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More often
than not, prints were produced by an engraver from
paintings or drawings by well known artists, but this
was not an invariable rule. There are many beautiful
examples of prints where both the painting and engraving
were both executed by the artist.
The majority
of prints available to the collector will be those
of the seventeenth and eighteenth century, and it
will greatly assist and increase our appreciation
of prints if first we learn something about the techniques
employed in print making.
Wood
Block
The wood
engraver first prepared a suitable block of wood of
the appropriate size, by smoothing both faces flat.
The design was then drawn on the block with ink or
brush, and with the aid of a knife or graver, the
engraver proceeded to remove all the wood not marked
in ink to a depth of about 1/16 inch or more, leaving
the drawn design standing in relief.
To produce
the print, an ink-coated roller was rubbed over the
block, so that only the raised design accepted a coat
of ink. The paper was then laid on the block and manually
rubbed on the back, thus transferring the impression
in reverse.
Later woodcuts
were made by actually incising the design into the
wood with a graver. After inking the block face had
to be cleaned to leave the ink in the engraved channels
only. This method required greater pressure to transfer
a good impression onto paper.
Early wood
blocks were made from relatively thin wood, pear,
apple, lime, and other soft woods being the most commonly
used. Later blocks were made of boxwood, and thicker
in section.
Because
the wood blocks did not wear particularly well, it
was not possible to obtain very many high quality
impressions, and as the life of the block was very
limited, so were the total number of good impressions
obtained from any single block.
Line
Engraving
The block
consisted of a sheet of copper, thick enough to be
rigid when taking impressions (1/8 inch approximately)
and flat. The outline of the subject to be produced
was first traced on the copper, then with a burin
or graver, which was a triangular tool with a handle
that fits snugly into the palm of the hand, the engraver
guided this tool with forefinger and thumb along the
traced outline, at the same time varying the pressure
tocut a groove of varying depths into the metal, forming
either a coarse or fine line on the finished impression.
Until
about 1820 copper was invariably the metal used for
line engravings, although occasionally brass, zinc,
iron and even silver were used. From 1820 onwards
copper slowly lost its popularity in favor of steel.
Steel, being a harder metal yielded a greater number
of impressions before deterioration of the image.
Etching
The engraver
first prepared a copper plate with a thin film of
wax ground, then with a needle or similar pointed
tool, he proceeded to draw the subject on the wax
with sufficient pressure to expose the bare metal
underneath. The next step was to protect the back
and edges of the plate with a suitable acid resistant
medium, then the plate was completely immersed in
acid which bit into the areas exposed in the wax.
When the lines requiring light treatment had been
'bitten' to the required depth, the plate was removed,
and those areas covered with an acid resistant varnish
to prevent any further action by the acid. The plate
was then returned to the acid so that lines required
to be darker could be etched deeper. Repetitive treatments
of 'stopping off' and re-etching resulted in the graduation
of lines from the very delicate to the strong and
bold.
When the
etching stage was completed, the plate was washed,
and both varnish and wax removed, leaving a beautifully
clean etched plate ready for the first impression
to be taken.
Mezzotint-Engraving
The engraver
first polished the copper sheet on the face to be
engraved, then with a piece of chalk he marked a series
of parallel lines across this face, about ¾ inch
apart. The first stage of engraving was executed with
a chisel-like tool, with a curved edge, one side of
which was grooved, shaped, and sharpened to form a
series of cutting points, or dots. Placing this tool
between the first two chalk lines, he rocked it back
and forth, and at the same time moved it slowly across
the plate, this formed a band of dotted indentations
in the metal. He then proceeded to treat the next
chalk-marked band in the same way, and so on, down
the plate until the whole plate had been covered.
The same operation was then repeated vertically over
the plate, then diagonally at varying angles until
the whole surface .of the plate was roughened evenly.
This was known as 'laying the ground' and if an impression
were taken from it at this stage, the result would
be a perfectly black surface. The next operation required
the outline of the design to be drawn on the roughened
surface, then with a very sharp scraping knife, the
engraver proceeded to develop the design by carefully
scraping away more or less of the roughened surface
to produce the variety of graduated tones from very
light to black.
