The principle of a print made from an engraved wood block is that the projecting parts are covered with a thin film of ink, and when the paper is lightly pressed down upon these lines it picks up the ink from the surface wherever it touches it. In the case of an engraved metal plate, the lines on which are cut in the same way and with a similar graver to that used for white line engraving on wood, the inking and printing is quite different. Now it is the incised lines which print black, and in order to ensure this the whole plate is well rubbed over with ink so as to fill up all the incised lines, and then the unengraved polished surface is carefully wiped clean so as to leave the ink sticking in all the dots, lines and curves. Now damped paper is very strongly pressed upon the inked plate, so as to be squeezed right down into every dot, line and curve. The paper consequently is in relief wherever it has been pressed into a depression, and as there was ink there waiting for it, it will be found to have picked up and absorbed all the ink, so that the print shows black lines in low relief.
It will be easily realised that a print from an engraved metal plate cannot be printed with ordinary type at the same operation a wood-block can, so that whenever a book occurs in which such engravings show on the same page with type, there must have been two printings, one strong for the engraving and one light for the type.
We find, therefore, that in several instances where engraved illustrations have been used for a book which is for the most part printed from type, that the small piece of text which comes on the same page as the engraving, is also engraved. Not only this, but from time to time entire books have been engraved, illustrations as well as text. The finest English example of such work is to be found in the beautiful edition of the works of Horace, plentifully illustrated and engraved throughout on copper by John Pine. It was published in 1733-7.
John Sturt, who engraved numbers of book frontispieces, also produced a Book of Common Prayer, engraved throughout on silver, in 1717. He also engraved many of John Ayres’ calligraphic works. Abroad, especially in France and Germany, small books have been engraved, in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, by P. Moreau, F. Mazot, Druet, and others, but none of them are as important as the English. Music books are engraved, and so are numbers of calligraphic books of small interest.
The first line engravings illustrating any book appear in Bettini’s “Monte Santo di Deo,” printed in 1477. They are said to be after designs by Botticelli. Some of the prints are full page and others are printed on the same paper as the text. They are not very good. The same kind of illustration appears in Dante’s “Divina Commedia,” printed in 1481. Some of these prints are, however, pasted in, but a few are on the same paper as the text.
The great excellence of Italian book illustrators on wood seems to have eclipsed all other kinds. Italian line engravers have excelled in large plates, but in books there is little of this kind of work that is at all good. Examples of small work of the kind were done in the eighteenth century by Grandi, Schedl, Pomarade, I. Frey, and C. Gregori.
In English books line engravings do not appear until 1521, when an edition of Galen published at Cambridge possesses an engraved border.
Raynald’s “Byrthe of Mankind,” published in 1540, has engraved plates. From this time engravings appear at intervals until towards the end of the sixteenth century, when frontispieces and portraits, always printed on separate paper and inserted as extra leaves, became common.
In the seventeenth century the same style prevailed, engraved portraits and frontispieces, but gradually small pictures came into use. The plates are often signed, and we find the name of Renold Elstrack, who worked also in the preceding century, Marshall, Hole, Cecil, Grover, and others of less merit.
In the eighteenth century native engravers seem to have given way to foreigners, and the same thing happened during the early nineteenth century. We find many beautiful engravings in English books signed by Du Bosc, Grignion, Scotin, De Launay, and others. Later, in the nineteenth century, our English line engravers rallied, and we owe much beautiful work to them. Many of their names are widely known, and their work will be more highly appreciated as time goes on, especially as this small line engraving is practically a lost art.