see text and captionNo. 1 (from Wood).see text and captionNo. 2 (from Metal).When it is particularly desirable to preserve the original block uninjured, the safest mode is that of forming a mould or matrix of plaster; for by the process ofclichagea delicately engraved block is extremely638liable to receive damage. As a cast, whether from a matrix of metal or of plaster, generally requires certain small specks of the metal to be removed, or some of the lines to be cleared out, this operation is frequently entrusted to a person employed in a printing-office where such cast is taken. Such person, however, should never be allowed to do more than remove the specks; for, should he attempt to re-enter or re-cut the lines or tints on metal, he will be very likely to spoil the work. It is extremely difficult, even to a dexterous engraver, to re-enter the lines that have been partially closed up in a tint, so that they shall appear the same as the others which have come off clear. Should the printer’spickerhappen to re-enter them in a direction opposite to that in which they were originally cut on the block, the work is certain to be spoiled. When a cast requires clearing out and retouching in this manner, the operation ought to be performed by a wood engraver, and, if possible, by the person who executed the original block. When the subject is not very complicated, it is extremely difficult to distinguish which of two impressions is from a cast, and which is from the original block. Those who profess to have great judgment in such matters are left to determine which of the preceding busts is printed from metal, and which from wood.When a duplicate of a modern, or a fac-simile of an old wood-cut is required, the best mode of obtaining a correct copy, is to transfer the original, if not too large or too valuable, to a prepared block; and the mode of effecting this is as follows:—The back of the impression to be transferred is first well moistened with a mixture composed of equal parts of concentrated potash and essence of lavender; it is then placed above a block whose surface has been slightly moistened with water, and rubbed with a burnisher. If the mixture be of proper strength, the ink of the old impression will become loosened, and be transferred to the wood. Recent impression of a wood-cut, before the ink is set, may be transferred to a block without any preparation, merely by what is technically termed “rubbing down.” In order to transfer impressions from copper-plates, it is necessary to use theoilof lavender instead of theessence: if a very old impression, apply the preparation to its face.Since the former edition of this work considerable improvements have been made in the mode of taking casts, of which the principal iselectrotyping, by the galvanic precipitation of copper. By this process all the finer lines of the engraving are so perfectly preserved, that impressions printed from the cast are quite undistinguishable from those printed from the original block.Before closing this subject we think it right to introduce the notice of a new art, which, if it accomplishes all it professes, and as, judging by the annexed example, it seems capable of performing, will be a great acquisition.639The art was first brought out as Collins’s process, but is now called theElectro-printing Block process, and is managed under the inventor’s direction by a company established at No. 27, New Bridge Street, Blackfriars. The object of the process is to reduce or extend, by means of transfer to an elastic material, maps or engravings of any size. The specimen given in the present volume is reduced from a lithograph copy of an early block print, four times its size,IX.33and then electrotyped640into a surface block, so as to print in the ordinary manner of a wood-engraving. The reader will easily imagine that any plate transferred to an elastic surface distended equally, will, when collapsed, yield a reduced impression, andvice versâ. The only drawback to this process seems to be the want of depth in the electro-type where there are large unengraved spaces. Such plates will want good bringing-up and very careful printing.see textThe unequal manner in which wood-cuts are printed, is often injurious both to publishers and engravers; for, however well a subject may have been engraved, or whatever may have been the expense incurred, both the engraver’s talents and the publisher’s money will, in a great measure, have been thrown away unless the cut be properly printed. The want of cordial co-operation between printers and wood engravers is one of the chief causes of wood-cuts being so frequently printed in an improper manner. One printer’s method of printing wood-cuts often differs so much from that of another, that it is generally necessary for an engraver who wishes to have justice done to his work, to ascertain the office at which a book is to be printed before he begins to execute any of the cuts. If they are intended to be printed at a steam-press, they require to be engraved in a manner suitable to that method of printing; and if it be further intended to take casts from them, and to print from such casts instead of the original blocks, it is necessary for the engraver to execute his work accordingly. Should they have to be printed at a common presswith a blanket, it is necessary that they should be lowered in such parts as are most liable to be printed too heavy from the parchment of the tympan, when there is a blanket behind it, penetrating to a greater depth between the lines than when no blanket is used.IX.34When it is intended to print cuts in what is called thebestmanner,—that is, at a common press without a blanket, and where the effect is brought up by means of overlaying,—the engraver has nothing to do but to execute his subject on a plane surface to the best of his ability, and to leave the task of bringing up the dark, and easing the light parts to the printer,—who, if he have not an artist’s eye, can only by chance succeed in producing the effect intended by the draftsman and the engraver.see textShould a series of wood-cuts be engraved with the view of their being printed at a steam-press, or at a common press with a blanket, and641should the publisher or proprietor of the work afterwards change his intention, and decide on having them printed in thebestmanner,—that is, by the common press without a blanket, and with overlays,—such cuts, whatever pains might be taken, could not be properly and efficiently printed; for those parts which had been lowered in order to obviate thein-pressure of the blanket, would either be totally invisible, or would only appear imperfectly,—that is, with the lines indistinct and broken, as if they had not been properly inked. The following cut, which was lowered for machine-printing, or printing with a blanket, but has been worked off at a common press without a blanket, when compared with the same subject printed in the manner originally intended,—that is, with a blanket,—will illustrate what has been previously said on the subject. I by no means wish it to be understood, that any printer would allow such a cut to appear quite so bad as it does in the present impression; he would dosomethingto remedy the defects, but he could not, without employing a blanket, cause it to have the appearance originally intended by the designer and engraver. It is printed here without any aid of overlaying, in order that the difference might be the more apparent to those who are unacquainted with the subject. I have, however, not unfrequently seen excellent cuts spoiled from inattention to bringing up the lowered parts, even when printed at the office of printers who have acquired a high character forfinework, and whose names on this account are announced in advertisements in connexion with those of the author, designer, and publisher, as a642guarantee for the superior manner in which the cuts contained in the work will be printed.IX.35The following cut, of the same subject as that given on the previous page, shows the appearance of the engraving when properly printed in the manner intended; every line is here brought up by using a blanket, while from the block having been lowered, with a view to its being printed in this manner, there has been no occasion for overlays to increase the effect in the darker parts. The difference in the two impressions is entirely owing to the different manner of printing; for the one is printed from the block, and the other from a cast.see textSubjects engraved on lowered blocks, in the manner of the following cut, have always an unfinished appearance when printed without a blanket, and the feebleness and confusion apparent in the lighter parts, instead of being remedied by overlaying the darker parts, are thus rendered more obvious. The connecting medium between the extremes of black and white being either entirely omitted or very imperfectly643given, causes the impression to have that harsh and unfinished appearance which is frequently urged as one of the greatest objections to engraving on wood. It is indeed true, that many cuts have this objectionable appearance; but it is also true that the fault does not originate in any deficiency in the art, but is either the result of want of knowledge on the part of the engraver, or is occasioned by improper printing. When wood engravers found that anything approaching to delicacy, in blending the extremes of black and white in their work, was extremely liable to be either lost or spoiled in the printing, it is not surprising that they should have paid comparatively little attention to the connecting tints. In many excellently engraved cuts, printed at the common press with overlays, the tint next in gradation to positive black is often perceived to be too dark, in consequence of the extra pressure on the adjacent parts; while, on the other hand, the delicate lines intended to blend with the white, are either too heavy, or appear broken and confused. It is chiefly from this cause, that so much black and white, without the requisite connecting middle tints, is found in wood-cuts; for the engraver, finding that such tints were frequently spoiled in the impression, omitted them whenever he could, in order to adapt his subject to the usual method of printing. When, in consequence of an improvement in the mode of printing wood-cuts, engravers can depend on finding all in the impression that can be executed on the block, it will no longer be an objection to the art that its productions have a hard and unfinished appearance, and that it is only capable of efficiently representing subjects displaying strong contrasts of black and white.Should a wood-cut engraved on a plane surface, with the intention of its being printed in thebestmanner,—that is, at a common press with overlays, andwithouta blanket,—be printed at a steam-press, or at a common presswitha blanket, it will present a very different appearance to the engraver’s proof.IX.36The following cut, which ought properly to have been printed in thebestmanner, is here printed improperlywith a blanket, and the result is anything but satisfactory; the parts which ought to have been delicately printed are, in consequence of the equality of the pressure on every part of the unlowered surface brought up too heavy, and from their appearing too dark, the effect intended by the designer and engraver is destroyed. The same cut, when printed at a common press with overlays, and without a blanket, as originally intended, would have the light parts relieved, and appear as it does on the following page.644see textsee textThe want of something like a uniform method of printing wood-cuts, and the high price charged by printers for what is called fine work, have operated most injuriously to the progress and extension of wood engraving. The practice, however, of printing wood-cuts by a steam-press, or a press of any kind with a cylindrical roller instead of a platten, seems likely to introduce a general change in the practice of the art. By the adoption of this cheap and expeditious method of printing, books containing the very best wood engravings can be afforded at a much cheaper rate than formerly. As cuts printed in this645manner can receive no adventitious aid from overlays, the wood engraver is required to finish his work perfectly before it goes out