Some very dainty examples of Ex Libris emblazoned in heraldic tinctures are met with, very charming in their way, principally German ones. Colour in the heraldry of book-plates has not found the same favour in this country as on the Continent; for what reason it is hard to understand. Through the courtesy of Mr. R. S. Mansergh, Friarsfield, co. Tipperary, we are enabled to print as a [frontispiece] the plate newly designed by the writer, and executed by Messrs. Marcus Ward & Co., of Belfast.
PHOTO-LITHOGRAPHY.
Photo-lithography is now so largely employed for the reproduction of all classes of work that a few words in explanation of it may be very desirable. The process is of a somewhat technical nature, but simplicity itself when understood! It is founded upon the fact that gelatine, by the addition of a certain chemical, is rendered insoluble on exposure to light.
A negative photograph from the original drawing in black lines having been taken by the wet or collodion plate, it is intensified to the required degree, so that the lines of the design appear perfectly clear upon a dense, opaque, black film. It is then “exposed” in the printing frame, upon paper that has been coated (in the dark) with the prepared gelatine—now extremely sensitive to light. Taken out of the printing frame in the dark room, the exposed print (which barely shows any trace of the design at this stage) is then covered with a thin film or coating of printers’ transfer ink. The lines exposed to the light have been rendered insoluble, while the white ground of the design protected by the negative is still in a soluble condition. Floated in a bath of warm water, the soluble gelatine (not acted on by the light), with its coating of ink, is washed away—the insoluble lines of the design alone remaining, coated with printers’ transfer ink. This “photo-transfer” is then ready to be put down to the lithographic stone and printed from, or it may be transferred to a polished zinc plate, and etched to the requisite depth as a block for type printing.
Drawn on stone direct, with mechanical ruling added.
DRAWING FOR PHOTO-LITHO, AND FOR
PROCESS LINE-BLOCKS.
The invention of photo-lithography enables the artist to make his own drawings or designs in black and white on a larger scale (usually one-third or one-half larger than required), which will be photo-litho’d down to the size required, thus preserving intact every touch and flexture of line in the original, and, by the reduction, gaining a fineness of line and beauty of finish which the artist could not himself produce on the reduced size. Machine Ruling may afterwards be transferred into the design when it is upon the stone, as in some of the designs in the accompanying examples.