note: project gutenberg also has an html version of this file which includes the original illustrations. see -h.htm or -h.zip: (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/ / -h/ -h.htm) or (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/ / -h.zip) contributions from the museum of history and technology: paper why bewick succeeded: a note in the history of wood engraving by jacob kainen the contemporary view of bewick low status of the woodcut woodcut and wood engraving wood engraving and the stereotype why bewick succeeded: _by jacob kainen_ _a note in the history of wood engraving_ _thomas bewick has been acclaimed as the pioneer of modern wood engraving whose genius brought this popular medium to prominence. this study shows that certain technological developments prepared a path for bewick and helped give his work its unique character._ the author: _jacob kainen is curator of graphic arts, museum of history and technology, in the smithsonian institution's united states national museum._ no other artist has approached thomas bewick ( - ) as the chronicler of english rustic life. the little wood engravings which he turned out in such great number were records of typical scenes and episodes, but the artist could also give them social and moral overtones. such an approach has attracted numerous admirers who have held him in esteem as an undoubted homespun genius. the fact that he had no formal training as a wood engraver, and actually never had a lesson in drawing, made his native inspiration seem all the more authentic. the contemporary view of bewick after , when his _a general history of quadrupeds_ appeared with its vivid animals and its humorous and mordant tailpiece vignettes, he was hailed in terms that have hardly been matched for adulation. certainly no mere book illustrator ever received equal acclaim. he was pronounced a great artist, a great man, an outstanding moralist and reformer, and the master of a new pictorial method. this flood of eulogy rose increasingly during his lifetime and continued throughout the remainder of the th century. it came from literary men and women who saw him as the artist of the common man; from the pious who recognized him as a commentator on the vanities and hardships of life (but who sometimes deplored the frankness of his subjects); from bibliophiles who welcomed him as a revolutionary illustrator; and from fellow wood engravers for whom he was the indispensable trail blazer. during the initial wave of bewick appreciation, the usually sober wordsworth wrote in the edition of _lyrical ballads_:[ ] o now that the genius of bewick were mine, and the skill which he learned on the banks of the tyne! then the muses might deal with me just as they chose, for i'd take my last leave both of verse and of prose. what feats would i work with my magical hand! book learning and books would be banished the land. if art critics as a class were the most conservative in their estimates of his ability, it was one of the most eminent, john ruskin, whose praise went to most extravagant lengths. bewick, he asserted, as late as ,[ ] "... without training, was holbein's equal ... in this frame are set together a drawing by hans holbein, and one by thomas bewick. i know which is most scholarly; but i do _not_ know which is best." linking bewick with botticelli as a draughtsman, he added:[ ] "i know no drawing so subtle as bewick's since the fifteenth century, except holbein's and turner's." and as a typical example of popular appreciation, the following, from the june issue of _blackwood's magazine_, appearing a few months before bewick's death, should suffice: have we forgotten, in our hurried and imperfect enumeration of wise worthies,--have we forgotten "_the genius that dwells on the banks of the tyne_," the matchless, inimitable bewick? no. his books lie in our parlour, dining-room, drawing-room, study-table, and are never out of place or time. happy old man! the delight of childhood, manhood, decaying age!--a moral in every tail-piece--a sermon in every vignette. this acclaim came to bewick not only because his subjects had a homely honesty, but also, although not generally taken into account, because of the brilliance and clarity with which they were printed. compared with the wood engravings of his predecessors, his were more detailed and resonant in black and white, and accordingly seemed miraculous and unprecedented. he could engrave finer lines and achieve better impressions in the press because of improvements in technology which will be discussed later, but for a century the convincing qualities of this new technique in combination with his subject matter led admirers to believe that he was an artist of great stature. [ ] william wordsworth, _lyrical ballads_, london, , vol. . p. . [ ] john ruskin, _ariadne florentina_, london, , pp. , . [ ] _ibid._, p. . later, more mature judgment has made it plain that his contributions as a craftsman outrank his worth as an artist. he was no holbein, no botticelli--it is absurd to think of him in such terms--but he did develop a fresh method of handling wood engraving. because of this he represents a turning point in the development of this medium which led to its rise as the great popular vehicle for illustration in the th century. in his hands wood engraving underwent a special transformation; it became a means for rendering textures and tonal values. earlier work on wood could not do this; it could manage only a rudimentary suggestion of tones. the refinements that followed, noticeable in the highly finished products of the later th century, came as a direct and natural consequence of bewick's contributions to the art. linton[ ] and a few others object to the general claim that bewick was the reviver or founder of modern wood engraving, not only because the art was practiced earlier, if almost anonymously, and had never really died out, but also because his bold cuts had little in common with their technician's concern with infinite manipulation of surface tones, a feature of later work. but this misses the main point--that bewick had taken the first actual steps in the new direction. [ ] william linton, _the masters of wood engraving_, london, , p. . [illustration: figure .--woodcutting procedure, showing method of cutting with the knife on the plank grain, from jean papillon's _traité de la gravure en bois_, .] unquestionably he gave the medium a new purpose, even though it was not generally adopted until after . through his pupils, his unrelenting industry, and his enormous influence he fathered a pictorial activity that brought a vastly increased quantity of illustrations to the public. periodical literature, spurred by accompanying pictures that could be cheaply made, quickly printed, and dramatically pointed, became a livelier force in education. textbooks, trade journals, dictionaries, and other publications could more effectively teach or describe; scientific journals could include in the body of text neat and accurate pictures to enliven the pages and illustrate the equipment and procedures described. articles on travel could now have convincingly realistic renditions of architectural landmarks and of foreign sights, customs, personages, and views. the wood engraving, in short, made possible the modern illustrated publication because, unlike copper plate engraving or etching, it could be quickly set up with printed matter. its use, therefore, multiplied increasingly until just before , when it was superseded for these purposes by the photomechanical halftone. but while bewick was the prime mover in this revolutionary change, little attention has been given to the important technological development that cleared the way for him. without it he could not have emerged so startlingly; without it there would have been no modern wood engraving. it is not captious to point out the purely industrial basis for his coming to prominence. even had he been a greater artist, a study of the technical means at hand would have validity in showing the interrelation of industry and art although, of course, the aesthetic contribution would stand by itself. but in bewick's case the aesthetic level is not particularly high. good as his art was, it wore an everyday aspect: he did not give it that additional expressive turn found in the work of greater artists. it should not be surprising, then, that his work was not inimitable. it is well-known that his pupils made many of the cuts attributed to him, making the original drawings and engraving in his style so well that the results form almost one indistinguishable body of work. the pupils were competent but not gifted, yet they could turn out wood engravings not inferior to bewick's own. and so we find that such capable technicians as nesbit, clennell, robinson, hole, the johnsons, harvey, and others all contributed to the bewick cult. linton, who worshipped him as an artist but found him primitive as a technician, commented:[ ] "widely praised by a crowd of unknowing connoisseurs and undiscriminating collectors, we have yet, half a century after his death, to point out how much of what is attributed to him is really by his hand." chatto,[ ] who obtained his information from at least one bewick pupil, says that many of the best tailpieces in the _history of british birds_ were drawn by robert johnson, and that "the greater number of those contained in the second volume were engraved by clennell." granted that the outlook and the engraving style were bewick's, and that these were notable contributions, the fact that the results were so close to his own points more to an effective method of illustration than to the outpourings of genius. [ ] _ibid._ low status of the woodcut bewick's training could not have been less promising. apprenticed to ralph beilby at the age of fourteen, he says of his master:[ ] ... the work-place was filled with the coarsest kind of steel-stamps, pipe moulds, bottle moulds, brass clock faces, door plates, coffin plates, bookbinders letters and stamps, steel, silver and gold seals, mourning rings, &c. he also undertook the engraving of arms, crests and cyphers, on silver, and every kind of job from the silversmiths; also engraving bills of exchange, bank notes, invoices, account heads, and cards.... the higher department of engraving, such as landscapes or historical plates, i dare say, was hardly thought of by my master.... a little engraving on wood was also done, but bewick tells us that his master was uncomfortable in this field and almost always turned it over to him. his training, obviously, was of a rough and ready sort, based upon serviceable but routine engraving on metal. there was no study of drawing, composition, or any of the refinements that could be learned from a master who had a knowledge of art. whatever bewick had of the finer points of drawing and design he must have picked up by himself. [ ] william chatto, and john jackson, _a treatise on wood engraving_, london, ( st ed. ), pp. - . [ ] thomas bewick, _memoir of thomas bewick_, new york, ( st ed. london, ), pp. , . when he completed his apprenticeship in at the age of twenty-one, the art of engraving and cutting on wood was just beginning to show signs of life after more than a century and a half of occupying the lowest position in the graphic arts. since it could not produce a full gamut of tones in the gray register, which could be managed brilliantly by the copper plate media--line engraving, etching, mezzotint and aquatint--it was confined to ruder and less exacting uses, such as ornamental headbands and tailpieces for printers and as illustrations for cheap popular broadsides. when good illustrations were needed in books and periodicals, copper plate work was almost invariably used, despite the fact that it was more costly, was much slower in execution and printing, and had to be bound in with text in a separate operation. but while the society of arts had begun to offer prizes for engraving or cutting on wood (bewick received such a prize in ) the medium was still moribund. dobson[ ] described its status as follows: during the earlier part of the eighteenth century engraving on wood can scarcely be said to have flourished in england. it existed--so much may be admitted--but it existed without recognition or importance. in the useful little _État des arts en angleterre_, published in by roquet the enameller,--a treatise so catholic in its scope that it included both cookery and medicine,--there is no reference to the art of wood-engraving. in the _artist's assistant_, to take another book which might be expected to afford some information, even in the fifth edition of , the subject finds no record, even though engraving on metal, etching, mezzotinto-scraping--to say nothing of "painting on silks, sattins, etc." are treated with sufficient detail. turning from these authorities to the actual woodcuts of the period, it must be admitted that the survey is not encouraging. [illustration: figure .--wood engraving procedure, showing manipulation of the burin, from chatto and jackson, _a treatise on wood engraving_, . (see footnote .)] earlier, among other critics of the deficiencies of the woodcut, horace walpole[ ] had remarked: i have said, and for two reasons, shall say little of wooden cuts; that art never was executed with any perfection in england; engraving on metal was a final improvement of the art, and supplied the defects of cuttings in wood. the ancient wooden cuts were certainly carried to a great heighth, but that was the merit of the masters, not of the method. [ ] austin dobson, _thomas bewick and his pupils_, boston, , pp. , . [ ] horace walpole, _anecdotes of painting in england. a catalogue of engravers who have been born, or resided in england. digested from the manuscript of mr. george vertue_ ... london, ( st ed. ), p. . woodcut and wood engraving it is necessary, before continuing, to distinguish clearly between the woodcut and the wood engraving, not only because early writers used these terms interchangeably, but also to determine exactly what bewick contributed technically. the woodcut began with a drawing in pen-and-ink on the plank surface of a smooth-grained wood such as pear, serviceberry, or box. the woodcutter, using knife, gouges, and chisels, then lowered the wood surrounding the lines to allow the original drawing, unaltered, to be isolated in relief (see fig. ). thus the block, when inked and printed, produced facsimile impressions of the drawing in black lines on white paper. usually an accomplished artist made the drawing, whereas only a skilled craftsman was needed to do the cutting; very few cutters were also capable of making their own drawings. the wood engraving, on the other hand, started with a section of dense wood of a uniform texture, usually box or maple, and with the end-grain rather than the plank as surface. for larger engravings a number of sections were mortised together. the drawing was made on the block, not in pen-and-ink although this could be done (certain types of wood engraving reproduced pen drawings) but in gray washes with a full range of tones. the engraver, using a burin similar to that employed in copper plate work, then ploughed out wood in delicate ribbons (see fig. ). since the surface was to receive ink, the procedure moved from black to white: the more lines taken away, the lighter the tones would appear, and, conversely, where fewest or finest lines were removed the tones would be the darkest. in the finished print the unworked surface printed black while each of the engraved lines showed as white. it was the "white line" that gave wood engraving its special quality. on the smoother end-grain it could be manipulated with extreme fineness, an impossibility with the plank side, which would tear slightly or "feather" when the burin was moved across the grain. tones and textures approaching the scale of copper plate engraving could be created, except, of course, that the lines were white and the impressions not so brilliant. but since grays were achieved by the visual synthesis of black ink and white paper, it mattered little whether the engraved lines were black or white so long as the desired tones could be produced. [illustration: figure .--late th-century white-line engraving "the crowning of the virgin," in the "dotted manner" executed on metal for relief printing. parts were hand colored.] for purposes of realism, this was an enormous improvement over the old black-line woodcut. natural tones and textures could be imitated. the engraver was no longer a mere mechanical craftsman cutting around existing lines; special skill was needed to translate tones in terms of white lines of varying thickness and spacing. the opportunity also existed for each engraver to work his own tones in his own manner, to develop a personal system. in short, the medium served the same purpose as copper plate line engraving, with the added virtue that it could be printed together with type in one impression. if it failed artistically to measure up to line engraving or to plank woodcut, this was not the fault of the process but of the popular reproductive ends which it almost invariably served. actually, white-line engraving for relief printing dates from the th century. the most conspicuous early examples are the so-called "dotted prints" or "gravures en manière criblée," in which the designs were brought out by dots punched in the plates, and by occasional engraved lines (see fig. ). until koehler's[ ] study made this fact plain, th-century critics could hardly believe that these were merely white-line metal relief prints, inked on the surface like woodcuts. but a number of other examples of the same period exist which were also made directly on copper or type metal--the method, although rudimentary, being similar in intent to th-century wood engraving. one of these examples (fig. ), in the collection of the u. s. national museum, is typical. this was not simply an ordinary line engraving printed in relief rather than in the usual way; the management of the lights shows that it was planned as a white-line engraving. the reason for this treatment, obviously, was to permit the picture and the type to be printed in one operation. the well-known wood engravings of soldiers with standards, executed by urs graf in the early 's, are probably the only white-line prints in this medium by an accomplished artist until the th century. but these are mainly in outline, with little attempt to achieve tones. no advantage was gained by having the lines white rather than black other than an engaging roughness in spots: the prints were simply whimsical excursions by an inventive artist. [ ] sylvester r. koehler, "white-line engraving for relief-printing in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries," in _annual report of the ... smithsonian institution ... for the year ending june , , report of the u. s. national museum_, washington, , pp. - . [illustration: figure .--white-line engraving on metal for relief printing, "the franciscan, pelbart of temesvar, studying in a garden," from "_pomerium quadragesimale, fratris pelbarti ordinis sancti francisci_," augsburg, .] relief engraving on type metal and end-grain wood really got under way as a consistent process in england at the beginning of the th century. chatto[ ] gives this date as conjecture, without actual evidence, but a first-hand account can be found in the rare and little-known book, published in , in which the combination of anonymous authorship and a misleading title obscured the fact that it is a digest of john baptist jackson's manuscript journal. this eminent woodcutter, who was born about and worked in england during the early years of the century, must be considered an important and reliable witness. the unknown editor paraphrases jackson on the subject of engraving for relief purposes:[ ] ... i shall give a brief account of the state of cutting on wood in _england_ for the type press before he [jackson] went to _france_ in . in the beginning of this century a remarkable blow was given to all cutters on wood, by an invention of engraving on the same sort of metal which types are cast with. the celebrated mr. _kirkhal_, an able engraver on copper, is said to be the first who performed a relievo work to answer the use of cutting on wood. this could be dispatched much sooner, and consequently answered the purpose of booksellers and printers, who purchased those sort of works at a much chaper [sic] rate than could be expected from an engraver on wood; it required much more time to execute with accuracy any piece of work of the same measure with those carved on metal. this performance was very much in vogue, and continued down to this day, to serve for initials, fregii and finali; it is called a clear impression, but often gray and hazy, far from coming up to that clear black impression produced with cutting on the side of a piece of box-wood or pear-tree. much about the same time there started another method of engraving on the end ways of wood itself, which was cut to the height of the letters to accompany them in the press, and engraved in the same manner as the metal performance; this method was also encouraged, and is the only way of engraving on wood at present used in the english printing-houses. these performances are to be seen in magazines, news papers, &c. and are the remains of the ancient manner of cutting on wood, and is the reason why the curious concluded it was intirely lost. [ ] chatto, _op. cit._ (footnote ), p. . [ ] _an enquiry into the origins of printing in europe, by a lover of art_, london, , pp. , . this is important evidence that end-grain wood engraving was not only known in england in the early th century but was actually the prevailing style. in that country, where a woodcut tradition did not exist, the new method gained its first foothold. but it was not yet conceived in terms of white lines; it was merely a cheaper substitute for cutting with the knife on the plank. in european countries with long art and printing traditions, this substitute method was considered beneath contempt. jackson[ ] describes the aversion of french woodcutters for the newer and cheaper process: from this account it is evident that there was little encouragement to be hoped for in _england_ to a person whose genius led him to prosecute his studies in the ancient manner; which obliged mr. _jackson_ to go over to the continent, and see what was used in the parisian printing-houses. at his arrival there he found the _french_ engravers on wood all working in the old manner; no metal engravers, or any of the same performance on the end of the wood, was ever used or countenanced by the printers or booksellers in that city. [illustration: figure .