of his hands, and not to trust to the taste of a pressman for its being properly printed. The great desideratum in wood engraving is to produce cuts which can be efficiently printed at the least possible expense; and, as a means towards this end, it is necessary that cuts should require the least possible aid from the printer, and be executed in such manner that, without gross negligence, they will be certain to print well. The greatest advantage that wood engraving possesses over engraving on copper or steel is the cheap rate at which its productions can be printed at one impression, in the same sheet with the letter-press. To increase, therefore, by an incomplete method of engraving, the cost of printing wood-cuts, is to abandon the great vantage ground of the art.The mode of printing by the common press without a blanket, and ofhelpinga cut engraved on a plane surface by means of overlays, is not only much more expensive than printing from a lowered block by the steam-press, or a common press with a blanket and without overlaying, but is also much more injurious to the engraving. When a cut requires to be overlaidIX.37in order that it may be properly printed, a piece of paper is first pasted on the tympan, and on this an impression is taken, which remains as a substratum for the subsequent overlays. A second impression is next taken, and in this the pressman cuts out the lighter parts, and notes such as are too indistinct and requirebringing up. He then proceeds to paste scraps of paper over the corresponding parts in the first impression, on a sheet of thin paper, either in front or at the back of the parchment tympan, in order to increase in such parts the pressure of the platten; and thus continues, sometimes for half a day, pasting scrap over scrap, until he obtains what he considers a perfect impression.As the block is originally of the same height as the type, it is evident that the overlays must very much increase the pressure of the platten on such parts as they are immediately above. Such increase of pressure is not only injurious to the engraving, occasionally breaking down the lines; but it also frequently squeezes the ink from the surfaceintothe interstices, and causes the impression in such parts to appear blotted. While a block, with a flat surface, printed in this manner will scarcely afford five thousand good impressions without retouching, twenty thousand can be obtained from a lowered block printed by a steam-press, or by a common press with a blanket and without overlays;646the darkest parts in a lowered block being no higher than the type, and not being overlaid, are subject to no unequal pressure to break down the lines, while the lighter parts being lowered are thus sufficiently protected. The intervention of the blanket in the latter case not only brings up the lighter parts, but is also less injurious to the engraving, than the direct action of the wood or metal platten, with only the thin cloth and the parchment of the tympans intervening between it and the surface of the block.When wood-cuts are printed with overlays, and the paper is knotty, the engraving is certain to be injured by the knots being indented in the wood in those parts where the pressure is greatest. When copies of a work containing wood-cuts are printed on India paper, the engraving is almost invariably injured, in consequence of the hard knots and pieces of bark with which such paper abounds, causing indentions in the wood. The consequence of printing off a certain number of copies of a work on such paper may be seen in the cut of the Vain Glow-worm, in the second edition of the first series of Northcote’s Fables: it is covered with white spots, the result of indentions in the block caused by the knots and inequalities in bad India paper. Overlays frequently shift if not well attended to, and cause pressure where it was never intended.In order that wood engravings should appear to the greatest advantage, it is necessary that they should be printed on proper paper. A person not practically acquainted with the subject may easily be deceived in selecting paper for a work containing wood engravings. There is a kind of paper, manufactured of coarse material, which, in consequence of its being pressed, has a smooth appearance, and to the view seems to be highly suitable for the purpose. As soon, however, as such paper is wetted previous to printing, its smoothness disappears, and its imperfections become apparent by the irregular swelling of the material of which it is composed. Paper intended for printing the best kind of wood-cuts ought to be even in texture, and this ought to be the result of good material well manufactured. Paper of this kind will not appear uneven when wetted, like that which has merely agood faceput upon it by means of extreme pressure. The best mode of testing the quality of paper is to wet a sheet; however even and smooth it may appear when dry, its imperfections will be evident when wet, if it be manufactured of coarse material, and merely pressed smooth.Paper of unequal thickness, however good the material may be, is quite unfit for the purpose of printing the best kind of wood engravings; for, if a sheet be thicker at one end than the other, there will be a perceptible difference in the strength of the impressions of the cuts accordingly as they may be printed on the thick or the thin parts, those647on the latter being light, while those on the former are comparatively heavy or dark. When it is known that an overlay of the thinnest tissue paper will make a perceptible difference in an impression, the necessity of having paper of even texture for the purpose of printing wood-cuts well is obvious. As there is less chance of inequality of texture in comparatively thin paper than in thick, the former kind is generally to be preferred, supposing it to be equally well manufactured.Mr. Savage, at page 46 of his Hints on Decorative Printing, recommends that in a sheet which consists entirely of letter-press in oneform,IX.38and of letter-press and wood-cuts in the other, the form without cuts should be worked first. His words are as follow:—“When there are wood-cuts in one form, and none in the other, then the form without the cuts ought to be worked first; as working the cuts last prevents the indention of the types appearing on the engraving, which would otherwise take place to its prejudice.”My opinion on this subject is directly the reverse of Mr. Savage’s, for, under similar circumstances, I should advise that the form containing the cuts should be printed first; and for the following reason:—When any parts of a wood-cut require to be printed light—whether by lowering the block or by overlaying—the pressure in such parts must necessarily be less than on those adjacent. If then the form containing such cuts be printed first, the paper being perfectly flat, and without any indentions, all the lines will appear distinct and continuous, unless the pressman should grossly neglect his duty. If, on the contrary, the form containing such cuts be printed last, there is a risk of the lines in the lighter parts appearing broken and confused, in consequence of the inequality in the surface of the paper, caused by the indention of the types on the opposite side. Imperfections of this kind are to be seen in many works containing wood-cuts; and they are in particular numerous in the Treatise on Cattle published under the superintendence of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge. In many of the cuts in this work the lines representing the sky appear discontinuous and broken, and the imperfections are always according to the kind of type on the other side of the paper. When both forms contain wood-cuts, I should recommend that to be first which contains the best. Mr. Savage’s reason, independent of the preceding objections, is scarcely a good one; for admitting that the indention of the types of the second form does appear in theclearanddistinctimpressions from the cuts in the first, when the sheet is just taken from the press, are not such inequalities entirely removed when the sheet isdriedand pressed?648In order to produce good impressions in printing wood-cuts, much more depends on the manner in which the subject is treated by the designer, and on the plate which the cut occupies in a page, than a person unacquainted with the nicety required in such matters would imagine. Wood-cuts which are delicately engraved, or which consist chiefly of outline, are the most difficult to print in a proper manner, in consequence of their want of dark masses to relieve the pressure in the more delicate parts, and thus cause them to appear lighter in the impression. There ought never to be a large portion of light delicate work in a wood-cut without a few dark parts near to it, which may serve as stays or props to relieve the pressure. In illustration of what is here said, I would refer to the cut of King Shahriyár unveiling Shahrazád, at page 15 of Mr. Lane’s Translation of the Arabian Nights’ Entertainments, where it will be seen, that certain dark parts are introduced as if at measured distances. It is entirely owing to the introduction of those dark parts that the pressman has been enabled to print the cut so well: they not only give by contrast the appearance of greater delicacy to the lightest parts; but they also serve to relieve them from that degree of pressure, which, if the cut consisted entirely of such delicate lines, would most certainly cause them to appear comparatively thick and heavy. Another instance of the advantage which a cut derives from its being placed in a certain situation in the page, is also afforded by the same work. The cut to which I allude is that of the Return of the Jinnee, at page 47, consisting chiefly of middle tint, with a pillar of smoke rising up from the ground, and gradually becoming lighter towards the top. Had this cut been introduced at the head of the page without any text above it, the light parts would not have appeared so delicate as they do now when the cut is printed in its present situation. The top of the cut, where the lines are required to be lightest, being near to the types, thus receives a support, and is by them relieved from that degree of pressure which would otherwise cause the lines to appear heavy. Towards the bottom of the cut, which also forms the bottom of the page, there are two or three dark figures which most opportunely afford that necessary degree of support which in the upper part is derived from the types.The engraver by whom a cut has been executed is unquestionably the best person that the printer can apply to for any information as to the manner in which it ought to be printed, as he alone can be perfectly acquainted with thestate of the block, and with any peculiarity in the engraving. If any light part should have been lowered to a very trifling extent, it is sometimes almost impossible that the printer should perceive such lowered part after the block has been covered with ink; and hence, notwithstanding the proof which may have been sent by the engraver as a guide, such a cut is very likely to be worked off, to the great injury of649the general effect of the subject, without the lowered part being properly brought up. In order to avoid such an occurrence, which is by no means unfrequent, it is advisable to send to the engraver a printed proof of his cut, in order that he may note those parts where the pressman has failed in obtaining a perfect impression. From the want of this precaution wood-cuts are but too often badly printed; while at the same time the engraver is blamed for executing his work imperfectly, though in reality the defect is entirely occasioned by the cut not being properly printed.The best mode of cleaning a block after the engraver has taken his first proof is to rub it well with a piece of woollen cloth. So long as anything remains to be done with the graver, the block, after taking a proof, ought never to be cleaned with any liquid, as by such means the ink on the surface would be dissolved, and the mixture getting between, the lines would thus cause the cut to appear uniformly black, and render it difficult for the engraver to finish his work in a proper manner from his inability to clearly distinguish the lines.IX.39Turpentine or lye ought to be very sparingly