Night-pieces, where the light is seen pr_A Treatise on Wood Engraving, Historical and Practical

or any other luminous object, can be well represented by means of wood

engraving, although such subjects are very seldom attempted. An engraved

wood-block, which contains a considerable proportion of positive black,

prints much better than a copper-plate engraving of the same kind; in

the former the ink is distributed of an even thickness over the

_surface_, and is evenly pressed upon the paper; in the latter the ink

forms a little pool in the _hollowed parts_, and, instead of being

evenly taken up by the paper which is _pressed into_ it, adheres only

partially, thus giving in the corresponding parts a blurred appearance

to the impression. For the effective representation of such scenes as

Meg Merrilies watching by a feeble light the dying struggles of a

smuggler, or Dirk Hatterick in the Cave, from Sir Walter Scott’s Guy

Mannering, wood engraving is peculiarly adapted,--that is, supposing the

designer, in addition to possessing a knowledge of chiaro-scuro, to be

also capable of drawing correctly, and of treating the subject with

proper _feeling_. Some idea of the capability of the art in this respect

may be formed from the following cut--the Flight into Egypt,--copied

from an etching by Rembrandt. The mere work in this cut is of a very

simple character; there are no lines of difficult execution; and the

only parts that are lowered are those which represent the rays of light

seen proceeding from the lantern.

[Illustration]

As the wood engraver can always get his subject _lighter_, but cannot

reproduce the black which he has cut away, he ought to be careful not to

get his subject too light before he has taken a proof; and even in

reducing the _colour_ according to the touchings of the designer on the

proof, he ought to proceed with great circumspection; and where his own

judgment informs him that to take out all the black marked for excision

would be to spoil the cut, the safest mode would be to take out only a

part, and not remove all at once; for by strictly adhering to the

directions of an artist who knows very little of the real advantages of

wood engraving, it will not unfrequently happen that the cut so amended

will to himself, when printed, appear worse than it did in its first

state. In the following cut too much has been done in this respect; it

has been touched and retouched so often, in order to make it appear

delicate, that the spirit of the original drawing has been entirely

lost. In this instance the fault was not that of the artist, but of the

engraver, who “would not let well alone;” but, in order to improve his

work, as he fancied, kept _trimming_ the parts which gave effect to the

whole till he made it what it now appears. So far as relates to the

execution of the lines, the subject need not have been better; but, from

the engraver’s having taken away too much colour in places where it was

necessary, the whole has the appearance of middle tint, the excellence

of the original drawing is lost, and in its stead we have a dull, misty,

spiritless wood engraving.

[Illustration]

In every cut there ought to be a principal object to first arrest the

attention; and if this cannot be effected from want of interest in such

object considered singly, the designer ought to make the general subject

pleasing to the eye by skilful composition or combination of forms, and

the effective distribution of light and shade.

[Illustration]

The preceding cut--a moonlight scene--when compared with the previous

one, will show how much depends on an engraver having a proper _feeling_

for his subject. So far as relates to the mere execution of the lines,

this cut is decidedly inferior to the former; but, viewed as a

production of art, and as a spirited representation of the original

drawing, it is very much superior: in the former we see little more than

mechanical dexterity; while in the latter we perceive that the engraver

has, from a greater knowledge of his art, produced a pleasing effect by

comparatively simple means. The former cut displays more mechanical

skill; the latter more artistic feeling. The one contains much delicate

work, but is deficient in spirit; the other, which has been produced

with little more than half the labour, is more effective because the

subject has been better understood.

The following cut, representing a landscape, with the effect of the

setting sun, displays great delicacy of execution; but the labour here

is not thrown away, as in the sea-piece just mentioned: manual dexterity

in the use of the graver is combined with the knowledge of an artist,

and the result is a wood engraving at once delicate in execution and

spirited in its general effect.

[Illustration]

A volume might be filled with examples and comments on them, and I

might, like Papillon, _instruct_ the reader in the practice of the art,

by informing him how many times the graver would have to enter the wood

in order to produce a certain number of lines in relief; but I have no

inclination to do either the one or the other: my object is to make a

few observations on some of the most important and least understood

points in the practice of wood engraving, and to illustrate them with

examples, rather than to enter into minute details, which would be

uninteresting to the general reader, and useless to the learner who has

made any progress in the art. The person who wishes to acquire a

knowledge of wood engraving, with the view of practising it

professionally, must generally be guided by his own judgment and

feeling; for he who requires the aid of rules and examples in every

possible case will never attain excellence. A learner ought not to put

much trust in what is said about the beautiful wood-cuts--or _plates_,

as some critics call them--which appear in modern publications. He ought

to examine for himself, and not pin his faith to ephemeral

commendations, which are often the customary acknowledgment for a

presentation copy of the work. It is not unusual to find very ordinary

wood-cuts praised as displaying the very perfection of the art, while

others of much greater merit are entirely overlooked.

The person who wishes to excel as a wood engraver,--that is, to display

in his cuts the knowledge and feeling of an artist, as well as the

mechanical dexterity of a workman,--ought always to bear in mind that

those who rank highest in modern times, not only as engravers, but also

as designers on wood, have generally adopted the simplest means of

effecting their purpose, and have never introduced unmeaning

cross-hatchings, when working from their own drawings, merely to display

their skill in execution. In representing a peasant supping his

porridge, they have not spent a day on the figure, and two in delicately

engraving the bowl. It may almost be said that Bewick never employed

cross-hatchings; for, in the two or three instances in which he

introduced such lines, it has been rather for the sake of experiment

than to improve the appearance of the cut. Though one of the finest

specimens of this kind of work ever executed on wood is to be found in

Mr. Harvey’s cut of Dentatus, yet, on other occasions, when he engraved

his own designs, he seldom introduced cross-hatchings when he could

accomplish the same object by simpler means. A wood engraving, viewed as

a _work of art_, is _not_ good in proportion as many of its parts have

the appearance of fine lace. Bewick’s birds and tail-pieces are not, in

my opinion, less excellent because they do not display so much _work_ as

a modern wood-cut which contains numerous cross-hatchings. Several of

the best French designers on wood of the present day appear to have

formed erroneous opinions on this subject; and hence we find in many of

their designs much of the engraver’s time spent in the execution of

parts which are unimportant, while others, where expression or feeling

ought to be shown, are treated in a careless manner. Many of their

designs seem to have been made rather to test the patience of the

engraver as a _workman_ than to display his ability as an _artist_. The

following cut, from a cast of a part of the Death of Dentatus, is

introduced to show in how simple and effective a manner Mr. Harvey has

represented the shield of the hero. An inferior artist would be very

likely to represent such an object by means of complicated lines, which,

while they would be less effective, would require nearly a week to

engrave.

[Illustration]

Considering the number of wood engravings that are yearly executed in

this country, it is rather surprising that there should hitherto have

been so few persons capable of making a good drawing on wood. Till

within the last few years, it might be said that there was probably not

more than one _artist_ in the kingdom possessing a knowledge of design

who professionally devoted himself to making drawings on the block for

wood engravers. Whenever a good original design is wanted, there are

still but few persons to whom the English wood engraver can apply with

the certainty of obtaining it; for though some of our most distinguished

painters have occasionally furnished designs to be engraved on wood, it

has mostly been as a matter of especial favour to an individual who had

an interest in the work in which such designs were to appear. In this

respect we are behind our French neighbours; the more common kind of

French wood-cuts containing figures are much superior to our own of the

same class; the drawing is much more correct, more attention is paid to

costume, and in the details we perceive the indications of much greater

knowledge of art than is generally to be found in the productions of our

second-rate occasional designers on wood. It cannot be said that this

deficiency results from want of encouragement; for a designer on wood,

of even moderate abilities, is better paid for his drawings than a

second-rate painter is for his pictures. The truth is, that a taste for

correct drawing has hitherto not been sufficiently cultivated in

England: our artists are painters before they can draw; and hence,

comparatively few can make a good design on wood. They require the aid

of positive colours to deceive the eye, and prevent it from resting upon

the defects of their drawing. It is therefore of great importance that a

wood engraver should have some knowledge of drawing himself, in order

that he may be able to correct many of the defects that are to be found

in the commoner kind of subjects sent to him to be engraved.

In the execution of subjects which require considerable time, but little

more than the exercise of mechanical skill, it is frequently advisable

to adopt the principle of _the division of labour_, and have the work

performed, as it were, by instalments, allotting to each person that

portion of the subject which he is likely to execute best. In this

manner the annexed cut of Rouen Cathedral has been engraved by four

different persons; and the result of their joint labours is such a

work as not even the best engraver of the four could have executed by

himself. Each having to do but a little, and that of the kind of work in

which he excelled, has worked _con amore_, and finished his task before

he became weary of it.

[Illustration: ROUEN CATHEDRAL.]

Though copper-plate engraving has a great advantage over wood when

applied to the execution of maps, in consequence of the greater delicacy

that can be given to the different shades and lines, indicating hills,

rivers, and the boundaries of districts, and also from the number of

names that can be introduced, and from the comparative facility of

executing them; yet, as maps engraved on copper, however simple they may

be, require to be printed separately, by means of a rolling-press, the

unavoidable expense frequently renders it impossible to give such maps,

even when necessary, in books published at a low price. Under such

circumstances, where little more than outlines, with the course of

rivers, and comparatively few names, are required, wood engraving

possesses an advantage over copper, as such maps can be executed at a

very moderate expense, and printed with the letter-press of the work for

which they are intended. As the names in maps engraved on wood are the

most difficult parts of the subject, the method of drilling holes in the

block and inserting the names in type--as was adopted in the maps to

Sebastian Munster’s Cosmography, Basle, 1550,[IX-22]--has recently been

revived. The names in the outline maps contained in the Penny Cyclopædia

are inserted in this manner. Had those maps not been engraved on wood,

it would have been impossible that any could have been given in the

work, as the low price at which it is published would not have allowed

of their being engraved on copper, and, consequently, printed by means

of a rolling-press at an additional expense.

