author Aloys Senelfelder, a native of Munich, in the kingdom of
Bavaria. The history of this useful art is recorded by the only person
capable of assigning proper and correct motives, and of tracing the
various means which were employed to arrive at the desired end, to
ultimate success: had all other useful inventions, profitable and
elegant arts, had the good fortune which this has happily experienced,
we should not have had so much cause to regret deficiencies as we have
frequently experienced in the course of our inquiries; then would
the various illustrious authors of arts have had justice rendered to
them, and still have remained possessed of that glorious immortality
so justly the reward of transcendant merit; for the history of this
meritorious invention is given by the author himself, thereby securing
to it those advantages, which the erudite author of the preface
congratulates the public upon, when in his concise epistle he uses
that beautiful expression of his countryman, Klopstock, where he says,
“Covered with eternal darkness are the great names of inventors.”
This work has been translated into English, and published with the
following title:--“A complete Course of Lithography, containing clear
and explicit Instructions in all the different branches and manners
of the Art; accompanied by Illustrative Specimens of Drawings; to
which is prefixed a History of Lithography, from its Origin, by Aloys
Senefelder, Inventor of the Art of Lithography, or Chymical Printing,”
&c.
The author of the preface to this work, and friend of the inventor,
states that this is an art, whereby the artist, a minister, a man of
letters, or a merchant, &c., may multiply his productions at will,
without the assistance of a second person.
The author of the above work proceeds to give in detail his motives
for the original invention, in which he has not only been strictly
circumstantial, but no more so than the curiosity of the public
requires, which is always excited in a degree proportioned to the
confessed utility of a work, or that demand which its elegance has upon
cultivated and delicate feeling. His labours may be said to be divided
naturally into two parts, of which division the author has availed
himself; first, adducing its history, and secondly, affording the
operation of its process.
Its history appears to have arisen with its origin; and both to have
originated in the necessities of the author. From whence it appears,
that after he had received a scholastic education to qualify him for
the jurisprudence of his country, the death of his father, who was a
votary of the Thespian art, deprived him of those resources essential
to enable him to pursue his intended honourable vocation; he was
consequently driven to seek support from the previous acquisitions
of his mind. He accordingly devoted his earnest attention to solicit
the favours of the dramatic muse as an author. After encountering
numberless difficulties, he produced one play, which was published, and
sold considerably well. But the honourable independence of his mind
induced him to reflect upon the certainty of the large expense, which
necessarily attends the practice of an author, who has not liberal
patrons in the public or the trade; and the uncertainty of adequate
remuneration from the public, for whose amusement they make such large
sacrifices of time, ease, property, health, and often life itself.
These reflections induced his ardent and ingenious mind to endeavour to
avoid the uncertainty of this contingency. He did not possess property
to enable him to establish himself as a printer, which was his desire;
he was therefore compelled to have recourse to his own ingenuity.
He tried various, and at first, unsuccessful experiments, which he
ingeniously details; because, he considered, that nearly as much is
learned from the failures of an artist, had he always the honesty to
publish them, as is gained from his most successful discoveries.
Various were the materials upon which he first essayed to complete
his purposes; till, at length, chance directed him to try what could
be effected upon stone. For this purpose, he used a species found in
Germany, of a beautifully close grained and dense kind, susceptible of
receiving a fine polish, called Kellheim stone. Knowing the failures
which his countrymen had experienced in endeavouring to fix the ink
in this stone for etching, he had recourse to a chemical experiment
to obviate this, which succeeded in the following manner:--To four
or five parts of water, he added one of rectified vitriol, which
instantly produced an effervescence, on being poured upon it; the
stone was instantly covered with a coat of gypsum, which to vitriol is
impenetrable; this is easily wiped off, and the stone being dried, it
is ready for use. The next want he found, was a species of ink, proper
to answer the peculiar purposes of the material whereon he had to
operate; for which he discovered none so well adapted as the following
mixture:--A composition of three parts of wax, with one of yellow soap,
is melted over a fire, and mixed with a small portion of lamp-black,
dissolved in rain-water. But this is now greatly simplified, as the
lithographic printers generally use the same ink as the copperplate
printers.