used to clean a cut after the printing is finished, and never unless the interstices be choked up with ink which cannot otherwise be removed. When the surface of the block becomes foul, in consequence of the ink becoming hardened upon it, it is most advisable to clean it with a little soap and water, using as little water as possible, and afterwards to rub the block well with a piece of woollen cloth. When it is necessary to use turpentine in order to get the hardened ink out of the interstices, the surface of the block should immediately afterwards be slightly washed with a little soap and water, and afterwards rubbed with a piece of woollen cloth.IX.40Warmwater ought never to be used, as it is much more apt than cold to cause the block to warp and split. The practice of cleaning wood-cuts in the form by means of ahardbrush, dipped in turpentine or lye, is extremely injurious to the finest parts, as by this means most delicate lines are not unfrequently broken. The use of anything damp to clean the cuts when the pressman finishes his day’s-work, is to be avoided; as a very small degree of damp is sufficient to cause the block to warp when left locked up over night in the form. Whenever it is practicable, the cuts ought to be taken out of the form at night, and placed on their edges till next morning; as, by thus receiving a free circulation of air all round them, they will be much less liable to warp, than if allowed to remain in the form. As wood-cuts650are often injured by being carelessly printed in a rough proof, it is advisable not to insert them in the form till all the literal corrections are made, and the text is ready for the press.It is a fact, though I am unable to satisfactorily account for it, that an impression from a wood-block, taken by a common press, without overlaying, or any other kind of preparation, is generally lighter in the middle than towards the edges. Mr. Edward Cowper, who has contributed so much to the improvement of machine-printing, when engaged in making experiments with common presses constructed with the greatest care,IX.41informs me, that he frequently noticed the same defect. Such inequality in the impression is not perceptible in cuts printed by a steam-press, where the pressure proceeds from acylinderinstead of a flat platten of metal or wood. Besides the advantage which the steam-press possesses over the common press in producing a uniformly regular impression, the ink in the former method is more equally distributed over every part of the form in consequence of the undeviating regularity of the action of the inking rollers. Though an equal distribution of the ink be of great advantage when all the cuts in a form require to be printed in the same manner,—that is, when all are of a similartoneof colour,—yet when some are dark, and others comparatively light, balls faced with composition are decidedly preferable to composition rollers, as by using the former the pressman can give to each cut its proper quantity of ink.I very much doubt, if soft composition rollers, such as are now generally used, be so well adapted as composition balls for inking wood-cuts engraved on aplanesurface. The material of which the rollers are formed is so soft and elastic, that it does not only pass over the surface of the block, but penetrates to a certain depth between the lines, thus inking them at the sides, as well as on their surface. The consequence of this is, that when the pressure is too great, the paper is forced in between the lines, and receives, to the great detriment of the impression, a portion of the ink communicated by the soft and elastic roller to their sides. For inking cuts delicately engraved onunloweredblocks, I should recommend composition balls instead of composition rollers, whenever it is required that such cuts should be printed in thebestmanner.The great advantage which modern wood engraving possesses over every other branch of graphic art, is the cheap rate at which its productions can be disseminated in conjunction with types, by means of the press. This is the stronghold of the art; and whenever it has been abandoned in modern times to compete with copper-plate engraving, in point of delicacy or mere difficulty of execution, the result has been651a failure. No large modern wood-cuts, published separately, and resting on their own merits as works of art, have repaid the engraver. The price at which they were published was too high to allow of their being purchased by the humbler classes, while the more wealthy collectors of fine prints have treated them with neglect. Such persons were not inclined to purchase comparatively expensive wood-cuts merely as curiosities, showing how closely the peculiarities of copper-plate engraving could be imitated on wood.Though most of the large cuts designed by Albert Durer were either published separately without letter-press, or in parts with brief explanations annexed; yet we cannot ascribe the favour with which they were unquestionably received, to the mere fact of their being executedon wood. They were adapted to the taste and feelings of the age, and were esteemed on account of the interest of the subjects and the excellence of the designs. Were a modern artist of comparatively equal talent to publish a series of subjects of excellence and originality, engraved on wood in the best manner, I have little doubt of their being favourably received; their success, however, would not be owing to the circumstance of their being engraved on wood, but to their intrinsic merits as works of art.On taking a retrospective glance at the history of wood engraving, it will be perceived that the art has not been regularly progressive. At one period we find its productions distinguished for excellence of design and freedom of execution, and at another we find mere mechanical labour substituted for the talent of the artist. As soon as this change commenced, wood engraving, as a means of multiplying works of art began to decline. It continued in a state of neglect for upwards of a century, and showed little symptoms of revival until the works of Bewick again brought it into notice.The maxim that “a good thing is valuable in proportion as many can enjoy it,” may be applied with peculiar propriety to wood engraving; for the productions of no other kindred art have been more generally disseminated, nor with greater advantage to those for whom they were intended. In the child’s first book wood-cuts are introduced, to enable the infant mind to connect words with things; the youth gains his knowledge of the forms of foreign animals from wood-cuts; and the mathematician avails himself of wood engraving to execute his diagrams. It has been employed, in the representation of religious subjects, as an aid to devotion; to celebrate the triumphs of kings and warriors; to illustrate the pages of the historian, the traveller, and the poet; and by its means copies of the works of the greatest artists of former times, have been afforded at a price which enabled the very poorest classes to become purchasers. As at least one hundred thousand good impressions652can be obtained from a wood-cut, if properly engraved and carefully printed; and as the additional cost of printing wood-cuts with letter-press is inconsiderable when compared with the cost of printing steel or copper plates separately, the art will never want encouragement, nor again sink into neglect, so long as there are artists of talent to furnish designs, and good engravers to execute them.see text: DIES ADDIDIT MEAIX.1Memoir of Thomas Bewick, by the Reverend William Turner, prefixed to volume sixth of the Naturalist’s Library, page 18.IX.2The following is an instance of the effect of dampth upon box-wood. I placed one evening a block, composed of several pieces of box glued to a thick piece of mahogany, against the wall of a rather damp room, and on examining it the next morning I found that the box had expanded so much that the edges projected beyond the mahogany upwards of the eighth of an inch.IX.3Some of the blocks engraved for the Penny Magazine, measuring originally eight inches and a half by six inches, have, after undergoing the process of stereotyping and the subsequent washing, increased not less than two inches in their perimeter or exterior lineal dimension, as has been proved by comparing the measurement of a block in its present state with a first proof taken on India paper, which paper, being dry when the impression was taken, has not suffered any contraction.IX.4Sometimes a piece of metal—such as part of a thin rule—is inserted in the chink by printers, when the part injured is dark and the work not fine. Such a temporary remedy is sure to increase the opening in a short time, and make the block worse.IX.5One of the original blocks of Weever’s Funeral Monuments, 1631, preserved in the Print Room of the British Museum, is of beech.IX.6A few years ago I allowed a rabbit to have the run of a small garden, where it sooneatup everything except a small bush of box. Happening to leave home for two days without making any provision for the rabbit, I found it in a dying state, and all the leaves nibbled off the box. The rabbit died in the course of a few hours, and on opening it the cause of its death was apparent—the stomach was full of the leaves of the box.—See Brand’s Popular Antiquities, vol. ii. page 265 (Bohn’s edit.), for an account of yew poisoning two cows.IX.7Instead of gum-water, French artists, who are accustomed to make drawings on wood, use water in which parchment shavings have been boiled.IX.8This mode of repairing a block was practised by the German wood engravers of the time of Albert Durer. The “plug” which they inserted was usually square, and not circular as at present. The French wood engravers of the time of Papillon continued to employ square plugs. There are two or three instances of cuts thus repaired, in the Adventures of Sir Theurdank, Nuremberg and Augsburg, 1517-1519.IX.9In a tail-piece at page 52 of Bewick’s Fables, edition 1823, a plug which has been inserted appears lighter than the adjacent parts, in consequence of its having sunk a little below the surface; and in the cut to the fable of the Hart and the Vine, in the same work, two large plugs, at the top, are darker than the other parts in consequence of their having risen a little above the surface.IX.10French wood engravers are accustomed to rub the sides of the block with bees’-wax, which on being chafed with the thumb-nail becomes slightly softened, and thus adheres to the paper.IX.11Papillon’s description of amentonnièreis previously noticed at page 465.IX.12Papillon preferred a kind of bull’s-eye lens—loupe—of about three and a half inches diameter, flat on one side and convex on the other, to a globe filled with water—un bocal—for the purpose of bringing the light of the lamp to a focus. This bull’s-eye he had enclosed in a kind of frame, which could be inclined to any angle, or turned in any direction by means of a ball-and-socket joint. He gives a cut of it at page 75, vol. ii. of his Traité de la Gravure en Bois.