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.