[Footnote IX-22: Some account of the maps in Sebastian Munster’s

Cosmography is previously given at page 204, and page 417.]

[Illustration]

When, however, a map is of small dimensions, and several names in

letters of comparatively large size are required to be given, this

method of piercing the block can scarcely be applied without great risk

of its breaking to pieces under the press, in consequence of its being

weakened in parts by the holes drilled through it being so near

together.[IX-23] This inconvenience, however, may be remedied by

engraving the names in _intaglio_ where they are most numerous, and

afterwards cutting a _tint_ over them, so that when printed they may

appear white on a dark ground. Other names beyond the boundary of the

map can be inserted, where necessary, in type. The preceding skeleton

map of England and Wales, showing the divisions of the counties and the

course of the principal rivers, has been executed in this manner: all

the names on the land, and the courses of the rivers, were first

engraved on the smooth surface of the block in _intaglio_--in less than

a third of the time which would have been required to engrave them in

relief; the tint was next cut; and lastly, the block was pierced, and

all the other names inserted in type, with the exception of the word

“ENGLAND” in the title, which was engraved in the same manner as the

names on the land.

[Footnote IX-23: When there is any danger of the block splitting

from this cause, it is best to have a cast taken from it, as by

this means the whole is obtained of one solid piece.]

As what has been previously said about the practice of the art relates

entirely to engraving where the lines are of the same height, or in the

same plane, and when the impression is supposed to be obtained by the

pressure of a flat surface, I shall now proceed to explain the practice

of lowering, by which operation the surface of the block is either

scraped away from the centre towards the sides, or, as may be required,

hollowed out in other places. The object of thus lowering a block is,

that the lines in such places may be less exposed to pressure in

printing, and thus appear lighter than if they were of the same height

as the others. This method, though it has been claimed as a modern

invention, is of considerable antiquity, having been practised in 1538,

as has been previously observed at page 462. Instances of lowering are

very frequent in cuts engraved by Bewick; but until within the last five

or six years the practice was not resorted to by south-country

engravers. It is absolutely necessary that wood-cuts intended to be

printed by a steam-press should be lowered in such parts as are to

appear light; for, as the pressure on the cut proceeds from the even

surface of a metal cylinder covered with a blanket, there is no means of

_helping_ a cut, as is generally done when printed by a hand-press, by

means of _overlays_. Overlaying consists in pasting pieces of paper

either on the front or at the back of the outer tympan, immediately over

such parts of the block as require to be printed dark; and the effect of

this is to increase the action of the platten on those parts, and to

diminish it on such as are not overlaid. When lowered blocks are printed

at a common press, it is necessary that a blanket should be used in the

tympans, in order that the paper may be pressed into the hollowed or

lowered parts, and the lines thus _brought up_. The application of the

steam-press to printing lowered wood-cuts may be considered as an epoch

in the history of wood engraving. Wood-cuts were first printed _by a

steam-press_ at Messrs. Clowes and Sons’ establishment,[IX-24] and since

that time _lowering_ has been more generally practised than at any

former period.

[Illustration]

[Footnote IX-24: The first work containing lowered cuts printed by

a steam-press was that on Cattle, published in numbers, under the

superintendence of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful

Knowledge, 1832.]

By means of simply lowering the edges of a block, so that the surface

shall be convex instead of plane, the lines are made to diminish in

strength as they recede from the centre until they become gradually

blended with the white paper on which the cut is printed. This is the

most simple mode of lowering, and is now frequently adopted in such cuts

as are termed _vignettes_,--that is, such as are not bounded by definite

lines surrounding them in the manner of a border. In the preceding cut,

representing a group from Sir David Wilkie’s painting of the Village

Festival, in the National Gallery, the light appearance of the lines

towards the edges has been produced in this manner.

Mr. Landseer, in his Lectures on Engraving, observes that hard edges are

incident to wood-cut vignettes. He was not aware of the means by which

this objectionable appearance could be remedied. The following are his

observations on this subject: “A principal beauty in most vignettes

consists in the delicacy with which they appear to relieve from the

white paper on which they are printed. The objects of which vignettes

consist, themselves forming the boundary of the composition, their

extremities should for the most part be tenderly blended--be almost

melted, as it were, into the paper, or ground. Now, in printing with the

letter-press, the pressure is rather the strongest at the extremities of

the engraving, where we wish it to be weakest, and it is so from the

unavoidable swelling of the damp paper on which the impressions are

worked, and the softness of the blankets in the tympans of the press.

Hence, hard, instead of soft edges, are incident to vignettes engraven

on wood, which all the care of the printer, with all the modern accuracy

of his machine, can rarely avoid.”

Mr. Landseer’s objection to vignettes engraved on wood applies only to

such as are engraved on a plane surface, since by lowering the block

towards the edges, lines gradually blending with the white paper can be

obtained with the greatest facility. For the representation of such

subjects,--supposing that their principal beauty consists in “the

delicacy with which they appear to relieve from the white paper,”--wood

engraving is as well adapted as engraving on copper or steel. Though it

is certainly desirable that the lines in a vignette should gradually

become blended with the colour of the paper, yet something more is

required in an engraving of this kind, whether on wood or on metal. Much

depends on its form harmonizing with the composition of the subject:

a beautiful drawing reduced to an irregular shape, and having the edges

merely softened, will not always constitute a good vignette. Of this we

have but too many instances in modern copper-plate engravings, as well

as wood-cuts. Of all modern artists J. M. W. Turner, R.A., and W. Harvey

appear to excel in giving to their vignettes a form suitable to the

composition.

Perhaps it may not be out of place to say a few words here on the

original meaning of the word _vignette_, which is now generally used to

signify either a wood-cut or a copper-plate engraving which is not

inclosed by definite lines forming a border. The word is French, and is

synonymous with the Latin _viticula_, which means a little vine, or a

vine shoot, such as is here represented.

[Illustration: C]

Capital letters in ancient manuscripts were called by old writers

_viticulæ_, or _vignettes_, in consequence of their being frequently

ornamented with flourishes in the manner of vine branches or shoots. The

letter C, forming the commencement of this paragraph, is an example of

an old vignette; it is copied from a manuscript apparently of the

thirteenth century, formerly belonging to the monastery of Durham, but

now in the British Museum. Subsequently the word was used to signify any

large ornament at the top of a page; in the seventeenth century all

kinds of printer’s ornaments, such as flowers, head and tail-pieces,

were generally termed vignettes; and more recently the word has been

used to express all kinds of wood-cuts or copper-plate engravings which,

like the group from the Village Festival, are not inclosed within a

definite border. Rabelais uses the word to denote certain ornaments of

goldsmith’s work on the scabbard of a sword; and our countryman Lydgate

thus employs it in his Troy Book to denote the sculptured foliage and

tracery at the sides of a window:

“And if I should rehearsen by and by

The corve knots, by craft and masonry,

The fresh embowing with virges right as lines,

And the housing full of backewines,

The rich coining, the lusty battlements,

_Vinettes_ running in casements.”

[Illustrations:

The additional specimens of ornamental capitals on the preceding page

are chiefly taken from Shaw’s Alphabets, in which will be found a great

variety of capitals of all ages.

Before introducing any examples of concave lowering in the middle of a

cut, it seems necessary to give first a familiar illustration of the

principle, in order that what is subsequently said upon this subject may

be the more readily understood.--The crown-piece of George IV., which

every reader can refer to, will afford the necessary illustrations. As

the head of the King on the obverse, and the figures of St. George, the

horse, and the dragon, on the reverse, are in _relief_,--that is, higher

than the field,--it is evident, that if the coin were printed, each side

separately, by means of pressure from an even surface, whether plane or

cylindrical, covered with a yielding material, such as a blanket or

woollen cloth, so as to press the paper against the field or lower

parts, the impressions would appear as follows,--that is, with the parts

in relief darkest, and the lower proportionably lighter from their being

less exposed to pressure.

[Illustration: IMPRESSIONS FROM A SURFACE WITH THE FIGURES IN

RELIEF.]

If casts be taken of each side of the same coin, the parts which in the

original are raised, or in _relief_, will then be concave, or in

_intaglio_;[IX-25] and if such casts be printed in the manner of

wood-cuts, the impressions will appear as in the opposite page,--that

is, the field being now highest will appear positively black, while the

figures now in _intaglio_, or _lowered_, as I should say when speaking

of a wood-cut, will appear lighter in proportion to the concavity of the

different parts.

[Footnote IX-25: The _casts_ are precisely the same as the _dies_

from which the coin is struck.]

[Illustration: IMPRESSIONS FROM A SURFACE WITH THE FIGURES LOWERED,

OR IN INTAGLIO.]

Upon a knowledge of the principle here exemplified the practice of

lowering in wood engraving entirely depends. When a block is properly

lowered, there is no occasion for overlays; and when cuts are to be

printed at a steam-press,--where such means to increase the pressure in

some parts and diminish it in others cannot be employed without great

loss of time,--it becomes absolutely necessary that the blocks should be

lowered in the parts where it is intended that the lines should appear

light.