The process of lithography is very simple. The article wanted to be
printed is written or drawn upon a piece of transfer paper, which being
wet and laid on the stone, and put through the press, the writing or
drawing remains on the stone, and any number of impressions may be
taken off. Care must be taken, before inking, to come over the stone
with a damp sponge, to prevent the ink adhering to the places not
wanted, which it would otherwise do.
We understand the Bath and Portland stone is successfully used; but the
best yet found in Britain, for the purpose, is what is known by the
name of _lias_, raised near Stratford-on-Avon, in Warwickshire; it is a
calcareous and partly siliceous stone, and we think not destitute of
magnesia, having, when, polished, a very silky and somewhat saponaceous
feel.
This art has flourished to a greater extent than we believe the most
sanguine expectations of its inventor could have anticipated. Many
beautiful specimens of art have been produced equal to the finest
copper-plate engravings. It is excellently adapted for drawing of
plans, bill-heads, circulars, cards, and many other light articles,
which used formerly to be printed by means of letter-press; and on
account of the numerous ornaments so easily applied to the lithographic
process, the most of these, and similar articles, are principally
lithographed, to the detriment, we would conceive, of the letter-press
and copper-plate printers.
PAPER.
Before the invention of paper, in ancient times, a great variety of
substances have been used for the purpose of recording events, or
delineating ideas, of which it becomes our duty to give a somewhat
detailed account, to show our readers the numerous advantages they
enjoy, in having a material which, like everything in common use, is
but little thought of. But let any one suppose himself to be without
this necessary article, or the means of communicating his ideas, he
would be sensible of the difference.
Rough stones and stakes were used as the first known records of the
ancient Phœnicians, remains of which are reported to be still visible;
and to confirm this persuasion, certain heaps of stones have been
discovered in the environs of Cadiz, which are currently believed to
be the remains of those monuments alleged to be made by Hercules, in
memory of his famous expedition to the gardens of the Hesperides, for
the golden fruit, or as others have it, against Spain. It is also
stated, that the usual mode of recording great events, in the north of
Asia and Europe, was by placing stones of extraordinary size; in aid of
this, we have a great variety of instances.
Since the _scriptural_ art has been introduced, or invented, many
materials have been, in a variety of ages, and in numerous countries,
used for the purpose of recording events to posterity; characters cut
upon rocks, upon tables of stone, upon bark, pieces of wood, written
upon skins of fish and animals, palm-leaves, besides a great variety of
other articles, of which we will only enumerate a few.
There is a Bible still preserved, written on palm-leaves, in the
University of Gottingen, containing 5,376 leaves. Another Bible, of the
same material, is at Copenhagen. There was also, in Sir Hans Sloane’s
collection, more than twenty manuscripts, in various languages, on the
same material.
The protocols of the Emperors in early times were written upon bark. In
the British Museum are many specimens of this substance; also in the
grand Duke’s gallery at Florence.
To this mode is supposed to have succeeded the practice of painting
letters on linen cloth and cotton; what was the difference in
the preparation of that material to the one now employed is not
ascertained, but it is considered that some preparation was necessary
in order to use that substance. There have been frequently found in the
chests or cases containing the Egyptian mummies, very neat characters
written on linen. Linen being subject to accidents from becoming
mouldy, &c., asbestoes cloth had been occasionally used in small
quantities.
The accidents to which these species of materials were most of them
subject, and linen particularly so, induced man to endeavour to remedy
those objects; he accordingly is found to have recourse to the animal
creation.
In the convent of Dominican monks at Bologna, are two books of Esdras,
written on asses’ skins, said to have been written by Esdras himself.
The ancient Persians wrote on hides, from which the hair was scraped.