--example of the woodcut style that created facsimile drawings. woodcut (actual size) by hans lutzelburger, after a drawing by holbein for his "dance of death," .] there were good reasons for the lack of development of a white-line style, even in england with its lower standards in printing and illustrative techniques. on the coarse paper of the period fine white lines could not be adapted to relief (typographical) presswork; they would be lost in printing because the ribbed paper received ink unevenly. even the simple black lines of the traditional woodcut usually printed spottily when combined with type. the white lines, then, had to be broadly separated. this did not permit the engraving of delicate tones. if this could not be achieved, the effect was similar to woodcutting but with less crispness and accuracy in the drawing. a good woodcut in the old manner could do everything the wood engraving could do, before bewick, with the added virtue that the black line was comparatively clear and unequivocal, as can be seen in figure . [ ] _ibid._, p. . [illustration: figure .--woodcut tailpiece by j. m. papillon, from _traité historique et pratique de la gravure en bois_, . the cutting was done so minutely that some details were lost in printing. (actual size.)] the woodcut, in the hands of a remarkable cutter, could produce miracles of delicacy. it could, in fact, have black lines so fine and so closely spaced as to take on the character of line engraving. it did not, of course, have the range of tones or the delicacy of modeling possible in the copper plate medium, where every little trench cut by the burin would hold ink below the wiped-off surface, to be transferred to dampened paper under the heavy pressure of the cylinder press. in addition, the roughness of early paper, which was serious for the woodcut, created no difficulties for the line engraver or for other workers in the intaglio or gravure media. but the influence of copper plate work was strong, and some skillful but misguided woodcut craftsmen tried to obtain some degree of its richness. french artists from about , notably jean m. papillon, produced cuts so delicate that their printing became a problem (see fig. ). jackson, who had worked with the french artist in paris, condemned his efforts to turn the woodcut into a tonal medium through the creation of numerous delicate lines because such effects were impossible to print. jackson[ ] is quoted in the _enquiry_: in mr. _pappillon_ began his small _paris_ almanack, wherein is placed cuts (done on wood) allusive to each month, with the signs of the zodiack, in such a minute stile, that he seems to forget in that work the impossibility of printing it in a press with any clearness ... but alas! his father and m. _le seur_ [also woodcutters] had examined impression and its process, and saw how careful the ancients were to keep a proper distance between their lines and hatched works, so as to produce a clean impression ... i saw the almanack in a horrid condition before i left _paris_, the signs of the zodiack wore like a blotch, notwithstanding the utmost care and diligence the printer used to take up very little ink to keep them clean. it is clear that too thin a strip of white between black lines was not suitable for printing in the first half of the th century. but when bewick's cuts after are examined we can see many white lines thinner than a hair. obviously something had happened to permit him a flexibility not granted to earlier workers on wood. bewick's whole craft depended upon his ability to control white lines of varying thickness. why was he able to do this, and why could it be done without trouble by others after him? early paper, as already mentioned, had a ribbed grain because it was made on a hand mould in which wires were closely laid in one direction, but with enough space between to allow the water in the paper pulp to drain through. crossing wires, set some distance apart, held them together. each wire, however, made a slight impression in the finished paper, the result being a surface with minute ripples. the surface of this laid paper presented irregularities even after the glazing operation, done with hammers before about and with wooden rollers up to about .[ ] in james whatman began to manufacture a new, smooth paper to replace the laid variety that had been used since the importation of paper into europe in the th century. whether whatman or the renowned printer john baskerville was the guiding spirit in this development is uncertain.[ ] baskerville, who had been experimenting with type faces of a lighter and more delicate design, had been dissatisfied with the uneven surface of laid paper. possibly he saw examples of the chinese wallpaper on wove stock, made from a cloth mesh, which was a staple of the trade with the orient. hunter[ ] describes the new mould: the wove covering was made of fine brass screening and received its name because it was woven on a loom in about the same manner as cloth. it left in the paper an indistinct impression resembling a fabric. baskerville had been in the japanning and metal-working trades before becoming a printer, so that he was naturally familiar with this material, metal screening having been used in england for other purposes before it was put to use as a material upon which to mould sheets of paper. the first book printed in europe on wove paper unquestionably was the latin edition of virgil produced by baskerville in . this was, however, partly on laid also. the actual paper was made in james whatman's mill in maidstone, kent, on the banks of the river len, where paper had been made since the th century. whatman, who became sole owner of the mill in , specialized in fine white paper of the highest quality. but while the book attracted considerable attention it did not immediately divert the demand for laid paper, since it was looked on more as an oddity than as a serious achievement. baskerville was strictly an artist: he took unlimited time and pains, he had no regard for the prevailing market, and he produced sporadically; also, he was harshly criticized and even derided for his strange formats.[ ] with such a reputation for impracticality the printer's influence was negligible during his lifetime although, of course, it was widely felt later. [ ] jackson, _op. cit._ (footnote ), p. . [ ] dard hunter, _papermaking through eighteen centuries_, new york, , pp. , . [ ] a. t. hazen, "baskerville and james whatman," _studies in bibliography, bibliographical society of the university of virginia_, vol. , - . for a brilliant study of the whatman mill, where practically all wove paper up to the 's was manufactured, see thomas balston's _james whatman, father and son_, london, . [ ] hunter, _op. cit._ (footnote ), p. . [ ] r. straus and r. k. dent, _john baskerville_, cambridge, . on page the authors include a letter to baskerville from benjamin franklin, written in in a jocular tone, which notes that he overheard a friend saying that baskerville's types would be "the means of blinding all the readers in the nation owing to the thin and narrow strokes of the letters." about the french became acquainted with wove paper, which franklin brought to paris for exhibition. in , according to hunter,[ ] m. didot the famous printer, "having seen the _papier vélin_ that baskerville used, addressed a letter to m. johannot of annonay, a skilled papermaker, asking him to endeavour to duplicate the smooth and even surface of this new paper. johannot was successful in his experiments, and for his work in this field he was in awarded a gold medal by louis xvi." [ ] hunter, _op. cit._ (footnote ), p. . [illustration: figure .--wood engraving by thomas bewick, "the man and the flea," for _fables, by the late mr. gay_, . (actual size.) note how the closely worked lines of the sky and water have blurred in printing on laid paper. the pale vertical streak is caused by the laid mould.] wove paper was so slow to come into use that jenkins gives the date for its first appearance in book printing.[ ] while he missed a few examples, notably by baskerville, it is certain that few books with wove paper were published before . but after that date its manufacture increased with such rapidity that by it had supplanted laid paper for many printing purposes. the reasons for this gap between the introduction and the acceptance of the new paper are not clear; the inertia of tradition as well as the probable higher cost no doubt played a part, and we may assume that early wove paper had imperfections and other drawbacks serious enough to cause printers to prefer the older material. bewick's early work was printed on laid paper. up to he had worked in a desultory fashion on wood, much of his time being occupied with seal cutting because there was still no real demand for wood engraving. in gay's _fables_, published in , the cuts printed so poorly on the laid paper (see fig. ) that dobson[ ] was moved to say: generally speaking, the printing of all these cuts, even in the earlier editions (and it is absolutely useless to consult any others), is weak and unskillful. the fine work of the backgrounds is seldom made out, and the whole impression is blurred and unequal. [illustration: figure .--"the spanish pointer", illustration (actual size) by thomas bewick, from _a general history of quadrupeds_, , in the collections of the library of congress.] [ ] rhys jenkins, "early papermaking in england, - ," _library association record_, london, - , vol. , nos. and ; vol. , no. ; vol. , nos. and . [ ] dobson, _op. cit._ (footnote ), p. . even in the _select fables of aesop and others_ of , when bewick's special gifts began to emerge, the cuts on laid paper appeared weak in comparison with his later work. bewick was still using wood engraving as a cheaper, more quickly executed substitute for the woodcut. the designs were based upon croxall's edition of _aesop's fables_, published in , which was probably the best and most popular illustrated book published in england during the century up to bewick's time. according to chatto, the cuts were made with the burin on end-grain wood, probably by kirkall,[ ] but bewick believed they were engraved on type metal.[ ] it was not easy to tell the difference. type metal usually made grayer impressions than wood and sometimes, but not always, nail-head marks appeared where the metal was fastened to the wood base. the croxall cuts, in turn, were adapted with little change from th-century sources--etchings by francis barlow and line engravings by sebastian le clerc. bewick's cuts repeated the earlier designs but changed the locale to the english countryside of the late th century. this was to be expected; to have a contemporary meaning the actors of the old morality play had to appear in modern dress and with up-to-date scenery. but technically the cuts followed the pattern of croxall's wood engraver, although with a slightly greater range of tone. artistically bewick's interpretation was inferior because it was more literal; it lacked the grander feeling of the earlier work. bewick really became the prophet of a new pictorial style in his _a general history of quadrupeds_, published in on wove paper (see figs. , , and ). here his animals and little vignetted tailpieces of observations in the country announced an original subject for illustration and a fresh treatment of wood engraving, although some designs were still copied from earlier models. the white line begins to function with greater elasticity; tones and details beyond anything known previously in the medium appear with the force of innovation. the paper was still somewhat coarse and the cuts were often gray and muddy. but the audacity of the artist in venturing tonal subtleties was immediately apparent. [ ] chatto, _op. cit._ (footnote ), p. . [ ] thomas bewick, _fables of aesop and others_, newcastle, . one of bewick's old friends at newcastle had been william bulmer, who by the 's had become a famous printer. in he published an edition of _poems by goldsmith and parnell_, which was preceded by an advertisement announcing his intentions: the present volume ... [is] particularly meant to combine the various beauties of printing, type-founding, engraving, and paper-making.... the ornaments are all engraved on blocks of wood, by two of my earliest acquaintances, messrs. bewick [thomas and his brother and apprentice john], of newcastle upon tyne and london, after designs made from the most interesting passages of the poems they embellish. they have been executed with great care, and i may venture to say, without being supposed to be influenced by ancient friendship, that they form the most extraordinary effort of the art of engraving upon wood that ever was produced in any age, or any country. indeed it seems almost impossible that such delicate effects could be obtained from blocks of wood. of the paper, it is only necessary to say that it comes from the manufactory of mr. whatman. the following year, , a companion volume, _the chase, a poem_, by william somervile, appeared with cuts by bewick after drawings by his brother john (see fig. ). in both books, although no acknowledgment was given, there was considerable assistance from pupils robert and john johnson and charlton nesbit, as well as from an artist associate richard westall.[ ] bulmer was quite conscious that a new era in printing and illustration had begun. updike[ ] notes bulmer's recognition of the achievements of both baskerville and bewick in giving the art of printing a new basis: to understand the causes of the revival of english printing which marked the last years of the century, we must remember that by baskerville was dead.... there seems to have been a temporary lull in english fine printing and the kind of type-founding that contributed to it. the wood-engraving of thomas bewick, produced about , called, nevertheless, for more brilliant and delicate letter-press than either caslon's or wilson's types could supply. if baskerville's fonts had been available, no doubt they would have served.... so the next experiments in typography were made by a little coterie composed of the boydells, the nicols, the bewicks (thomas and john), and bulmer. [illustration: figure .--tailpiece by thomas bewick (actual size), from _a general history of quadrupeds_, , in the collections of the library of congress.] when the cuts in this book are compared with earlier impressions from wood blocks, the difference is quickly seen. the blocks are more highly wrought, yet every line is crisp and clear and the impressions are black and brilliant. when we realize that the only new technological factor of any consequence was the use of good smooth wove paper, we can appreciate its significance. there were no other developments of note in the practice of printing during the th century. the old wooden hand press, unimproved except for minor devices, was still in universal use. ink was little improved; paper was handmade; type was made from hand moulds. the ink was still applied by dabbing with inking balls of wool-stuffed leather nailed to wooden forms. the leather was still kept soft by removing it and soaking it in urine, after which it was trampled for some time to complete the unsavory operation. paper still had to be dampened overnight before printing, and freshly inked sheets were still hung to dry over cords stretched across the room. [ ] d. c. thomson, _the life and works of thomas bewick_, london, , p. . [ ] d. b. updike, _printing types, their history, forms and use_, cambridge and london, , vol. , pp. , . but with a more sympathetic surface for receiving ink from relief blocks, a new avenue for wood engraving was now open. in the following year, , the first volume of bewick's finest and best-known work was published. this was the _history of british birds_, for which he and his pupils did the cuts while ralph beilby, his partner and former master, provided the descriptions (see figs. , , and .) it achieved an immense and instantaneous popularity that carried the artist's name over the british isles. the attractiveness of the subject, the freshness of the medium--which could render the softness of feathers and could be interspersed with text--the powerful and decorative little tail pieces, and the comparative inexpensiveness of the volumes, brought the _birds_ into homes everywhere. [illustration: figure .--tailpiece by thomas bewick (actual size), from _a general history of quadrupeds_, , in the collections of the library of congress.] actually, wood engraving was not immediately adopted on a wide scale. having done without it for so long, printers and publishers made no concerted rush to avail themselves of the new type of cuts. bewick's pupils found little of this kind of work to do before about . luke clennell dropped engraving for painting; william harvey restricted himself to drawing and designing; charlton nesbit and john jackson remained engravers, as did a host of lesser individuals. dobson says:[ ] the pupils who quitted him to seek their fortunes in london either made their way with difficulty, or turned to other pursuits, and the real popularization of wood-engraving did not take place until some years after his death. one reason for delay in adopting the new technique may have been the danger of the block splitting, or of the sections of wood coming apart at the mortise-joints during the printing operation. if this happened, work had to be suspended until a new block was engraved, or until the sections were reglued. for periodicals with deadlines, this was a serious hazard. wood engraving and the stereotype in any event, wood engraving did not really flourish until a practical stereotyping process was perfected. by this procedure substitute blocks of type metal could replace the wood engravings in the press, and the danger of splitting the block was eliminated. the first steps of any importance toward a practical process were made by the earl of stanhope around , but not until claude genoux in france, between and , developed the papier mâché or wet mat process could acceptable stereotypes of entire pages be produced.[ ] by this method, patented on july , , and others that followed, a number of duplicate plates of each page could be made as required for rapid printing on a battery of presses. wood engraving now emerged as a practical method of illustration for popular publications. the _penny magazine_ and the _saturday magazine_, founded in , immediately made use of genoux's stereotyping process. dobson[ ] describes the effect of these periodicals: "the art of wood engraving received an astonishing impact from these publications. the engraver, instead of working merely with his own hands, has been obliged to take five or six pupils to get through the work." (mr. cowper's evidence before the select committee on arts and manufactures, ). it is difficult nowadays [ ] to understand what a revelation these two periodicals, with their representations of far countries and foreign animals, of masterpieces of painting and sculpture, were to middle-class households fifty years ago. [ ] dobson, _op. cit._ (footnote ), p. . [ ] george kubler, _a history of stereotyping_, new york, , p. . [ ] dobson, _op. cit._ (footnote ), p. . [illustration: figure .--tailpiece by thomas bewick (actual size), engraved after a drawing by john bewick, from _the chase_, by william somervile, . (_photo courtesy the library of congress._)] we will not pursue bewick's career further. with habits of hard work deeply ingrained, he kept at his bench until his death in , engraving an awesome quantity of cuts. but he never surpassed his work on the _birds_, although his reputation grew in proportion to the spread of wood engraving throughout the world. the medium became more and more detailed, and eventually rivaled photography in its minute variations of tone (see figs. and ). but printing wood engravings never was a problem again. not only was wove paper always used in this connection, but it had become much cheaper through the invention of a machine for producing it in lengths. nicholas louis robert, in france, had developed and exhibited such an apparatus in , at the instigation of m. didot. john gamble in england, working with henry and charles fourdrinier, engaged a fine mechanic, bryan donkin, to build a machine on improved principles. the first comparatively successful one was completed in . it was periodically improved, and wove paper appeared in increasing quantities. spicer[ ] says: "naturally these improvements and economies in the manufacture of paper were accompanied by a corresponding increase in output. where, in , a machine was capable of making cwt. in twelve hours, in it could turn out double that quantity in the same time at one quarter the expense." [ ] a. d. spicer, _the paper trade_, london, , p. . [illustration: figure .