use a graver slightly curving upwards towards the point.
The process of lowering, as previously explained, is peculiarly adapted to give the appearance of proper texture to objects of Natural History, and in particular to birds, where it is often so desirable to impart a soft downy appearance to the plumage. Such softness can never be well represented by lines engraved on a perfectly level surface; for, however thin and fine they may be, they will always appear too distinct, and want that softness which can only be obtained by lowering the block, and printing it with a blanket in the tympans at a common press. Those who in engraving birds on a plane surface are fond of imitating the delicacy of copper-plate or steel engravings, always fail in their attempts to represent that soft appearance so peculiar to the plumage of birds, whatever may be its colour. Bewick’s Birds, in this respect, have never been equalled; and the softness displayed in the plumage has been chiefly obtained by lowering, and thus preventing such parts receiving too much ink or too much pressure. The characteristic expression of the bird, and the variety of texture in the plumage, are not indeed entirely dependent on this process; but the appearance of softness, and the general effect of the cut as a whole,—as exemplified in the Birds of Bewick,—are not otherwise to be obtained. Any wood engraver who doubts this, should attempt to copy, on an unlowered block, one of the best of Bewick’s birds; on comparing a printed impression of his work with the original, he will be likely to discover that he has thought too highly of his own practice, and too lightly of Bewick’s.
Though chiaro-scuro drawings can be faithfully copied by means of wood engraving; yet the art, as applied to the execution of such works, has met with but little encouragement in this country, and has consequently been little practised. From 1754—the date of J. B. Jackson’s tract on the Invention of Engraving and Printing in Chiaro-scuro—to 1819, when the first part of Mr. Savage’s Hints on Decorative Printing was published, the only chiaro-scuro wood engravings which appear to have been published in England were those executed about 1783, by an amateur of the name of John Skippe. The chiaro-scuros engraved by629Mr. Skippe do not appear to have been numerous; I have only seen three—St. John the Evangelist, St. Paul, and Hebe, all after drawings by Parmegiano. The latter is printed from four blocks, and each of the others from three. In point of execution, that of St. John is decidedly the best: it is much superior to any of the specimens given in J. B. Jackson’s work, and will bear a comparison with some of the best chiaro-scuros of Nicholas Le Sueur.
Savage’s Hints on Decorative Printing, in two parts, 1819-1823, contains several specimens, not only of chiaro-scuro wood engravings, but also of subjects printed in positive colours from several wood-blocks, in imitation of coloured drawings. Some of the chiaro-scuros, properly so called, are well executed, though they generally seem too soft andwoolly. The following are those which seem most worthy of notice:—A female Bacchante, from a bas-relief in the British Museum; Theseus, from the statue in the Elgin Collection of Marbles, in the British Museum; Copy of a bust in marble in the British Museum; Bridge and Landscape; Passage-boats; and a River Scene. For the representation of such subjects as the preceding, when drawn in sepia, wood engraving is peculiarly adapted.
The simplest manner of representing a chiaro-scuro drawing is by printing a tint, with the lights cut out, from a second block, over the impression of a cut engraved in the usual manner. Chiaro-scuros of this kind have the appearance of pen-and-ink drawings made on tinted paper, and heightened with touches of white. The illustrations to an edition of Puckle’s Club were thus printed in 1820,—the year after they had appeared printed in the usual manner in a new edition of the work—but many of them are spoiled by the badly-chosen “fancy” colour of the tint.