The shepherds wrote their songs with thorns upon straps of leather,
which they wound round their crooks.
The ancient Welch had a peculiar manner of writing upon small squared
oblong pieces of wood, which they called _billets_, which name forms
the appellative to numerous of their productions, as the “Billett of
the Bard.”
The Italian kings, Hugo and Lotharis, gave a grant to the Ambrosian
church, at Milan, written on the skin of a fish.
In the Alexandrian Library there were the works of Homer, written in
golden letters on the skins of animals. In the reign of the Emperor
Baliskus, the head and “Odyssey” of Homer, written in golden letters,
on the intestines of beasts, one hundred and twenty feet long, were
burned at Constantinople.
In the royal library at Hanover, there is a gold plate, written by an
independent prince of Coromandel to George II., three feet long and
four inches wide, inlaid on both sides with diamonds.
At last we have arrived at the period for the introduction of the
Egyptian papyrus, a kind of rush of large dimensions, growing in the
marshes on the banks of the Nile. This plant is described as growing
in swamps to the height of fifteen feet; the stalk triangular, of a
thickness to be spanned, surrounded near the root by short leaves;
stalk naked, has on the top a bush resembling the head with hairs, or
long thin straight fibres; root brown.
The Egyptian papyrus was manufactured into paper from very fine
pellicles near its pith, separated by a pin or pointed mussel-shell
spread on a table in such form as was required, sprinkled with Nile
water; on the first layer a second layer was laid crosswise to finish
the sheet, then pressed, hung to dry, and afterwards polished with
a tooth. The Nile water was very carefully used to prevent spots.
Twenty skins were the greatest number which could be procured from one
plant. Those nearest the pith made the finest paper. Twenty sheets
glued together were called _scapus_, but sometimes _scapi_ went to
form a _volumen_. This part of the business was executed by the
_glutinatoris_, who resembled our bookbinders.
This plant yielded materials for making four sorts of paper.
With respect to other substances for the same purpose, there are many,
but as most of these have one generic character, being manufactured
from the bark of trees, the detail is not here given, as it might not,
perhaps, be generally interesting, especially as nothing new appears in
this respect.
With respect to the paper now in use, Dr. Blair says, the first
paper-mill (in England, we suppose) was erected at Dartford, in the
year 1588, by a German of the name of Spiellman; from which period we
may, perhaps, date its manufacture in this country.
It appears, however, that it was known in the East, much earlier; it
being observed that most of the ancient manuscripts in Arabic and other
Oriental languages, were written upon cotton paper, and it is thought
the Saracens first introduced it into Spain.
Anderson, in his “History of Commerce,” says, that till the year
1690, there was scarcely any paper made in England, but the coarse
brown sort. Paper was previously imported from France, Genoa, and
Holland.--However, the improvement of this article in England, in
consequence of the French war, produced a saving to this country of
£100,000 annually, which had been paid to France for paper alone.
After linen and cotton are so much worn as to be unfit for any other
purpose, the several kinds are collected together, and the hard seams
and other accumulations, which would require a much longer time to
prepare proper for the general mass, than would be consistent with the
economy of the whole, those shreds are then separated and thrown away;
the different kinds are then collected and kept separate from each
other. In such a state of separation they are laid in troughs, which
are afterwards filled with water, where they are suffered to remain
till a species of fermentation takes place; and the separation of the
parts formed by art is not only rendered easy, but also, a division
may be made of the most minute parts; the separation is then made by
machinery. When properly prepared, a sufficient quantity is placed
upon a wire frame, or otherwise one formed of cloth; by mechanical
pressure, the moisture is extracted, after which the sheets are hung up
separately on lines to dry, in a building properly constructed to admit
a free circulation of air.
Manufacturers of paper, originally, could only use white rags to
make white paper; but Mr. Campbell, in 1792, discovered a method of
discharging any colour from rags, by bleaching with oxi-muriatic acid
gas, for which he obtained a patent.