--wood engraving by w. j. linton, (actual size). the detail opposite is enlarged four times to show white line-technique.] [illustration] [illustration: figure .--"pintail duck" by thomas bewick (actual size), from _history of british birds_, vol. , . the detail opposite is enlarged three times.] at about the same time the all-iron stanhope press began to be manufactured in quantity, and shortly the new inking roller invented by the indispensable earl came into use to supplant the old inking balls. later in the century (there is no need to go into specific detail here) calendered and coated papers were introduced, and wood engraving on these glossy papers became a medium that could reproduce wash drawings, crayon drawings, pencil drawings, and oil paintings so faithfully that all the original textures were apparent.[ ] the engraver, concerned entirely with accurate reproduction, became little more than a mechanic who rendered pictures drawn on the blocks by an artist. in time, photographic processes came to be used for transferring pictures to the blocks and eventually, of course, photomechanical halftones replaced the wood engraver altogether. [illustration: figure .--title-page illustration by thomas bewick, from _history of british birds_, vol. , . (actual size.)] [ ] the electrotyping process, which came into prominence in through the experiments of professor jacobi in st. petersburg and jordan and spencer in england, had made it possible to produce substitute plates of the highest fidelity. for fine work, these were much superior to stereotyping. bewick was an artist, not a reproductive craftsman. his blocks were conceived as original engravings, not as imitations of tones and textures created in another medium. if wood engraving advanced in the direction of commercialism to fill an overwhelming mass need, it was only because he had given it a technical basis. but it had greater artistic potentialities, as proved by blake, calvert, and lepére, among others, and has found new life in the engravers of the th-century revival. the reasons for bewick's remarkable effectiveness can now be summed up. he succeeded, first, because he was the natural inheritor of a specifically english graphic arts process, burin-engraving on the end grain of wood. this had been practiced almost solely in england, which lacked a woodcut tradition, for about years before the date he finished his apprenticeship. we know from jackson's contemporary account that end-grain wood engraving was standard practice in england from about . bewick merely continued and refined a medium that came down to him as a national tradition. secondly, his country isolation and lack of academic training saved him from the inanity of repeating the old decorative devices--trophies, cartouches, classical figures, roman ruins, and other international conventions that had lost their significance by the 's, although a spurious classicism was still kept alive for genteel consumption and the romantic picturesque still persisted in interior decoration. [illustration] thirdly, he looked at life and nature with a fresh eye, without preconceptions. while his lack of larger vision held him down as an artist, it contributed to his feeling for natural textures and story-telling detail. his approach to illustration, therefore, was the spontaneous expression of an observant but unimaginative nature, coated with a bitter-sweet sentiment. it was this quality, so homely and common and yet so charged with integrity, that delivered the shock of recognition to a mass audience. lastly, and perhaps most importantly in the long run, he was fortunate enough to live at a time when a necessary prerequisite for the physical appearance of his work, wove paper, was coming into use. without it he would soon have had to simplify his line system, returning to older and less detailed methods, or his work would have remained unprintable. it was the new paper that allowed him to extract unprecedented subtleties from the wood block, that made his cuts print clearly and evenly, and that encouraged the expansion of the wood engraving process. these factors, taken together, make up the phenomenon of thomas bewick. [illustration: figure .--tailpiece by thomas bewick, from _history of british birds_, vol. , . (actual size.)] u. s. government printing office: note: project gutenberg also has an html version of this file which includes the original illustrations. see -h.htm or -h.zip: (http://www.gutenberg.net/dirs/ / / / / / -h/ -h.htm) or (http://www.gutenberg.net/dirs/ / / / / / -h.zip) transcriber's note: inconsistency in spelling and hyphenation is as in the original. the artistic crafts series of technical handbooks edited by w. r. lethaby wood-block printing a description of the craft of woodcutting & colour printing based on the japanese practice by f. morley fletcher with drawings and illustrations by the author and a. w. seaby. also collotype reproductions of various examples of printing, and an original print designed and cut by the author printed by hand on japanese taper [illustration: meadowsweet. collotype reproduction of a woodblock print by the author. (_frontispiece_.)] london sir isaac pitman & sons, ltd. parker street, kingsway, w.c. bath, melbourne, toronto, new york printed by sir isaac pitman & sons, ltd. bath, england editor's preface in issuing these volumes of a series of handbooks on the artistic crafts, it will be well to state what are our general aims. in the first place, we wish to provide trustworthy text-books of workshop practice, from the points of view of experts who have critically examined the methods current in the shops, and putting aside vain survivals, are prepared to say what is good workmanship, and to set up a standard of quality in the crafts which are more especially associated with design. secondly, in doing this, we hope to treat design itself as an essential part of good workmanship. during the last century most of the arts, save painting and sculpture of an academic kind, were little considered, and there was a tendency to look on "design" as a mere matter of _appearance_. such "ornamentation" as there was was usually obtained by following in a mechanical way a drawing provided by an artist who often knew little of the technical processes involved in production. with the critical attention given to the crafts by ruskin and morris, it came to be seen that it was impossible to detach design from craft in this way, and that, in the widest sense, true design is an inseparable element of good quality, involving as it does the selection of good and suitable material, contrivance for special purpose, expert workmanship, proper finish, and so on, far more than mere ornament, and indeed, that ornamentation itself was rather an exuberance of fine workmanship than a matter of merely abstract lines. workmanship when separated by too wide a gulf from fresh thought--that is, from design--inevitably decays, and, on the other hand, ornamentation, divorced from workmanship, is necessarily unreal, and quickly falls into affectation. proper ornamentation may be defined as a language addressed to the eye; it is pleasant thought expressed in the speech of the tool. in the third place, we would have this series put artistic craftsmanship before people as furnishing reasonable occupations for those who would gain a livelihood. although within the bounds of academic art, the competition, of its kind, is so acute that only a very few per cent. can fairly hope to succeed as painters and sculptors; yet, as artistic craftsmen, there is every probability that nearly every one who would pass through a sufficient period of apprenticeship to workmanship and design would reach a measure of success. in the blending of hand-work and thought in such arts as we propose to deal with, happy careers may be found as far removed from the dreary routine of hack labour as from the terrible uncertainty of academic art. it is desirable in every way that men of good education should be brought back into the productive crafts: there are more than enough of us "in the city," and it is probable that more consideration will be given in this century than in the last to design and workmanship. * * * * * there are two common ways of studying old and foreign arts--the way of the connoisseur and the way of the craftsman. the collector may value such arts for their strangeness and scarcity, while the artist finds in them stimulus in his own work and hints for new developments. the following account of colour-printing from wood-blocks is based on a study of the methods which were lately only practised in japan, but which at an earlier time were to some degree in use in europe also. the main principles of the art, indeed, were well known in the west long before colour prints were produced in japan, and there is some reason to suppose that the japanese may have founded their methods in imitating the prints taken from europe by missionaries. major strange says: "the european art of _chiaroscuro_ engraving is in all essentials identical with that of japanese colour-printing.... it seems, therefore, not vain to point out that the accidental sight of one of the italian colour-prints may have suggested the process to the japanese." the italians aimed more at expressing "relief" and the japanese at flat colour arrangements; the former used oily colours, and the latter fair distemper tints; these are the chief differences. both in the west and the east the design was cut on the plank surface of the wood with a knife; not across the grain with a graver, as is done in most modern wood engraving, although large plank woodcuts were produced by walter crane and herkomer, about thirty years ago, as posters. the old woodcuts of the fifteenth century were produced as pictures as well as for the illustration of books; frequently they were of considerable size. often, too, they were coloured by stencil plates or freely by hand. at the same time the printing in colour of letters and other simple devices in books from wood-blocks was done, and a book printed at st. albans in has many coats of arms printed in this way; some of the shields having two or three different colours.[ ] about the year a method of printing woodcuts in several flat tones was invented in germany and practised by lucas cranach and others. a fine print of adam and eve by hans baldung in the victoria and albert museum has, besides the bold black "drawing," an over-tint printed in warm brown out of which sharp high lights are cut; the print is thus in three tones. [ ] see r. m. burch, _colour printing_, . ugo da carpo (_c._ - ) working in venice, introduced this new type of tone woodcut into italy; indeed, he claimed to be the inventor of the method. "this was called _chiaroscuro_, a name still given to it, and was, in fact, a simple form of our modern chromo printing." his woodcuts are in a simple, vigorous style; one of them after raphael's "death of ananias," printed in brown, has a depth and brilliancy which may remind us of the mezzo-tints of turner's _liber studiorum_. this is proudly signed, "per ugo da carpo," and some copies are said to be dated . andrea andreani (_c._ - ), a better known but not a better artist, produced a great number of these tone woodcuts. several prints after mantegna's "triumphs of caesar" have a special charm from the beauty of the originals; they are printed in three tints of grey besides the "drawing"; the palest of these tints covers the surface, except for high lights cut out of it. a fine print of a holy family, about × inches, has a middle tone of fair blue and a shadow tint of full rich green. copies of two immense woodcuts at the victoria and albert museum, of biblical subjects, seem to have been seems to cramp the hand and injure the eyes of all but the most gifted draughtsmen. it is desirable to cultivate the ability to seize and record the "map-form" of any object rapidly and correctly. some practice in elementary colour-printing would certainly be of general usefulness, and simpler exercises may be contrived by cutting out with scissors and laying down shapes in black or coloured papers unaided by any pattern. finally, the hope may be expressed that the beautiful art of wood-cutting as developed in western europe and brought to such perfection only a generation ago is only temporarily in abeyance, and that it too may have another day. w. r. lethaby. _september ._ author's note this little book gives an account of one of the primitive crafts, in the practice of which only the simplest tools and materials are used. their method of use may serve as a means of expression for artist-craftsmen, or may be studied in preparation for, or as a guide towards, more elaborate work in printing, of which the main principles may be seen most clearly in their application in the primitive craft. in these days the need for reference to primitive handicrafts has not ceased with the advent of the machine. the best achievements of hand-work will always be the standards for reference; and on their study must machine craft be based. the machine can only increase the power and scale of the crafts that have already been perfected by hand-work. their principles, and the art of their design, do not alter under the machine. if the machine disregards these its work becomes base. and it is under the simple conditions of a handicraft that the principles of an art can be most clearly experienced. the best of all the wonderful and excellent work that is produced to-day by machinery is that which bears evidence in itself of its derivation from arts under the pure conditions of classic craftsmanship, and shows the influence of their study. the series of which this book is a part stands for the principles and the spirit of the classic examples. to be associated with those fellow-craftsmen who have been privileged to work for the series is itself an honour of high estimation in the mind of the present writer. if the book contributes even a little toward the usefulness of the series the experiments which are recorded here will have been well worth while. to my friend mr. j. d. batten is due all the credit of the initial work. he began the search for a pure style of colour-printing, and most generously supported and encouraged my own experiments in the japanese method. to my old colleague mr. a. w. seaby i would also express my indebtedness for his kind help and advice. f. m. f. edinburgh college of art, _september ._ contents chapter i page introduction and description of the origins of wood-block printing--its uses for personal artistic expression, for reproduction of decorative designs, and as a fundamental training for student of printed decoration chapter ii general description of the operation of printing from a set of blocks chapter iii description of the materials and tools required for block cutting chapter iv block cutting and the planning of blocks chapter v preparation of paper, ink, colour, and paste for printing chapter vi detailed method of printing--the printing tools, baren and brushes chapter vii principles and main considerations in designing wood-block prints--their application to modern colour printing chapter viii co-operative printing appendix prints and collotype plates books of reference index illustrations fig. page . plan of work-table . block mounted with cross ends to prevent warping . drawing of the knife . sizes of chisels . short chisel in split handle . mallet . position of the hands in using the knife . another position of the hands in using the knife . knife cuts in section . diagram of knife cuts . method of holding gouge . clearing of wood between knife cuts . position of register marks . register marks . register marks (section of) . section of colour-block . drawing of sizing of paper . cork of ink-bottle with wad for preservative . method of re-covering baren . drawing of brushes . manner of holding the paper . manner of using the baren collotype plates . meadowsweet. reproduction of a wood-block print by the author _frontispiece_ . key-block of a print drawn and cut by the author . the baren, or printing pad . colour-block of a print of which the key-block is shown at p. . impression (nearly actual size) or a portion of a japanese wood block showing great variety in the character of the lines and spots suggesting form . reproduction of an impression (reduced) of the key-block of a japanese print showing admirable variety in the means used to suggest form . portion of detail from a japanese wood block appendix page . wood-block print by the author . first printing (_collotype reproduction_) . second printing " " . third printing " " . fourth printing " " . fifth printing " " . sixth printing " " . eighth printing " " . collotype reproduction of a colour print by hiroshigÉ . collotype reproduction of a portion of the print shown on the preceding page, actual size, showing the treatment of the foliage and the expressive drawing of the tree-trunk and stems . collotype reproduction of another portion of the print shown on p. actual size, showing the expressive use of line in the drawing of the distant forms . collotype reproduction of a colour print by hiroshigÉ . collotype reproduction of a portion (actual size) of the print on the preceding page, showing treatment of tree forms and distance . collotype reproduction of a colour print by hiroshigÉ . collotype reproduction of a portion, actual size, of the print on the preceding page, showing treatment of tree and blossom . the tiger. collotype reproduction of a colour print by j. d. batten . lapwings. collotype reproduction of a colour print by a. w. seaby errata page .--for "bamboo-sheath" read "bamboo leaf". " .--in last paragraph, delete "the inside of". " .--third line from bottom, after "occasionally" insert "when printing". wood-block printing by the japanese method chapter i _introductory_ introduction and description of the origins of wood-block printing; its uses for personal artistic expression, for reproduction of decorative designs, and as a fundamental training for students of printed decoration. the few wood-block prints shown from time to time by the society of graver printers in colour, and the occasional appearance of a wood-block print in the graver section of the international society's exhibitions, or in those of the society of arts and crafts, are the outcome of the experiments of a small group of english artists in making prints by the japanese method, or by methods based on the japanese practice. my interest was first drawn in to experiments that were being made by mr. j. d. batten, who for two years previously had attempted, and partially succeeded in making, a print from wood and metal blocks with colour mixed with glycerine and dextrine, the glycerine being afterwards removed by washing the prints in alcohol. as the japanese method seemed to promise greater advantages and simplicity, we began experiments together, using as our text-book the pamphlet by t. tokuno, published by the smithsonian institution, washington, and the dextrine and glycerine method was soon abandoned. the edition of prints, however, of eve and the serpent designed by j. d. batten, printed by myself and published at that time, was produced partly by the earlier method and partly in the simpler japanese way. familiar as everyone is with japanese prints, it is not generally known that they are produced by means of an extremely simple craft. no machinery is required, but only a few tools for cutting the designs on the surface of the planks of cherry wood from which the impressions are taken. no press is used, but a round flat pad, which is rubbed on the back of the print as it lies on the blocks. the colours are mixed with water and paste made from rice flour. the details of the craft and photographs of the tools were given in full in the smithsonian institution pamphlet already mentioned. it is slow and unsatisfactory work, however, learning manipulation from a book, and several technical difficulties that seemed insurmountable were made clear by the chance discovery in london of a japanese printseller who, although not a printer, was sufficiently familiar with the work to give some invaluable hints and demonstrations. further encouragement was given to the work by the institution, a little later, of a class in wood-cuts in colour under my charge, at the l.c.c. central school of arts and crafts, which for several years became the chief centre of the movement. such are the bare historical facts of the development in our country of this craft imported from the far east. on a merely superficial acquaintance the japanese craft of block-printing may appear to be no more than a primitive though delicate form of colour reproduction, which modern mechanical methods have long superseded, even in the land of its invention; and that to study so limited a mode of expression would be hardly of any practical value to an artist. moreover, the craft is under the disadvantage that all the stages of the work, from making the first design to taking the final impressions, must be done by the artist himself--work which includes the delicate cutting of line and planning of colour blocks, and the preparation of colour and paper. in japan there were trained craftsmen expert in each of these branches of the craft, and each carried out his part under the supervision of the artist. no part but the design was done by him. so that the very character of the work has an essential difference. under our present conditions the artist must undertake the whole craft, with all its detail. [illustration: plate ii.