In order that a cut should be printed properly without overlays, either

at a common press with a blanket in the tympans, or at a steam-press

where the cylinder is covered with woollen cloth, it is necessary that

the parts intended to appear light should be lowered before the lines

seen upon them are engraved; and the mode of proceeding in this case is

as follows:--The designer being aware of the manner in which the cut is

to be printed, and understanding the practice of lowering, first makes

the drawing on the block in little more than outline,[IX-26] and washes

in with flake-white the parts which it is necessary to lower. The block

is then sent to the engraver, who, with an instrument resembling a

sharp-edged burnisher, or with a flat tool or chisel, scrapes or pares

away the wood in the parts indicated. When the lowering is completed,

the designer finishes the drawing, and the cut is engraved. It is

necessary to observe, that unless the person who makes the drawing on

the block perfectly understand the principle of lowering, and the

purposes for which it is intended, he will never be able to design

properly a subject intended to be printed by a steam-press.

[Footnote IX-26: If the drawing were finished, the lines on the

parts intended to be light would necessarily be effaced in

lowering the block in such parts.]

[Illustration]

When an object is to be represented dark upon a light ground, or upon

middle tint, the first operation in beginning to lower the block is to

cut a delicate white outline round the dark object, and proceed with a

flat tool or a scraper, as may be most convenient, to take a thin

shaving or paring off those parts on which the background or middle tint

is to be engraved. The extent to which the block must be lowered will

depend on the degree of lightness intended to be given to such parts. In

Bewick’s time, when the pressmen used leather balls to ink the cuts and

types, it was only necessary to take a very thin shaving off the block

in order to produce the desired effect; as such balls, from the want of

elasticity in the leather, which was comparatively hard and unyielding,

would only touch lightly such parts as were below the level of the other

lines and the face of the types: had the block been lowered to any

considerable depth, such parts would not have received any ink, and

consequently would not have shown the lines engraved on them in the

impression. In the present day, when composition rollers are used, it is

necessary to lower the parts intended to appear light to a much greater

depth than formerly;[IX-27] as such rollers, in consequence of their

greater elasticity, are pressed, in the process of inking, to a

considerably greater depth between the lines of a cut than the old

leather balls. The preceding cut--a Shepherd’s Dog, drawn by

W. Harvey,--is printed from a block in which both the fore-ground and

distance are lowered to give greater effect to the animal. If such a

cut, printed in the same page with types, as it appears here, were inked

with leather balls, a considerable portion of the lowered parts would

not be visible. This cut illustrates the principle of printing from a

surface--such as that of a coin--in which the head or figure is in

relief.

[Footnote IX-27: In cuts printed by a steam-press it not

unfrequently happens that lowering to the depth of the sixteenth

part of an inch scarcely produces a perceptible difference in the

strength of the impression. In cuts inked with leather balls, and

printed at the common press, the lines in parts lowered to this

depth would not be visible.]

In the next cut, an Egret, from a drawing by W. Harvey, the figure of

the bird appears white on a dark ground,--the reverse of the cut of the

Shepherd’s Dog,--and is an example of lowering the block in the middle

in the manner of a die with the figures in intaglio, or a cast from a

coin in which the head or figures are in relief.

[Illustration]

In a cut of this kind the general form of the principal object required

to be light is first lowered out, and the drawing of the figure being

next completed upon the hollowed part, the engraver proceeds to cut the

lines, beginning with the back-ground and finishing the principal object

last. In cutting the lines in the hollowed part, the engraver uses such

a tool, slightly curving upwards towards the point, as has been

previously described at page 579. In lowering the principal object in a

cut of this kind, the greatest attention is necessary in order that the

hollowed parts may be gradually concave, and also of a sufficient depth.

In performing this operation, the engraver is solely guided by his own

judgment; and unless he have some practical knowledge of the extent to

which composition balls and rollers will penetrate in such hollowed

parts, it is almost impossible that he should execute his work in a

proper manner;--should he succeed, it will only be by chance, like a

person shooting at a mark blindfolded. In such cases, though no special

rules can be given, it is necessary to observe that the part lowered

will, in proportion to its area, be exposed to receive nearly the same

quantity of ink, and the same degree of pressure, as the lines on a

level with the types. The _depth_ to which such parts require to be

lowered will consequently depend on their extent; and the degree of

lightness intended to be given to the lines engraved on them. This,

however, will be best illustrated by the annexed diagram. If, for

instance, the part to be lowered extend from A to B, it will be

necessary to hollow the block to the depth indicated by the dotted line

A c B. Should it extend from A to D, it will require to be lowered to

the depth of the dotted line A e D in order to obtain the same degree of

lightness in colour as in the lowered part A c B of less area,--that is,

supposing the engraved lines in both cases to be of equal delicacy.

[Illustration]

As overlaying such delicately engraved cuts as require the greatest

attention in printing occupies much time, and lays the press idle during

the process, the additional sum charged per sheet for works containing a

number of such cuts has frequently operated to the disadvantage of wood

engraving, by causing its productions to be dispensed with in many books

where they might have been introduced with great advantage, both as

direct and incidental illustrations. It is, therefore, of great

importance to adapt the art of wood engraving to the execution of cuts

of all kinds, whether comparatively coarse or of the greatest delicacy,

so that they may be properly printed at the least possible expense.

[Illustration]

The preceding cut, with the two following, which have all been lowered,

would, if printed at a steam-press, appear nearly as well as they do in

the present work, where they have been printed by means of a common

press with a blanket. But such a subject--a winter-piece, with an ass

and her foal standing near an old outhouse,--cannot be properly

represented without lowering the block; for no overlaying would cause

the lines indicating the thatch on the houses and the stacks, as seen

through the snow, to appear so soft as they now do.

[Illustration]

In this cut of a Salmon Trout, with a view of Bywell Lock, on the river

Tyne, both the fore-ground and the distance are lowered; the objects

which appear comparatively dark in those parts are the least reduced,

while those that appear lightest are such as are lowered to the greatest

extent. The back of the fish, which appears dark in the impression, is

in the block like a ridge, which is gradually lowered in a hollow curve

towards the lower line. In such a cut as this, particular care ought to

be taken not to lower too much those parts which come into immediate

contact with a strong black outline, such as the back of the Salmon; for

where the lowering in such parts is too abrupt, there is great risk of

the lines engraved on them not being _brought up_, and thus causing the

figure in relief to appear surrounded with a white line, as in the

impressions from the crown-piece at page 618.

By means of lowering, the black pony, on which a boy is seen riding, in

the following cut, is much more effectively represented, than if the

whole subject were engraved on a plane surface. The grey horse, and the

light jacket of the rider, the ground, the garden wall, and the lightest

of the trees, are all lowered in order to give greater effect to the

pony.

[Illustration]

A cut which is properly lowered may not only be printed by a steam-press

without overlays, but will also afford a much greater number of good

impressions than one of the same kind engraved on a plane surface; for

the more delicate parts, being lower than those adjacent to them, are

thus saved from too much pressure, without the necessity of increasing

it in other places. The preceding cut will serve to show the advantages

of lowering in this respect. It was originally engraved, from a drawing

by William Harvey, for the Treatise on Cattle, published under the

direction of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge. Though

twelve thousand impressions have already been printed from it by means

of Messrs. Clowes and Sons’ steam-press, it has not sustained the

slightest injury in any part; and the present impression is scarcely

inferior to the first proof. With the exception of clearing out the ink

in two or three places, it has required no preparation or retouching to

give it its present appearance. Had such a work as the Treatise on

Cattle been printed at a common press without the blocks having been

lowered, the cost of printing would have been at least double the sum

charged by Messrs. Clowes; and the engraving, after so great a number of

impressions had been taken, would have been considerably injured, if not

quite spoiled.

[Illustration]

In complicated subjects, consisting of many figures, and in which the

light and shade are much diversified, it becomes necessary to combine

the two principles of lowering, which have been separately illustrated

by the Dog and the Egret, and to adapt them according to circumstances,

forming some parts convex, and making others concave, respectively, as

the objects engraved on them are to appear dark or light. In order to

illustrate this process of combined lowering, I have chosen a subject

from Rembrandt--the Descent from the Cross--in which several figures are

introduced, and in which the lights and shades are so much varied--in

some parts blended by a delicate middle tint, and in others strongly

contrasted--as to afford the greatest possible scope for the

illustration of what is termed _lowering_ in a wood engraving.

The cut on the next page shows the appearance of an impression taken

from the block before a single line had been engraved, except the

_white_ outline bounding the figures. All that is here seen has been

effected by the flat tool and the scraper; the lightest parts are those

that are most concave, the darkest those that are most convex. The parts

which have the appearance of a middle tint are such as are reduced to a

medium between the strongest light and the darkest shade. The impression

in its present state has very much the appearance of an unfinished

mezzotint.

[Illustration]

In order to render this example of complicated lowering more

intelligible to those who have little knowledge of the subject, it seems

necessary to give a detailed account of the process, even at the risk of

repeating some previous explanations. In complicated as well as in

simple subjects intended to be lowered, the design is first drawn in

outline on the wood. In such a subject as that which is here given, the

Descent from the Cross, it is necessary to cut a delicate _white_

outline--such as is seen in the ladder--round all those parts where the

true outline appears dark against light, previous to lowering out those

light parts which come into immediate contact with such as are dark.

