Modern wood engraving by Unknown

Author:Unknown
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Wood-engraving -- 19th century
Published: 1839-03-25T05:00:00+00:00

lie will obtain more instruction of what is required than by any other method. The light parts of a fine engraving require little pressure ; but the depths should be overlaid, so as to produce a full and firm impression."

The older masters of wooct engraving, Albert Divrer among the rest, as well as Bewick at a later time, used opposite means for the same purpose in printing. Instead of an unequal pressure on an even surface, they used an equal pressure on an uneven surface, by lowering the surface of the block according to the sorts of tint required. The overlaid block can only be printed with the hand press, at a very slow rate—not above 50 impressions in an hour; but a lowered block makes the work of the pressman merely mechanical, and enables the block to be printed by the machine at a speed of 800 copies an hour.

This mode of lowering blocks has been applied to the steam press, and with what success every one may judge from Rubens' " Descent from the Cross," the " Blind Boy" of Murillo, and the " Knife Grinder" of Teniers, in the * Penny Magazine.' Such progress has been made in printing in this way, that though steam has never yet worked blocks of delicacy equal to the illustrations of the ' Arabian Nights,' there need be no doubt of attaining at last all but an equality to the hand press. By getting rid of the dearness and delay of overlaying and the hand press, the cost will be incalculably diminished.

We must say a few words respecting the materials used in wood engraving. The ink must be impalpably smooth and equally mixed, in order to cover completely the surface of the block, and come easily from the block to the paper. The paper is still more important. India paper from China, which until lately was supplied from the lining of tea-chests and wrappers of silk, is decidedly the best, and takes off the finest impressions. A hard stiff paper defies the skill of the best pressman, and a gritty or knotty paper riddles the block, making the impression look as if covered with white dots—doing more harm in taking off a few hundred prints, than with a soft paper would be done by as many thousands. The paper ought to be carefully damped, the moisture equally distributed by turning for some days before use; if too wet, the ink is not taken in equally; if too dry, the impression will be rough and uneven.

The woods most in use in engraving are the box and pear-tree.* The best boxwood is imported from the Levant: the tree of our own country does not grow large enough. The

* Papillon treats fully of the woods best adapted to the graver, in his • Traite Historiquc et Tratique de la Gravurc en Bois.'

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