--key-block of the print shown on the frontispiece. (the portion of wood lying outside the points of the mass of foliage is left standing to support the paper, but is not inked in printing.) (_to face page ._)] simple as the process is, there is, from first to last, a long labour involved in planning, cutting and printing, before a satisfactory batch of prints is produced. after several attempts in delegating printing to well-trained pupils i have found it impossible to obtain the best results by that means, but the cutting of the colour-blocks and the clearing of the key-block after the first cutting of the line may well be done by assistant craftsmen. a larger demand for the prints might bring about a commercial development of the work, and the consequent employment of trained craftsmen or craftswomen, but the result would be a different one from that which has been obtained by the artists who are willing to undertake the whole production of their work. the actual value of wood-block prints for use as decoration is a matter of personal taste and experience. in my own opinion there is an element that always remains foreign in the prints of the japanese masters, yet i know of no other kind of art that has the same telling value on a wall, or the same decorative charm in modern domestic rooms as the wood-block print. a single print well placed in a room of quiet colour will enrich and dominate a whole wall. the modern vogue still favours more expensive although less decorative forms of art, or works of reproduction without colour, yet here is an art available to all who care for expressive design and colour, and within the means of the large public to whom the cost of pictures is prohibitive. in its possibility as a decorative means of expression well suited to our modern needs and uses, and in the particular charm that colour has when printed from wood on a paper that is beautiful already by its own quality, there is no doubt of the scope and opportunity offered by this art. but as with new wine and old bottles, a new condition of simplicity in furniture and of pure colour in decoration must first be established. a wood-block print will not tell well amid a wilderness of bric-à-brac or on a gaudy wall-paper. from another and quite different point of view, the art of block-cutting and colour-printing has, however, a special and important value. to any student of pictorial art, especially to any who may wish to design for modern printed decoration, no work gives such instruction in economy of design, in the resources of line and its expressive development, and in the use and behaviour of colour. this has been the expressed opinion of many who have undertaken a course of wood-block printing for this object alone. the same opinion is emphatically stated by professor emil orlik, whose prints are well known in modern exhibitions. on the occasion of a visit to the kunstgewerbeschule of berlin, i found him conducting a class for designers for printed decoration, in which the japanese craft of block-printing was made the basis of their training. he held to the view that the primitive craft teaches the students the very economy and simplicity upon which the successful use of the great modern resources of colour-printing depend, yet which cannot be learnt except by recourse to simpler conditions and more narrow limitations before dealing with the greater scope of the machine. my own experience also convinces me that whatever may be the ultimate value of the eastern craft to our artists as a mode of personal expression, there is no doubt of its effect and usefulness in training students to design with economy and simplicity for modern printing processes. chapter ii general description of the operation of printing from a set of blocks the early stages of any craft are more interesting when we are familiar with the final result. for this reason it is often an advantage to begin at the end. to see a few impressions taken from a set of blocks in colour printing, or to print them oneself, gives the best possible idea of the quality and essential character of print-making. so also in describing the work it will perhaps tend to make the various stages clearer if the final act of printing is first explained. the most striking characteristic of this craft is the primitive simplicity of the act of printing. no press is required, and no machinery. a block is laid flat on the table with its cut surface uppermost, and is kept steady by a small wad of damp paper placed under each corner. a pile of paper slightly damped ready for printing lies within reach just beyond the wood-block, so that the printer may easily lift the paper sheet by sheet on to the block as it is required. it is the practice in japan to work squatting on the floor, with the blocks and tools also on the floor in front of the craftsman. our own habit of working at a table is less simple, but has some advantages. one practice or habit of the japanese is, however, to be followed with particular care. no description can give quite fully the sense of extreme orderliness and careful deliberation of their work. everything is placed where it will be most convenient for use, and this orderliness is preserved throughout the day's work. their shapely tools and vessels are handled with a deftness that shames our clumsy ways, and everything that they use is kept quite clean. this skilful orderliness is essential to fine craftmanship, and is a sign of mastery. the arrangement of tools and vessels on a work-table may be as the accompanying plan shows: [illustration: fig. .--plan of work-table. a. block. b. sheets of damped paper lying on a board. c. second board lifted from b. d. brushes lying on a strip of wood. e. white plate or dish containing colour. f. saucer containing paste of rice-flour. g. baren, or printing pad, lying on a sheet of paper slightly oiled with sweet oil and tacked to the table. h. deep bowl of water and brush for moistening the damping sheets. i. saucer of water for use in printing. j. sponge.] when printing on a table arranged in this way the board lying on the sheets of damped paper at b is first lifted off and placed at c to receive the sheets as they are done. if the block a is quite dry, it is thoroughly moistened with a damp sponge and wiped. the colour from a saucer, e, is then brushed over the printing surface thinly, and a trace of paste taken from f is also brushed into the colour. (this is best done after the colour is roughly spread on the block.) the brush is laid down in its place, d, and the top sheet of paper from the pile is immediately lifted to its register marks (notches to keep the paper in its place) on the block. the manner of holding the paper is shown on page . this must be done deftly, and it is important to waste no time, as the colour would soon dry on the exposed block and print badly. pressure is then applied to the back of the paper as it lies on the wet block. this is done by a round pad called the _baren_ by the japanese. it is made of a coil of cord covered by bamboo sheath as shown later on page . the pad is rubbed by hand with considerable pressure, moving transversely forwards and backwards across the block, working from the left to the right. once all over the block should be enough. the paper is then lifted off and laid face upwards on the board at c. the block is then re-charged with colour for another impression, and the whole operation repeated as many times as there are sheets to be printed. [illustration: plate iii. the baren, or printing pad. (the pad is actually inches in diameter.) (_to face page ._)] when this is done all the sheets will have received a single impression, which may be either a patch of colour or an impression in line of part of the design of the print. the block a is then removed, cleaned, and put away; and the block for the second impression put in its place. it is usual to print the line or key-block of a design first, as one is then able to detect faulty registering or imperfect fitting of the blocks and to correct them at once. but there are cases in which a gradated tone, such as a sky, may need to be printed before the line block. the complete design of a print may require several blocks for colour as well as the key block which prints the line. the impressions from all these blocks may be printed one after another without waiting for the colour on the paper to dry. as soon as the batch of damped sheets has been passed over the first block, the sheets are replaced at b between boards, and, if necessary, damped again by means of damping sheets (as described later in chapter v) ready for the next impression, which may be proceeded with at once without fear of the colour running. it is a remarkable fact that patches of wet colour which touch one another do not run if properly printed. for the second printing fresh colour is prepared and clean paste, and the printing proceeds as already described, care being taken to watch the proper registering or fitting of each impression to its place in the design. there are many niceties and details to be observed in the printing of both line and colour blocks. these are given in special chapters following. this description of the main action of printing will be of use in giving a general idea of the final operation before the details of the preliminary stages are described. chapter iii description of the materials and tools required for block-cutting the wood most commonly used by the japanese for their printing-blocks is a cherry wood very similar to that grown in england. the canadian cherry wood, which is more easily obtained than english cherry, is of too open a grain to be of use. the more slowly grown english wood has a closer grain and is the best for all the purposes of block cutting and printing. well-seasoned planks should be obtained and kept ready for cutting up as may be required. when a set of blocks is to be cut for a given design, the size of the printing surface of each block should be made equal to the size of the design plus inch or, for large prints, - / inch in addition long ways, and / or / inch crossways. the thickness of the plank need not be more than / or / inch. it is best for the protection of the surfaces of the printing blocks and to prevent warping, also for convenience in storing and handling them, to fix across each end a piece of wood slightly thicker than the plank itself. these cross-ends should be mounted as shown in fig. . [illustration: fig. .--block mounted with cross ends to prevent warping.] both surfaces of the plank should be planed smooth and then finished with a steel scraper, but not touched with sand-paper. it is understood that the face of the plank is used for the printing surface, and not the end of the grain as in blocks for modern wood engraving. the tools needed for cutting the blocks are the following: . the knife [illustration: fig. .--drawing of the knife.] with this knife the most important and delicate work is done. all the lines of the key-block as well as the boundaries of the colour masses are cut with it, before the removal of intervening spaces. the blade lies in a slot and is held tight by the tapered ferrule. this can be pulled off by hand and the blade lengthened by pulling it forward in the slot. . chisels these are used for removing the wood between the cut lines or colour masses, and should be ordinary carvers' chisels of the following sizes: [illustration: fig. .--sizes of chisels.] except those under no. , which are short-handled chisels for small work. the japanese toolmakers fit these small chisels into a split handle as shown in fig. . the blade is held tightly in its place by the tapered ferrule when the handle is closed, or can be lengthened by opening the handle and pulling forward the blade in its slot. in this way the blade can be used down to its last inch. . mallet this is needed for driving the larger chisels. [illustration: fig. .--short chisel in split handle.] [illustration: fig. .--mallet.] these are all the tools that are needed for block cutting. for keeping them in order it is well to have oilstones of three grades: . a carborundum stone for rapidly re-covering the shape of a chipped or blunt tool. . a good ordinary oil stone. . a hard stone for keeping a fine edge on the knife in cutting line blocks. the american "washita" stone is good for this purpose. [illustration: plate iv. colour block of a print of which the key-block is shown on page .] (_to face page ._) chapter iv block cutting and the planning of blocks the cutting of a line block needs patience and care and skill, but it is not the most difficult part of print making, nor is it so hopeless an enterprise as it seems at first to one who has not tried to use the block-cutter's knife. in japan this work is a highly specialised craft, never undertaken by the artist himself, but carried out by skilled craftsmen who only do this part of the work of making colour prints. even the clearing of the spaces between the cut lines is done by assistant craftsmen or craftswomen. the exquisite perfection of the cutting of the lines in the finest of the japanese prints, as, for instance, the profile of a face in a design by outamaro, has required the special training and tradition of generations of craftsmen. the knife, however, is not a difficult weapon to an artist who has hands and a trained sense of form. in carrying out his own work, moreover, he may express a quality that is of greater value even than technical perfection. at present we have no craftsmen ready for this work--nor could our designs be safely trusted to the interpretation of japanese block-cutters. until we train craftsmen among ourselves we must therefore continue to cut our own blocks. cutting a set of blocks consists of a key-block and several colour blocks. the block that must be cut first is that which prints the line or "key" of the design. by means of impressions from this key-block the various other blocks for printing the coloured portions of the design are cut. the key-block is the most important of the set of blocks and contains the essential part of the design. a drawing of that part of the design which is to be cut on the key-block should first be made. this is done on the thinnest of japanese tissue paper in black indelible ink. the drawing is then pasted face downward on the prepared first block with good starch paste. it is best to lay the drawing flat on its back upon a pad of a few sheets of paper of about the same size, and to rub the paste on the surface of the block, not on the paper. the block is now laid down firmly with its pasted side on the drawing, which at once adheres to the block. next turn the block over and lay a dry sheet of paper over the damp drawing so as to protect it, and with the baren, or printing rubber, rub the drawing flat, and well on to the block all over. the drawing should then be allowed to dry thoroughly on the block. with regard to the design of the key block, it is a common mistake to treat this as a drawing only of outlines of the forms of the print. much modern so-called decorative printing has been weak in this respect. a flat, characterless line, with no more expression than a bent gaspipe, is often printed round the forms of a design, followed by printings of flat colour, the whole resulting in a travesty of "flat" decorative treatment. the key design should be a skeleton of all the forms of a print, expressing much more than mere exterior boundaries. it may so suggest form that although the colour be printed by a flat tint the result is not flat. when one is unconscious of any flatness in the final effect, though the result is obtained by flat printing, then the proper use of flat treatment has been made. the affectation of flatness in inferior colour printing and poster work is due to a misapprehension of the true principle of flat treatment. [illustration: plate v. impression (nearly actual size) of a portion of a japanese wood block showing great variety in the character of the lines and spots suggesting form.] (_to face page ._) as an illustration of the great variety of form that may be expressed by the key-block, a reproduction is given (page ) of an impression from a japanese key-block. it will be seen that the lines and spots express much more than boundaries of form. in the case of the lighter tree foliage the boundaries are left to be determined entirely by the subsequent colour blocks, and only the interior form or character of the foliage is suggested. the quality or kind of line, too, varies with the thing expressed, whether tree, rock, sea, or the little ship. the design, too, is in itself beautiful and gives the essential form of the entire print. the study of the drawing of any of the key-blocks of the japanese masters will reveal their wonderful power and resource in the suggestion of essential form by black lines, spots, and masses of one uniform tint of black or grey. the development of this kind of expressive drawing is most important to the designer of printed decoration, whether by wood blocks, or lithography, or any other printing process. other good types of drawing for the purposes of key-blocks in wood are given on plate v facing page and plate xvi p. iii in appendix. when the key-block with its design pasted upon it is thoroughly dry, a little sweet oil should be rubbed with the finger at that part where the cutting is to begin, so as to make the paper transparent and the black line quite clear. in order to keep the block from moving on the work-table, there should be fixed one or two strips of wood screwed down, to act as stops in case the block tends to slip, but the block should lie freely on the table, so that it may be easily turned round during the cutting when necessary. one should, however, learn to use the cutting knife in all directions, and to move the block as little as possible. the knife is held and guided by the right hand, but is pushed along by the middle finger of the left hand placed at the back of the blade, close down near the point. the left hand should be generally flat on the work-table, palm down, and the nail of the middle finger must be kept short. this position is shown (fig. ) on p. . the flat side of the knife should always be against the line to be cut. sometimes it is convenient to drive the knife from right to left, but in this case the pressure is given by the right hand, and the left middle finger is used to check and steady the knife, the finger being pressed against the knife just above the cutting edge. a good position for cutting a long straight line towards oneself on the block is shown below (fig. ). the left hand is on its side, and the middle finger is hooked round and pulls the knife while the right hand guides it. in all cases the middle finger of the left hand pushes or steadies the knife, or acts as a fulcrum. [illustration: fig. .--position of the hands in using the knife.] a beginner with the knife usually applies too much pressure or is apt to put the left finger at a point too high up on the blade, where it loses its control. the finger should be as close down to the wood as possible, where its control is most effective. a small piece of india-rubber tubing round the knife blade helps to protect the finger. [illustration: fig. .--another position of the hands in using the knife.] with practice the knife soon becomes an easy and a very precise tool, capable of great expressiveness in drawing. bear in mind that both sides of a line are drawn by the knife. the special power of developing the expressive form of line _on both sides_ is a resource tending to great development of drawing in designs for wood-block prints. the line may be of varying form, changing from silhouette to pure line as may best serve to express the design. it should never be a mere diagram. [illustration: plate vi. reproduction of an impression (reduced) of the key-block of a japanese print showing admirable variety in the means used to suggest form. (_to face page ._)] the actual cutting proceeds as follows: starting at some point where the surface of the key-block design has been oiled and made distinct, a shallow cut is made along one side of any form in the design, with the knife held slanting so that the cut slants away from the edge of the form. a second outer parallel cut is then made with the knife held slanting in the opposite direction from the first, so that the two cuts together make a v-shaped trench all along the line of the form. the little strip of wood cut out should detach itself as the second cut is made, and should not need any picking out or further cutting if the first two cuts are cleanly made. this shallow v-shaped trench is continued all round the masses and along both sides of all the lines of the design. no clearing of the intervening spaces should be attempted until this is done. it will be seen at once that the v-shaped cuts give great strength to the printing lines, so that a quite fine line between two cuts may have a strong, broad base (fig. ). the depth of the cut would be slightly shallower than that shown in this diagram. in cutting fine line work a cut is first made a little beyond the line, then the cut is made on the line itself (fig. ). [illustration: fig. .--knife cuts in section.] [illustration: fig. .