When a white outline has been cut where required, a thin shaving is to

be taken off those parts which are intended to be a shade lighter than

the middle tints,--for instance, in the rays of light falling upon the

cross, and in the lower part of the sky. After this, the light parts of

the ground and the figures are to be lowered; but, instead of taking a

mere shaving off the latter, the depth to which they are to be hollowed

out will depend on the form and size of the parts, and the strength of

the light intended to appear on them; and where a series of delicate

lines are to run into _pure white_, great care must be taken that the

wood be sufficiently _bevelled_ or rounded off to allow of their

blending with the white, without their extremities forming a distinct

line, more especially where rotundity is to be represented. In a block

thus lowered, the parts intended to be lightest will be the most

concave, and those intended to be darkest the most in relief; and, when

printed, the impression will appear as in the following cut, in

consequence of the lowered parts, in proportion to their depth,

receiving both less ink and less pressure; while those that are to

appear positively white are lowered to such an extent as to be neither

touched by the ink, nor exposed to the action of the platten or

cylinder.

[Illustration]

When the block has been thus prepared, the subject is drawn upon it in

detail, and the engraving of the lines proceeded with. The sky, and the

lighter and more distant objects, should be engraved first: and care

ought to be taken not to get the lines too fine at the commencement,

for, should this happen, there is no remedy for the defect. By keeping

them comparatively strong, the darker objects can be executed in a

corresponding degree of boldness; and should the proof be generally too

dark, the necessary alterations can be easily made. The above cut of the

Descent from the Cross is printed from the finished block; all the

positive lines here seen having been engraved subsequent to the process

of lowering.

It is necessary to observe that the process of engraving upon an uneven

surface--such as that of the lowered block of the Descent from the

Cross--is much more difficult than on a surface which is perfectly

plane; for the graver in traversing such parts as are lowered is apt to

lose its hold, and to slip in descending, while in ascending it is

liable to take too much hold, and to _tear_ rather than to clearly cut

out the wood in certain parts, thus rendering the raised lines rough at

the sides, and sometimes breaking them quite through. In order to remedy

in some degree such inconveniences, it is necessary to use a graver

slightly curving upwards towards the point.

The process of lowering, as previously explained, is peculiarly adapted

to give the appearance of proper texture to objects of Natural History,

and in particular to birds, where it is often so desirable to impart a

soft downy appearance to the plumage. Such softness can never be well

represented by lines engraved on a perfectly level surface; for, however

thin and fine they may be, they will always appear too distinct, and

want that softness which can only be obtained by lowering the block, and

printing it with a blanket in the tympans at a common press. Those who

in engraving birds on a plane surface are fond of imitating the delicacy

of copper-plate or steel engravings, always fail in their attempts to

represent that soft appearance so peculiar to the plumage of birds,

whatever may be its colour. Bewick’s Birds, in this respect, have never

been equalled; and the softness displayed in the plumage has been

chiefly obtained by lowering, and thus preventing such parts receiving

too much ink or too much pressure. The characteristic expression of the

bird, and the variety of texture in the plumage, are not indeed entirely

dependent on this process; but the appearance of softness, and the

general effect of the cut as a whole,--as exemplified in the Birds of

Bewick,--are not otherwise to be obtained. Any wood engraver who doubts

this, should attempt to copy, on an unlowered block, one of the best of

Bewick’s birds; on comparing a printed impression of his work with the

original, he will be likely to discover that he has thought too highly

of his own practice, and too lightly of Bewick’s.

Though chiaro-scuro drawings can be faithfully copied by means of wood

engraving; yet the art, as applied to the execution of such works, has

met with but little encouragement in this country, and has consequently

been little practised. From 1754--the date of J. B. Jackson’s tract on

the Invention of Engraving and Printing in Chiaro-scuro--to 1819, when

the first part of Mr. Savage’s Hints on Decorative Printing was

published, the only chiaro-scuro wood engravings which appear to have

been published in England were those executed about 1783, by an amateur

of the name of John Skippe. The chiaro-scuros engraved by Mr. Skippe do

not appear to have been numerous; I have only seen three--St. John the

Evangelist, St. Paul, and Hebe, all after drawings by Parmegiano. The

latter is printed from four blocks, and each of the others from three.

In point of execution, that of St. John is decidedly the best: it is

much superior to any of the specimens given in J. B. Jackson’s work, and

will bear a comparison with some of the best chiaro-scuros of Nicholas

Le Sueur.

Savage’s Hints on Decorative Printing, in two parts, 1819-1823, contains

several specimens, not only of chiaro-scuro wood engravings, but also of

subjects printed in positive colours from several wood-blocks, in

imitation of coloured drawings. Some of the chiaro-scuros, properly so

called, are well executed, though they generally seem too soft and

_woolly_. The following are those which seem most worthy of notice:--A

female Bacchante, from a bas-relief in the British Museum; Theseus, from

the statue in the Elgin Collection of Marbles, in the British Museum;

Copy of a bust in marble in the British Museum; Bridge and Landscape;

Passage-boats; and a River Scene. For the representation of such

subjects as the preceding, when drawn in sepia, wood engraving is

peculiarly adapted.

The simplest manner of representing a chiaro-scuro drawing is by

printing a tint, with the lights cut out, from a second block, over the

impression of a cut engraved in the usual manner. Chiaro-scuros of this

kind have the appearance of pen-and-ink drawings made on tinted paper,

and heightened with touches of white. The illustrations to an edition of

Puckle’s Club were thus printed in 1820,--the year after they had

appeared printed in the usual manner in a new edition of the work--but

many of them are spoiled by the badly-chosen “fancy” colour of the tint.

From the time of the publication of the second part of Savage’s Hints,

and the tinted illustrations of Puckle’s Club, no further attempts

appear to have been made to improve or extend the practice of

chiaro-scuro engraving and printing in colours till Mr. George Baxter

turned his attention to the subject. His first attempts in chiaro-scuro

engraving are to be found in a History of Sussex, printed by his father

at Lewes, in 1835. Mr. Baxter tried various experiments, and at length

succeeded so much to his satisfaction, that he took out a patent for

printing in oil-colours. The manner in which he executes picture-prints

in positive colours, after drawings or paintings in oil, is _nearly_ the

same as that in which Kirkall executed his chiaro-scuros. The ground,

the outlines, and the more minute details, are first printed in neutral

tint from a plate engraved in aquatint; and over this impression the

proper colours are printed from as many wood-blocks as there are

different tints. The best specimens of Mr. Baxter’s printing in

oil-colours, from wood-blocks over an aquatint ground, are to be found

in the Pictorial Album, published by Chapman and Hall, 1837; and among

these the following appear to be most deserving of distinct

enumeration:--Interior of the Lady Chapel, Warwick; Lugano; Verona; and

Jeannie Deans’s Interview with the Queen. In some of the most elaborate

subjects in this work, the colours have been communicated by not less

than twenty blocks, each separately printed. So far as regards the

landscapes, nothing of the same kind previously done will bear to be

compared with them. But since this period, Mr. Baxter has brought his

peculiar art to still greater perfection, and both large and small

examples are to be met with abundantly. One of the most popular is his

“Holy Trinity, after Raphael,” a small plate of which no fewer than

700,000 copies have been sold. The subscribers to Bohn’s Scientific

Library will find a good specimen in the View of Chimborazo, prefixed to

Humboldt’s Views of Nature.

Another recent invention is that of “Knight’s Patent Illuminated Prints

and Maps.” In every instance hitherto of surface-printing in colours,

each colour, having a separate block, had to be worked off separately,

which rendered such productions extremely expensive.[IX-28] The new

process has one great advantage over all its predecessors, in cheapness,

and the facility with which it can multiply impressions. The general

nature of the process will be best understood from a description of the

mode of completing a coloured print.

[Footnote IX-28: Sir William Congreve’s mode of colour printing,

however, patented many years ago, and now practised by Mr. Charles

Whiting of Beaufort House, is one of the least expensive of all.

It consists in printing several colours at one time, and may be

thus described:--“A coloured design being made on a block, the

various colours are cut into their respective sections, like a

geographical puzzle, and placed in an ingeniously constructed

machine, which inks them separately, and prints them together. By

this mode speed is obtained in large operations, and the colours

are prevented from running into each other. It is extensively

applied to book-covers, decorative show-cards, the back of country

notes, and labels, where the object is to prevent forgery.”--_See

Bohn’s Lecture on Printing, page 104._]

In the first place, a subject is engraved upon wood in the usual manner,

and the impression is coloured by a skilful artist. We will suppose four

principal colours are introduced, red, blue, yellow, and brown. Separate

and exact drawings of each colour are then made; and four polished

plates are prepared, each plate carrying one colour. These four plates

are then firmly fixed in an ingeniously contrived frame, or table,

moving upon the table of a common press, the motion being regulated by

machinery, which ensures the most exact register, after it has once been

obtained, and affords the greatest facility in obtaining it. The colours

are then applied to their respective plates in precisely the same manner

as ink to type, by means of rollers; and four sheets of paper of the

size intended for the print (or, for convenience, one large sheet to be

afterwards cut up) are then placed on the frisket, which is then turned

down on the plates, and the pull applied. The table is then turned one

quarter round, and the process is repeated, till each colour has, in

succession, been printed upon the four sheets. Six or seven colours are

sometimes produced by the same process, and from the same plates, by

combination; and the union of two colours to produce a third is effected

perfectly, in consequence of the rapidity of the process, which does not

allow the colours to dry and become hard. The bright whites are, of

course, formed by removing the surface in the requisite parts from all

the plates, and suffering the ground to appear. Eight, or indeed any

number of colours, can be introduced by using another press, or presses;

in which case the frisket with the sheet or sheets fixed, is passed from

one press to the other. The block of the drawing is always the last

impressed.