Stipple
Engraving
The copper
plate was first given a wax ground, and treated in
much the same way as for etchings, but instead of
drawing lines into the wax, the design was first outlined
by pricking dots into the wax. The darker passages
were then filled in either by larger, or by more closely
grouped dots. The plate was then immersed in acid
to bite the dots into the plate. After this treatment,
the wax ground was cleaned off and the engraver proceeded
to re-enter most of the dots with a 'stipple graver',
to emphasize, and develop the final design. Stipple
engravings therefore, are really a combination of
the etching, dry point and graver work.
Aquatint
Engravings
There
were two basic grounds used to produce plates for
aquatints; the dust and the spirit ground, but whichever
ground is used the technique is the same.
The cleaned
copper plate was evenly coated with a film of finely
powdered resin, the various methods used to scatter
the resin were to place the plate in a rotating box,
by a revolving fan inside the box, or by blowing with
a pair of bellows. The plate was then heated to just
melt the resin. Spirit grounds were applied on a carefully
cleaned plate by covering the plate with a solution
comprising resin and spirits of wine. With the evaporation
of the spirit, the resin dried, and in so doing, contracted,
leaving the resin adhering to the plate in fine particles,
which exposed the raw metal around the particles.
When the
etching acid was applied over the resin ground, it
bit into the minute exposed areas, but its action
was inhibited where covered by the tiny particles
of resin. The graduation of tone necessary to express
form were obtained by successive applications of acid
and by stopping off areas with acid resistant varnish.
When a definite or well-defined line was required
it was added by the etching needle, which removed
the resin.
Lithographs
Lithographs
were not produced by any method associated with engraving,
but they rank among the best of some of the antique
prints. Lithographic prints were produced from a special
kind of limestone to which a granulated surface had
been added by rubbing the printing surface with a
similar piece of stone. This action naturally flattened
the surface also. The design was then drawn on the
stone, in reverse, with a greasy pencil and the stone
treated with a weak acid. Before applying the ink
with a roller the stone was first wetted, and because
oil and water do not readily mix, the ink only adhered
to the greasy drawn design. It was only necessary
to lay a piece of damp paper on the stone and press
to obtain the final impression.
An alternative
method was sometimes practiced by first drawing the
design with a greasy pencil on a special transfer
paper; this was subsequently pressed onto the prepared
surface of the stone and the paper removed, leaving
the drawn image. Impressions obtained by this method
were generally not quite as crisp as those obtained
by direct drawing.
Color
Prints
The majority
of old engravings were hand colored with watercolors,
but these must not be confused with engravings 'printed
in color'. Stipple engravings printed in color were
produced from a stipple engraved plate, and the various
colored inks rubbed into the required areas by the
printer, excess ink was removed from the plate surface,
leaving the tiny pockets of the engraving filled with
ink. The subsequent impression resulted in a beautiful
colored print, composed of tiny colored dots on a
white background. Depth of color tone, or shading,
was achieved by the proximity or size of the color
dots.
Color
prints were produced very early in the history of
prints by the Chinese, using various wood blocks to
produce the individual colors, but the process used
by Jacob Christopher Le Blon very early in the 18th
century had a similar basis to present day techniques.
His process involved making mezzotint plates for each
color, so graduated in texture that they reproduced
the required proportions of red, yellow and blue.
A fourth plate was used for the addition of black.
The plates were inked with their appropriate color,
and printed on the paper, one impression on top of
the other, registration of each plate being of considerable
importance.
Other
color prints were produced during the eighteenth century
from separate color plates engraved in stipple and
aquatint. 1834 saw the beginning of the Baxter oil
prints. These were produced from engraved steel plates,
the first block engraved became the master, and the
sub-sequent color plates were prepared by transfers
made from this master. The various colors used were
mixed by hand to the required tint; plates inked,
and print produced by printing one color impression
upon another in accurate register. Later Baxter used
a combination of wood blocks and steel plates.
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