From the time of the publication of the second part of Savage’s Hints, and the tinted illustrations of Puckle’s Club, no further attempts appear to have been made to improve or extend the practice of chiaro-scuro engraving and printing in colours till Mr. George Baxter turned his attention to the subject. His first attempts in chiaro-scuro engraving are to be found in a History of Sussex, printed by his father at Lewes, in 1835. Mr. Baxter tried various experiments, and at length succeeded so much to his satisfaction, that he took out a patent for printing in oil-colours. The manner in which he executes picture-prints in positive colours, after drawings or paintings in oil, isnearlythe same as that in which Kirkall executed his chiaro-scuros. The ground, the outlines, and the more minute details, are first printed in neutral tint from a plate engraved in aquatint; and over this impression the proper colours are printed from as many wood-blocks as there are different tints. The best specimens of Mr. Baxter’s printing in oil-colours, from wood-blocks over630an aquatint ground, are to be found in the Pictorial Album, published by Chapman and Hall, 1837; and among these the following appear to be most deserving of distinct enumeration:—Interior of the Lady Chapel, Warwick; Lugano; Verona; and Jeannie Deans’s Interview with the Queen. In some of the most elaborate subjects in this work, the colours have been communicated by not less than twenty blocks, each separately printed. So far as regards the landscapes, nothing of the same kind previously done will bear to be compared with them. But since this period, Mr. Baxter has brought his peculiar art to still greater perfection, and both large and small examples are to be met with abundantly. One of the most popular is his “Holy Trinity, after Raphael,” a small plate of which no fewer than 700,000 copies have been sold. The subscribers to Bohn’s Scientific Library will find a good specimen in the View of Chimborazo, prefixed to Humboldt’s Views of Nature.
Another recent invention is that of “Knight’s Patent Illuminated Prints and Maps.” In every instance hitherto of surface-printing in colours, each colour, having a separate block, had to be worked off separately, which rendered such productions extremely expensive.IX.28The new process has one great advantage over all its predecessors, in cheapness, and the facility with which it can multiply impressions. The general nature of the process will be best understood from a description of the mode of completing a coloured print.
In the first place, a subject is engraved upon wood in the usual manner, and the impression is coloured by a skilful artist. We will suppose four principal colours are introduced, red, blue, yellow, and brown. Separate and exact drawings of each colour are then made; and four polished plates are prepared, each plate carrying one colour. These four plates are then firmly fixed in an ingeniously contrived frame, or table, moving upon the table of a common press, the motion being regulated by machinery, which ensures the most exact register, after it has once been obtained, and affords the greatest facility in obtaining it. The colours are then applied to their respective plates in precisely the same manner as ink to type, by means of rollers; and four sheets of paper of the size intended for the print (or, for convenience, one large sheet to be afterwards cut up) are then placed on the frisket, which631is then turned down on the plates, and the pull applied. The table is then turned one quarter round, and the process is repeated, till each colour has, in succession, been printed upon the four sheets. Six or seven colours are sometimes produced by the same process, and from the same plates, by combination; and the union of two colours to produce a third is effected perfectly, in consequence of the rapidity of the process, which does not allow the colours to dry and become hard. The bright whites are, of course, formed by removing the surface in the requisite parts from all the plates, and suffering the ground to appear. Eight, or indeed any number of colours, can be introduced by using another press, or presses; in which case the frisket with the sheet or sheets fixed, is passed from one press to the other. The block of the drawing is always the last impressed.
From its extreme exactitude this invention seems peculiarly adapted for designs of patterns for shawls, ribbons, printed cottons, carpets, and such manufactures as have hitherto apparently been left to the fancy of the workman, or his employers, who in matters of art have frequently quite as little taste as the workman.
But probably the most favourable field for the display of the perfections of this invention, would be in subjects where only light and shade, or at most what are called neutral tints, are required, such as architectural drawings and sculptures, either statues or in relief. For such purposes the depth of tone obtainable, and the sharpness of the lights, seem peculiarly adapted.IX.29
What is termed metallic relief engraving consists in executing subjects on plates of copper, or any other metal, in such a manner that the lines which form the impression shall be in relief, and thus allow of such plates being inked and printed in the same manner as a wood-cut. Since the revival of wood engraving in this country several attempts have been made toetchin metallic relief, and thus save the time necessarily required to cut out all the lines in a wood engraving. In etching upon copper, in order that the subject may be represented by linesin relief,—the reverse of the usual procedure in copper-plate engraving,—and that the plate may be printed in the same manner as a wood-cut, there are several methods of proceeding. In one, the subject isdrawnupon the plate in Burgundy pitch, or any other substance which will resist the action of aquafortis, in the same manner632as copper-plate engravers in the ordinary processstop outthe parts intended to be white. When the substance in which the drawing is made becomesset, or sufficiently hard, the plate is surrounded with awall, as it is technically termed, and aquafortis being poured upon it, all the unprotected parts are corroded, and the drawing left in relief.