--diagram of knife cuts.] where a very fine line is to be cut, especially if it is on a curve, the outer cut of the v trench should be made first, and then that which touches the line: there is thus less disturbance of the wood, and less danger of injuring the edge of the line. when the v cut has been made outside all the lines, one proceeds to clear the intervening spaces between the lines of the design by taking tool no. (fig. ). the large spaces should be cleared first. the safest and quickest way is to make a small gouge cut with no. round all the large spaces close up to the first cut, then, with one of the shallower chisels, nos. , , or (fig. ), and the mallet, clear out the wood between the gouge cuts. for all shallow cuts where the mallet is not needed, the japanese hold the chisels as shown in fig. . with practice this will be found a very convenient and steady grip for the right hand. it has also the advantage that the chisel can be held against the centre of the body and exactly under one's eyes. in the diagram (fig. ), if the wood from a to a is to be cleared away, gouge cuts are made at _b_ and _b_ , then the space between _b_ and _b_ may be quickly cleared without risk to the edge of the form at a. when this rough work is done the little ridge between a and _b_ may be cleared with small round or flat tools, as is most convenient. but this final clearing should not be done until all the large spaces are roughed out. [illustration: fig. .--method of holding gouge.] [illustration: fig. .--clearing of wood between knife cuts.] the depth to which the spaces must be cleared will depend on their width, as, in printing, the paper will sag more deeply in a wide space than in a narrow one. in spaces of half an inch the depth of the first v-cuts is sufficient, but the proportionate depth is about that of the diagram above. the small spaces are cleared by means of small flat or round chisels without the mallet or the preliminary gouge cut: this is only needed where a large space has to be cleared. there remain now only the placing and cutting of the two register marks or notches for controlling the position of the paper in printing. these are placed relatively to the design as shown in fig. . the corner of the print fits into the notch at a, and one edge of the print lies against the straight notch at b. the register marks may be even closer to the space covered by the design, but must not actually touch it, as some margin of paper is necessary in printing: they should also be cut always on the long side of the printing block. it will be seen from the drawing on page that these register marks correspond to the position of the thumb of each hand in laying the paper on the block for printing. [illustration: fig. .--position of register marks.] [illustration: fig. .--register marks.] the corner mark, abc, is made by cutting from a to b and b to c, with the knife held perpendicularly, and its flat side against the line, then the shaded portion is cut with a flat chisel, sloping from the surface of the block at ac to a depth of about / inch along ab and bc. the straight notch, ef, is similarly cut, first with a perpendicular knife along ef, and then the shaded portion is chiselled sloping down to the line ef. [illustration: fig. .--register marks (section of).] in section the two register marks would be as above. the register marks must be smoothly and evenly cut so that the paper, in printing, may slide easily home to its exact place. when the design of the key-block and the two register marks have been cut and cleared, the trace of paper and paste on the uncut parts of the wood should be carefully washed off with a piece of sponge and warm water. the block is then finished and ready for use. the key-block, however, is only one of the set of blocks required for a print in colour, but the colour blocks are simpler and require, as a rule, far less labour. the colour blocks are planned and established by means of impressions taken from the key-block. for this purpose the register marks are inked[ ] for printing as well as the design on the block, and the impressions must include both. these impressions are taken on thin japanese paper, but not necessarily the thinnest tissue. if the thinnest is used, it should be pasted at the corners to a sheet of stiffer paper for convenience in handling. [ ] the preparation of the ink for printing is described on p. . it is then a fairly simple matter to take one of these key-block impressions and to make a plan of the various colour-blocks that will be required. these should obviously be as few as possible. it is not necessary to provide an entire block for each patch of colour, but only the extent of surface required for each coloured portion of the print, as well as for its pair of register marks. patches of different colour that are not adjacent to one another on the design of the print may be cut on the same block, provided they are not too close for free colouring of the block in printing. each block also may be cut on both sides, so that there is considerable scope for economy in the arranging and planning of the colour blocks. when the arrangement of the plan of colour has been simplified as far as possible, a new block is prepared as described above, and a sheet of thin japanese paper (unsized) is cut large enough to cover the print design and its register marks. the clean surface of the new block is covered thinly with starch paste well rubbed into the grain, and while this is still wet an impression on the sheet of thin japanese paper is taken of the entire key-block, including its register marks in black, and laid before it is dry face downward on the pasted surface of the new block. this should be done as already described on page . it should be rubbed flat with the printing pad and left to dry. this operation requires careful handling, but it should be done easily and methodically, without any hurry. each side of the set of colour planks should be treated in the same way--a thin impression of the key-block and its register marks being laid upon each. it is advisable to paste down a freshly taken impression, each time, while the ink is still moist, for if these are allowed to dry, the shrinking of the paper causes errors of register. when these new blocks are dry, the patch of colour to be cut on each surface should be clearly indicated by a thin wash of diluted ink or colour, but not so as to hide the printed key line. the blocks may then be cut. a v-shaped cut is made round each form, as in the case of the key-block, and the clearing proceeds in the same way, but it is only necessary to clear a space of about an inch round each form: the rest of the wood should be left standing. a section of the printing surface of a colour block would be as follows: [illustration: fig. .--section of colour-block. a. colour mass. b. depression. c. surface of plank.] when the register marks corresponding to these colour forms have also been cut, and the paper washed off the blocks, the clear spaces may be used for pasting down new key impressions for the smaller colour patches and their corresponding register marks. in this way one side of a colour plank may contain several different colour forms and sets of register marks. as a rule the different colour patches would be printed separately, though in some cases two colours may be printed at one impression if they are small and have the same register marks. when the blocks have been cut and cleared it is advisable to smooth with sand-paper the edge of the depression where it meets the uncut surface of the wood, otherwise this edge, if at all sharp, will mark the print. for any particulars about which one may be in doubt, the sets of blocks at south kensington museum or in the print room at the british museum are available for examination. in one of the sets at the british museum it is interesting to see the temporary corrections that have been made in the register marks during printing by means of little wooden plugs stuck into the register notches. in nearly all cases the japanese blocks were made of cherry wood, but planks of box are said to have been occasionally used for very fine work. errors of register however exactly the register marks may be cut in a new set of blocks, very puzzling errors occasionally arise while printing, especially if the planks are of thin wood. some of the blocks are necessarily printed drier than others. for instance, the key-block is printed with a very small amount of ink and paste. other blocks may be even drier, such as the blocks which print small forms or details in a design. the blocks, however, which are used for large masses of colour, or for gradated tones, are moistened over the whole or a large part of the surface of the block, and if the wood is thin, and not well mounted across the ends, the block soon expands sufficiently to throw the register out. if the block is not mounted across the ends there will also be a tendency to warp, and this will add to the errors of register. but if the blocks are of fairly thick wood, and well mounted, the register will remain very exact indeed. usually the key-block is printed first. if the subsequent blocks are not in exact register the error is noticeable at once, and slight adjustments may be made for its correction. but in cases where the key-block is printed last (as sometimes is necessary) each colour block must be tested before a batch of prints is passed over it. for this purpose the first few prints of every batch should receive a faint impression of the key-block, so that the register of the colour impression may be verified before proceeding with the whole batch. if these precautions are taken, and the entire set of blocks kept as nearly as possible in the same conditions of dryness or moisture, all difficulties of register in printing will be easily overcome. when cutting a new set of blocks there is another possible source of error which needs to be carefully guarded against. most of the work in designing a new print is necessarily spent in planning and cutting the key-block, which may occupy a considerable time, especially if other work has to be carried on as well. if new wood is used, or wood that has not been seasoned long indoors, it will dry and contract considerably across the grain before the work is finished. then, if newer planks are prepared and cut up for the colour blocks, and impressions from the key-block are pasted down on them for cutting, it will be found that, as the newer wood of the colour-blocks goes on drying, it will shrink out of register, and the colour impressions will not fit the line perfectly. it is easy to fall into this difficulty, but there is no danger of it if the planks from which the key-block and the colour-blocks are cut are all equally seasoned and are in the same condition. chapter v preparation of paper, ink, colour, and paste for printing paper the paper made by the japanese from the inner bark of young shoots of the mulberry and certain other plants of similar fibre is beyond all others the best for wood-block printing. it is in itself a very remarkable material, and is used in japan for a great variety of purposes, on account of the strength and toughness due to its long silky fibre. paper of good quality for printing may be obtained directly from japan, or through trading agents dealing with japan. a case of five reams would be the smallest quantity obtainable directly, but it is by far the cheapest and most satisfactory way of buying it. in smaller quantities the paper is obtainable through many of the dealers in artists' materials. several kinds of this paper are made, but unsized sheets of a quality similar to the print on page , and a thin japanese tissue paper are the two kinds required for printing in colour. in its unsized state the paper is too absorbent for use, and it should be sized freshly as needed for work. this is done by brushing a thin solution of gelatine over the smooth surface of the sheets of paper. a drawing-board rather larger than the sheets of paper, placed as shown in fig. , with its lower edge resting on a basin of warm size, will be found a convenient arrangement. [illustration: plate vii. impression of a portion of detail from a japanese woodblock (very nearly actual size). (_to face page ._)] the sheet gelatine sold by grocers for cooking makes an excellent size. six of the thin sheets to a pint of water is a good strength.[ ] the gelatine is dissolved in hot water, but should not be boiled, as that partially destroys the size. when dissolved, a little powdered alum is also stirred in, about as much as will lie on a shilling to a pint of water. the addition of the alum is important, as it acts as a mordant and helps to make a better colour impression. [ ] see also p. . [illustration: fig. .--drawing of sizing of paper.] in applying the size to the paper a four-inch broad flat paste brush is used. the paper is laid on the slanting board and the size brushed backward and forward across the paper from the upper end downward. care must be taken not to make creases in the paper, as these become permanent. to avoid this the lower end of the sheet may be held with the left hand and raised when necessary as the brush passes downwards. the waste size will run down to the basin, but the paper need not be flooded, nor should its surface be brushed unnecessarily, but it must be fully and evenly charged with size. the sheet is then picked up by the two upper corners (which may conveniently be kept unsized) and pinned at each corner over a cord stretched across the workroom. the sheets are left hanging until they are dry. the japanese lay the paper on the cord, letting the two halves of the sheet hang down equally on either side. the process of sizing and drying the sheets of paper is illustrated in a print shown in the collection at the south kensington museum. when the paper is quite dry it is taken down, and if required at once for printing should be cut up into sheets of the size required, with sufficient margin allowed to reach the register marks. it is best to cut a gauge or pattern in cardboard for use in cutting the sheets to a uniform size. a few sheets of unsized paper are needed as damping sheets, one being used to every three printing sheets. the damping sheets should be cut at least an inch wider and longer than the printing sheets. two wooden boards are also required. the sheets of printing paper are kept between these while damping before work. to prepare for work, a damping sheet is taken and brushed over evenly with water with a broad brush (like that used for sizing). the sheet must not be soaked, but made thoroughly moist, evenly all over. it is then laid on one of the two boards, and on it, with the printing side (the smoother side) downward, are laid three of the sized sheets of printing paper. on these another moist damping sheet is laid, and again three dry sheets of printing paper, face downwards, and so on alternately to the number of sheets of the batch to be printed. a board is placed on the top of the pile. the number of prints to be attempted at one printing will vary with the kind of work and with the printer's experience. the printing may be continued during three days, but if the paper is kept damp longer, there is danger of mould and spotting. with work requiring delicate gradation of colour and many separate block impressions twenty or thirty sheets will be found sufficient for three days' hard work. the professional printers of japan, however, print batches of two hundred and three hundred prints at a time, but in that case the work must become largely mechanical.[ ] [ ] see chapter xiii for further experience on this point. the batch of paper and damping sheets should remain between the boards for at least half an hour when new sheets are being damped for the first time. the damping sheets, all but the top and bottom ones, should then be removed and the printing sheets left together between the boards for some time before printing. an hour improves their condition very much, the moisture spreading equally throughout the batch of sheets. before printing they should be quite flat and soft, but scarcely moist to the touch. if the sheets are new, they may even be left standing all night after the first damping, and will be in perfect condition for printing in the morning without further damping. no weight should be placed on the boards. although no paper has hitherto been found that will take so perfect an impression from colour-blocks as the long-fibred japanese paper, yet it should be the aim of all craftsmen to become independent of foreign materials as far as possible. there is no doubt that our paper-makers should be able to produce a paper of good quality sufficiently absorbent to take colour from the wet block and yet tough enough to bear handling when slightly damp. if a short-fibred paper is made without size, it comes to pieces when it is damped for printing. but the amount of absorbency required is not so great as to preclude the use of size altogether. it is a problem which our paper-makers could surely solve. a soft, slightly absorbent, white paper is required. at present nothing has been produced to take the place of the long mulberry fibre of the japanese, which prints perfectly, but it is far from being pure white in colour. a white paper would have a great advantage in printing high and delicate colour schemes. ink next in importance is the preparation of the ink for printing the key-block or any black or grey parts of a design. as a rule the key-block is printed black, more or less diluted with paste; indeed the key-block is often printed very faintly by means of paste only just tinged with a trace of black. the use of colour for the key-block is treated in chapter vii. the ink is prepared as follows. take a stick of solid chinese ink of good quality, and break it with a hammer into fragments; put these to soak in a pot with water for three or four days. (the quality of the sticks of chinese ink varies greatly. the cheap sticks make a coarse and gritty ink which does not print well.) day by day pour off the water, adding fresh, so that the glue that soaks out of the softened black fragments is removed. three days is usually long enough for this. if left too long the whole mass goes bad and is spoiled. when the black mass is soft and clean drain off the water and rub the ink smooth in a dish with a bone palette knife. it is then ready for use, but would rapidly go bad if not used up at once, so that a preservative is necessary to keep a stock of ink in good condition. an effective method is to put the ink at once into a well-corked, wide-mouthed bottle. to the under side of the cork is nailed a little wad of unsized paper soaked with creosote. by this means ink can be kept in perfect condition for weeks or months. a drop of fresh creosote should occasionally be put on the wad fixed to the cork. [illustration: fig. .--cork of ink-bottle with wad for preservative.] fresh ink may at any time be obtained rapidly in small quantities by rubbing down a stick of chinese ink on a slab in the ordinary way, but this is very laborious, and is only worth while if one needs a small quantity of a glossy black, for which the rubbed-down ink containing all its glue is the best. colour any colour that can be obtained in a fine dry powder may be used in wood-block printing. some artists have succeeded in using ordinary water colours sold in tubes, by mixing the colour with the rice paste before printing; but the best results are obtained by the use of pure, finely ground dry colour mixed only with water, the rice paste being added actually on the block. most of the artists' colour merchants supply colour by weight in the form of dry powder: any colour that is commonly used in oil or water-colour painting may be obtained in this state. a stock of useful colours should be kept in wide-necked bottles. a few shallow plates or small dishes are needed to hold colour and a bone or horn palette knife for mixing and rubbing the colour into a smooth paste in the dishes. small bone paper knives are useful for taking colour from the bottles. when the colour scheme of a print is made certain--and this is best done by printing small experimental batches--it is a good plan to have a number of covered pots equal to the number of the different colour impressions, and to fill these with a quantity of each tint, the colour or colours being mixed smoothly with water to the consistency of stiff cream. some colours will be found to print more smoothly and easily than others. yellow ochre, for instance, prints with perfect smoothness and ease, while heavier or more gritty colours tend to separate and are more difficult. in the case of a very heavy colour such as vermilion, a drop of glue solution will keep the colour smooth for printing, and less paste is necessary. but most colours will give good impressions by means of rice paste alone. it is essential, however, that only very finely ground colours of good quality should be used. paste a paste must be used with the colour in order to hold it on to the surface of the paper and to give brilliancy. the colour, if printed without paste, would dry to powder again. the paste also preserves the matt quality which is characteristic of the japanese prints. finely ground rice flour may be obtained from grocery dealers. an excellent french preparation of rice sold in packets as _crême de riz_ is perfect for the purpose of making paste for printing. it should be carefully made as follows: while half a pint of water is put to boil in a saucepan over a small spirit lamp or gas burner, mix in a cup about two teaspoonfuls of rice flour with water, added little by little until a smooth cream is made with no lumps in it. a bone spoon is good for this purpose. pour this mixture into the boiling water in the saucepan all at once, and stir well till it boils again, after which it should be left simmering over a small flame for five minutes. when the paste has cooled it should be smooth and almost fluid enough to pour: not stiff like a pudding. while printing, a little paste is put out in a saucer and replenished from time to time. fresh paste should be made every day. chapter vi detailed method of printing success in printing depends very much on care and orderliness. it is necessary to keep to a fixed arrangement of the position of everything on the work-table and to have all kept as clean as possible. to see the deft and unhurried work of a japanese craftsman at printing is a great lesson, and a reproach to western clumsiness. the positions indicated by the diagram on page will be found to be practical and convenient. the special tools used in printing are the "baren" or printing pad, which is the only instrument of pressure used, and the printing brushes. the baren or printing pad as made by the japanese, the baren is about five inches in diameter, and consists of a circular board upon which a flat coil of cord or twisted fibre is laid. this is held in place by a covering made of a strip of bamboo-sheath, the two ends of which are twisted and brought together at the back of the board so as to form a handle. the flat surface of the bamboo-sheath is on the under side of the pad when the handle is uppermost. the ribbed bamboo-sheath is impervious to the dampness of the paper in printing, and the pad may be used to rub and press directly on the back of the damp paper as it lies on the block without any protective backing sheet. the collotype reproduction facing page shows the shape and character of the baren. japanese printing pads may be obtained from some of the artists' colour-men, or from japan through various agencies. they are by far the best instrument for the purpose. a pad lasts a considerable time, and when the bamboo sheath wears through may be re-covered as described below. if the new bamboo sheath is unobtainable, the baren may be re-covered by a sheet of vegetable parchment (of the kind used for covering pots of jam), laid on when wet, and twisted and bound at the end like the original bamboo covering. a baren used and re-covered when worn will last for an indefinite time in this way. to re-cover a worn baren with bamboo sheath damp the new leaf in water with a brush on both sides thoroughly. wipe dry both sides. lay it on a flat surface and stretch wider with the fingers on the inside, keeping the leaf flat with the palm of the hand. rub the inside of the leaf with something hard and smooth across the width on both sides. . cut ag, bg with leaf folded. . place the round pad in position on the flat leaf. . stretch the leaf to lap at sides ef. . turn in ea and bf fold by fold, first one side and then the other. . pull hard before beginning the other end. [illustration: fig. .