From its extreme exactitude this invention seems peculiarly adapted for

designs of patterns for shawls, ribbons, printed cottons, carpets, and

such manufactures as have hitherto apparently been left to the fancy of

the workman, or his employers, who in matters of art have frequently

quite as little taste as the workman.

But probably the most favourable field for the display of the

perfections of this invention, would be in subjects where only light and

shade, or at most what are called neutral tints, are required, such as

architectural drawings and sculptures, either statues or in relief. For

such purposes the depth of tone obtainable, and the sharpness of the

lights, seem peculiarly adapted.[IX-29]

[Footnote IX-29: The best specimen of this art will be found in

Charles Knight’s Old England’s Worthies, a folio volume,

containing twelve large plates of Architecture and Costume,

printed in colours, and 240 portraits engraved on steel, folio

(now published by H. G. Bohn), 15_s._ The practice of the art has

not been continued, as it was only applicable to very large

editions (ten thousand and upwards), and was more expensive than

hand colouring where small editions were required. The machinery

has been sold off and destroyed.]

What is termed metallic relief engraving consists in executing subjects

on plates of copper, or any other metal, in such a manner that the lines

which form the impression shall be in relief, and thus allow of such

plates being inked and printed in the same manner as a wood-cut. Since

the revival of wood engraving in this country several attempts have been

made to _etch_ in metallic relief, and thus save the time necessarily

required to cut out all the lines in a wood engraving. In etching upon

copper, in order that the subject may be represented by lines _in

relief_,--the reverse of the usual procedure in copper-plate

engraving,--and that the plate may be printed in the same manner as a

wood-cut, there are several methods of proceeding. In one, the subject

is _drawn_ upon the plate in Burgundy pitch, or any other substance

which will resist the action of aquafortis, in the same manner as

copper-plate engravers in the ordinary process _stop out_ the parts

intended to be white. When the substance in which the drawing is made

becomes _set_, or sufficiently hard, the plate is surrounded with a

_wall_, as it is technically termed, and aquafortis being poured upon

it, all the unprotected parts are corroded, and the drawing left in

relief.

This was the method generally adopted by William Blake, an artist of

great but eccentric genius, in the execution of his Songs of Innocence,

the Book of Thel,[IX-30] the Gates of Paradise, Urizen, and other works,

published between 1789 and 1800. The following account of the origin of

this new mode of engraving or etching in metallic relief, by corroding

the parts intended to appear white in the impression, is extracted from

the Life of William Blake, in Allan Cunningham’s Lives of British

Painters, Sculptors, and Architects:--

“He had made the sixty-five designs of his Songs of Innocence, and was

meditating, he said, on the best means of multiplying their resemblance

in form and in hue; he felt sorely perplexed. At last he was made aware

that the spirit of his favourite brother Robert was in the room, and to

this celestial visitor he applied for counsel. The spirit advised him at

once: ‘Write,’ he said, ‘the poetry, and draw the designs upon the

copper, with a certain liquid, (which he named, and which Blake ever

kept a secret,) then cut the plain parts of the plate down with

aquafortis, and this will give the whole, both poetry and figures, in

the manner of stereotype.’ The plan recommended by this gracious spirit

was adopted, the plates were engraved, and the work printed off. The

artist then added a peculiar beauty of his own: he tinted both the

figures and the verse with a variety of colours, amongst which, while

yellow prevails, the whole has a rich and lustrous beauty, to which I

know little that can be compared. The size of these prints is four and a

half inches high by three inches wide. The original genius of Blake was

always confined, through poverty, to small dimensions. Sixty-five plates

of copper were an object to him who had little money.”

[Footnote IX-30: The Book of Thel, which, with the titles,

consists of seven quarto pages of verse and figures engraved in

metallic relief, is dated 1789. A full list of the works of this

remarkable artist will be found in Bohn’s enlarged edition of

Lowndes’s Bibliographer’s Manual.]

Blake subsequently executed, in the same manner, “the Gates of

Paradise,” consisting of sixteen small designs; and “Urizen,” consisting

of twenty-seven designs. The size of the latter is four inches by six,

and they are dated Lambeth, 1794. In 1800 he also engraved by a similar

process, combined with the usual mode of etching _through_ a prepared

ground laid over the plate, two subjects to illustrate a song of his own

writing, which was printed with them also from metallic relief. The

title of this song is “Little Tom the Sailor,” and the date is October

5, 1800. It appears to have been a charitable contribution of Blake’s to

the “Widow Spicer of Folkstone,” the mother of little Tom; and we learn

from the imprint at the bottom that it was printed for, and sold by her

for the benefit of her orphans.

Blake’s metallic relief engravings were printed by himself by means of a

rolling or copper-plate press, though the impression was obtained from

the lines in relief in the same manner as from a wood-cut. The only

difference in the printing consisted in the different manner in which

the pressure was applied. As it is difficult, according to Blake’s

process, to corrode the large white parts to a depth sufficient to

prevent their being touched by the dauber or ball in the process of

inking, and thus presenting a soiled appearance in the impression, he

was accustomed to wipe the ink out where it had touched in the hollows.

As this occupied more time than the mere inking of the plate, his

progress in printing was necessarily slow.

In another mode of engraving in relief on a plate of copper, the plate

is first covered with an etching ground in the usual manner, and to this

ground an outline of the subject is transferred by passing the plate

with a pencil-drawing above it through a rolling-press. The engraver

then proceeds to remove with his etching-point, or some other tool, as

may be necessary, all such parts as are intended to be _white_. When

this process, which may be termed _reverse etching_, is completed, the

parts intended to be white are corroded by pouring aquafortis upon the

plate in the usual manner, while the lines which represent the object

remain in relief, in consequence of their being protected at the surface

by the coating of etching ground.

Several persons have made experiments in this mode of metallic relief

engraving. It was tried by Bewick, and also by the late Robert Branston;

but they did not succeed to their satisfaction, and none of their

productions executed in this manner was ever submitted to the public.

About twenty years ago, Mr. W. Lizars of Edinburgh appears to have

turned his attention to the subject of metallic relief engraving, and to

have succeeded better than either Bewick or Branston. One of the

earliest-published specimens of his engraving in this style is the

portrait of Dr. Peter Morris, forming the frontispiece to Peter’s

Letters to his Kinsfolk, printed at Edinburgh in 1819. This portrait has

every appearance of being executed by the process of reverse

etching,--that is, by first covering the plate with etching ground, and

then removing the parts that are to be white, and leaving the lines that

are to appear black in relief. The plate was printed by a common

printing-press at the office of Ballantyne and Co. In the preface the

“new invention” of Mr. Lizars is thus mentioned:--“The portrait of Dr.

Morris is done in this new style; and, had the time permitted, the

others would have all been done so likewise. It is thrown off by the

common printing-press, as the reader will observe--but this is only one

of the distinguishing excellences of this new and splendid invention of

Mr. Lizars.”

Within the last three or four years several plans for executing

engravings in metallic relief have been devised; and it has been

prophesied of each, that it would in a short time totally supersede wood

engraving. The projectors of those plans, however, seem to have taken

too narrow a view of the subject; and to have thought that the mere

novelty of their invention was sufficient to ensure it success. They

appear not to have considered, that it was necessary that their metallic

relief casts should not only be cheaper than wood-cuts, but that they

should be also as well executed.

Mr. Woone has taken out a patent for his invention, and the principle

upon which it is founded is that of taking a cast from a copper-plate,

whereby the lines engraved in _intaglio_ are in the cast in _relief_.

His process of metallic relief engraving is as follows:--A smooth plate

of metal is covered with a coating of plaster of Paris, about equal in

thickness to the depth to which the lines are cut in engraving on copper

or steel. Upon this surface of plaster the engraver, with a fine point,

as in etching, cuts the lines of the subject _through_ to the plate

below. When this plaster etching is completed, a cast is taken from it

in type-metal; and, after being _cleared out_, the subject in metallic

relief can be printed at a common press in the manner of a wood-cut.

According to this plan only _one_ cast can be taken of each subject, as

the plaster is destroyed during the process, so that there is nothing

left from which a second mould can be made, as in the case of a

wood-cut. The chief advantage of this invention consists in the lines

being of equal height in the cast, in consequence of their being etched

through the plaster to the level surface of the plate beneath. As the

coating of plaster is, however, extremely thin, it is generally

necessary to clear out with a graver the interstices of the cast in

order to prevent their being touched by the inking roller.

A Mr. Schonberg has also made several experiments in metallic relief

engraving by means of etching on stone, and afterwards taking a cast

from his work. Though he has been for several years endeavouring to

perfect his invention, he has not up to this time succeeded in producing

anything which it would be fair to criticise.

Many of the cuts of trees and shrubs in Loudon’s Arboretum et Fruticetum

Britannicum are printed from casts in metallic relief, executed by Mr.

Robert Branston. The mode of procedure, according to Mr. Branston’s

method, is extremely simple; the subject is first etched on copper, and

bit in by aquafortis in the usual manner; and from this etching a cast

is afterwards taken in type-metal. As the plate is not corroded to an

equal depth in every part, it is necessary to rub on a stone the faces

of the casts thus obtained in order to reduce the raised lines to the

same level. There is also another inconvenience that attends casts in

metallic relief taken from an etched copper-plate; for, as the

aquafortis acts laterally as well as vertically, it is difficult to

corrode the lines to a sufficient depth, without at the same time

getting them too thick. It is hence necessary to clear out many of the

hollow parts of such casts with a graver, in order to prevent their

being touched by the balls or inking-roller, and thus giving to the

impression a soiled appearance.

