MATERIALS AND MODE OF PROCEEDING.

The wood used by engravers is boxwood, on account of its close grain and firm texture; it is principally imported from Turkey, cut transversely or across the grain (so that the engraving is done upon the end way of the wood). It is made seven-eighths of an inch in thickness (type height). It takes a beautifully smooth surface, and cuts under the graver with the utmost clearness and fineness. The polished surface of the wood being unsuitable for drawing on, a slight “tooth” is given to it by a little water-colour white rubbed over the face of the block with the ball of the thumb until nearly dry, when it presents a pleasant surface for the pencil.

The drawing or design having been sketched out and perfected on paper, it is then traced the reverse way upon the wood block, and the drawing then worked out, either in black-line fac-simile or in tints, as may be intended. The black lead pencil, of sufficient hardness of lead to stand the pressure upon the solid surface, is the favourite instrument for drawing. For tinting, either the pencil or the brush with washes of china ink can be used.

The tools used are gravers, tint-tools, and scoopers, or cutting out tools—in all about a dozen different sizes; the several kinds are here indicated. With the gravers the outline and all the details are cut; the tints, by which the proper tones or light and shade are obtained, can best be rendered with tint-tools of various widths of cut. The parts not required to be printed are hollowed out with scoopers. It will be understood that all the blanks or white parts of an engraving have been cut away in the block.

Mode of Engraving on Wood.

There are several et ceteras also required by the engraver, as, an oil-stone to sharpen his gravers; an eye-glass, when engraving very fine work; a small circular sand-bag, on which the block is held while being engraved; an instrument called a burnisher, with which to take proofs. A glass globe filled with water, to concentrate the light from lamp or gas jet upon the block, is used at night.

The engraving being completed, the surface of the block is inked very lightly with printing ink, and a piece of India paper, or any fine paper of similar quality, being laid upon it, an impression is taken by rubbing the paper with the burnisher until it is fully printed. From this proof the engraver can judge whether any alterations are required and what improvements can be effected.

The revival of wood engraving by Bewick and others, and the high state of perfection to which it had been brought by his immediate successors, to a very great extent superseded copper-plate engraving for book illustrations, though for Ex Libris, copper-plate held, and still holds its place as the chief and deservedly favourite style.

Crest Ex Libris of R. Day, F.S.A., Cork.

Engraved by C. W. Sherborn, and printed direct from the Copper-Plate.

ENGRAVING ON COPPER
AND STEEL.

Where be the equal now of those glorious editions of the poets, the “Annuals,” “Keepsakes,” “Books of Beauty,” and other delightful volumes that still charm the eyes and glad the hearts of those who have the taste and the wit to possess them? As works of the highest art quality, they have never since been equalled for beauty of work, with their engraved titles, frontispieces, and illustrations in the text, drawn by Stothard, Turner, Creswick, Stanfield, Harding, and a host of the first names in British Art, and engraved in the rarest and most exquisite manner by men equally eminent in their line. “Woodcuts,” however, cut them out for the time, owing to the excellence to which the art had attained, and the greater rapidity and cheapness in printing.

Kress Book-plate.
(See Ex Libris Journal, Vol. IV., p. 9.)

Engraved on Copper by Hans Troschel, 1699.
Reproduced by process block.

In all the changes and inventions in the modes of art reproduction the engraved plate has steadily held its own as the most finished and perfect. For Ex Libris it is particularly suitable; it is par excellence THE STYLE for the attainment of the highest art quality.

The Art Journal, supported by one or two similar publications, has heroically endeavoured to maintain the traditions of the best period of the Art in its steel-plate illustrations, but, except for pictures of this kind, and of larger size for framing, illustrations on steel and copper for books may be said to be practically extinct.

Time, however, has its revenges: wood engraving, in its turn, is being rapidly displaced by “process blocks” (of which more anon), and now, if we take up any recent illustrated book or journal, we find the bulk of the pictures and designs not wood engravings but process blocks.

In every good collection of Ex Libris the majority of examples will be found to be printed from engraved plates, very few relatively being from wood blocks. The reason is not far to seek. The wood engraving as practised in England previous to the opening of the present century was poor in execution, and did not lend itself sufficiently to working out minute details with the same ease and readiness with which they can be executed on copper.

Pure Line Engraving by Robert White,
from a Painting by Sir Godfrey Kneller.

Reproduced by process block.

That it was the favourite mode of producing these dainty little works is evident also from the fact that copper-plate pictures for book illustrations of every kind had almost entirely superseded wood engraving, which had indeed fallen completely into disfavour. Until the beginning of the present century, when Bewick and others had elevated it into a fine art, wood engraving was in an exceedingly rude condition, and little fitted for small works. Copper-plate engraving, on the contrary, had for several centuries flourished successfully; every goldsmith was able to “chase” and engrave the decorative and heraldic work upon silver plate and goldsmiths’ work, or upon metal of any kind, in relief, or intaglio, as in medals, coins, etc. That this is no mere assumption we know from historical evidence, as well as from a careful comparison of the “handling,” or the manner of cutting the lines upon silver work, which is identical with the style of cutting the lines in so very many engraved book-plates of the last and early part of the present century. Whatever may be thought of the vagaries of the accessories in the Jacobean, [Chippendale], and other kindred styles—which are essentially silver engraving patterns—much of this class of work shows at least a true heraldic spirit in the treatment of the charges.

A Chippendale pattern. Silver Engraver’s style of work,

reproduced by process block.

