This plan seemed very fair to me, as the Royal Commission would save two thirds of the expenses it had defrayed hitherto; but it met with such opposition that Herr von Utzschneider advised me to make another proposition, preferably one that involved a good salary for myself and Herr Gleissner, which, probably, would be received with more favor. He added the flattering statement that the Royal Commission would be proud to have me, the inventor of the art, in its employ, and thus to reward my struggles in the name of the fatherland. The excellent man fulfilled the expectations thus raised, and became my greatest benefactor and founder of my fortune; for through him I won the prospect of an unvexed old age, and was placed in a position where I did not need any longer to consider my art merely as a livelihood. Everything useful that I have invented since then, and I hope it is not inconsiderable, is due to the serene and happy position in which I was placed through his goodness.
At the time I thought also that, if we were both employed by the Royal Steuer-Kataster-Kommission, it would save Freiherr von Aretin the burden of supporting us, without causing him damage, as according to the preliminary promise of the Commission we should have time enough left to manage his institution. So I agreed to assume supervision over the Commission's printery, to give it my best knowledge, and give the workmen complete instructions and training, for which there was to be a salary for life of one thousand five hundred gulden for me and one thousand gulden for my friend Gleissner, with the rank of Royal Inspector of Lithography, and with the right to maintain and conduct our own printery. My terms were graciously accepted, and in October, 1809, we received our appointment.
Only in the beginning were my personal services especially necessary. Later, as the workmen grew equal to their tasks, I found more and more leisure for dedicating myself to inventing improvements. I was rather fortunate in this endeavor, and the various processes invented since 1809 would now be generally known through the publication of many interesting works, had Freiherr von Aretin not been forced to leave Munich to assume his new duties in the Royal Service. This left my art without his assistance, and our partnership reached its end just as it was beginning to attain fruit. My own circumstances did not permit me to continue the establishment on its former scale; therefore, Freiherr von Aretin turned over part of it, especially the art-branches, to von Manlich, the Director of the Royal Gallery, and another part to Herr Zeller. The latter soon gave up the printing business as incompatible with his other interests, but he did a great deal for domestic art and industry later by opening a warehouse for its products, also by publishing a paper and issuing many lithographic art productions.
I kept one or two presses for myself, and as I married the daughter of the Royal Chief Auditor Versch in January, 1810, I hoped to teach my wife to manage a small business. In the very beginning I obtained a large order for passports from the Royal Commission of the Isar, which kept the presses busy for a month. At the same time I contracted with the Royal War Economy Council to furnish all their printing. Besides this, I had many orders from another Royal Commission and from Herr Falter, so that my little establishment was very busy. Unfortunately it happened that I was not paid at once by the Royal Commission of the Isar, but only after four years. Added to this, after some months I had to support my workmen in idleness for several weeks, because there happened to be no work for them. This gave my wife so ill an idea of the business that she kept at me till I promised her to give up the whole thing.
Madame Gleissner was not so timid. She offered to take over my men if I would turn over to her the government work that I had. At first she did very well, because just then orders came from many directions. She might have made a great success, had her husband not been stricken with paralysis, which rendered him so miserable that at last he lost his mind. Then came the ever-growing competition and at last the government bureau installed its own plant. Her daughter lost her eyesight almost wholly at this time, so that the family fell into a woeful condition, which would be still worse now if they were not sustained by faith in the mercy and grace of our best of kings, who will surely reward their efforts for lithography, which art, according to the belief of all experts, will ever remain a beautiful flower in the shining wreath of the noble Maximilian.
As soon as I did not need any longer to give up my time to earning a mere livelihood, I began seriously to plan publication of my lithographic text-book, the first number of which had appeared previously and been well received. But the skill of the various lithographers made noticeable advances every day, so that I was not content with the specimen pages that had seemed so satisfactory a year earlier. At last I fell under the delusion that it was absolutely vital to my honor that everything that might appear in my text-book must represent the non plus ultra of the process. Therefore I decided to suppress the first number entirely, because there were sample pages in it that represented a style which had been done much better since then.
However, many obstacles opposed me. For instance, good artists are very costly, especially if they must learn new methods and practice them. I felt, also, that many of my inventions still demanded many improvements before I could intrust them to the hands of any artists. Still, I hoped finally to accomplish my plan for publishing a splendid work which should be unique, because I invented improvements and perfections daily. When my dear friend Andre came to Munich in 1811, I laid my project before him and he was so taken with it that he offered his cordial coöperation. We agreed that the work was to be done by Frankfurter artists and printed there. But when I journeyed to Offenbach some months later, I discovered that the right kind of artists were not so easy to find as Andre had led me to hope. Some, who might have been competent, demanded such exorbitant terms that the work would necessarily have been published only at a huge loss. "Copper-etching," said they, "we understand. Stone-etching we must learn. The latter seems to us, who are unpracticed in it, three times as difficult. Therefore it is but fair that we shall be paid three times as much." This sort of reasoning led me to return to Munich to print the work there.
Now two years passed with many experiments. Many a plate was made, printed, and discarded because meantime I had found something better. Then I lost my beloved wife in child-bed, and in my anguish over this loss, irredeemable as I thought at the time, I forgot all my projects till my second wife, a niece of our worthy Choir-Master Ritter von Winter, reconciled me with Providence, notably through her truly motherly behavior toward the son left behind by my first wife. I considered it my duty now to publish my work, that in case of my death their claims to honor should be established. Without this incentive, it would have been much more indifferent to me what men might think of my art or its inventor.
In 1816, Herr Andre came to Munich again, and I imparted to him many of my recent inventions in regard to lithography. On this occasion we decided ultimately which of our plates should be put into the work and which should be discarded. I promised to get seriously to work and we looked forward so confidently to the completion of the entire publication that Herr Andre circulated a preliminary notice of it in the Easter-Messe at Leipsic, whither he went after leaving Munich.
Despite this, there came many delays, the chief one being caused by my meeting Herr Gerold, book-dealer and printer of Vienna, who invited me to establish a printery for him. As my presence in Vienna would be needed for only three months, I believed that this would cause no delay in the publication of the text-book, because the plates ordered from the Munich artists could be completed during that time, while I could furnish the text as well in Vienna as in Munich. But I had the misfortune of becoming seriously ill soon after reaching Vienna. A great weakness remained as result, and this made it impossible for me to undertake the return voyage in the bad weather that marked the winter of 1816-17.