—I have tried the bull’s-eye lens, but though the light was equally good as that from the globe, I found that the heat affected the head in a most unpleasant manner.IX.13A sharp-edged scraper, in shape something like a copper-plate engraver’s burnisher, is used in the process oflowering.IX.14The handle, when received from the turner’s, is perfectly circular at the rounded end; but after the blade is inserted, a segment is cut off at the lower part, as seen in the above cut.IX.15The sky in many of the large wood engravings executed in London is now cut by means of a machine invented by Mr. John Parkhouse. In many steel engravings the sky is ruled in by means of a machine by persons who do little else.IX.16Lectures on Sculpture, pp. 172-193.IX.17As the drawing is the reverse of the impression, it is necessary to observe that the motion of the graver in this case is from right to left on the block,—that is, the point B forms the beginning, and not the termination, of the first line when the work is properly commenced. The lines are represented in the cut as they would appear when drawn on a block to be engraved in the manner recommended.IX.18The subject of this cut is the beautiful monument to the memory of two children executed by Sir F. Chantrey, in Lichfield Cathedral.IX.19This small cut is a fac-simile, the size of the original, of Sir David Wilkie’s first sketch for his picture of the Rabbit on the Wall.IX.20The original sketch, from which the figure was copied, is by Morland.IX.21In this cut thewhiteoutline, mentioned at page 587, is distinctly seen at the top of the buildings and above the trees.IX.22Some account of the maps in Sebastian Munster’s Cosmography is previously given at page 204, and page 417.IX.23When there is any danger of the block splitting from this cause, it is best to have a cast taken from it, as by this means the whole is obtained of one solid piece.IX.24The first work containing lowered cuts printed by a steam-press was that on Cattle, published in numbers, under the superintendence of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, 1832.IX.25Thecastsare precisely the same as thediesfrom which the coin is struck.IX.26If the drawing were finished, the lines on the parts intended to be light would necessarily be effaced in lowering the block in such parts.IX.27In cuts printed by a steam-press it not unfrequently happens that lowering to the depth of the sixteenth part of an inch scarcely produces a perceptible difference in the strength of the impression. In cuts inked with leather balls, and printed at the common press, the lines in parts lowered to this depth would not be visible.IX.28Sir William Congreve’s mode of colour printing, however, patented many years ago, and now practised by Mr. Charles Whiting of Beaufort House, is one of the least expensive of all. It consists in printing several colours at one time, and may be thus described:—“A coloured design being made on a block, the various colours are cut into their respective sections, like a geographical puzzle, and placed in an ingeniously constructed machine, which inks them separately, and prints them together. By this mode speed is obtained in large operations, and the colours are prevented from running into each other. It is extensively applied to book-covers, decorative show-cards, the back of country notes, and labels, where the object is to prevent forgery.”—See Bohn’s Lecture on Printing, page 104.IX.29The best specimen of this art will be found in Charles Knight’s Old England’s Worthies, a folio volume, containing twelve large plates of Architecture and Costume, printed in colours, and 240 portraits engraved on steel, folio (now published by H. G. Bohn), 15s.The practice of the art has not been continued, as it was only applicable to very large editions (ten thousand and upwards), and was more expensive than hand colouring where small editions were required. The machinery has been sold off and destroyed.IX.30The Book of Thel, which, with the titles, consists of seven quarto pages of verse and figures engraved in metallic relief, is dated 1789. A full list of the works of this remarkable artist will be found in Bohn’s enlarged edition of Lowndes’s Bibliographer’s Manual.IX.31A cast from a form of types, as well as from an engraved wood-block, is by French printers termed acliché.IX.32The metal of which this matrix is formed, is made several degrees harder than common type metal, by mixing with the latter a greater portion of regulus of antimony, otherwise the matrix and cast would adhere.IX.33Taken from Mr. S. Leigh Sotheby’sPrincipia Typographica, 3 vols. folio—to whose kindness we are indebted for the reduced block.IX.34The principal difference, so far as relates to wood engravings, between printing by a steam-press with cylindrical rollers, and printing by a common press with a blanket, is, that the blanket or woollen cloth covering the cylinder of the steam-press comes into immediate contact with the paper, while in the common press the parchment of the tympan is interposed between the paper and the blanket. It is necessary that cuts intended to be printed by a steam-press should be lowered to a greater depth than cuts intended to be printed with a blanket at a common press, as the blanket on the cylinder penetrates to a greater depth between the lines.IX.35I have known a printer, whooncehad a high character for hisfinework, charge and receive twelve guineas per sheet for a book containing a number of wood-cuts which required to be well printed, and I have known a similar work better printed from lowered blocks for less than half the sum per sheet. Publishers will at no distant time discover, that it is their interest rather to have their cuts first properly engraved than to pay a printer a large additional sum for the trouble of overlaying them, and thus giving them the appearance which they ought to have without such means and appliances, if the blocks were originally executed as they ought to be.IX.36The cuts being arranged back to back, as at pages 641, 642, and thereby preventing the types appearing, as they do on the next page, is an advantage not to be overlooked.IX.37What is calledunderlayingconsists in pasting one piece of paper or more on the lower part of a block, in order to raise it, and increase the pressure. When a block is uneven at the bottom, in consequence of warping, underlaying is indispensable.IX.38The entire quantity of types, or of types and wood-cuts, which is locked up together, and printed on one side of a sheet at one impression, is called by printers aform.IX.39When a block, after being printed, requires retouching, it is generally necessary to cover it with fine whiting, which, by filling up the interstices, thus enables the engraver to distinguish the raised lines more clearly.IX.40When a block has been cleaned with turpentine, and not afterwards washed with soap and water, it will not receive the ink well when next used. The first fifty or sixty impressions subsequently taken, are almost certain to have a grey and scumbled appearance.IX.41Some of those presses were so truly constructed, that if the table were wetted, and brought in contact with the platten, it could be raised from its bed by allowing the platten to ascend, in consequence of the two surfaces being so perfectly plane and level.
see text and captionNo. 1 (from Wood).see text and captionNo. 2 (from Metal).
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No. 1 (from Wood).
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No. 2 (from Metal).
When it is particularly desirable to preserve the original block uninjured, the safest mode is that of forming a mould or matrix of plaster; for by the process ofclichagea delicately engraved block is extremely638liable to receive damage. As a cast, whether from a matrix of metal or of plaster, generally requires certain small specks of the metal to be removed, or some of the lines to be cleared out, this operation is frequently entrusted to a person employed in a printing-office where such cast is taken. Such person, however, should never be allowed to do more than remove the specks; for, should he attempt to re-enter or re-cut the lines or tints on metal, he will be very likely to spoil the work. It is extremely difficult, even to a dexterous engraver, to re-enter the lines that have been partially closed up in a tint, so that they shall appear the same as the others which have come off clear. Should the printer’spickerhappen to re-enter them in a direction opposite to that in which they were originally cut on the block, the work is certain to be spoiled. When a cast requires clearing out and retouching in this manner, the operation ought to be performed by a wood engraver, and, if possible, by the person who executed the original block. When the subject is not very complicated, it is extremely difficult to distinguish which of two impressions is from a cast, and which is from the original block. Those who profess to have great judgment in such matters are left to determine which of the preceding busts is printed from metal, and which from wood.
When a duplicate of a modern, or a fac-simile of an old wood-cut is required, the best mode of obtaining a correct copy, is to transfer the original, if not too large or too valuable, to a prepared block; and the mode of effecting this is as follows:—The back of the impression to be transferred is first well moistened with a mixture composed of equal parts of concentrated potash and essence of lavender; it is then placed above a block whose surface has been slightly moistened with water, and rubbed with a burnisher. If the mixture be of proper strength, the ink of the old impression will become loosened, and be transferred to the wood. Recent impression of a wood-cut, before the ink is set, may be transferred to a block without any preparation, merely by what is technically termed “rubbing down.” In order to transfer impressions from copper-plates, it is necessary to use theoilof lavender instead of theessence: if a very old impression, apply the preparation to its face.
Since the former edition of this work considerable improvements have been made in the mode of taking casts, of which the principal iselectrotyping, by the galvanic precipitation of copper. By this process all the finer lines of the engraving are so perfectly preserved, that impressions printed from the cast are quite undistinguishable from those printed from the original block.
Before closing this subject we think it right to introduce the notice of a new art, which, if it accomplishes all it professes, and as, judging by the annexed example, it seems capable of performing, will be a great acquisition.639The art was first brought out as Collins’s process, but is now called theElectro-printing Block process, and is managed under the inventor’s direction by a company established at No. 27, New Bridge Street, Blackfriars. The object of the process is to reduce or extend, by means of transfer to an elastic material, maps or engravings of any size. The specimen given in the present volume is reduced from a lithograph copy of an early block print, four times its size,IX.33and then electrotyped640into a surface block, so as to print in the ordinary manner of a wood-engraving. The reader will easily imagine that any plate transferred to an elastic surface distended equally, will, when collapsed, yield a reduced impression, andvice versâ. The only drawback to this process seems to be the want of depth in the electro-type where there are large unengraved spaces. Such plates will want good bringing-up and very careful printing.
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The unequal manner in which wood-cuts are printed, is often injurious both to publishers and engravers; for, however well a subject may have been engraved, or whatever may have been the expense incurred, both the engraver’s talents and the publisher’s money will, in a great measure, have been thrown away unless the cut be properly printed. The want of cordial co-operation between printers and wood engravers is one of the chief causes of wood-cuts being so frequently printed in an improper manner. One printer’s method of printing wood-cuts often differs so much from that of another, that it is generally necessary for an engraver who wishes to have justice done to his work, to ascertain the office at which a book is to be printed before he begins to execute any of the cuts. If they are intended to be printed at a steam-press, they require to be engraved in a manner suitable to that method of printing; and if it be further intended to take casts from them, and to print from such casts instead of the original blocks, it is necessary for the engraver to execute his work accordingly. Should they have to be printed at a common presswith a blanket, it is necessary that they should be lowered in such parts as are most liable to be printed too heavy from the parchment of the tympan, when there is a blanket behind it, penetrating to a greater depth between the lines than when no blanket is used.IX.34When it is intended to print cuts in what is called thebestmanner,—that is, at a common press without a blanket, and where the effect is brought up by means of overlaying,—the engraver has nothing to do but to execute his subject on a plane surface to the best of his ability, and to leave the task of bringing up the dark, and easing the light parts to the printer,—who, if he have not an artist’s eye, can only by chance succeed in producing the effect intended by the draftsman and the engraver.