--method of re-covering baren.] . cut away ch, dh, holding down firmly the end done. . twist up the ends tightly, pull over to the centre, and tie tightly together; cut off ends. . polish on board and oil slightly. twist the inside part of the baren occasionally to save wear by changing its position within the sheath. several substitutes have been tried in place of the japanese baren, with coverings of leather, shark's skin, celluloid, and various other materials, but these necessitate the use of a backing sheet to protect the paper from their harsh surfaces. an ingenious rubber of ribbed glass which works directly on the paper has been devised by mr. william giles, who has produced beautiful results by its means. if one is using the japanese baren, its surface needs to be kept very slightly oiled to enable it to run freely over the damp paper. a pad of paper with a drop of sweet oil suffices for this, and may lie on the right of the printing block where the baren is put after each impression is taken. an even simpler method is that of the japanese craftsman who rubs the baren from time to time on the back of his head. brushes japanese printing brushes are sold by some artists' colour dealers, but these are not essential, nor have they any practical superiority over well-made western brushes. [illustration: fig. .--drawing of brushes.] an excellent type of brush is that made of black siberian bear hair for fine varnishing. these can be had from good brush-makers with the hair fixed so that it will stand soaking in water. drawings of the type of brush are given above. three or four are sufficient; one broad brush, about three inches, for large spaces, one two-inch, and two one-inch, will do nearly all that is needed. occasionally a smaller brush may be of use. printing to begin printing, one takes first the key-block, laying it upon a wet sheet of unsized paper, or upon wads of wet paper under each corner of the block, which will keep it quite steady on the work-table. a batch of sheets of printing paper, prepared and damped as described in chapter v, lies between boards just beyond the block. the pad lies close to the block at the right on oily paper pinned to the table. to the right also are a dish or plate on which a little ink is spread, the printing brush (broad for the key-block), a saucer containing fresh paste, a bowl of water, a small sponge, and a cloth. nothing else is needed, and it is best to keep the table clear of unnecessary pots or colour bottles. when these things are ready one should see that the paper is in a good state. it should be rather drier for a key-block than for other blocks, as a fine line will print thickly if the paper is too damp and soft. in fact, it can scarcely be too dry for the key-block, provided that it has become perfectly smooth, and is still flexible enough for complete contact with the block. but it must not be either dry or damp in patches. if the paper is all right, one lifts off the upper board and top damping sheet, placing them on the left, ready to receive the sheets when printed. the key-block, if quite dry, must be moistened with a damp sponge and then brushed over with the broad printing brush and ink. if a grey line is wanted the brush should be dipped in a little of the paste and scarcely touched with ink. for a pale grey line the key-block also must be well washed before printing. even if the line is to be black a little paste should be used. this is best added after one has brushed the black ink on to the block, not mixed with it beforehand. the ink and paste are then broken together smoothly and completely over the whole surface of the block. the last few brush strokes should be of the full length or breadth of the block and be given lightly with the brush held upright. the inking of the block must be thoroughly done, but with no more brushing than is necessary to spread the colour equally. when properly charged with ink the block should not be at all wet, but just covered with a very thin and nearly dry film of ink and paste. no time should be wasted in lifting the top sheet of printing paper on to the block, placing first its right corner in the register notch, and holding it there with the thumb, then the edge of the paper to the other notch, to be held with the left thumb while the right hand is released to take up the baren (fig. ). beginning at the left, the baren is rubbed backwards and forwards, a full stroke each time, to the outside limits of the block, with a moderate, even pressure, moving the stroke in a zigzag towards the right end of the block (fig. ). once over should be enough. a second rub makes heavy printing of the finer lines. then the paper is lifted from the block and placed on the board to the left. [illustration: fig. .--manner of holding the paper.] particular attention must be given to the careful placing of the paper home in the register notches, and to holding it there until the rubber has gripped the paper on the block. sheet by sheet all the printing paper is passed in this way over the key-block, and piled together. there is no fear of the ink offsetting or marking the print placed above it. as the work proceeds the block will give better and better impressions. spoiled or defective impressions should be put together at the top of the pile when it lies ready for the next printing, for the first few impressions are always uncertain, and it is well to use the defective prints as pioneers, so as not to spoil good ones. [illustration: fig. .--manner of using the baren.] when the block has been printed on the whole batch, the sheets should be replaced at once between the boards before one prepares for the colour impressions. usually the paper will be too dry for colour by this time: if this is so, the damping sheets should be moistened and put in again as before; one to each three printing sheets. in a minute or two they will have damped the paper sufficiently and must be taken out, leaving the printing sheets to stand, between the boards, ready for the first colour-block. printing from colour-blocks in printing colour the paper may be slightly damper than it should be for key-block impressions, and a heavier pressure is necessary on the baren if the colour masses are large. if the baren is pressed lightly the colour will not completely cover the paper, but will leave a dry, granular texture. occasionally this quality may be useful, but as a rule a smooth, evenly printed surface is best. it will be found that smooth, even printing is not obtained by loading the block with colour or paste, but by using the least possible quantity of both, and nearly dry paper. in beginning to print from a colour-block, care should be taken to moisten the block fully before printing, or it will not yield the colour from its surface; but the block must be wiped, and not used while actually wet. the printing proceeds exactly as in the case of the key-block, except for the heavier use of the baren. the paste should be added after the colour has been roughly brushed on to the block, and then the two are smoothly brushed together. the japanese printers put the paste on to the block by means of a little stick kept in the dish of paste. experience will soon show the amount of paste needed. it is important neither to add too much nor to stint the paste, as the colour when dry depends on the paste for its quality. too little paste gives a dead effect. some of the colours print more easily than others. with a sticky colour it is well to wipe the block with a nearly dry sponge between each impression, so that the wood gives up its colour more readily. in the case of a very heavy colour such as vermilion a drop of glue and water may help; but with practically all the colours that are generally used the rice paste and careful printing are enough. the amount of size in the paper is another important factor in the printing of colour. if the paper is too lightly sized the fibres will detach themselves and stick to the damp block. or if too heavily sized the paper will not take up the colour cleanly from the block, and will look hard when dry. one very soon feels instinctively the right quality and condition of the block, colour, and paper which are essential to good printing; and to print well one must become sensitive to them. printing of gradations beside the printing of flat masses of colour, one of the great resources of block printing is in the power of delicate gradation in printing. the simplest way of making a gradation from strong to pale colour is to dip one corner of a broad brush into the colour and the other corner into water so that the water just runs into the colour: then, by squeezing the whole width of the brush broadly between the thumb and forefinger so that most of the water is squeezed out, the brush is left charged with a tint gradated from side to side. the brush is then dipped lightly into paste along its whole edge, and brushed a few times to and fro across the block where the gradation is needed. it is easy in this way to print a very delicately gradated tint from full colour to white. if the pale edge of the tint is to disappear, the block should be moistened along the surface with a sponge where the colour is to cease. a soft edge may be given to a tint with a brush ordinarily charged if the block is moistened with a clean sponge at the part where the tint is to cease. this effect is often seen at the top of the sky in a japanese landscape print where a dark blue band of colour is printed with a soft edge suddenly gradated to white, or sometimes the plumage of birds is printed with sudden gradations. in fact, the method may be developed in all kinds of ways. often it is an advantage to print a gradation and then a flat tone over the gradation in a second printing. offsetting no care need be taken to prevent "offsetting" of the colour while printing. the prints may be piled on the top of each other immediately as they are lifted from the block, without fear of offsetting or marking each other. only an excessive use of colour, or the leaving of heavy ridges of colour at the edges of the block by careless brushing, will sometimes mark the next print on the pile. as in printing the key-block, it is well to hold the brush quite upright for the last strokes across the block, and always to give a full stroke across the whole length or width of the form to be coloured. as soon as one colour-block has been printed, the next may be taken and printed at once, without fear of the colour running, even though the fresh colour touches the parts already printed. one by one each colour-block is printed in this way until the batch of paper has been passed over the whole set of blocks composing the design of the print. there may sometimes be an advantage in not printing the key-block first, though as a rule it should come first for the sake of keeping the later blocks in proper register. if the key-block is not printed one cannot see how the colour-blocks are fitting. but in the case of a sky with perhaps two or even three printings--a gradation and a flat tone or two gradations--there is danger of blurring the lines of the key-block, so that in such a case the sky should be printed first, and then the key-block followed by the remaining colour-blocks. at the end of a day's printing the prints may quite safely be left standing together between the boards until the next day. for three days the damp paper comes to no harm, except in hot weather, but on the fourth day little red spots of mould begin to show and spread. it should be remembered that freshly boiled paste is to be used each day. drying of prints when the prints are finished they should be put to dry as soon as possible. if they are spread out and left exposed to the air they will soon dry, but in drying will cockle, and cannot then be easily pressed flat. it is better to have a number of mill-boards or absorbent "pulp" boards rather larger than the prints, and to pile the prints and boards alternately one by one, placing a weight on the top of the pile. the absorbent boards will rapidly dry the prints and keep them quite flat. finished prints should be numbered for reference, and should, if printed by the artist himself, also bear his signature --or some printed sign to that effect. the number of prints obtainable from a set of blocks is difficult to estimate. the japanese printers are said to have made editions of several thousands from single sets of blocks. the actual wear in printing even of a fine line block is imperceptible, for the pressure is very slight. certainly hundreds of prints can be made without any deterioration. but an artist who is both designing and producing his own work will not be inclined to print large editions.[ ] [ ] further experience on this point is given in chapter viii on co-operative printing. chapter vii principles and main considerations in designing wood-block prints--their application to modern colour printing until one has become quite familiar with the craft of wood-block printing it is not possible to make a satisfactory design for a print, or to understand either the full resources that are available or the limits that are fixed. in beginning it is well to undertake only a small design, so that no great amount of material or time need be consumed in gaining the first experience, but this small piece of work should be carried through to the end, however defective it may become at any stage. a small key-block and two or three colour patches may all be cut on the two sides of one plank for this purpose. there is great diversity of opinion as to the conventions that are appropriate to the designing of colour prints. in the work of the japanese masters the convention does not vary. a descriptive black or grey line is used throughout the design, outlining all forms or used as flat spots or patches. the line is not always uniform, but is developed with great subtlety to suggest the character of the form expressed, so that the subsequent flat mass of colour printed within the line appears to be modelled. this treatment of the line is one of the great resources of the work, and is special to this kind of design, in which the line has to be cut with the knife _on both sides_, and is for this reason capable of unusual development in its power of expressing form. indeed the knife is the final instrument in the drawing of the design. typical examples of key-block impressions are given on pages and : they show the variety of character and quality possible in the lines and black masses of key-blocks. the designing of a print depends most of all upon this development of line and black mass in the key-block. the colour pattern of the print is held together by it, and the form suggested. in the japanese prints the key-block is invariably printed black or grey. masses intended to be dense black in the finished print are printed first a flat grey by the key-block, and are then printed a full black from a colour-block like any other patch of colour, the double printing being necessary to give the intensity of the black. although several modern prints have been designed on other principles, and sometimes a coloured key-block is successfully used, yet the convention adopted by the japanese is the simplest and most fundamental of all. outside its safe limitations the technical difficulties are increased, and one is led to make compromises that strain the proper resources of block printing and are of doubtful advantage. the temptation to use colour with the key-block comes when one attempts to use the key-block for rendering light and shadow. its use by the japanese masters was generally for the descriptive expression of the contours of objects, ignoring entirely their shadows, or any effects of light and shade, unless a shadow happened occasionally to be an important part of the pattern of the design. generally, as in nearly all the landscape prints by hiroshigé, the line is descriptive or suggestive of essential form, not of effects in light and shade. if the key-block is used for light and shade, the question of relative tones and values of shadows arises, and these will be falsified unless a key-block is made for each separate plane or part of the design, and then there is danger of confusion or of compromises that are beyond the true scope of the work. it is generally safest to print the key-block in a tone that blends with the general tone of the print, and not to use it as a part of the colour pattern. it serves mainly to control the form, leaving the colour-blocks to give the colour pattern. there are cases, of course, where no rule holds good, and sometimes a design may successfully omit the key-block altogether, using only a few silhouettes of colour, one of which controls the main form of the print, and serves as key-block. frequently, also, the key-block may be used to give the interior form or character of part of a design, leaving the shape of a colour-block to express the outside shape or contour; as in the spots suggesting foliage in the print on page . the shapes of the tree forms are partly left to the colour-block to complete, the key only giving the suggestion of the general broken character of the foliage, not the outside limits of the branches. the outer shape of a tree or branch is rarely expressed by an enclosing line in any of the japanese prints. the key-block is often used to describe interior form when a silhouette of colour is all that is needed for the contour. the expressive rendering of the rough surface of tree trunks and of forms of rock, or the articulation of plants and the suggestion of objects in atmospheric distance or mist, should be studied in good prints by the japanese masters. in printed work by modern masters--as, for example, the work of the great french designers of poster advertisements--much may be learnt in the use and development of expressive line. the japanese system of training is well described in a book by henry p. bowie on "the laws of japanese painting," in which many useful suggestions are given with reference to graphic brush drawing and the suggestive use of line and brush marks. as part of the training of a designer for modern decorative printing, the experience and sense of economy that are to be gained from the study of wood-block printing are very great. perhaps no work goes so directly to the essentials of the art of decorative designing for printed work of all kinds. the wood blocks not only compel economy of design, but also lead one to it. even as a means of general training in the elements of decorative pictorial composition the wood blocks have great possibilities as an adjunct to the courses of work followed by art students. the same problems that arise in all decoration may be dealt with by their means on a small scale, but under conditions that are essentially instructive. colour schemes may be studied and worked out with entire freedom by printing and reprinting until a problem is thoroughly solved. a colour design may be studied and worked out as fully by means of a small set of blocks, and with more freedom for experiment and alteration than is possible by the usual methods of study, such