This was the method generally adopted by William Blake, an artist of great but eccentric genius, in the execution of his Songs of Innocence, the Book of Thel,IX.30the Gates of Paradise, Urizen, and other works, published between 1789 and 1800. The following account of the origin of this new mode of engraving or etching in metallic relief, by corroding the parts intended to appear white in the impression, is extracted from the Life of William Blake, in Allan Cunningham’s Lives of British Painters, Sculptors, and Architects:—
“He had made the sixty-five designs of his Songs of Innocence, and was meditating, he said, on the best means of multiplying their resemblance in form and in hue; he felt sorely perplexed. At last he was made aware that the spirit of his favourite brother Robert was in the room, and to this celestial visitor he applied for counsel. The spirit advised him at once: ‘Write,’ he said, ‘the poetry, and draw the designs upon the copper, with a certain liquid, (which he named, and which Blake ever kept a secret,) then cut the plain parts of the plate down with aquafortis, and this will give the whole, both poetry and figures, in the manner of stereotype.’ The plan recommended by this gracious spirit was adopted, the plates were engraved, and the work printed off. The artist then added a peculiar beauty of his own: he tinted both the figures and the verse with a variety of colours, amongst which, while yellow prevails, the whole has a rich and lustrous beauty, to which I know little that can be compared. The size of these prints is four and a half inches high by three inches wide. The original genius of Blake was always confined, through poverty, to small dimensions. Sixty-five plates of copper were an object to him who had little money.”
Blake subsequently executed, in the same manner, “the Gates of Paradise,” consisting of sixteen small designs; and “Urizen,” consisting of twenty-seven designs. The size of the latter is four inches by six, and they are dated Lambeth, 1794. In 1800 he also engraved by a similar process, combined with the usual mode of etchingthrougha prepared ground laid over the plate, two subjects to illustrate a song of his own writing, which was printed with them also from metallic relief. The title of this song is “Little Tom the Sailor,” and the date is October 5, 1800. It appears to have been a charitable contribution633of Blake’s to the “Widow Spicer of Folkstone,” the mother of little Tom; and we learn from the imprint at the bottom that it was printed for, and sold by her for the benefit of her orphans.
Blake’s metallic relief engravings were printed by himself by means of a rolling or copper-plate press, though the impression was obtained from the lines in relief in the same manner as from a wood-cut. The only difference in the printing consisted in the different manner in which the pressure was applied. As it is difficult, according to Blake’s process, to corrode the large white parts to a depth sufficient to prevent their being touched by the dauber or ball in the process of inking, and thus presenting a soiled appearance in the impression, he was accustomed to wipe the ink out where it had touched in the hollows. As this occupied more time than the mere inking of the plate, his progress in printing was necessarily slow.
In another mode of engraving in relief on a plate of copper, the plate is first covered with an etching ground in the usual manner, and to this ground an outline of the subject is transferred by passing the plate with a pencil-drawing above it through a rolling-press. The engraver then proceeds to remove with his etching-point, or some other tool, as may be necessary, all such parts as are intended to bewhite. When this process, which may be termedreverse etching, is completed, the parts intended to be white are corroded by pouring aquafortis upon the plate in the usual manner, while the lines which represent the object remain in relief, in consequence of their being protected at the surface by the coating of etching ground.
Several persons have made experiments in this mode of metallic relief engraving. It was tried by Bewick, and also by the late Robert Branston; but they did not succeed to their satisfaction, and none of their productions executed in this manner was ever submitted to the public. About twenty years ago, Mr. W. Lizars of Edinburgh appears to have turned his attention to the subject of metallic relief engraving, and to have succeeded better than either Bewick or Branston. One of the earliest-published specimens of his engraving in this style is the portrait of Dr. Peter Morris, forming the frontispiece to Peter’s Letters to his Kinsfolk, printed at Edinburgh in 1819. This portrait has every appearance of being executed by the process of reverse etching,—that is, by first covering the plate with etching ground, and then removing the parts that are to be white, and leaving the lines that are to appear black in relief. The plate was printed by a common printing-press at the office of Ballantyne and Co. In the preface the “new invention” of Mr. Lizars is thus mentioned:—“The portrait of Dr. Morris is done in this new style; and, had the time permitted, the others would have all been done so likewise. It is thrown off by the common printing-press, as the634reader will observe—but this is only one of the distinguishing excellences of this new and splendid invention of Mr. Lizars.”