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Should a series of wood-cuts be engraved with the view of their being printed at a steam-press, or at a common press with a blanket, and641should the publisher or proprietor of the work afterwards change his intention, and decide on having them printed in thebestmanner,—that is, by the common press without a blanket, and with overlays,—such cuts, whatever pains might be taken, could not be properly and efficiently printed; for those parts which had been lowered in order to obviate thein-pressure of the blanket, would either be totally invisible, or would only appear imperfectly,—that is, with the lines indistinct and broken, as if they had not been properly inked. The following cut, which was lowered for machine-printing, or printing with a blanket, but has been worked off at a common press without a blanket, when compared with the same subject printed in the manner originally intended,—that is, with a blanket,—will illustrate what has been previously said on the subject. I by no means wish it to be understood, that any printer would allow such a cut to appear quite so bad as it does in the present impression; he would dosomethingto remedy the defects, but he could not, without employing a blanket, cause it to have the appearance originally intended by the designer and engraver. It is printed here without any aid of overlaying, in order that the difference might be the more apparent to those who are unacquainted with the subject. I have, however, not unfrequently seen excellent cuts spoiled from inattention to bringing up the lowered parts, even when printed at the office of printers who have acquired a high character forfinework, and whose names on this account are announced in advertisements in connexion with those of the author, designer, and publisher, as a642guarantee for the superior manner in which the cuts contained in the work will be printed.IX.35The following cut, of the same subject as that given on the previous page, shows the appearance of the engraving when properly printed in the manner intended; every line is here brought up by using a blanket, while from the block having been lowered, with a view to its being printed in this manner, there has been no occasion for overlays to increase the effect in the darker parts. The difference in the two impressions is entirely owing to the different manner of printing; for the one is printed from the block, and the other from a cast.
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Subjects engraved on lowered blocks, in the manner of the following cut, have always an unfinished appearance when printed without a blanket, and the feebleness and confusion apparent in the lighter parts, instead of being remedied by overlaying the darker parts, are thus rendered more obvious. The connecting medium between the extremes of black and white being either entirely omitted or very imperfectly643given, causes the impression to have that harsh and unfinished appearance which is frequently urged as one of the greatest objections to engraving on wood. It is indeed true, that many cuts have this objectionable appearance; but it is also true that the fault does not originate in any deficiency in the art, but is either the result of want of knowledge on the part of the engraver, or is occasioned by improper printing. When wood engravers found that anything approaching to delicacy, in blending the extremes of black and white in their work, was extremely liable to be either lost or spoiled in the printing, it is not surprising that they should have paid comparatively little attention to the connecting tints. In many excellently engraved cuts, printed at the common press with overlays, the tint next in gradation to positive black is often perceived to be too dark, in consequence of the extra pressure on the adjacent parts; while, on the other hand, the delicate lines intended to blend with the white, are either too heavy, or appear broken and confused. It is chiefly from this cause, that so much black and white, without the requisite connecting middle tints, is found in wood-cuts; for the engraver, finding that such tints were frequently spoiled in the impression, omitted them whenever he could, in order to adapt his subject to the usual method of printing. When, in consequence of an improvement in the mode of printing wood-cuts, engravers can depend on finding all in the impression that can be executed on the block, it will no longer be an objection to the art that its productions have a hard and unfinished appearance, and that it is only capable of efficiently representing subjects displaying strong contrasts of black and white.
Should a wood-cut engraved on a plane surface, with the intention of its being printed in thebestmanner,—that is, at a common press with overlays, andwithouta blanket,—be printed at a steam-press, or at a common presswitha blanket, it will present a very different appearance to the engraver’s proof.IX.36The following cut, which ought properly to have been printed in thebestmanner, is here printed improperlywith a blanket, and the result is anything but satisfactory; the parts which ought to have been delicately printed are, in consequence of the equality of the pressure on every part of the unlowered surface brought up too heavy, and from their appearing too dark, the effect intended by the designer and engraver is destroyed. The same cut, when printed at a common press with overlays, and without a blanket, as originally intended, would have the light parts relieved, and appear as it does on the following page.
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The want of something like a uniform method of printing wood-cuts, and the high price charged by printers for what is called fine work, have operated most injuriously to the progress and extension of wood engraving. The practice, however, of printing wood-cuts by a steam-press, or a press of any kind with a cylindrical roller instead of a platten, seems likely to introduce a general change in the practice of the art. By the adoption of this cheap and expeditious method of printing, books containing the very best wood engravings can be afforded at a much cheaper rate than formerly. As cuts printed in this645manner can receive no adventitious aid from overlays, the wood engraver is required to finish his work perfectly before it goes out of his hands, and not to trust to the taste of a pressman for its being properly printed. The great desideratum in wood engraving is to produce cuts which can be efficiently printed at the least possible expense; and, as a means towards this end, it is necessary that cuts should require the least possible aid from the printer, and be executed in such manner that, without gross negligence, they will be certain to print well. The greatest advantage that wood engraving possesses over engraving on copper or steel is the cheap rate at which its productions can be printed at one impression, in the same sheet with the letter-press. To increase, therefore, by an incomplete method of engraving, the cost of printing wood-cuts, is to abandon the great vantage ground of the art.
The mode of printing by the common press without a blanket, and ofhelpinga cut engraved on a plane surface by means of overlays, is not only much more expensive than printing from a lowered block by the steam-press, or a common press with a blanket and without overlaying, but is also much more injurious to the engraving. When a cut requires to be overlaidIX.37in order that it may be properly printed, a piece of paper is first pasted on the tympan, and on this an impression is taken, which remains as a substratum for the subsequent overlays. A second impression is next taken, and in this the pressman cuts out the lighter parts, and notes such as are too indistinct and requirebringing up. He then proceeds to paste scraps of paper over the corresponding parts in the first impression, on a sheet of thin paper, either in front or at the back of the parchment tympan, in order to increase in such parts the pressure of the platten; and thus continues, sometimes for half a day, pasting scrap over scrap, until he obtains what he considers a perfect impression.
As the block is originally of the same height as the type, it is evident that the overlays must very much increase the pressure of the platten on such parts as they are immediately above. Such increase of pressure is not only injurious to the engraving, occasionally breaking down the lines; but it also frequently squeezes the ink from the surfaceintothe interstices, and causes the impression in such parts to appear blotted. While a block, with a flat surface, printed in this manner will scarcely afford five thousand good impressions without retouching, twenty thousand can be obtained from a lowered block printed by a steam-press, or by a common press with a blanket and without overlays;646the darkest parts in a lowered block being no higher than the type, and not being overlaid, are subject to no unequal pressure to break down the lines, while the lighter parts being lowered are thus sufficiently protected. The intervention of the blanket in the latter case not only brings up the lighter parts, but is also less injurious to the engraving, than the direct action of the wood or metal platten, with only the thin cloth and the parchment of the tympans intervening between it and the surface of the block.
When wood-cuts are printed with overlays, and the paper is knotty, the engraving is certain to be injured by the knots being indented in the wood in those parts where the pressure is greatest. When copies of a work containing wood-cuts are printed on India paper, the engraving is almost invariably injured, in consequence of the hard knots and pieces of bark with which such paper abounds, causing indentions in the wood. The consequence of printing off a certain number of copies of a work on such paper may be seen in the cut of the Vain Glow-worm, in the second edition of the first series of Northcote’s Fables: it is covered with white spots, the result of indentions in the block caused by the knots and inequalities in bad India paper. Overlays frequently shift if not well attended to, and cause pressure where it was never intended.
In order that wood engravings should appear to the greatest advantage, it is necessary that they should be printed on proper paper. A person not practically acquainted with the subject may easily be deceived in selecting paper for a work containing wood engravings. There is a kind of paper, manufactured of coarse material, which, in consequence of its being pressed, has a smooth appearance, and to the view seems to be highly suitable for the purpose. As soon, however, as such paper is wetted previous to printing, its smoothness disappears, and its imperfections become apparent by the irregular swelling of the material of which it is composed. Paper intended for printing the best kind of wood-cuts ought to be even in texture, and this ought to be the result of good material well manufactured. Paper of this kind will not appear uneven when wetted, like that which has merely agood faceput upon it by means of extreme pressure. The best mode of testing the quality of paper is to wet a sheet; however even and smooth it may appear when dry, its imperfections will be evident when wet, if it be manufactured of coarse material, and merely pressed smooth.
Paper of unequal thickness, however good the material may be, is quite unfit for the purpose of printing the best kind of wood engravings; for, if a sheet be thicker at one end than the other, there will be a perceptible difference in the strength of the impressions of the cuts accordingly as they may be printed on the thick or the thin parts, those647on the latter being light, while those on the former are comparatively heavy or dark. When it is known that an overlay of the thinnest tissue paper will make a perceptible difference in an impression, the necessity of having paper of even texture for the purpose of printing wood-cuts well is obvious. As there is less chance of inequality of texture in comparatively thin paper than in thick, the former kind is generally to be preferred, supposing it to be equally well manufactured.
Mr. Savage, at page 46 of his Hints on Decorative Printing, recommends that in a sheet which consists entirely of letter-press in oneform,IX.38and of letter-press and wood-cuts in the other, the form without cuts should be worked first. His words are as follow:—“When there are wood-cuts in one form, and none in the other, then the form without the cuts ought to be worked first; as working the cuts last prevents the indention of the types appearing on the engraving, which would otherwise take place to its prejudice.”