Casts in metallic relief from etchings always appear coarse; and, from

the experiments hitherto made, it seems impossible to execute _fine_

work in this manner. So far as relates to cheapness, such casts, however

well they may be executed, being of a level surface, cannot be printed

properly by a steam-press in the manner of lowered blocks, or casts from

lowered blocks. For a work of extensive circulation, printed by means of

a steam-press, a lowered block, or a cast from it, would be cheaper at

five pounds, than a cast from an etching at four, even admitting that

both were equally well executed.

The principal feature in Mr. C. Hancock’s patent metallic relief

engraving, which is quite original, is, that subjects resembling

mezzotints can be inserted and printed with the text in the same manner

as wood engravings. A mezzotint plate, if printed in the usual manner

previous to being engraved upon, would appear black. On the other hand,

if submitted to the same kind of printing as a wood-cut, it would

scarcely discolour the paper. Upon this plate Mr. Hancock draws his

subject with a broad steel point or burnisher, which polishes down the

small prominences to a smooth surface in proportion to the pressure used

in drawing. In proportion as the surface becomes smooth, so does it

print dark, and have the appearance of a mezzotint. The reader will

perceive that, according to this plan, Mr. Hancock can take a proof of

his subject at any time, and procure either _dark_ or _light_ at

pleasure, as the subject may appear to require it. The sparkling light

can be touched in with the graver, in the same manner as on wood; so

that such touches appear much sharper than in common mezzotint, where

the lights are got by burnishing. As Mr. Hancock has not as yet brought

anything before the public, it would be unfair to anticipate him, by

introducing anything more in this place than a description of his

process.

Wood engraving is necessarily confined, by the size of the wood, to the

execution of subjects of comparatively small dimensions; and this

limitation, together with the difficulty of printing even tints in

positive colours, have combined to prevent it from being made

extensively available in the production of works in chiaro-scuro, of

large size, by the ordinary modes of surface-printing. Latterly,

however, the demand which the progress of education has created for

maps, school prints, elementary examples of fine art, and illustrations

_on a large scale_ for the illustrated newspapers, having called the

attention of artists to the subject, many attempts have been made, and

in some cases with success, to produce relief engravings on metal; and

also to combine that mode of engraving with analogous apparatus for the

production of works in tints or colours, separate, combined, or mixed

with line plates, in such degrees as particular cases might require.

Several of these persons have been already named, and their processes

described; it only therefore remains to state, that Mr. Stephen Sly, in

connexion with other artists, has for some years past been steadily

engaged in making a series of experiments for giving a practical value,

by various inventions, to the discoveries and experience of their

predecessors in the art; and with every prospect of success. Their

method of procedure is: 1. To produce a finished drawing, in simple or

crossed lines, with etching varnish on a plate prepared for the purpose;

2. To bite away, with a compound acid, the spaces between the varnish

lines; and 3. To deepen and finish the work so produced, by the use of

engraving tools, in the ordinary manner. The great difficulties in the

way of these apparently simple operations have been, 1. To cast _sound_

and durable plates of a large size, and of a texture sufficiently

compact to produce sharp lines by the etching process, and at the same

time soft enough to permit the surfaces to be lowered, and the cutting

to be executed with facility; 2. To remove the oxide formed by the

combination of the acid with the metal from between the lines; and 3. To

carry the biting to a depth sufficiently great to permit the plate, with

the addition of a small quantity of graver-work, to yield a clear

impression.

Metallic relief engraving has not unfrequently been practised at Paris

of late years. I have now lying before me an impression from a plate

engraved in this manner by Messrs. Best, Andrew, and Leloir, of that

city. The subject is a wild turkey, and it was engraved about three

years ago for Mr. Audubon. Though it is the best specimen of metallic

relief engraving that has come under my notice, I am yet of opinion that

the subject could be better engraved on wood, and at a less cost.

Ornaments and borders are sometimes engraved on solid brass by means of

chisels and gravers in the same manner as a wood-cut. The head of

Buchanan, and the border on the wrapper of Blackwood’s Magazine, were

engraved on brass in this manner, more than twenty years ago, by Messrs.

Vizetelly, Branston, and Co. They were originally engraved on wood by

Bewick. The greater durability of ornaments engraved on brass,

compensates for their additional cost. The _cheapest_ mode, however, is

to have such ornaments first engraved on wood, and casts afterwards

taken from them in type metal. One great objection to _cutting_ on metal

with the graver is, that the metal _cuts the paper_ in printing from it.

Duplicates of wood engravings may be readily obtained by means of casts

from the original blocks; and within the last twenty years, the practice

of thus multiplying subjects originally engraved on wood, has become

very prevalent both in this country and in France. Casts can be obtained

from wood engravings by two different processes, and both are practised

by two or three stereotype printers, to whom this business is usually

entrusted. By the one mode, a mould is first made from the block in

plaster of Paris, and from this mould or matrix a cast is afterwards

taken in type metal. By the other mode--termed by the French

_clichage_[IX-31]--the mould or matrix is not formed of plaster; but is

obtained by letting the block fall, with its engraved surface downwards,

directly on a mass of metal,[IX-32] just sufficiently fluid to receive

the impression, and which becomes solid almost at the very instant it is

touched by the block. From this mould or matrix a cast is afterwards

taken in the same manner. In order to prevent the surface of the block

becoming charred by the heat, it is previously rubbed over with a

composition of common yellow soap and red ochre.

[Illustration: No. 1 (from Wood).]

[Illustration: No. 2 (from Metal).]

[Footnote IX-31: A cast from a form of types, as well as from an

engraved wood-block, is by French printers termed a _cliché_.]

[Footnote IX-32: The metal of which this matrix is formed, is made

several degrees harder than common type metal, by mixing with the

latter a greater portion of regulus of antimony, otherwise the

matrix and cast would adhere.]

When it is particularly desirable to preserve the original block

uninjured, the safest mode is that of forming a mould or matrix of

plaster; for by the process of _clichage_ a delicately engraved block is

extremely liable to receive damage. As a cast, whether from a matrix of

metal or of plaster, generally requires certain small specks of the

metal to be removed, or some of the lines to be cleared out, this

operation is frequently entrusted to a person employed in a

printing-office where such cast is taken. Such person, however, should

never be allowed to do more than remove the specks; for, should he

attempt to re-enter or re-cut the lines or tints on metal, he will be

very likely to spoil the work. It is extremely difficult, even to a

dexterous engraver, to re-enter the lines that have been partially

closed up in a tint, so that they shall appear the same as the others

which have come off clear. Should the printer’s _picker_ happen to

re-enter them in a direction opposite to that in which they were

originally cut on the block, the work is certain to be spoiled. When a

cast requires clearing out and retouching in this manner, the operation

ought to be performed by a wood engraver, and, if possible, by the

person who executed the original block. When the subject is not very

complicated, it is extremely difficult to distinguish which of two

impressions is from a cast, and which is from the original block. Those

who profess to have great judgment in such matters are left to determine

which of the preceding busts is printed from metal, and which from wood.

When a duplicate of a modern, or a fac-simile of an old wood-cut is

required, the best mode of obtaining a correct copy, is to transfer the

original, if not too large or too valuable, to a prepared block; and the

mode of effecting this is as follows:--The back of the impression to be

transferred is first well moistened with a mixture composed of equal

parts of concentrated potash and essence of lavender; it is then placed

above a block whose surface has been slightly moistened with water, and

rubbed with a burnisher. If the mixture be of proper strength, the ink

of the old impression will become loosened, and be transferred to the

wood. Recent impression of a wood-cut, before the ink is set, may be

transferred to a block without any preparation, merely by what is

technically termed “rubbing down.” In order to transfer impressions from

copper-plates, it is necessary to use the _oil_ of lavender instead of

the _essence_: if a very old impression, apply the preparation to its

face.

Since the former edition of this work considerable improvements have

been made in the mode of taking casts, of which the principal is

_electrotyping_, by the galvanic precipitation of copper. By this

process all the finer lines of the engraving are so perfectly preserved,

that impressions printed from the cast are quite undistinguishable from

those printed from the original block.

Before closing this subject we think it right to introduce the notice of

a new art, which, if it accomplishes all it professes, and as, judging

by the annexed example, it seems capable of performing, will be a great

acquisition. The art was first brought out as Collins’s process, but is

now called the _Electro-printing Block process_, and is managed under

the inventor’s direction by a company established at No. 27, New Bridge

Street, Blackfriars. The object of the process is to reduce or extend,

by means of transfer to an elastic material, maps or engravings of any

size. The specimen given in the present volume is reduced from a

lithograph copy of an early block print, four times its size,[IX-33] and

then electrotyped into a surface block, so as to print in the ordinary

manner of a wood-engraving. The reader will easily imagine that any

plate transferred to an elastic surface distended equally, will, when

collapsed, yield a reduced impression, and _vice versâ_. The only

drawback to this process seems to be the want of depth in the

electro-type where there are large unengraved spaces. Such plates will

want good bringing-up and very careful printing.

[Footnote IX-33: Taken from Mr. S. Leigh Sotheby’s _Principia

Typographica_, 3 vols. folio--to whose kindness we are indebted

for the reduced block.]

