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The invention of wood engraving has been claimed for the Chinese, whose
books have certainly been printed from engraved wood blocks for ages. It
is not, however, until the beginning of the fifteenth century that we
find any evidence of the existence of wood engraving as we now understand
it.
It is probable that Italy was the first European country to make
engravings, but only for printing playing-cards. Holland and Germany soon
applied the art to better ends.
The earliest print of which any certain information can be obtained is
in the collection of Earl Spencer. It was discovered in one of the most
ancient convents of Germany,—the Chartreuse of Buxheim, near Memmingen
in Bavaria,—pasted within the cover of a Latin MS.; it represents Saint
Christopher carrying the infant Saviour across the sea, and is dated
1423. We give a reduced fac-simile of this curious engraving. The
inscription at the bottom has been thus translated:—
In whichever day thou seest the likeness of St. Christopher,
In that same day thou wilt, at least from death, no evil blow
incur.—1423.
[Illustration]
Shortly afterward, a series of books printed entirely from wood
engravings, called block-books, were issued. The most important of them
were the _Apocalypsis, seu Historia Sancti Johannis_; the _Historia
Virginis ex Cantico Canticorum_; and the _Biblia Pauperum_, the last
containing representations of some of the principal passages of the Old
and New Testaments, with explanatory texts. The illustrations seem to
be drawn with a supreme contempt for perspective and proportion, but
bear evidence of the draperies and hands and faces having been carefully
studied. The above is a copy of one of the cuts in the _Apocalypsis_.
It represents St. John preaching to three men and a woman, with the
inscription: “_Conversi ab idolis, per predicationem beati Johannis,
Drusiana et ceteri_,” (By the preaching of St. John, Drusiana and others
are withdrawn from their idols.) The adjoining cut, from the _Biblia
Pauperum_, is curious as showing the general manner of representing the
creation of Eve during the fifteenth century. Both have the appearance of
careful drawings “spoiled in the engraving.” Previous to the invention of
movable types, whole books of text were also engraved on wood, and the
impressions were evidently taken by rubbing on the back of the paper,
instead of a steady pressure, as in the printing-press, the ink used
being some kind of distemper colour.
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The wood to be engraved on is carefully selected, and cut up into
transverse slices seven-eighths of an inch thick. This is done by
circular saws, which are necessarily very rigid, so as to insure good
even cuts.
After being cut, the slices are placed in racks something like
plate-racks, and thoroughly seasoned by slow degrees in gradually heated
rooms. When sufficiently seasoned they are reduced to parallelograms of
various sizes, the outer portion of the circular section near the bark
being cut away, and all defective wood rejected; such, for instance, as
knots, irregular grain, as that resulting from the position of branches,
which are indicated by light-coloured markings in the wood, known in
the trade as “comets,” from their resemblance in shape to those fiery
bodies. They are softer than the surrounding wood, and consequently do
not cut well with the graver; therefore much care and a practised eye are
needed in selecting suitable wood. A section of boxwood almost always
exhibits parts of widely different values; the more so as it deviates
from the circle in form, for then the annual rings are compressed, and
consequently closer on one side than on the other, the side with the wide
open rings being usually far inferior in value to the denser and smaller
side.
In former times, engravers’ blocks were cut parallel with the grain, the
present system of cutting them across the grain being introduced about
the middle of the last century. In the preparation of a block, say for
a newspaper plate, the parallelograms before spoken of are assorted as
to size and fitted together at the back by brass bolts and nuts. So
accurately do the edges of the wood fit together, that after the artist
has finished his drawing on the smooth face of this compound block, the
screws and bolts are loosened, and the pieces separated and given to
several men to engrave the design; all that is needed after they have
finished their work being to fit the pieces together and screw them up
again, when they form one engraved block ready for the printing-press.
Turkey boxwood, from a region of country in the vicinity of the Black
Sea, is used for fine engravings. The best is of a delicate yellow colour
free from spots or “eyes,” and cuts smoothly without crumbling or tearing.
The tools or gravers necessary in wood-engraving are of three
kinds,—viz., gravers proper (_a_); tint tools (_b_); and scoopers, or
cutting-out tools, for clearing out the larger pieces (_c_). They are
arranged in different sizes, to suit the various portions of the work.[9]
[Illustration]
According to Vasari, the important discovery of chalcography or engraving
on brass or copper was made by Tommaso Finiguerra, a Florentine goldsmith
of the fifteenth century, who lived from 1400 to 1460. The manner in
which he made this discovery is thus stated by the Rev. T. F. Dibdin:—
“Of engraving upon copper, the earliest known impression is that executed
by one Tommaso Finiguerra, a goldsmith of Florence, with the date of
1460 upon it. One of the following circumstances is supposed to have
given rise to the discovery. Finiguerra chanced to cast, or let fall, a
piece of copper, engraved and filled with ink, into melted sulphur; and,
observing that the exact impression of his work was left on the sulphur,
he repeated the experiment on moistened paper, rolling it gently with a
roller. This origin has been admitted by Lord Walpole and Mr. Landseer;
but another has been also mentioned by Huber. ‘It is reported,’ says
he, ‘that a washerwoman left some linen upon a plate or dish on which
Finiguerra had just been engraving, and that an impression of the subject
engraved, however imperfect, came off upon the linen, occasioned by its
weight and moistness.’”