My opinion on this subject is directly the reverse of Mr. Savage’s, for, under similar circumstances, I should advise that the form containing the cuts should be printed first; and for the following reason:—When any parts of a wood-cut require to be printed light—whether by lowering the block or by overlaying—the pressure in such parts must necessarily be less than on those adjacent. If then the form containing such cuts be printed first, the paper being perfectly flat, and without any indentions, all the lines will appear distinct and continuous, unless the pressman should grossly neglect his duty. If, on the contrary, the form containing such cuts be printed last, there is a risk of the lines in the lighter parts appearing broken and confused, in consequence of the inequality in the surface of the paper, caused by the indention of the types on the opposite side. Imperfections of this kind are to be seen in many works containing wood-cuts; and they are in particular numerous in the Treatise on Cattle published under the superintendence of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge. In many of the cuts in this work the lines representing the sky appear discontinuous and broken, and the imperfections are always according to the kind of type on the other side of the paper. When both forms contain wood-cuts, I should recommend that to be first which contains the best. Mr. Savage’s reason, independent of the preceding objections, is scarcely a good one; for admitting that the indention of the types of the second form does appear in theclearanddistinctimpressions from the cuts in the first, when the sheet is just taken from the press, are not such inequalities entirely removed when the sheet isdriedand pressed?
In order to produce good impressions in printing wood-cuts, much more depends on the manner in which the subject is treated by the designer, and on the plate which the cut occupies in a page, than a person unacquainted with the nicety required in such matters would imagine. Wood-cuts which are delicately engraved, or which consist chiefly of outline, are the most difficult to print in a proper manner, in consequence of their want of dark masses to relieve the pressure in the more delicate parts, and thus cause them to appear lighter in the impression. There ought never to be a large portion of light delicate work in a wood-cut without a few dark parts near to it, which may serve as stays or props to relieve the pressure. In illustration of what is here said, I would refer to the cut of King Shahriyár unveiling Shahrazád, at page 15 of Mr. Lane’s Translation of the Arabian Nights’ Entertainments, where it will be seen, that certain dark parts are introduced as if at measured distances. It is entirely owing to the introduction of those dark parts that the pressman has been enabled to print the cut so well: they not only give by contrast the appearance of greater delicacy to the lightest parts; but they also serve to relieve them from that degree of pressure, which, if the cut consisted entirely of such delicate lines, would most certainly cause them to appear comparatively thick and heavy. Another instance of the advantage which a cut derives from its being placed in a certain situation in the page, is also afforded by the same work. The cut to which I allude is that of the Return of the Jinnee, at page 47, consisting chiefly of middle tint, with a pillar of smoke rising up from the ground, and gradually becoming lighter towards the top. Had this cut been introduced at the head of the page without any text above it, the light parts would not have appeared so delicate as they do now when the cut is printed in its present situation. The top of the cut, where the lines are required to be lightest, being near to the types, thus receives a support, and is by them relieved from that degree of pressure which would otherwise cause the lines to appear heavy. Towards the bottom of the cut, which also forms the bottom of the page, there are two or three dark figures which most opportunely afford that necessary degree of support which in the upper part is derived from the types.
The engraver by whom a cut has been executed is unquestionably the best person that the printer can apply to for any information as to the manner in which it ought to be printed, as he alone can be perfectly acquainted with thestate of the block, and with any peculiarity in the engraving. If any light part should have been lowered to a very trifling extent, it is sometimes almost impossible that the printer should perceive such lowered part after the block has been covered with ink; and hence, notwithstanding the proof which may have been sent by the engraver as a guide, such a cut is very likely to be worked off, to the great injury of649the general effect of the subject, without the lowered part being properly brought up. In order to avoid such an occurrence, which is by no means unfrequent, it is advisable to send to the engraver a printed proof of his cut, in order that he may note those parts where the pressman has failed in obtaining a perfect impression. From the want of this precaution wood-cuts are but too often badly printed; while at the same time the engraver is blamed for executing his work imperfectly, though in reality the defect is entirely occasioned by the cut not being properly printed.
The best mode of cleaning a block after the engraver has taken his first proof is to rub it well with a piece of woollen cloth. So long as anything remains to be done with the graver, the block, after taking a proof, ought never to be cleaned with any liquid, as by such means the ink on the surface would be dissolved, and the mixture getting between, the lines would thus cause the cut to appear uniformly black, and render it difficult for the engraver to finish his work in a proper manner from his inability to clearly distinguish the lines.IX.39Turpentine or lye ought to be very sparingly used to clean a cut after the printing is finished, and never unless the interstices be choked up with ink which cannot otherwise be removed. When the surface of the block becomes foul, in consequence of the ink becoming hardened upon it, it is most advisable to clean it with a little soap and water, using as little water as possible, and afterwards to rub the block well with a piece of woollen cloth. When it is necessary to use turpentine in order to get the hardened ink out of the interstices, the surface of the block should immediately afterwards be slightly washed with a little soap and water, and afterwards rubbed with a piece of woollen cloth.IX.40Warmwater ought never to be used, as it is much more apt than cold to cause the block to warp and split. The practice of cleaning wood-cuts in the form by means of ahardbrush, dipped in turpentine or lye, is extremely injurious to the finest parts, as by this means most delicate lines are not unfrequently broken. The use of anything damp to clean the cuts when the pressman finishes his day’s-work, is to be avoided; as a very small degree of damp is sufficient to cause the block to warp when left locked up over night in the form. Whenever it is practicable, the cuts ought to be taken out of the form at night, and placed on their edges till next morning; as, by thus receiving a free circulation of air all round them, they will be much less liable to warp, than if allowed to remain in the form. As wood-cuts650are often injured by being carelessly printed in a rough proof, it is advisable not to insert them in the form till all the literal corrections are made, and the text is ready for the press.
It is a fact, though I am unable to satisfactorily account for it, that an impression from a wood-block, taken by a common press, without overlaying, or any other kind of preparation, is generally lighter in the middle than towards the edges. Mr. Edward Cowper, who has contributed so much to the improvement of machine-printing, when engaged in making experiments with common presses constructed with the greatest care,IX.41informs me, that he frequently noticed the same defect. Such inequality in the impression is not perceptible in cuts printed by a steam-press, where the pressure proceeds from acylinderinstead of a flat platten of metal or wood. Besides the advantage which the steam-press possesses over the common press in producing a uniformly regular impression, the ink in the former method is more equally distributed over every part of the form in consequence of the undeviating regularity of the action of the inking rollers. Though an equal distribution of the ink be of great advantage when all the cuts in a form require to be printed in the same manner,—that is, when all are of a similartoneof colour,—yet when some are dark, and others comparatively light, balls faced with composition are decidedly preferable to composition rollers, as by using the former the pressman can give to each cut its proper quantity of ink.
I very much doubt, if soft composition rollers, such as are now generally used, be so well adapted as composition balls for inking wood-cuts engraved on aplanesurface. The material of which the rollers are formed is so soft and elastic, that it does not only pass over the surface of the block, but penetrates to a certain depth between the lines, thus inking them at the sides, as well as on their surface. The consequence of this is, that when the pressure is too great, the paper is forced in between the lines, and receives, to the great detriment of the impression, a portion of the ink communicated by the soft and elastic roller to their sides. For inking cuts delicately engraved onunloweredblocks, I should recommend composition balls instead of composition rollers, whenever it is required that such cuts should be printed in thebestmanner.
The great advantage which modern wood engraving possesses over every other branch of graphic art, is the cheap rate at which its productions can be disseminated in conjunction with types, by means of the press. This is the stronghold of the art; and whenever it has been abandoned in modern times to compete with copper-plate engraving, in point of delicacy or mere difficulty of execution, the result has been651a failure. No large modern wood-cuts, published separately, and resting on their own merits as works of art, have repaid the engraver. The price at which they were published was too high to allow of their being purchased by the humbler classes, while the more wealthy collectors of fine prints have treated them with neglect. Such persons were not inclined to purchase comparatively expensive wood-cuts merely as curiosities, showing how closely the peculiarities of copper-plate engraving could be imitated on wood.
Though most of the large cuts designed by Albert Durer were either published separately without letter-press, or in parts with brief explanations annexed; yet we cannot ascribe the favour with which they were unquestionably received, to the mere fact of their being executedon wood. They were adapted to the taste and feelings of the age, and were esteemed on account of the interest of the subjects and the excellence of the designs. Were a modern artist of comparatively equal talent to publish a series of subjects of excellence and originality, engraved on wood in the best manner, I have little doubt of their being favourably received; their success, however, would not be owing to the circumstance of their being engraved on wood, but to their intrinsic merits as works of art.
On taking a retrospective glance at the history of wood engraving, it will be perceived that the art has not been regularly progressive. At one period we find its productions distinguished for excellence of design and freedom of execution, and at another we find mere mechanical labour substituted for the talent of the artist. As soon as this change commenced, wood engraving, as a means of multiplying works of art began to decline. It continued in a state of neglect for upwards of a century, and showed little symptoms of revival until the works of Bewick again brought it into notice.