[Illustration]

The unequal manner in which wood-cuts are printed, is often injurious

both to publishers and engravers; for, however well a subject may have

been engraved, or whatever may have been the expense incurred, both the

engraver’s talents and the publisher’s money will, in a great measure,

have been thrown away unless the cut be properly printed. The want of

cordial co-operation between printers and wood engravers is one of the

chief causes of wood-cuts being so frequently printed in an improper

manner. One printer’s method of printing wood-cuts often differs so much

from that of another, that it is generally necessary for an engraver who

wishes to have justice done to his work, to ascertain the office at

which a book is to be printed before he begins to execute any of the

cuts. If they are intended to be printed at a steam-press, they require

to be engraved in a manner suitable to that method of printing; and if

it be further intended to take casts from them, and to print from such

casts instead of the original blocks, it is necessary for the engraver

to execute his work accordingly. Should they have to be printed at a

common press _with a blanket_, it is necessary that they should be

lowered in such parts as are most liable to be printed too heavy from

the parchment of the tympan, when there is a blanket behind it,

penetrating to a greater depth between the lines than when no blanket is

used.[IX-34] When it is intended to print cuts in what is called the

_best_ manner,--that is, at a common press without a blanket, and where

the effect is brought up by means of overlaying,--the engraver has

nothing to do but to execute his subject on a plane surface to the best

of his ability, and to leave the task of bringing up the dark, and

easing the light parts to the printer,--who, if he have not an artist’s

eye, can only by chance succeed in producing the effect intended by the

draftsman and the engraver.

[Footnote IX-34: The principal difference, so far as relates to

wood engravings, between printing by a steam-press with

cylindrical rollers, and printing by a common press with a

blanket, is, that the blanket or woollen cloth covering the

cylinder of the steam-press comes into immediate contact with the

paper, while in the common press the parchment of the tympan is

interposed between the paper and the blanket. It is necessary that

cuts intended to be printed by a steam-press should be lowered to

a greater depth than cuts intended to be printed with a blanket at

a common press, as the blanket on the cylinder penetrates to a

greater depth between the lines.]

[Illustration]

Should a series of wood-cuts be engraved with the view of their being

printed at a steam-press, or at a common press with a blanket, and

should the publisher or proprietor of the work afterwards change his

intention, and decide on having them printed in the _best_ manner,--that

is, by the common press without a blanket, and with overlays,--such

cuts, whatever pains might be taken, could not be properly and

efficiently printed; for those parts which had been lowered in order to

obviate the _in_-pressure of the blanket, would either be totally

invisible, or would only appear imperfectly,--that is, with the lines

indistinct and broken, as if they had not been properly inked. The

following cut, which was lowered for machine-printing, or printing with

a blanket, but has been worked off at a common press without a blanket,

when compared with the same subject printed in the manner originally

intended,--that is, with a blanket,--will illustrate what has been

previously said on the subject. I by no means wish it to be understood,

that any printer would allow such a cut to appear quite so bad as it

does in the present impression; he would do _something_ to remedy the

defects, but he could not, without employing a blanket, cause it to have

the appearance originally intended by the designer and engraver. It is

printed here without any aid of overlaying, in order that the difference

might be the more apparent to those who are unacquainted with the

subject. I have, however, not unfrequently seen excellent cuts spoiled

from inattention to bringing up the lowered parts, even when printed at

the office of printers who have acquired a high character for _fine_

work, and whose names on this account are announced in advertisements in

connexion with those of the author, designer, and publisher, as a

guarantee for the superior manner in which the cuts contained in the

work will be printed.[IX-35] The following cut, of the same subject as

that given on the previous page, shows the appearance of the engraving

when properly printed in the manner intended; every line is here brought

up by using a blanket, while from the block having been lowered, with a

view to its being printed in this manner, there has been no occasion for

overlays to increase the effect in the darker parts. The difference in

the two impressions is entirely owing to the different manner of

printing; for the one is printed from the block, and the other from a

cast.

[Illustration]

[Footnote IX-35: I have known a printer, who _once_ had a high

character for his _fine_ work, charge and receive twelve guineas

per sheet for a book containing a number of wood-cuts which

required to be well printed, and I have known a similar work

better printed from lowered blocks for less than half the sum per

sheet. Publishers will at no distant time discover, that it is

their interest rather to have their cuts first properly engraved

than to pay a printer a large additional sum for the trouble of

overlaying them, and thus giving them the appearance which they

ought to have without such means and appliances, if the blocks

were originally executed as they ought to be.]

Subjects engraved on lowered blocks, in the manner of the following cut,

have always an unfinished appearance when printed without a blanket, and

the feebleness and confusion apparent in the lighter parts, instead of

being remedied by overlaying the darker parts, are thus rendered more

obvious. The connecting medium between the extremes of black and white

being either entirely omitted or very imperfectly given, causes the

impression to have that harsh and unfinished appearance which is

frequently urged as one of the greatest objections to engraving on wood.

It is indeed true, that many cuts have this objectionable appearance;

but it is also true that the fault does not originate in any deficiency

in the art, but is either the result of want of knowledge on the part of

the engraver, or is occasioned by improper printing. When wood engravers

found that anything approaching to delicacy, in blending the extremes of

black and white in their work, was extremely liable to be either lost or

spoiled in the printing, it is not surprising that they should have paid

comparatively little attention to the connecting tints. In many

excellently engraved cuts, printed at the common press with overlays,

the tint next in gradation to positive black is often perceived to be

too dark, in consequence of the extra pressure on the adjacent parts;

while, on the other hand, the delicate lines intended to blend with the

white, are either too heavy, or appear broken and confused. It is

chiefly from this cause, that so much black and white, without the

requisite connecting middle tints, is found in wood-cuts; for the

engraver, finding that such tints were frequently spoiled in the

impression, omitted them whenever he could, in order to adapt his

subject to the usual method of printing. When, in consequence of an

improvement in the mode of printing wood-cuts, engravers can depend on

finding all in the impression that can be executed on the block, it will

no longer be an objection to the art that its productions have a hard

and unfinished appearance, and that it is only capable of efficiently

representing subjects displaying strong contrasts of black and white.

Should a wood-cut engraved on a plane surface, with the intention of its

being printed in the _best_ manner,--that is, at a common press with

overlays, and _without_ a blanket,--be printed at a steam-press, or at a

common press _with_ a blanket, it will present a very different

appearance to the engraver’s proof.[IX-36] The following cut, which

ought properly to have been printed in the _best_ manner, is here

printed improperly _with a blanket_, and the result is anything but

satisfactory; the parts which ought to have been delicately printed are,

in consequence of the equality of the pressure on every part of the

unlowered surface brought up too heavy, and from their appearing too

dark, the effect intended by the designer and engraver is destroyed. The

same cut, when printed at a common press with overlays, and without a

blanket, as originally intended, would have the light parts relieved,

and appear as it does on the following page.

[Footnote IX-36: The cuts being arranged back to back, as at pages

641, 642, and thereby preventing the types appearing, as they do

on the next page, is an advantage not to be overlooked.]

[Illustration]

The want of something like a uniform method of printing wood-cuts, and

the high price charged by printers for what is called fine work, have

operated most injuriously to the progress and extension of wood

engraving. The practice, however, of printing wood-cuts by a

steam-press, or a press of any kind with a cylindrical roller instead of

a platten, seems likely to introduce a general change in the practice of

the art. By the adoption of this cheap and expeditious method of

printing, books containing the very best wood engravings can be afforded

at a much cheaper rate than formerly. As cuts printed in this manner can

receive no adventitious aid from overlays, the wood engraver is required

to finish his work perfectly before it goes out of his hands, and not to

trust to the taste of a pressman for its being properly printed. The

great desideratum in wood engraving is to produce cuts which can be

efficiently printed at the least possible expense; and, as a means

towards this end, it is necessary that cuts should require the least

possible aid from the printer, and be executed in such manner that,

without gross negligence, they will be certain to print well. The

greatest advantage that wood engraving possesses over engraving on

copper or steel is the cheap rate at which its productions can be

printed at one impression, in the same sheet with the letter-press. To

increase, therefore, by an incomplete method of engraving, the cost of

printing wood-cuts, is to abandon the great vantage ground of the art.

The mode of printing by the common press without a blanket, and of

_helping_ a cut engraved on a plane surface by means of overlays, is not

only much more expensive than printing from a lowered block by the

steam-press, or a common press with a blanket and without overlaying,

but is also much more injurious to the engraving. When a cut requires to

be overlaid[IX-37] in order that it may be properly printed, a piece of

paper is first pasted on the tympan, and on this an impression is taken,

which remains as a substratum for the subsequent overlays. A second

impression is next taken, and in this the pressman cuts out the lighter

parts, and notes such as are too indistinct and require _bringing up_.

He then proceeds to paste scraps of paper over the corresponding parts

in the first impression, on a sheet of thin paper, either in front or at

the back of the parchment tympan, in order to increase in such parts the

pressure of the platten; and thus continues, sometimes for half a day,

pasting scrap over scrap, until he obtains what he considers a perfect

impression.

[Footnote IX-37: What is called _underlaying_ consists in pasting

one piece of paper or more on the lower part of a block, in order

to raise it, and increase the pressure. When a block is uneven at

the bottom, in consequence of warping, underlaying is

indispensable.]

As the block is originally of the same height as the type, it is evident

that the overlays must very much increase the pressure of the platten on

such parts as they are immediately above. Such increase of pressure is

not only injurious to the engraving, occasionally breaking down the

lines; but it also frequently squeezes the ink from the surface _into_

the interstices, and causes the impression in such parts to appear

blotted. While a block, with a flat surface, printed in this manner will

scarcely afford five thousand good impressions without retouching,

twenty thousand can be obtained from a lowered block printed by a

steam-press, or by a common press with a blanket and without overlays;

the darkest parts in a lowered block being no higher than the type, and

not being overlaid, are subject to no unequal pressure to break down the

lines, while the lighter parts being lowered are thus sufficiently

protected. The intervention of the blanket in the latter case not only

brings up the lighter parts, but is also less injurious to the

engraving, than the direct action of the wood or metal platten, with

only the thin cloth and the parchment of the tympans intervening between

it and the surface of the block.

