No doubt up to about the beginning of the eighteenth century wood cuts had been made on planed pieces of pear or other soft wood cut lengthways. The grain upon such a piece of wood necessitating the use of a knife to cut it, the knife may be a single blade or a double blade of the kind known as a “scrive,” but it cannot be cut with a solid graver.
It is possible enough that to Jackson we owe the idea of making engravings on the cross-cut of a piece of wood, and if so he is entitled to great honour, as all wood work since his time has been done in that way. The graver had long been used on metal, but until the device of cutting blocks across the grain of a hard wood was thought of it could not be used on wood. Hard wood was now wanted with as little grain as possible, and box is the ideal.
In the nineteenth century much excellent wood engraving was done in France. Indeed, after a period of practical non-existence the art once more became one of great importance, and a school of wood engraving grew up that was not only very large, but the work done was of very high quality.
Bewick’s style is not there, although it seems likely that the revival was really due to his influence; the old black line, resembling the engraved metal line, holds undisputed sway. Moreover, the French nineteenth century revival owes much directly to the work and influence of another great English wood engraver, J. Thompson, and with him worked an equally great French engraver, H. L. Brevière. These two men were highly gifted, and their work is always of a high order, and they met with much powerful support from contemporary engravers, followers of their own, the excellence of whose work in many instances ran their own very close.
Among the many engravers of this time whose work is always pleasant to meet with and admire we may particularly note Thiébault, S. Soyer, Sears, Porret, Roux, La Coste and both his sons, Rouget, and Nivet.
The work of many of our contemporary English engravers was also much liked in France, and they often helped to illustrate fine French books. Among the more notable of these engravers we find the names of Orrin Smith, Thomas, Samuel, and Mary Ann Williams, and A. Best.
It must be noted that the work of the artists whose work was interpreted by this school of highly-skilled engravers was admirably fitted for small book vignettes, especially the military designs so profusely issued by Meissonier, Horace Vernet, and Raffet, and, for larger work, the charming figures of Gavarni.
Augsburg in the fifteenth century was a great centre of wood engraving. A Bible with small woodcuts was issued there about 1470 by Jodoc Pflanzmann. These cuts were meant to be coloured by hand. Several other books illustrated with woodcuts were issued by Gunther Zainer and Johan Bamler.
Then notable illustrated books were published at Ulm and Lubeck, and from Nuremberg we have the great “Nuremberg Chronicle,” full of woodcuts, the best of which are cut by Wilhelm Pleydenwurff and Michael Wohlgemuth. The work in this book gets away from the mere outline, and we find much clever hatching and shading, but there is much coarseness. From Basle came Seb. Brant’s celebrated “Narrenschiff,” one of the most popular books ever written, and illustrated with most amusing cuts of the various follies of the various sorts of fools described. Albrecht Dürer did a few illustrations for books towards the end of the fifteenth and beginning of the sixteenth centuries.
Several more illustrated wood books were issued from Nuremberg, Basle and Zurich, and some of the printers’ devices were designed by Holbein.