The next considerable improvement which appears to have been made in
the manufacture of paper, consists in using felt or woollen cloth in
conjunction with the wire cloth formerly used, and now of necessity
retained, and other processes too voluminous to be inserted here.
The only remaining circumstance we have to mention is, that in the
beginning of the present century there was manufactured, in the
vicinity of London, a very good printing paper, made entirely from
wheat straw; for which manufacture, the inventor obtained a patent,
but he did not succeed, we presume, because it is now discontinued.
Considerable quantities of paper is now made from straw in France; but
it is of a yellow tinge. Paper made from linen is the best.
PAPER HANGING.
The desire of man, for the gratification of his natural wants, being
soon satisfied, he yet is wanting--those artificial wants which
arise in the mind, and are the source of his comforts, because their
gratification yields him high delight. Having built him a house, to
shelter himself from the exigencies of the weather, to enlarge the
sphere of his pleasures, he is desirous to ornament it; and because he
cannot, perhaps, construct his house of silver, gold, or costly stones,
he endeavours, at least, to have an imitation; and gilding, lacquering,
painting, or staining is substituted. This idea, we will presume,
to have given origin to every species of decorative ornament in the
construction of houses--and among the rest to paper-hanging, which is
carried on to a greater extent in this country, than at any former
period.
The ancient Greeks, according to Archbishop Potter, constructed not
only their arms, but also their houses, occasionally of brass, whilst
the Romans frequently gilt theirs; they often covered them with costly
casings or veneers, sometimes with precious stones. Since they went
to such great cost to ornament the outside of their habitations,
we need not wonder that they spared no expense in endeavouring to
ornament them within.--Those people, however, who could not procure
these extravagancies in reality, thought they would, at least, have
the nearest imitation of them; accordingly they had recourse sometimes
to veneers of those substances they had seen substantially employed
by the rich and luxurious, as well for outside ornament as interior
decoration; those who could not afford this, had recourse to pigments
and the graphic art; for this purpose, the ingenuity of man was
employed to devise various modes of ornament and decoration. Hence
arose the various kinds of painting, the fresco, scagliolo, &c., and
lastly, came staining of paper in use.
To enumerate the various kinds of this, might be attended with very
little benefit, because the principle of all is nearly the same.
However, it has been remarked that three kinds are deserving of notice.
The first and plainest is that which has on it figures, drawn and
painted with one or more colours, consisting only of painted paper.
The second contains a woolly stuff, dyed of various tints, and made
to adhere to the paper, in certain forms, by a glutinous matter; and
the third is a species of paper covered with metallic dust. There are
other papers used for hangings, which contain a representation of many
kinds of stones, of which we understand there is a large manufactory in
Leipsic.
There is also a species of velvet paper--a paper covered with sham
plush, or wool dyed and cut short, and made to adhere to the paper by
some kind of cement, said to have been the invention of an Englishman,
of the name of Jerome Lanyer, in the reign of Charles I., for which he
received a patent. In the specification it is stated, that he had found
out an art and mystery for affixing wool, silk, and other materials,
upon linen, cotton, leather, and other substances, with oil, size, and
cements, so as to make them useful and serviceable for hangings and
other purposes; which he called Londrindina; and he said it was his own
invention, and formerly used within this realm.
However, it appears that this invention of Lanyer was afterwards
disputed by a Frenchman of the name of Tierce, who said it was the
production of a countryman of his, named Francois, who, he stated,
had made such before 1620, and supported his assertion by producing
patterns, and the wooden blocks with which it was printed, with the
dates inscribed upon them. The son of Francois, it appeared, followed
his father’s business, at Rouen, for more than fifty years, where he
died, in 1748. Some of his workmen are said to have left him, and gone
to the Netherlands, Germany, and other places, where they sold their
art.
