There is at the present time very little encouragement for the high class of chromo-lithography that was so much in evidence from 1855 to 1875, but there is little doubt that the work could be done equally well by the present-day craftsmen if the demand revived. Belonging to the period mentioned, distinguished examples of chromo-lithography are “Blue Lights,” after Turner, by Carrick; “Spanish Peasants” and the Lumley portrait of Shakespeare, by Risdon; “Queen Victoria receiving the Guards,” by W. Bunney, after John Gilbert; and the series of chromos after John Leech, produced under the general direction of Vincent Brooks. A small proportion only of the Arundel Society’s prints were executed in England, but many reproductions of water-colours after Birket Foster, Richardson, Wainwright and others were executed by Samuel Hodson, James Lewis and others. Perhaps the most consistently good work of modern times has been the reproduction of Pellegrini’s and Leslie Ward’s drawings for Vanity Fair, which from 1870 to 1906 were with very few exceptions executed by the firm of Vincent Brooks, Day & Son.
Transfers.—A very large proportion of work is got on to the stone by transfer, and there is no more important part of the business perhaps at the present time. When there is so much original lithography done on grained paper by artists of eminence, the transferring of grained paper drawings is the most important. The stone most desirable for this purpose will be neither a grey nor a light yellow, but one that stands mid-way between the two; it should be very carefully polished so as to be quite free from scratches, and brought to blood-heat by being gradually heated in an iron cupboard prepared with the necessary apparatus. The methods that sometimes prevail of pouring boiling water over the stone, heating with the flame of an ordinary plumber’s lamp, or even heating the surface in front of a fire, are ineffective substitutes, for the surface may thus become unduly hot and spread the work, and there is no increased tendency for the chalk to enter into the stone and thus give the work a long life. If there are no colours or registration troubles to be considered, it is well to place the transfer in a damping book till the composition adheres firmly to the finger, before placing it on the stone; it should then be pulled through twice, after which it should be damped on the back and pulled through several times; after this has again been well damped the paper will be found to peel easily off the stone, leaving the work and nearly all the composition attached; the latter should then be very gently washed away.
In cases where the work for some reason must not stretch, such as the hills on a map, it will be necessary to keep the transfer dry and put it on a wet stone, but a piece of the margin of the paper should be tested to see that it is of a class that will adhere to the stone the first time it is pulled through. Unless the adhesion is very complete it may not be safe to pull it through more than once. For a small number of copies a very moderate “etch” is desirable, but for a long run, where the object is to secure a good edition rather than a few good proofs, the Eberle system may be adopted. This method consists in protecting the work with finely powdered resin and then applying the flame of an ordinary plumber’s lamp; this will melt the protecting medium round the base of each grain of work and allow of a very vigorous “etch” being applied. As before stated it is not unusual to secure 2000 to 3000 good copies in the machine after this treatment; but the rollers, the ink and the superintendence must be of the best.
When the artist who is not a professed lithographer desires to make tints to his work, a reversed offset on grained paper should be made for each colour; this is done by pulling an impression in the usual way on a hard piece of paper, and while it is yet wet this should be faced with a piece of grained paper and pulled through again, when the grained paper will be found to have received the greater portion of the ink; this should be immediately dusted with offset powder of a red shade to prevent the grease passing into the paper, and the drawing of the tints should then be proceeded with in the usual way. Another method of transfer work is to pull impressions from copper or steel plates in transfer ink; it is in such way that simple etchings like those of Cruikshank, Phiz and others are produced, and nearly all commercial work such as maps, bill heads, &c., are prepared in the same manner.
Beyond this, much work is done in lithographic ink on what is called writing transfer paper, such as circulars, law writing for abstracts, specifications and plans.
Machinery.—The chief items are the hand presses and the machines, whether flat bed or rotary, the principal places of manufacture being Leeds, Otley and Edinburgh. Stimulated by American competition, the standard of excellence in the United Kingdom has been very considerably raised of late years. The rotary machines have only been possible since the more frequent use of aluminium and zinc, but these materials are more suitable to receive transfer than for the general use of an office, the chief reason being that corrections on stone are more easily accomplished and more lasting when done. Preliminary work is therefore frequently done on the stone and transferred to plates for the machine.
The question is very frequently asked as to how the necessary registration of the colours is secured; it may be stated for the benefit of the amateur that in hand printing this is generally done by pricking with a pair of needles through printed marks present on each stone; but in the machine this has been done in different ways, although in quite early days “pointing” or “needling” was done even on the machine. On modern machines this registration depends on the accurate cutting of the edge of the paper, of which at least one corner must be an absolute right angle. The paper is then laid on a sloping board in such a way that the longest of the two true edges gravitates into the gripper of the machine, the stops of which move slightly forward as the gripper closes; simultaneously what is called the “side lay” moves forward automatically to a given extent, and in this way at the critical moment the sheet is always in the same position in regard to the stone, which has already been firmly secured in the bed of the machine.
Quite recently a new method has come into use that is probably destined to be a great aid to the craft in its competition with other methods. This is known as offset printing; it is more a matter of evolution than invention, and proceeds from the method adopted in tin-plate decoration so much used for box-making and lasting forms of advertisement. It consists in bringing a sheet of rubber into contact with the charged stone and then setting-off the impression so obtained upon card, paper, pegamoid, cloth or other material, the elasticity of the rubber making it possible to print upon rough surfaces that have been previously unsuited to lithographic printing. Both flat bed and rotary machines are available for this system, the latter being restricted to zinc or aluminium plates, but giving a high speed, while the former can use both stones and metal plates and may be more effective for the highest grade of colour work; by both classes of machines the finest engraved note headings can be printed on rough paper, and colour work that has for so long been confined to coated or burnished papers will be available on surfaces such as the artists themselves use.
The following treatises may be referred to with advantage by those in search of more detailed information: A Complete Course of Lithography, by Alois Senefelder (R. Ackermann, London, 1819); The Grammar of Lithography, by W. D. Richmond (13th edition, E. Menken, London); Handbook of Lithography, by David Cumming (London, A. & C. Black). The first of these will only be found in libraries of importance; the others are present-day text-books.
(F. V. B.)