Within the last three or four years several plans for executing engravings in metallic relief have been devised; and it has been prophesied of each, that it would in a short time totally supersede wood engraving. The projectors of those plans, however, seem to have taken too narrow a view of the subject; and to have thought that the mere novelty of their invention was sufficient to ensure it success. They appear not to have considered, that it was necessary that their metallic relief casts should not only be cheaper than wood-cuts, but that they should be also as well executed.
Mr. Woone has taken out a patent for his invention, and the principle upon which it is founded is that of taking a cast from a copper-plate, whereby the lines engraved inintaglioare in the cast inrelief. His process of metallic relief engraving is as follows:—A smooth plate of metal is covered with a coating of plaster of Paris, about equal in thickness to the depth to which the lines are cut in engraving on copper or steel. Upon this surface of plaster the engraver, with a fine point, as in etching, cuts the lines of the subjectthroughto the plate below. When this plaster etching is completed, a cast is taken from it in type-metal; and, after beingcleared out, the subject in metallic relief can be printed at a common press in the manner of a wood-cut. According to this plan onlyonecast can be taken of each subject, as the plaster is destroyed during the process, so that there is nothing left from which a second mould can be made, as in the case of a wood-cut. The chief advantage of this invention consists in the lines being of equal height in the cast, in consequence of their being etched through the plaster to the level surface of the plate beneath. As the coating of plaster is, however, extremely thin, it is generally necessary to clear out with a graver the interstices of the cast in order to prevent their being touched by the inking roller.
A Mr. Schonberg has also made several experiments in metallic relief engraving by means of etching on stone, and afterwards taking a cast from his work. Though he has been for several years endeavouring to perfect his invention, he has not up to this time succeeded in producing anything which it would be fair to criticise.
Many of the cuts of trees and shrubs in Loudon’s Arboretum et Fruticetum Britannicum are printed from casts in metallic relief, executed by Mr. Robert Branston. The mode of procedure, according to Mr. Branston’s method, is extremely simple; the subject is first etched on copper, and bit in by aquafortis in the usual manner; and from this etching a cast is afterwards taken in type-metal. As the plate is not corroded to an equal depth in every part, it is necessary to rub on a635stone the faces of the casts thus obtained in order to reduce the raised lines to the same level. There is also another inconvenience that attends casts in metallic relief taken from an etched copper-plate; for, as the aquafortis acts laterally as well as vertically, it is difficult to corrode the lines to a sufficient depth, without at the same time getting them too thick. It is hence necessary to clear out many of the hollow parts of such casts with a graver, in order to prevent their being touched by the balls or inking-roller, and thus giving to the impression a soiled appearance.
Casts in metallic relief from etchings always appear coarse; and, from the experiments hitherto made, it seems impossible to executefinework in this manner. So far as relates to cheapness, such casts, however well they may be executed, being of a level surface, cannot be printed properly by a steam-press in the manner of lowered blocks, or casts from lowered blocks. For a work of extensive circulation, printed by means of a steam-press, a lowered block, or a cast from it, would be cheaper at five pounds, than a cast from an etching at four, even admitting that both were equally well executed.
The principal feature in Mr. C. Hancock’s patent metallic relief engraving, which is quite original, is, that subjects resembling mezzotints can be inserted and printed with the text in the same manner as wood engravings. A mezzotint plate, if printed in the usual manner previous to being engraved upon, would appear black. On the other hand, if submitted to the same kind of printing as a wood-cut, it would scarcely discolour the paper. Upon this plate Mr. Hancock draws his subject with a broad steel point or burnisher, which polishes down the small prominences to a smooth surface in proportion to the pressure used in drawing. In proportion as the surface becomes smooth, so does it print dark, and have the appearance of a mezzotint. The reader will perceive that, according to this plan, Mr. Hancock can take a proof of his subject at any time, and procure eitherdarkorlightat pleasure, as the subject may appear to require it. The sparkling light can be touched in with the graver, in the same manner as on wood; so that such touches appear much sharper than in common mezzotint, where the lights are got by burnishing. As Mr. Hancock has not as yet brought anything before the public, it would be unfair to anticipate him, by introducing anything more in this place than a description of his process.