Benvenuto Cellini, whose works now bring fabulous prices in goldsmith work, was an expert engraver as well, as were probably most of the workers in the precious metals of his time. Hogarth, in the earlier part of his career, did much in the way of engraving arms, crests, etc., for the silversmiths; so did Bewick, who worked on wood and on metal indifferently. The writer has done a fair share of similar work in his younger days; and to his knowledge it was the custom in many establishments for the engravers to do both, as the exigencies of business required, though the tendency when work was plentiful was to specialise, each man doing that part for which he seemed to have an aptitude. This refers particularly to graver work; the pictorial engraver executing his work principally by means of the etching process, and only finishing up with the graver.

No doubt a life-long practice in one particular class of work of this kind is calculated to engender a stiff and formal manner, and set patterns to become stereotyped, were it not for the capricious changes of fashion; sometimes slowly developed, at other times, a new fashion suddenly sets in and changes all; the later chasing the earlier out of the field, only to be elbowed aside in its turn. Styles of ornament, as they course each other down the stream of time, invariably leave their high-water marks on the margin, which serve as valuable data for the student; the prevailing styles of decorative and heraldic art, having, like all mundane things, their periods of development, full-blossoming, and decadence, the dates of which, book-plate collectors, aided by dated specimens, arrive at with tolerable certainty.

The prevalence of a particular style, its vogue and duration, will account in a great measure for the family likeness observable in so many book-plates; the chief factors, however, may be set down to the general low state of the art, the paucity of designers and engravers of merit, and the ample supply of the ordinary article—the mechanical craftsman.

Pure Line Engraving, reproduced by process block.

As to the history and development of styles in Ex Libris, a reference to the works of the Hon. J. Leicester Warren, J. Paul Rylands, F.S.A., Egerton Castle, M.A., F.S.A., W. J. Hardy, and the pages of the Ex Libris Journal, will find the subject fully and plainly set forth.

A word as to the origin and history of Copper-Plate Engraving. The art of engraving on metal plates, for taking impressions on paper, was first practised by Tommaso Fineguerra, a Florentine goldsmith, about the year 1460. Some writers have claimed the invention for Germany, but it is generally considered that the art was first practised in Italy, and had its origin in the workshops of the goldsmith. An assistant is said to have suggested to Fineguerra the possibility of taking an impression from an engraved design with ink on moistened paper. The first book printed at Rome was illustrated by the first plate engraving. This work is dated 1478, but was commenced in 1472. Engraving made rapid strides towards excellence in Germany. Albert Dürer was a man whose universality of talent extended the boundaries of every department of art, and carried all to a degree of perfection previously unknown. He had great command of the graver, and carried his plates to a higher state of finish than his Italian contemporaries. He is also believed to have invented the art of etching by corrosion: on examining his etchings, we see that they have all been corroded at one “biting-in,” which sufficiently explains their monotonous appearance, and proves that “stopping-out” was not then understood. To the Dutch and Flemish schools we owe many improvements in the art. The celebrity of the French school dates from the time of Louis XIV. Gerard Audran was the first engraver who successfully united to any extent the use of the graver and the etching point. The English school of engraving dates only from the middle of the eighteenth century, previous to which those who practised the art in England were chiefly foreigners. Hogarth engraved many of his own designs. Francis Vivares introduced the art of landscape etching: he, Woollet, and Brown produced some of the first landscape engravings extant. Sir Robert Strange excelled in portrait engraving. Of the moderns who have attained eminence in the various branches of the art, the very enumeration of them would lead to needless length, the present purpose being chiefly to describe the processes.

Pure Line Engraving, reproduced by process block.

Line Engraving by William Hogarth,
reproduced by process block.

William Hogarth’s own book-plate.
Line Engraving, reproduced by process block.

THE VARIOUS MODES OF ENGRAVING ON
COPPER AND STEEL-PLATE.

There are many kinds of engraving on steel and copper for the purpose of printing by the copper-plate press. We will specify those principally in use and indicate their chief characteristics; afterwards, some further explanation may be necessary. It may be here stated that the various processes are of such a technical nature that it would be impossible in a short compass to explain all the details of execution; we may, however, refer those who desire to pursue the subject further to an excellent little handbook (price one shilling) published by Winsor and Newton,[2] which, as stated in the preface, will, by means of any of the modes of engraving on copper therein treated of, enable anyone “skilled in pen and ink drawing to reproduce their designs with greater delicacy and added depth of effect.” Other books on the subject there are, of greater cost, as Hamerton’s splendid work, but for the amateur the handy little manual just named is an admirable guide.

Transfer, direct from Engraved plate to stone.

Pure Line Engraving, reproduced by process block.

Transfer, direct from Engraved plate to stone.

To one skilled in drawing, and with some leisure and enthusiasm for the work, Etching offers a delightful field for the exercise of the artistic mind. There are no technical difficulties that may not be surmounted by care and patience. The few tools and necessary appliances are not of a costly nature, if we except the copper-plate printing press.

There are different kinds or methods of engraving, the six principal varieties of which need only be considered, namely:—

The distinctive features of all copper-plate and steel-plate engraving consist in this, that the lines or strokes composing the design are cut or ploughed into the surface of the metal with a fine tool termed a graver, etched or corroded out with acid or by other means. A Print is obtained by filling the lines so made with a special ink composed of a drying oil and colour-pigment. During the process of inking the plate is kept warm, the superfluous ink being wiped off with a coarse muslin rag, and made perfectly clean. The plate, placed in the travelling bed of the copper-plate press, is covered with a sheet of paper slightly damp; on turning the press, it is subjected to such pressure as forces the paper into the lines; by this means the ink is transferred to the paper, and the result is an impression or proof.

Copper-plate Printing Press.

Transfer, direct from Engraved plate to stone.