The maxim that “a good thing is valuable in proportion as many can enjoy it,” may be applied with peculiar propriety to wood engraving; for the productions of no other kindred art have been more generally disseminated, nor with greater advantage to those for whom they were intended. In the child’s first book wood-cuts are introduced, to enable the infant mind to connect words with things; the youth gains his knowledge of the forms of foreign animals from wood-cuts; and the mathematician avails himself of wood engraving to execute his diagrams. It has been employed, in the representation of religious subjects, as an aid to devotion; to celebrate the triumphs of kings and warriors; to illustrate the pages of the historian, the traveller, and the poet; and by its means copies of the works of the greatest artists of former times, have been afforded at a price which enabled the very poorest classes to become purchasers. As at least one hundred thousand good impressions652can be obtained from a wood-cut, if properly engraved and carefully printed; and as the additional cost of printing wood-cuts with letter-press is inconsiderable when compared with the cost of printing steel or copper plates separately, the art will never want encouragement, nor again sink into neglect, so long as there are artists of talent to furnish designs, and good engravers to execute them.
see text: DIES ADDIDIT MEA
IX.1Memoir of Thomas Bewick, by the Reverend William Turner, prefixed to volume sixth of the Naturalist’s Library, page 18.IX.2The following is an instance of the effect of dampth upon box-wood. I placed one evening a block, composed of several pieces of box glued to a thick piece of mahogany, against the wall of a rather damp room, and on examining it the next morning I found that the box had expanded so much that the edges projected beyond the mahogany upwards of the eighth of an inch.IX.3Some of the blocks engraved for the Penny Magazine, measuring originally eight inches and a half by six inches, have, after undergoing the process of stereotyping and the subsequent washing, increased not less than two inches in their perimeter or exterior lineal dimension, as has been proved by comparing the measurement of a block in its present state with a first proof taken on India paper, which paper, being dry when the impression was taken, has not suffered any contraction.IX.4Sometimes a piece of metal—such as part of a thin rule—is inserted in the chink by printers, when the part injured is dark and the work not fine. Such a temporary remedy is sure to increase the opening in a short time, and make the block worse.IX.5One of the original blocks of Weever’s Funeral Monuments, 1631, preserved in the Print Room of the British Museum, is of beech.IX.6A few years ago I allowed a rabbit to have the run of a small garden, where it sooneatup everything except a small bush of box. Happening to leave home for two days without making any provision for the rabbit, I found it in a dying state, and all the leaves nibbled off the box. The rabbit died in the course of a few hours, and on opening it the cause of its death was apparent—the stomach was full of the leaves of the box.—See Brand’s Popular Antiquities, vol. ii. page 265 (Bohn’s edit.), for an account of yew poisoning two cows.IX.7Instead of gum-water, French artists, who are accustomed to make drawings on wood, use water in which parchment shavings have been boiled.IX.8This mode of repairing a block was practised by the German wood engravers of the time of Albert Durer. The “plug” which they inserted was usually square, and not circular as at present. The French wood engravers of the time of Papillon continued to employ square plugs. There are two or three instances of cuts thus repaired, in the Adventures of Sir Theurdank, Nuremberg and Augsburg, 1517-1519.IX.9In a tail-piece at page 52 of Bewick’s Fables, edition 1823, a plug which has been inserted appears lighter than the adjacent parts, in consequence of its having sunk a little below the surface; and in the cut to the fable of the Hart and the Vine, in the same work, two large plugs, at the top, are darker than the other parts in consequence of their having risen a little above the surface.IX.10French wood engravers are accustomed to rub the sides of the block with bees’-wax, which on being chafed with the thumb-nail becomes slightly softened, and thus adheres to the paper.IX.11Papillon’s description of amentonnièreis previously noticed at page 465.IX.12Papillon preferred a kind of bull’s-eye lens—loupe—of about three and a half inches diameter, flat on one side and convex on the other, to a globe filled with water—un bocal—for the purpose of bringing the light of the lamp to a focus. This bull’s-eye he had enclosed in a kind of frame, which could be inclined to any angle, or turned in any direction by means of a ball-and-socket joint. He gives a cut of it at page 75, vol. ii. of his Traité de la Gravure en Bois.—I have tried the bull’s-eye lens, but though the light was equally good as that from the globe, I found that the heat affected the head in a most unpleasant manner.IX.13A sharp-edged scraper, in shape something like a copper-plate engraver’s burnisher, is used in the process oflowering.IX.14The handle, when received from the turner’s, is perfectly circular at the rounded end; but after the blade is inserted, a segment is cut off at the lower part, as seen in the above cut.IX.15The sky in many of the large wood engravings executed in London is now cut by means of a machine invented by Mr. John Parkhouse. In many steel engravings the sky is ruled in by means of a machine by persons who do little else.IX.16Lectures on Sculpture, pp. 172-193.IX.17As the drawing is the reverse of the impression, it is necessary to observe that the motion of the graver in this case is from right to left on the block,—that is, the point B forms the beginning, and not the termination, of the first line when the work is properly commenced. The lines are represented in the cut as they would appear when drawn on a block to be engraved in the manner recommended.IX.18The subject of this cut is the beautiful monument to the memory of two children executed by Sir F. Chantrey, in Lichfield Cathedral.IX.19This small cut is a fac-simile, the size of the original, of Sir David Wilkie’s first sketch for his picture of the Rabbit on the Wall.IX.20The original sketch, from which the figure was copied, is by Morland.IX.21In this cut thewhiteoutline, mentioned at page 587, is distinctly seen at the top of the buildings and above the trees.IX.22Some account of the maps in Sebastian Munster’s Cosmography is previously given at page 204, and page 417.IX.23When there is any danger of the block splitting from this cause, it is best to have a cast taken from it, as by this means the whole is obtained of one solid piece.IX.24The first work containing lowered cuts printed by a steam-press was that on Cattle, published in numbers, under the superintendence of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, 1832.IX.25Thecastsare precisely the same as thediesfrom which the coin is struck.IX.26If the drawing were finished, the lines on the parts intended to be light would necessarily be effaced in lowering the block in such parts.IX.27In cuts printed by a steam-press it not unfrequently happens that lowering to the depth of the sixteenth part of an inch scarcely produces a perceptible difference in the strength of the impression. In cuts inked with leather balls, and printed at the common press, the lines in parts lowered to this depth would not be visible.IX.28Sir William Congreve’s mode of colour printing, however, patented many years ago, and now practised by Mr. Charles Whiting of Beaufort House, is one of the least expensive of all. It consists in printing several colours at one time, and may be thus described:—“A coloured design being made on a block, the various colours are cut into their respective sections, like a geographical puzzle, and placed in an ingeniously constructed machine, which inks them separately, and prints them together. By this mode speed is obtained in large operations, and the colours are prevented from running into each other. It is extensively applied to book-covers, decorative show-cards, the back of country notes, and labels, where the object is to prevent forgery.”—See Bohn’s Lecture on Printing, page 104.IX.29The best specimen of this art will be found in Charles Knight’s Old England’s Worthies, a folio volume, containing twelve large plates of Architecture and Costume, printed in colours, and 240 portraits engraved on steel, folio (now published by H. G. Bohn), 15s.The practice of the art has not been continued, as it was only applicable to very large editions (ten thousand and upwards), and was more expensive than hand colouring where small editions were required. The machinery has been sold off and destroyed.IX.30The Book of Thel, which, with the titles, consists of seven quarto pages of verse and figures engraved in metallic relief, is dated 1789. A full list of the works of this remarkable artist will be found in Bohn’s enlarged edition of Lowndes’s Bibliographer’s Manual.IX.31A cast from a form of types, as well as from an engraved wood-block, is by French printers termed acliché.IX.32The metal of which this matrix is formed, is made several degrees harder than common type metal, by mixing with the latter a greater portion of regulus of antimony, otherwise the matrix and cast would adhere.IX.33Taken from Mr. S. Leigh Sotheby’sPrincipia Typographica, 3 vols. folio—to whose kindness we are indebted for the reduced block.IX.34The principal difference, so far as relates to wood engravings, between printing by a steam-press with cylindrical rollers, and printing by a common press with a blanket, is, that the blanket or woollen cloth covering the cylinder of the steam-press comes into immediate contact with the paper, while in the common press the parchment of the tympan is interposed between the paper and the blanket. It is necessary that cuts intended to be printed by a steam-press should be lowered to a greater depth than cuts intended to be printed with a blanket at a common press, as the blanket on the cylinder penetrates to a greater depth between the lines.IX.35I have known a printer, whooncehad a high character for hisfinework, charge and receive twelve guineas per sheet for a book containing a number of wood-cuts which required to be well printed, and I have known a similar work better printed from lowered blocks for less than half the sum per sheet. Publishers will at no distant time discover, that it is their interest rather to have their cuts first properly engraved than to pay a printer a large additional sum for the trouble of overlaying them, and thus giving them the appearance which they ought to have without such means and appliances, if the blocks were originally executed as they ought to be.IX.36The cuts being arranged back to back, as at pages 641, 642, and thereby preventing the types appearing, as they do on the next page, is an advantage not to be overlooked.IX.37What is calledunderlayingconsists in pasting one piece of paper or more on the lower part of a block, in order to raise it, and increase the pressure. When a block is uneven at the bottom, in consequence of warping, underlaying is indispensable.IX.38The entire quantity of types, or of types and wood-cuts, which is locked up together, and printed on one side of a sheet at one impression, is called by printers aform.IX.39When a block, after being printed, requires retouching, it is generally necessary to cover it with fine whiting, which, by filling up the interstices, thus enables the engraver to distinguish the raised lines more clearly.IX.40When a block has been cleaned with turpentine, and not afterwards washed with soap and water, it will not receive the ink well when next used. The first fifty or sixty impressions subsequently taken, are almost certain to have a grey and scumbled appearance.IX.41Some of those presses were so truly constructed, that if the table were wetted, and brought in contact with the platten, it could be raised from its bed by allowing the platten to ascend, in consequence of the two surfaces being so perfectly plane and level.