When wood-cuts are printed with overlays, and the paper is knotty, the

engraving is certain to be injured by the knots being indented in the

wood in those parts where the pressure is greatest. When copies of a

work containing wood-cuts are printed on India paper, the engraving is

almost invariably injured, in consequence of the hard knots and pieces

of bark with which such paper abounds, causing indentions in the wood.

The consequence of printing off a certain number of copies of a work on

such paper may be seen in the cut of the Vain Glow-worm, in the second

edition of the first series of Northcote’s Fables: it is covered with

white spots, the result of indentions in the block caused by the knots

and inequalities in bad India paper. Overlays frequently shift if not

well attended to, and cause pressure where it was never intended.

In order that wood engravings should appear to the greatest advantage,

it is necessary that they should be printed on proper paper. A person

not practically acquainted with the subject may easily be deceived in

selecting paper for a work containing wood engravings. There is a kind

of paper, manufactured of coarse material, which, in consequence of its

being pressed, has a smooth appearance, and to the view seems to be

highly suitable for the purpose. As soon, however, as such paper is

wetted previous to printing, its smoothness disappears, and its

imperfections become apparent by the irregular swelling of the material

of which it is composed. Paper intended for printing the best kind of

wood-cuts ought to be even in texture, and this ought to be the result

of good material well manufactured. Paper of this kind will not appear

uneven when wetted, like that which has merely a _good face_ put upon it

by means of extreme pressure. The best mode of testing the quality of

paper is to wet a sheet; however even and smooth it may appear when dry,

its imperfections will be evident when wet, if it be manufactured of

coarse material, and merely pressed smooth.

Paper of unequal thickness, however good the material may be, is quite

unfit for the purpose of printing the best kind of wood engravings; for,

if a sheet be thicker at one end than the other, there will be a

perceptible difference in the strength of the impressions of the cuts

accordingly as they may be printed on the thick or the thin parts, those

on the latter being light, while those on the former are comparatively

heavy or dark. When it is known that an overlay of the thinnest tissue

paper will make a perceptible difference in an impression, the necessity

of having paper of even texture for the purpose of printing wood-cuts

well is obvious. As there is less chance of inequality of texture in

comparatively thin paper than in thick, the former kind is generally to

be preferred, supposing it to be equally well manufactured.

Mr. Savage, at page 46 of his Hints on Decorative Printing, recommends

that in a sheet which consists entirely of letter-press in one

_form_,[IX-38] and of letter-press and wood-cuts in the other, the form

without cuts should be worked first. His words are as follow:--“When

there are wood-cuts in one form, and none in the other, then the form

without the cuts ought to be worked first; as working the cuts last

prevents the indention of the types appearing on the engraving, which

would otherwise take place to its prejudice.”

[Footnote IX-38: The entire quantity of types, or of types and

wood-cuts, which is locked up together, and printed on one side of

a sheet at one impression, is called by printers a _form_.]

My opinion on this subject is directly the reverse of Mr. Savage’s, for,

under similar circumstances, I should advise that the form containing

the cuts should be printed first; and for the following reason:--When

any parts of a wood-cut require to be printed light--whether by lowering

the block or by overlaying--the pressure in such parts must necessarily

be less than on those adjacent. If then the form containing such cuts be

printed first, the paper being perfectly flat, and without any

indentions, all the lines will appear distinct and continuous, unless

the pressman should grossly neglect his duty. If, on the contrary, the

form containing such cuts be printed last, there is a risk of the lines

in the lighter parts appearing broken and confused, in consequence of

the inequality in the surface of the paper, caused by the indention of

the types on the opposite side. Imperfections of this kind are to be

seen in many works containing wood-cuts; and they are in particular

numerous in the Treatise on Cattle published under the superintendence

of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge. In many of the

cuts in this work the lines representing the sky appear discontinuous

and broken, and the imperfections are always according to the kind of

type on the other side of the paper. When both forms contain wood-cuts,

I should recommend that to be first which contains the best. Mr.

Savage’s reason, independent of the preceding objections, is scarcely a

good one; for admitting that the indention of the types of the second

form does appear in the _clear_ and _distinct_ impressions from the cuts

in the first, when the sheet is just taken from the press, are not such

inequalities entirely removed when the sheet is _dried_ and pressed?

In order to produce good impressions in printing wood-cuts, much more

depends on the manner in which the subject is treated by the designer,

and on the plate which the cut occupies in a page, than a person

unacquainted with the nicety required in such matters would imagine.

Wood-cuts which are delicately engraved, or which consist chiefly of

outline, are the most difficult to print in a proper manner, in

consequence of their want of dark masses to relieve the pressure in the

more delicate parts, and thus cause them to appear lighter in the

impression. There ought never to be a large portion of light delicate

work in a wood-cut without a few dark parts near to it, which may serve

as stays or props to relieve the pressure. In illustration of what is

here said, I would refer to the cut of King Shahriyár unveiling

Shahrazád, at page 15 of Mr. Lane’s Translation of the Arabian Nights’

Entertainments, where it will be seen, that certain dark parts are

introduced as if at measured distances. It is entirely owing to the

introduction of those dark parts that the pressman has been enabled to

print the cut so well: they not only give by contrast the appearance of

greater delicacy to the lightest parts; but they also serve to relieve

them from that degree of pressure, which, if the cut consisted entirely

of such delicate lines, would most certainly cause them to appear

comparatively thick and heavy. Another instance of the advantage which a

cut derives from its being placed in a certain situation in the page, is

also afforded by the same work. The cut to which I allude is that of the

Return of the Jinnee, at page 47, consisting chiefly of middle tint,

with a pillar of smoke rising up from the ground, and gradually becoming

lighter towards the top. Had this cut been introduced at the head of the

page without any text above it, the light parts would not have appeared

so delicate as they do now when the cut is printed in its present

situation. The top of the cut, where the lines are required to be

lightest, being near to the types, thus receives a support, and is by

them relieved from that degree of pressure which would otherwise cause

the lines to appear heavy. Towards the bottom of the cut, which also

forms the bottom of the page, there are two or three dark figures which

most opportunely afford that necessary degree of support which in the

upper part is derived from the types.

The engraver by whom a cut has been executed is unquestionably the best

person that the printer can apply to for any information as to the

manner in which it ought to be printed, as he alone can be perfectly

acquainted with the _state of the block_, and with any peculiarity in

the engraving. If any light part should have been lowered to a very

trifling extent, it is sometimes almost impossible that the printer

should perceive such lowered part after the block has been covered with

ink; and hence, notwithstanding the proof which may have been sent by

the engraver as a guide, such a cut is very likely to be worked off, to

the great injury of the general effect of the subject, without the

lowered part being properly brought up. In order to avoid such an

occurrence, which is by no means unfrequent, it is advisable to send to

the engraver a printed proof of his cut, in order that he may note those

parts where the pressman has failed in obtaining a perfect impression.

From the want of this precaution wood-cuts are but too often badly

printed; while at the same time the engraver is blamed for executing his

work imperfectly, though in reality the defect is entirely occasioned by

the cut not being properly printed.

The best mode of cleaning a block after the engraver has taken his first

proof is to rub it well with a piece of woollen cloth. So long as

anything remains to be done with the graver, the block, after taking a

proof, ought never to be cleaned with any liquid, as by such means the

ink on the surface would be dissolved, and the mixture getting between,

the lines would thus cause the cut to appear uniformly black, and render

it difficult for the engraver to finish his work in a proper manner from

his inability to clearly distinguish the lines.[IX-39] Turpentine or lye

ought to be very sparingly used to clean a cut after the printing is

finished, and never unless the interstices be choked up with ink which

cannot otherwise be removed. When the surface of the block becomes foul,

in consequence of the ink becoming hardened upon it, it is most

advisable to clean it with a little soap and water, using as little

water as possible, and afterwards to rub the block well with a piece of

woollen cloth. When it is necessary to use turpentine in order to get

the hardened ink out of the interstices, the surface of the block should

immediately afterwards be slightly washed with a little soap and water,

and afterwards rubbed with a piece of woollen cloth.[IX-40] _Warm_ water

ought never to be used, as it is much more apt than cold to cause the

block to warp and split. The practice of cleaning wood-cuts in the form

by means of a _hard_ brush, dipped in turpentine or lye, is extremely

injurious to the finest parts, as by this means most delicate lines are

not unfrequently broken. The use of anything damp to clean the cuts when

the pressman finishes his day’s-work, is to be avoided; as a very small

degree of damp is sufficient to cause the block to warp when left locked

up over night in the form. Whenever it is practicable, the cuts ought to

be taken out of the form at night, and placed on their edges till next

morning; as, by thus receiving a free circulation of air all round them,

they will be much less liable to warp, than if allowed to remain in the

form. As wood-cuts are often injured by being carelessly printed in a

rough proof, it is advisable not to insert them in the form till all the

literal corrections are made, and the text is ready for the press.

[Footnote IX-39: When a block, after being printed, requires

retouching, it is generally necessary to cover it with fine

whiting, which, by filling up the interstices, thus enables the

engraver to distinguish the raised lines more clearly.]

[Footnote IX-40: When a block has been cleaned with turpentine,

and not afterwards washed with soap and water, it will not receive

the ink well when next used. The first fifty or sixty impressions

subsequently taken, are almost certain to have a grey and scumbled

appearance.]

Night-pieces, where the light is seen proceeding from a lantern, a lamp,