as painting and repainting on paper or canvas or wall; for the form being once established by the blocks, the colour may be reconstructed again and again without limit. the craft has thus not only its special interest as a means of personal expression, but also a more general use as a means of training and preparation for the wider scope and almost unlimited resources of modern printing. the best use of those resources will be made by artists who have been trained under simpler conditions, and have found their way gradually to an understanding of the secrets of æsthetic economy in printing. one of the many paths to that experience is by way of the craft of the wood-block printer. chapter viii co-operative printing a print is shown at the end of this book (page ) as an example of a first experiment in co-operative printing. an actual print was needed to illustrate the method of block printing, and the number required was too great for a single printer to undertake. so the work was divided between four printers (of whom the writer was one), working together. each of us had been accustomed to print our own prints in small batches of a dozen or two at a time, giving individual care to each print. the printing of prints to a fixed type was a very different matter, and proved an instructive and valuable experience. it was found that the printing of a large number of successive impressions gave one an increasingly delicate control of a block, and a high percentage of perfect impressions. after the initial experiments and practice, the failures in the later batches of the print were reduced to only or per cent. of the completed prints. the work was done in batches of prints, each print receiving eight impressions, as shown on pages to . each of the four printers took charge of a particular series of the blocks, which were printed in a regular order. it was found most convenient to print the key-block last of all, as the heavy blacks in it were inclined to offset under the pressure of the baren and slightly soil the colour-blocks, if the key-block was printed first, as is usually the practice. the colour-blocks were printed in the order in which they are placed in the appendix. the best quality of work was done on nearly dry paper. the damping sheets were placed among the new paper at the end of the day's work and removed after ten or fifteen minutes, the printing paper then was left standing over night between boards, ready for work in the morning, and was not damped again until after receiving several impressions. then it was very slightly damped again by means of a damping sheet to every ten or twelve prints placed there for a very few minutes. as one printer finished the impressions from one of his blocks, the batch of papers was passed on to the others, each in turn. in this way three batches of were printed without haste in one week, working eight hours a day for five and a half days. the chief difficulty experienced was in keeping to the exact colour and quality of the type print, each printer being inclined to vary according to individual preferences. to counteract this tendency, it is necessary for one individual to watch and control the others in these respects. otherwise the work proceeded easily and made very clear the possibilities of the craft for the printing of large numbers of prints for special purposes where the qualities required are not obtainable by machine printing. obviously the best results will always be obtained by the individual printing of his own work by an artist. this can only be done, however, in comparatively small numbers, yet the blocks are capable of printing very large quantities without deterioration. the set of blocks used for the example given here showed very little deterioration after impressions had been taken. the key-block was less worn than any, the pressure being very slight for this block, and the ink perfectly smooth. the impression of which a reproduction is given on page was taken after had been printed from the key-block. block no. was much more worn by the gritty nature of the burnt sienna used in its printing. it would be an easy matter, however, to replace any particular colour-block that might show signs of wear in a long course of printing. other examples given in the appendix show qualities and methods of treatment that are instructive or suggestive. no. is the key impression of a japanese print in which an admirable variety of resource is shown by its design; the character of each kind of form being rendered by such simple yet so expressive indications. it is instructive to study the means by which this is done, and to notice how interior form is sometimes suggested by groups of spots or black marks of varied shape while the indication of the external form is left entirely to the shape of the colour-block subsequently to be printed. plate xvi is a reproduction of a print by hiroshigé and shows the suggestive use of the key-block in rendering tree forms. plates xvii and xviii show in greater detail this kind of treatment. plates xxiii-xxiv are key-blocks of modern print designs. appendix an original print in colour, designed and cut by the author and printed by hand on japanese paper, followed by collotype reproductions showing the separate impressions of the colour blocks used for this print, and other collotype reproductions of various examples of printing and design. +-----------------------------------------------------------------------+ |the particulars given in chapter viii on co-operative printing refer | |specially to the original print included in the first edition. in this | |edition an entirely new print is shown, and only , copies of it are| |being published. | +-----------------------------------------------------------------------+ [illustration: plate viii.--an original print designed and cut by the author, printed by hand on japanese paper.] plates originally printed in collotype are now produced in half-tone [illustration: plate ix.--first printing. key block. black.] [illustration: plate x.--second printing. dull red. printed lightly at the top.] [illustration: plate xi.--third printing. deep blue. strong at the bottom, paler at the top.] [illustration: plate xii.--fifth printing. bright orange. (the fourth printing, not shown, is a similar small block, printing a faint tone over the road in the foreground.)] [illustration: plate xiii.--sixth printing. indian red. gradation.] [illustration: plate xiv.--seventh printing. green. printed flat.] [illustration: plate xv.--eighth printing. bluish green. gradation.] [illustration: plate xvi.--reproduction of a colour print by hiroshigé.] [illustration: plate xvii.--reproduction of a portion of the print shown on the preceding page, actual size, showing the treatment of the foliage and the expressive drawing of the tree trunk and stems.] [illustration: plate xviii.--reproduction of another portion of the print shown on page (actual size), showing the expressive use of line in the drawing of the distant forms.] [illustration: plate xix.--reproduction of a colour print by hiroshigé.] [illustration: plate xx.--reproduction of a portion (actual size) of the print on the preceding page, showing treatment of tree forms and distance.] [illustration: plate xxi.--reproduction of a colour print by hiroshigé.] [illustration: plate xxii.--reproduction of a portion (actual size) of the print on the preceding page, showing treatment of tree and blossom.] [illustration: plate xxiii.--the tiger. reproduction of a colour print by j. d. batten.] [illustration: plate xxiv.--lapwings. reproduction of a colour print by a. w. seaby.] books of reference "tools and materials illustrating the japanese method of colour printing." a descriptive catalogue of a collection exhibited in the victoria and albert museum, london. price twopence. victoria and albert museum catalogues. . "the colour prints of japan." by edward f. strange. the langham series of art monographs. london. "japanese colour prints." by edward f. strange. ( rd edition.) victoria and albert museum handbooks. london. "japanese wood engravings." by william anderson, f. r. c. s. london, seeley & co., ltd. new york, macmillan & co. . "japanese wood-cutting and wood-cut printing." by t. tokuno. edited and annotated by s. r. kochler. report of the smithsonian institution, washington, for the year ending june , . issued in pamphlet form by the u.s.a. national museum, washington. . other works containing descriptions and references to the craft of wood-block printing in the art library at the victoria and albert museum, london, are the following:-- "the industries of japan." by j. j. rein. (paper, pp. .) london. . "bungei ruisan," by yoshino sakakibara. essays on japanese literature, with additional chapters describing the manufacture of paper and the processes of printing and engraving. (the museum copy has ms. translations of the portion relating to engraving.) tokyo. . index alum, andreani, andrea, xi baldung, hans, x bamboo-sheath, baren, , , baren, manner of using, baren, to re-cover, , baren, to re-cover (diagram), batches, size of, batten, j. d., block cutting, materials, blocks, cutting of, , blocks, mounting of, blocks, planning of, books of reference, bowie, henry p., british museum print room, brushes, brushes, drawing of, carborundum stone, cherry wood, chiaroscuro, x chinese ink, chisel, grip of, , chisels, clearing of spaces, clearing of wood between knife cuts, colour, colour block, diagram of section, colour blocks, plan of, colour blocks, planning, , colour blocks, printing from, colour design, commercial development, conventions of design, co-operative printing, craft in japan, craftsmen, training of, cranach, lucas, x crane, walter, ix creasote, cutting, da carpo, ugo, x damping, damping sheets, design, design, conventions in, designing, designing wood-block prints, principles of, design of key-block, diagram of knife cuts, drying of colour, drying of prints, errors of register, eve and the serpent, print of, flat treatment, , foliage, gelatine, giles, william, glue solution with colour, , gouge, method of holding, gradations, printing of, grip of chisel, , hands, position of, in cutting, , herkomer, ix hiroshigé, impressions, possible number of, ink, inking of block, ink, preservative for, italian woodcuts, ix jackson, t. b., xii japan, craft in, , japanese blocks, japanese craftsmen, japanese drawing, japanese key-block, "japanese painting, the laws of," japanese paper, japanese printers, , japanese prints, key-block, , , , key-block impressions, , , knife, knife, drawing of, knife, use of, knife cuts, diagram of, "laws of japanese painting," light and shade, line block, cutting of, line, development of, line of key-block, mallet, mallet, drawing of, mantegna, xi millboards for drying, modern prints, mordant, alum as, mould, mulberry fibre, museums, sets of blocks at, number of impressions, offsetting, , oilstones, orlik, prof. emil, outamaro, pad, paper, paper, damping of, paper, manner of holding, paper, mould in, paper, need of white, paper, sizing of, paper, sizing of (drawing), paste, paste, amount used in printing, paste, preparation of, plank, preparation of, planning of blocks, position of hands, , posters, , printing, printing, co-operative, printing, detailed method of, printing from colour blocks, printing, general description of, printing of gradations, , , printing pad, prints, designing, prints, drying of, register, , register, errors of, , register marks, , , register marks, position of, register marks, section of, rice flour, rice paste, rubber, glass, rubber, printing, shadows, treatment of, shallow cuts, shrinking of paper, siberian bear hair brushes, size, amount of, in paper, size, excess of, sizing of paper, , smithsonian institution pamphlet, south kensington museum, spots in paper, table, plan of, tokuno, t., tools for block-cutting, training of designers, treatment of form, tree-forms, , variety of line, , washita oilstone, wood, woodcuts, italian, ix. work-table, plan of, * * * * * artists interested in the :: :: permanence of :: :: their wood block prints now use the cambridge colours only, because ( ) only pigments of the highest order of permanence are included in the cambridge palette ( ) all the pigments may be safely mixed together without danger of their acting injuriously on each other ( ) all the pigments are pure and free from injurious impurities sole makers madderton & co., ltd., loughton, essex (established ) england telegrams telephone "madderton, loughton," essex loughton * * * * * all tools and materials for japanese woodblock cutting and printing as described in this book are stocked by penrose's including several new forms of tools and brushes approved by f. morley fletcher, esq. _list free on application_ a. w. penrose & co., ltd. farringdon road, london, e.c. . printed by sir isaac pitman & sons, ltd., bath, england _library edition_ the complete works of john ruskin the eagle's nest love's meinie ariadne florentina val d'arno proserpina national library association new york chicago ariadne florentina. six lectures on wood and metal engraving with appendix. given before the university of oxford, in michaelmas term, . contents. lecture i. page definition of the art of engraving lecture ii. the relation of engraving to other arts in florence lecture iii. the technics of wood engraving lecture iv. the technics of metal engraving lecture v. design in the german schools of engraving (holbein and dÜrer) lecture vi. design in the florentine schools of engraving (sandro botticelli) appendix. article i. notes on the present state of engraving in england ii. detached notes list of plates facing page diagram the last furrow (fig. ). facsimile from holbein's woodcut the two preachers (fig. ). facsimile from holbein's woodcut i. things celestial and terrestrial, as apparent to the english mind ii. star of florence iii. "at evening from the top of fésole" iv. "by the springs of parnassus" v. "heat considered as a mode of motion." florentine natural philosophy vi. fairness of the sea and air. in venice and athens the child's bedtime (fig. ). facsimile from holbein's woodcut "he that hath ears to hear let him hear" (fig. ). facsimile from holbein's woodcut vii. for a time, and times viii. the nymph beloved of apollo (michael angelo) ix. in the woods of ida x. grass of the desert xi. "obediente domino voci hominis" xii. the coronation in the garden ariadne florentina. lecture i. definition of the art of engraving. . the entrance on my duty for to-day begins the fourth year of my official work in oxford; and i doubt not that some of my audience are asking themselves, very doubtfully--at all events, i ask myself, very anxiously--what has been done. for practical result, i have not much to show. i announced, a fortnight since, that i would meet, the day before yesterday, any gentleman who wished to attend this course for purposes of study. my class, so minded, numbers four, of whom three wish to be artists, and ought not therefore, by rights, to be at oxford at all; and the fourth is the last remaining unit of the class i had last year. . yet i neither in this reproach myself, nor, if i could, would i reproach the students who are not here. i do not reproach myself; for it was impossible for me to attend properly to the schools and to write the grammar for them at the same time; and i do not blame the absent students for not attending a school from which i have generally been absent myself. in all this, there is much to be mended, but, in true light, nothing to be regretted. i say, i had to write my school grammar. these three volumes of lectures under my hand,[a] contain, carefully set down, the things i want you first to know. none of my writings are done fluently; the second volume of "modern painters" was all of it written twice--most of it, four times,--over; and these lectures have been written, i don't know how many times. you may think that this was done merely in an author's vanity, not in a tutor's care. to the vanity i plead guilty,--no man is more intensely vain than i am; but my vanity is set on having it _known_ of me that i am a good master, not in having it _said_ of me that i am a smooth author. my vanity is never more wounded than in being called a fine writer, meaning--that nobody need mind what i say. . well, then, besides this vanity, i have some solicitude for your progress. you may give me credit for it or not, as you choose, but it is sincere. and that your advance may be safe, i have taken the best pains i could in laying down laws for it. in these three years i have got my grammar written, and, with the help of many friends, all working instruments in good order; and now we will try what we can do. not that, even now, you are to depend on my presence with you in personal teaching. i shall henceforward think of the lectures less, of the schools more; but my best work for the schools will often be by drawing in florence or in lancashire--not here. . i have already told you several times that the course through which i mean every student in these schools should pass, is one which shall enable them to understand the elementary principles of the finest art. it will necessarily be severe, and seem to lead to no immediate result. some of you will, on the contrary, wish to be taught what is immediately easy, and gives prospect of a manifest success. but suppose they should come to the professor of logic and rhetoric, and tell him they want to be taught to preach like mr. spurgeon, or the bishop of ----. he would say to them,--i cannot, and if i could i would not, tell you how to preach like mr. spurgeon, or the bishop of ----. your own character will form your style; your own zeal will direct it; your own obstinacy or ignorance may limit or exaggerate it; but my business is to prevent, as far as i can, your having _any_ particular style; and to teach you the laws of all language, and the essential power of your own. in like manner, this course, which i propose to you in art, will be calculated only to give you judgment and method in future study, to establish to your conviction the laws of general art, and to enable you to draw, if not with genius, at least with sense and propriety. the course, so far as it consists in practice, will be defined in my instructions for the schools. and the theory connected with that practice is set down in the three lectures at the end of the first course i delivered--those on line, light, and color. you will have, therefore, to get this book,[b] and it is the only one which you will need to have of your own,--the others are placed, for reference, where they will be accessible to you. . in the th paragraph it states the order of your practical study in these terms:-- "i wish you to begin by getting command of line;--that is to say, by learning to draw a steady line, limiting with absolute correctness the form or space you intend it to limit; to proceed by getting command over flat tints, so that you may be able to fill the spaces you have inclosed evenly, either with shade or color, according to the school you adopt; and, finally, to obtain the power of adding such fineness of drawing, within the masses, as shall express their undulation, and their characters of form and texture." and now, since in your course of practice you are first required to attain the power of drawing lines accurately and delicately, so in the course of theory, or grammar, i wish you first to learn the principles of linear design, exemplified by the schools which (§ ) you will find characterized as the schools of line. . if i had command of as much time as i should like to spend with you on this subject, i would begin with the early forms of art which used the simplest linear elements of design. but, for general service and interest, it will be better that i should sketch what has been accomplished by the greatest masters in that manner; the rather that their work is more or less accessible to all, and has developed into the vast industries of modern engraving, one of the most powerful existing influences of education and sources of pleasure among civilized people. and this investigation, so far from interrupting, will facilitate our examination of the history of the nobler arts. you will see in the preface to my lectures on greek sculpture that i intend them to be followed by a course on architecture, and that by one on florentine sculpture. but the art of engraving is so manifestly, at florence, though not less essentially elsewhere, a basis of style both in architecture and sculpture, that it is absolutely necessary i should explain to you in what the skill of the engraver consists, before i can define with accuracy that of more admired artists. for engraving, though not altogether in the method of which you see examples in the print-shops of the high street, is, indeed, a prior art to that either of building or sculpture, and is an inseparable part of both, when they are rightly practiced. . and while we thus examine the scope of this first of the arts, it will be necessary that we learn also the scope of mind of the early practicers of it, and accordingly acquaint ourselves with the main events in the biography of the schools of florence. to understand the temper and meaning of one great master is to lay the best, if not the only, foundation for the understanding of all; and i shall therefore make it the leading aim of this course of lectures to remind you of what is known, and direct you to what is knowable, of the life and character of the greatest florentine master of engraving, sandro botticelli; and, incidentally, to give you some idea of the power of the greatest master of the german, or any northern, school, hans holbein. . you must feel, however, that i am using the word "engraving" in a somewhat different, and, you may imagine, a wider, sense, than that which you are accustomed to attach to it. so far from being a wider sense, it is in reality a more accurate and restricted one, while yet it embraces every conceivable right application of the art. and i wish, in this first lecture, to make entirely clear to you the proper meaning of the word, and proper range of the art of, engraving; in my next following lecture, to show you its place in italian schools, and then, in due order, the place it ought to take in our own, and in all schools. . first then, to-day, of the differentia, or essential quality of engraving, as distinguished from other arts. what answer would you make to me, if i asked casually what engraving was? perhaps the readiest which would occur to you would be, "the translation of pictures into black and white by means admitting reduplication of impressions." but if that be done by lithography, we do not call it engraving,--whereas we speak contentedly and continually of seal engraving, in which there is no question of black and white. and, as scholars, you know that this customary mode of speaking is quite accurate; and that engraving means, primarily, making a permanent cut or furrow in something. the central syllable of the word has become a sorrowful one, meaning the most permanent of furrows. . but are you prepared absolutely to accept this limitation with respect to engraving as a pictorial art? will you call nothing an engraving, except a group of furrows or cavities cut in a hard substance? what shall we say of mezzotint engraving, for instance, in which, though indeed furrows and cavities are produced mechanically as a ground, the artist's work is in effacing them? and when we consider the power of engraving in representing pictures and multiplying them, are we to recognize and admire no effects of light and shade except those which are visibly produced by dots or furrows? i mean, will the virtue of an engraving be in exhibiting these imperfect means of its effect, or in concealing them? . here, for instance, is the head of a soldier by dürer,--a mere gridiron of black lines. would this be better or worse engraving if it were more like a photograph or lithograph, and no lines seen?