IX.1Memoir of Thomas Bewick, by the Reverend William Turner, prefixed to volume sixth of the Naturalist’s Library, page 18.
IX.2The following is an instance of the effect of dampth upon box-wood. I placed one evening a block, composed of several pieces of box glued to a thick piece of mahogany, against the wall of a rather damp room, and on examining it the next morning I found that the box had expanded so much that the edges projected beyond the mahogany upwards of the eighth of an inch.
IX.3Some of the blocks engraved for the Penny Magazine, measuring originally eight inches and a half by six inches, have, after undergoing the process of stereotyping and the subsequent washing, increased not less than two inches in their perimeter or exterior lineal dimension, as has been proved by comparing the measurement of a block in its present state with a first proof taken on India paper, which paper, being dry when the impression was taken, has not suffered any contraction.
IX.4Sometimes a piece of metal—such as part of a thin rule—is inserted in the chink by printers, when the part injured is dark and the work not fine. Such a temporary remedy is sure to increase the opening in a short time, and make the block worse.
IX.5One of the original blocks of Weever’s Funeral Monuments, 1631, preserved in the Print Room of the British Museum, is of beech.
IX.6A few years ago I allowed a rabbit to have the run of a small garden, where it sooneatup everything except a small bush of box. Happening to leave home for two days without making any provision for the rabbit, I found it in a dying state, and all the leaves nibbled off the box. The rabbit died in the course of a few hours, and on opening it the cause of its death was apparent—the stomach was full of the leaves of the box.—See Brand’s Popular Antiquities, vol. ii. page 265 (Bohn’s edit.), for an account of yew poisoning two cows.
IX.7Instead of gum-water, French artists, who are accustomed to make drawings on wood, use water in which parchment shavings have been boiled.
IX.8This mode of repairing a block was practised by the German wood engravers of the time of Albert Durer. The “plug” which they inserted was usually square, and not circular as at present. The French wood engravers of the time of Papillon continued to employ square plugs. There are two or three instances of cuts thus repaired, in the Adventures of Sir Theurdank, Nuremberg and Augsburg, 1517-1519.
IX.9In a tail-piece at page 52 of Bewick’s Fables, edition 1823, a plug which has been inserted appears lighter than the adjacent parts, in consequence of its having sunk a little below the surface; and in the cut to the fable of the Hart and the Vine, in the same work, two large plugs, at the top, are darker than the other parts in consequence of their having risen a little above the surface.
IX.10French wood engravers are accustomed to rub the sides of the block with bees’-wax, which on being chafed with the thumb-nail becomes slightly softened, and thus adheres to the paper.
IX.11Papillon’s description of amentonnièreis previously noticed at page 465.
IX.12Papillon preferred a kind of bull’s-eye lens—loupe—of about three and a half inches diameter, flat on one side and convex on the other, to a globe filled with water—un bocal—for the purpose of bringing the light of the lamp to a focus. This bull’s-eye he had enclosed in a kind of frame, which could be inclined to any angle, or turned in any direction by means of a ball-and-socket joint. He gives a cut of it at page 75, vol. ii. of his Traité de la Gravure en Bois.—I have tried the bull’s-eye lens, but though the light was equally good as that from the globe, I found that the heat affected the head in a most unpleasant manner.
IX.13A sharp-edged scraper, in shape something like a copper-plate engraver’s burnisher, is used in the process oflowering.
IX.14The handle, when received from the turner’s, is perfectly circular at the rounded end; but after the blade is inserted, a segment is cut off at the lower part, as seen in the above cut.
IX.15The sky in many of the large wood engravings executed in London is now cut by means of a machine invented by Mr. John Parkhouse. In many steel engravings the sky is ruled in by means of a machine by persons who do little else.
IX.16Lectures on Sculpture, pp. 172-193.
IX.17As the drawing is the reverse of the impression, it is necessary to observe that the motion of the graver in this case is from right to left on the block,—that is, the point B forms the beginning, and not the termination, of the first line when the work is properly commenced. The lines are represented in the cut as they would appear when drawn on a block to be engraved in the manner recommended.
IX.18The subject of this cut is the beautiful monument to the memory of two children executed by Sir F. Chantrey, in Lichfield Cathedral.
IX.19This small cut is a fac-simile, the size of the original, of Sir David Wilkie’s first sketch for his picture of the Rabbit on the Wall.
IX.20The original sketch, from which the figure was copied, is by Morland.
IX.21In this cut thewhiteoutline, mentioned at page 587, is distinctly seen at the top of the buildings and above the trees.
IX.22Some account of the maps in Sebastian Munster’s Cosmography is previously given at page 204, and page 417.
IX.23When there is any danger of the block splitting from this cause, it is best to have a cast taken from it, as by this means the whole is obtained of one solid piece.
IX.24The first work containing lowered cuts printed by a steam-press was that on Cattle, published in numbers, under the superintendence of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, 1832.
IX.25Thecastsare precisely the same as thediesfrom which the coin is struck.
IX.26If the drawing were finished, the lines on the parts intended to be light would necessarily be effaced in lowering the block in such parts.
IX.27In cuts printed by a steam-press it not unfrequently happens that lowering to the depth of the sixteenth part of an inch scarcely produces a perceptible difference in the strength of the impression. In cuts inked with leather balls, and printed at the common press, the lines in parts lowered to this depth would not be visible.
IX.28Sir William Congreve’s mode of colour printing, however, patented many years ago, and now practised by Mr. Charles Whiting of Beaufort House, is one of the least expensive of all. It consists in printing several colours at one time, and may be thus described:—“A coloured design being made on a block, the various colours are cut into their respective sections, like a geographical puzzle, and placed in an ingeniously constructed machine, which inks them separately, and prints them together. By this mode speed is obtained in large operations, and the colours are prevented from running into each other. It is extensively applied to book-covers, decorative show-cards, the back of country notes, and labels, where the object is to prevent forgery.”—See Bohn’s Lecture on Printing, page 104.
IX.29The best specimen of this art will be found in Charles Knight’s Old England’s Worthies, a folio volume, containing twelve large plates of Architecture and Costume, printed in colours, and 240 portraits engraved on steel, folio (now published by H. G. Bohn), 15s.The practice of the art has not been continued, as it was only applicable to very large editions (ten thousand and upwards), and was more expensive than hand colouring where small editions were required. The machinery has been sold off and destroyed.
IX.30The Book of Thel, which, with the titles, consists of seven quarto pages of verse and figures engraved in metallic relief, is dated 1789. A full list of the works of this remarkable artist will be found in Bohn’s enlarged edition of Lowndes’s Bibliographer’s Manual.
IX.31A cast from a form of types, as well as from an engraved wood-block, is by French printers termed acliché.
IX.32The metal of which this matrix is formed, is made several degrees harder than common type metal, by mixing with the latter a greater portion of regulus of antimony, otherwise the matrix and cast would adhere.
IX.33Taken from Mr. S. Leigh Sotheby’sPrincipia Typographica, 3 vols. folio—to whose kindness we are indebted for the reduced block.
IX.34The principal difference, so far as relates to wood engravings, between printing by a steam-press with cylindrical rollers, and printing by a common press with a blanket, is, that the blanket or woollen cloth covering the cylinder of the steam-press comes into immediate contact with the paper, while in the common press the parchment of the tympan is interposed between the paper and the blanket. It is necessary that cuts intended to be printed by a steam-press should be lowered to a greater depth than cuts intended to be printed with a blanket at a common press, as the blanket on the cylinder penetrates to a greater depth between the lines.
IX.35I have known a printer, whooncehad a high character for hisfinework, charge and receive twelve guineas per sheet for a book containing a number of wood-cuts which required to be well printed, and I have known a similar work better printed from lowered blocks for less than half the sum per sheet. Publishers will at no distant time discover, that it is their interest rather to have their cuts first properly engraved than to pay a printer a large additional sum for the trouble of overlaying them, and thus giving them the appearance which they ought to have without such means and appliances, if the blocks were originally executed as they ought to be.
IX.36The cuts being arranged back to back, as at pages 641, 642, and thereby preventing the types appearing, as they do on the next page, is an advantage not to be overlooked.
IX.37What is calledunderlayingconsists in pasting one piece of paper or more on the lower part of a block, in order to raise it, and increase the pressure. When a block is uneven at the bottom, in consequence of warping, underlaying is indispensable.
IX.38The entire quantity of types, or of types and wood-cuts, which is locked up together, and printed on one side of a sheet at one impression, is called by printers aform.
IX.39When a block, after being printed, requires retouching, it is generally necessary to cover it with fine whiting, which, by filling up the interstices, thus enables the engraver to distinguish the raised lines more clearly.
IX.40When a block has been cleaned with turpentine, and not afterwards washed with soap and water, it will not receive the ink well when next used. The first fifty or sixty impressions subsequently taken, are almost certain to have a grey and scumbled appearance.
IX.41Some of those presses were so truly constructed, that if the table were wetted, and brought in contact with the platten, it could be raised from its bed by allowing the platten to ascend, in consequence of the two surfaces being so perfectly plane and level.