It appears that Nemetz ascribes the invention of wax-cloth hangings,
with wool chopped and beat fine, to a Frenchman, named Andran, who, he
says, in the beginning of the last century, was an excellent painter
in arabesque and grotesque figures, and inspector of the palace of the
Luxembourg at Paris, in which he had a manufactory for hangings of that
kind. It is also stated that a person of the name of Eccard invented
the art of printing, on paper-hangings, gold and silver figures, and
that he carried on an extensive manufactory for such works.
It certainly does appear that the Germans cannot claim the privilege of
invention here, but were behind their neighbours in this art.
One of the most ingenious of the many new improvements is said to
consist in the art of manufacturing paper-hangings by affixing to the
substance of the proper metallic dust, commonly called Nuremberg dust,
by which it acquires the appearance of various costly metals in a state
of fracture, varied with glittering particles of differently formed
parts; and receiving the light in every direction, produce certainly
a novel effect, which is rich and beautiful, while it is obtained at
little expense.
The Nuremberg metallic dust is said to have been the invention of an
artist of that city, named John Hautsch, born in 1595, died in 1670;
his descendants have continued its preparation to the present time.
It is produced from filings of metals of several descriptions washed
well in a strong lixivious water, then being placed upon a sheet of
copper, are put upon a strong fire, and continually stirred till the
colour is altered. Those of tin, by this process, acquire every shade
of gold colour, with its metallic lustre; those of copper, different
shades of flame colour; those of iron or steel, a blue or violet; of
tin and bismuth mixed, a white or bluish white colour. The dust tinged
in this manner is then put through a flatting-mill, consisting of
two rollers of the hardest steel, like those used by gold and silver
wire-drawers; for the greater convenience a funnel is placed over them.
French covered paper manufactured from this material is called _papiers
avec paillettes_. Its lustre is so durable that it is said to continue
unaltered for many years even on the walls of sitting apartments. This
metallic dust is an article of commerce, being exported from Germany.
As early as the seventeenth century, the miners of Silesia collected
and sold, for various purposes, a material they call _glimmer_, being
bright, shining particles of various metals, which those mines produce
in great profusion; even the black, we are told, acquires a gold colour
by being exposed to a strong heat. This was manufactured by the holy
sisters of Reichenstein, into a variety of ornaments; with it they
decorated their images, strewing over them a shining kind of _talc_.
The silver coloured glimmer had not, however, so great a brilliancy or
variety as the Nuremberg metallic dust; for which purposes that article
has a decided superiority.
For the various purposes to which these ornaments are to be applied,
different adhesive substances should be used; in some cases glue would
have the effect, to be first drawn over the substance; in others, a
strong varnish, in which wax is dissolved; and for others, various
kinds of gums.
Those substances being so covered, the dust may be put in a common
pepper-castor, and applied by sifting it over the substance to be so
covered. Different figures may be drawn with a pencil, and the box of
dust shook over them, as far as the extent of the lines covered with
glue; the dust will only fasten so far as it meets with what produces
adhesion.
PAINTING.
Its origin is to be traced up to that known source, from whence most of
those arts, which humanise society and lend a polish to life, first had
being. Diodorus Siculus speaks of bricks burnt in the fire with various
colours, representing the natural appearance of men and animals; which
is the first fact upon record. As this occurred during the building of
Babylon, it is as remote an original as we are, perhaps, authorised to
depend upon; although it is extremely probable it might be traced to an
anterior date: which conclusion, though made from inference alone, we
are allowed to suppose must have been the case; as a knowledge of the
nature of pigments must first have been ascertained before the Chaldean
artists could have been informed what colours would fade, or what would
withstand the operation of the enamelling process in the intense heat
necessary to produce the effect. They must at least have understood the
difference between vegetable colours, which are the first presented
to the senses, and most probably were the first which were used, and
those afforded by the mineral kingdom, which alone were proper for
the operation they performed. Therefore, the arts of painting and
chemistry, we would presume must have made considerable progress prior
to the erection of the tower of Babel.