Wood engraving is necessarily confined, by the size of the wood, to the execution of subjects of comparatively small dimensions; and this limitation, together with the difficulty of printing even tints in positive colours, have combined to prevent it from being made extensively available in the production of works in chiaro-scuro, of large size, by the ordinary modes of surface-printing. Latterly, however,636the demand which the progress of education has created for maps, school prints, elementary examples of fine art, and illustrationson a large scalefor the illustrated newspapers, having called the attention of artists to the subject, many attempts have been made, and in some cases with success, to produce relief engravings on metal; and also to combine that mode of engraving with analogous apparatus for the production of works in tints or colours, separate, combined, or mixed with line plates, in such degrees as particular cases might require. Several of these persons have been already named, and their processes described; it only therefore remains to state, that Mr. Stephen Sly, in connexion with other artists, has for some years past been steadily engaged in making a series of experiments for giving a practical value, by various inventions, to the discoveries and experience of their predecessors in the art; and with every prospect of success. Their method of procedure is: 1. To produce a finished drawing, in simple or crossed lines, with etching varnish on a plate prepared for the purpose; 2. To bite away, with a compound acid, the spaces between the varnish lines; and 3. To deepen and finish the work so produced, by the use of engraving tools, in the ordinary manner. The great difficulties in the way of these apparently simple operations have been, 1. To castsoundand durable plates of a large size, and of a texture sufficiently compact to produce sharp lines by the etching process, and at the same time soft enough to permit the surfaces to be lowered, and the cutting to be executed with facility; 2. To remove the oxide formed by the combination of the acid with the metal from between the lines; and 3. To carry the biting to a depth sufficiently great to permit the plate, with the addition of a small quantity of graver-work, to yield a clear impression.
Metallic relief engraving has not unfrequently been practised at Paris of late years. I have now lying before me an impression from a plate engraved in this manner by Messrs. Best, Andrew, and Leloir, of that city. The subject is a wild turkey, and it was engraved about three years ago for Mr. Audubon. Though it is the best specimen of metallic relief engraving that has come under my notice, I am yet of opinion that the subject could be better engraved on wood, and at a less cost. Ornaments and borders are sometimes engraved on solid brass by means of chisels and gravers in the same manner as a wood-cut. The head of Buchanan, and the border on the wrapper of Blackwood’s Magazine, were engraved on brass in this manner, more than twenty years ago, by Messrs.Vizetelly, Branston, and Co. They were originally engraved on wood by Bewick. The greater durability of ornaments engraved on brass, compensates for their additional cost. Thecheapestmode, however, is to have such ornaments first engraved on wood, and casts afterwards taken from them in type metal. One great objection tocutting637on metal with the graver is, that the metalcuts the paperin printing from it.
Duplicates of wood engravings may be readily obtained by means of casts from the original blocks; and within the last twenty years, the practice of thus multiplying subjects originally engraved on wood, has become very prevalent both in this country and in France. Casts can be obtained from wood engravings by two different processes, and both are practised by two or three stereotype printers, to whom this business is usually entrusted. By the one mode, a mould is first made from the block in plaster of Paris, and from this mould or matrix a cast is afterwards taken in type metal. By the other mode—termed by the FrenchclichageIX.31—the mould or matrix is not formed of plaster; but is obtained by letting the block fall, with its engraved surface downwards, directly on a mass of metal,IX.32just sufficiently fluid to receive the impression, and which becomes solid almost at the very instant it is touched by the block. From this mould or matrix a cast is afterwards taken in the same manner. In order to prevent the surface of the block becoming charred by the heat, it is previously rubbed over with a composition of common yellow soap and red ochre.