--suppose, more like the head of mr. santley, now in all the music-shops, and really quite deceptive in light and shade, when seen from over the way? do you think dürer's work would be better if it were more like that? and would you have me, therefore, leaving the question of technical method of production altogether to the craftsman, consider pictorial engraving simply as the production of a light-and-shade drawing, by some method permitting its multiplication for the public? . this, you observe, is a very practical question indeed. for instance, the illustrations of my own lectures on sculpture are equivalent to permanent photographs. there can be little doubt that means will be discovered of thus producing perfect facsimiles of artists' drawings; so that, if no more than facsimile be required, the old art of cutting furrows in metal may be considered as, at this day, virtually ended. and, indeed, it is said that line engravers cannot any more get apprentices, and that a pure steel or copper plate is not likely to be again produced, when once the old living masters of the bright field shall have been all laid in their earth-furrows. . suppose, then, that this come to pass; and more than this, suppose that wood engraving also be superseded, and that instead of imperfect transcripts of drawings, on wood-blocks or metal-plates, photography enabled us to give, quite cheaply, and without limit to number, facsimiles of the finished light-and-shade drawings of artists themselves. another group of questions instantly offers itself, on these new conditions; namely, what are the best means for a light-and-shade drawing--the pen, or the pencil, the charcoal, or the flat wash? that is to say, the pen, producing shade by black lines, as old engraving did; the pencil, producing shade by gray lines, variable in force; the charcoal, producing a smoky shadow with no lines in it, or the washed tint, producing a transparent shadow with no lines in it. which of these methods is the best?--or have they, each and all, virtues to be separately studied, and distinctively applied? . see how curiously the questions multiply on us. st, is engraving to be only considered as cut work? d, for present designs multipliable without cutting, by the sunshine, what methods or instruments of drawing will be best? and now, dly, before we can discuss these questions at all, is there not another lying at the root of both,--namely, what a light-and-shade drawing itself properly _is_, and how it differs, or should differ, from a painting, whether by mere deficiency, or by some entirely distinct merit? . for instance, you know how confidently it is said, in common talk about turner, that his works are intelligible and beautiful when engraved, though incomprehensible as paintings. admitting this to be so, do you suppose it is because the translation into light and shade is deficient in some qualities which the painting had, or that it possesses some quality which the painting had not? does it please more because it is deficient in the color which confused a feeble spectator, and offended a dogmatic one,--or because it possesses a decision in its steady linear labor which interprets, or corrects, the swift penciling of the artist? . do you notice the two words i have just used, _decision_, and _linear_?--decision, again introducing the idea of cuts or divisions, as opposed to gradations; linear, as opposed to massive or broad? yet we use all these words at different times in praise, while they evidently mark inconsistent qualities. softness and decision, breadth and delineation, cannot co-exist in equal degrees. there must surely therefore be a virtue in the engraving inconsistent with that of the painting, and vice versâ. now, be clear about these three questions which we have to-day to answer. a. is all engraving to be cut work? b. if it need not be cut work, but only the reproduction of a drawing, what methods of executing a light-and-shade drawing will be best? c. is the shaded drawing itself to be considered only as a deficient or imperfect painting, or as a different thing from a painting, having a virtue of its own, belonging to black and white, as opposed to color? . i will give you the answers at once, briefly, and amplify them afterwards. a. all engraving must be cut work;--_that_ is its differentia. unless your effect be produced by cutting into some solid substance, it is not engraving at all. b. the proper methods for light-and-shade drawing vary according to subject, and the degree of completeness desired,--some of them having much in common with engraving, and others with painting. c. the qualities of a light-and-shade drawing ought to be entirely different from those of a painting. it is not a deficient or partial representation of a colored scene or picture, but an entirely different reading of either. so that much of what is intelligible in a painting ought to be unintelligible in a light-and-shade study, and _vice versâ_. you have thus three arts,--engraving, light-and-shade drawing, and painting. now i am not going to lecture, in this course, on painting, nor on light-and-shade drawing, but on engraving only. but i must tell you something about light-and-shade drawing first; or, at least, remind you of what i have before told. . you see that the three elementary lectures in my first volume are on line, light, and color,--that is to say, on the modes of art which produce linear designs,--which produce effects of light,--and which produce effects of color. i must, for the sake of new students, briefly repeat the explanation of these. here is an arabian vase, in which the pleasure given to the eye is only by lines;--no effect of light, or of color, is attempted. here is a moonlight by turner, in which there are no lines at all, and no colors at all. the pleasure given to the eye is only by modes of light and shade, or effects of light. finally, here is an early florentine painting, in which there are no lines of importance, and no effect of light whatever; but all the pleasure given to the eye is in gayety and variety of color. . i say, the pleasure given to the _eye_. the lines on this vase write something; but the ornamentation produced by the beautiful writing is independent of its meaning. so the moonlight is pleasant, first, as light; and the figures, first, as color. it is not the shape of the waves, but the light on them; not the expression of the figures, but their color, by which the _ocular_ pleasure is to be given. these three examples are violently marked ones; but, in preparing to draw _any_ object, you will find that, practically, you have to ask yourself, shall i aim at the color of it, the light of it, or the lines of it? you can't have all three; you can't even have any two out of the three in equal strength. the best art, indeed, comes so near nature as in a measure to unite all. but the best is not, and cannot be, as good as nature; and the mode of its deficiency is that it must lose some of the color, some of the light, or some of the delineation. and in consequence, there is one great school which says, we will have the color, and as much light and delineation as are consistent with it. another which says, we will have shade, and as much color and delineation as are consistent with it. the third, we will have delineation, and as much color and shade as are consistent with it. . and though much of the two subordinate qualities may in each school be consistent with the leading one, yet the schools are evermore separate: as, for instance, in other matters, one man says, i will have my fee, and as much honesty as is consistent with it; another, i will have my honesty, and as much fee as is consistent with it. though the man who will have his fee be subordinately honest,--though the man who will have his honor, subordinately rich, are they not evermore of diverse schools? so you have, in art, the utterly separate provinces, though in contact at their borders, of the delineators; the chiaroscurists; and the colorists. . the delineators are the men on whom i am going to give you this course of lectures. they are essentially engravers, an engraved line being the best means of delineation. the chiaroscurists are essentially draughtsmen with chalk, charcoal, or single tints. many of them paint, but always with some effort and pain. lionardo is the type of them; but the entire dutch school consists of them, laboriously painting, without essential genius for color. the colorists are the true painters; and all the faultless (as far, that is to say, as men's work can be so,) and consummate masters of art belong to them. . the distinction between the colorist and chiaroscurist school is trenchant and absolute: and may soon be shown you so that you will never forget it. here is a florentine picture by one of the pupils of giotto, of very good representative quality, and which the university galleries are rich in possessing. at the distance at which i hold it, you see nothing but a checker-work of brilliant, and, as it happens, even glaring colors. if you come near, you will find this patchwork resolve itself into a visitation, and birth of st. john; but that st. elizabeth's red dress, and the virgin's blue and white one, and the brown posts of the door, and the blue spaces of the sky, are painted in their own entirely pure colors, each shaded with more powerful tints of itself,--pale blue with deep blue, scarlet with crimson, yellow with orange, and green with richer green. the whole is therefore as much a mosaic work of brilliant color as if it were made of bits of glass. there is no effect of light attempted, or so much as thought of: you don't know even where the sun is: nor have you the least notion what time of day it is. the painter thinks you cannot be so superfluous as to want to know what time of day it is. . here, on the other hand, is a dutch picture of good average quality, also out of the university galleries. it represents a group of cattle, and a herdsman watching them. and you see in an instant that the time is evening. the sun is setting, and there is warm light on the landscape, the cattle, and the standing figure. nor does the picture in any conspicuous way seem devoid of color. on the contrary, the herdsman has a scarlet jacket, which comes out rather brilliantly from the mass of shade round it; and a person devoid of color faculty, or ill taught, might imagine the picture to be really a fine work of color. but if you will come up close to it, you will find that the herdsman has brown sleeves, though he has a scarlet jacket; and that the shadows of both are painted with precisely the same brown, and in several places with continuous touches of the pencil. it is only in the light that the scarlet is laid on. this at once marks the picture as belonging to the lower or chiaroscurist school, even if you had not before recognized it as such by its pretty rendering of sunset effect. . you might at first think it a painting which showed greater skill than that of the school of giotto. but the skill is not the primary question. the power of imagination is the first thing to be asked about. this italian work imagines, and requires you to imagine also, a st. elizabeth and st. mary, to the best of your power. but this dutch one only wishes you to imagine an effect of sunlight on cow-skin, which is a far lower strain of the imaginative faculty. also, as you may see the effect of sunlight on cow-skin, in reality, any summer afternoon, but cannot so frequently see a st. elizabeth, it is a far less useful strain of the imaginative faculty. and, generally speaking, the dutch chiaroscurists are indeed persons without imagination at all,--who, not being able to get any pleasure out of their thoughts, try to get it out of their sensations; note, however, also their technical connection with the greek school of shade, (see my sixth inaugural lecture, § ,) in which color was refused, not for the sake of deception, but of solemnity. . with these final motives you are not now concerned; your present business is the quite easy one of knowing, and noticing, the universal distinction between the methods of treatment in which the aim is light, and in which it is color; and so to keep yourselves guarded from the danger of being misled by the, often very ingenious, talk of persons who have vivid color sensations without having learned to distinguish them from what else pleases them in pictures. there is an interesting volume by professor taine on the dutch school, containing a valuable historical analysis of the influences which formed it; but full of the gravest errors, resulting from the confusion in his mind between color and tone, in consequence of which he imagines the dutch painters to be colorists. . it is so important for you to be grounded securely in these first elements of pictorial treatment, that i will be so far tedious as to show you one more instance of the relative intellectual value of the pure color and pure chiaroscuro school, not in dutch and florentine, but in english art. here is a copy of one of the lost frescoes of our painted chamber of westminster;--fourteenth-century work, entirely conceived in color, and calculated for decorative effect. there is no more light and shade in it than in a queen of hearts in a pack of cards;--all that the painter at first wants you to see is that the young lady has a white forehead, and a golden crown, and a fair neck, and a violet robe, and a crimson shield with golden leopards on it; and that behind her is clear blue sky. then, farther, he wants you to read her name, "debonnairete," which, when you have read, he farther expects you to consider what it is to be debonnaire, and to remember your chaucer's description of the virtue:-- she was not brown, nor dun of hue, but white as snowe, fallen new, with eyen glad, and browes bent, her hair down to her heeles went, and she was simple, as dove on tree, full debonnair of heart was she. . you see chaucer dwells on the color just as much as the painter does, but the painter has also given her the english shield to bear, meaning that good-humor, or debonnairete, cannot be maintained by self-indulgence;--only by fortitude. farther note, with chaucer, the "eyen glad," and brows "bent" (high-arched and calm), the strong life, (hair down to the heels,) and that her gladness is to be without subtlety,--that is to say, without the slightest pleasure in any form of advantage-taking, or any shrewd or mocking wit: "she was simple as dove on tree;" and you will find that the color-painting, both in the fresco and in the poem, is in the very highest degree didactic and intellectual; and distinguished, as being so, from all inferior forms of art. farther, that it requires you yourself first to understand the nature of simplicity, and to like simplicity in young ladies better than subtlety; and to understand why the second of love's five kind arrows (beauté being the first)-- simplece ot nom, la seconde qui maint homme parmi le monde et mainte dame fait amer. nor must you leave the picture without observing that there is another reason for debonnairete's bearing the royal shield,--of all shields that, rather than another. "de-bonne-aire" meant originally "out of a good eagle's nest," the "aire" signifying the eagle's nest or eyrie especially, because it is flat, the latin "area" being the root of all. and this coming out of a good nest is recognized as, of all things, needfulest to give the strength which enables people to be good-humored; and thus you have "debonnaire" forming the third word of the group, with "gentle" and "kind," all first signifying "of good race." you will gradually see, as we go on, more and more why i called my third volume of lectures eagle's nest; for i am not fantastic in these titles, as is often said; but try shortly to mark my chief purpose in the book by them. . now for comparison with this old art, here is a modern engraving, in which color is entirely ignored; and light and shade alone are used to produce what is supposed to be a piece of impressive religious instruction. but it is not a piece of religious instruction at all;--only a piece of religious sensation, prepared for the sentimental pleasure of young ladies; whom (since i am honored to-day by the presence of many) i will take the opportunity of warning against such forms of false theological satisfaction. this engraving represents a young lady in a very long and, though plain, very becoming white dress, tossed upon the waves of a terrifically stormy sea, by which neither her hair nor her becoming dress is in the least wetted; and saved from despair in that situation by closely embracing a very thick and solid stone cross. by which far-sought and original metaphor young ladies are expected, after some effort, to understand the recourse they may have, for support, to the cross of christ, in the midst of the troubles of this world. . as those troubles are for the present, in all probability, limited to the occasional loss of their thimbles when they have not taken care to put them into their work-boxes,--the concern they feel at the unsympathizing gayety of their companions,--or perhaps the disappointment at not hearing a favorite clergyman preach,--(for i will not suppose the young ladies interested in this picture to be affected by any chagrin at the loss of an invitation to a ball, or the like worldliness,)--it seems to me the stress of such calamities might be represented, in a picture, by less appalling imagery. and i can assure my fair little lady friends,--if i still have any,--that whatever a young girl's ordinary troubles or annoyances may be, her true virtue is in shaking them off, as a rose-leaf shakes off rain, and remaining debonnaire and bright in spirits, or even, as the rose would be, the brighter for the troubles; and not at all in allowing herself to be either drifted or depressed to the point of requiring religious consolation. but if any real and deep sorrow, such as no metaphor can represent, fall upon her, does she suppose that the theological advice of this piece of modern art can be trusted? if she will take the pains to think truly, she will remember that christ himself never says anything about holding by his cross. he speaks a good deal of bearing it; but never for an instant of holding by it. it is his hand, not his cross, which is to save either you, or st. peter, when the waves are rough. and the utterly reckless way in which modern religious teachers, whether in art or literature, abuse the metaphor somewhat briefly and violently leant on by st. paul, simply prevents your understanding the meaning of any word which christ himself speaks on this matter! so you see this popular art of light and shade, catching you by your mere thirst of sensation, is not only undidactic, but the reverse of didactic--deceptive and illusory. . this _popular_ art, you hear me say, scornfully; and i have told you, in some of my teaching in "aratra pentelici," that all great art must be popular. yes, but great art is popular, as bread and water are to children fed by a father. and vile art is popular, as poisonous jelly is, to children cheated by a confectioner. and it is quite possible to make any kind of art popular on those last terms. the color school may become just as poisonous as the colorless, in the hands of fools, or of rogues. here is a book i bought only the other day,--one of the things got up cheap to catch the eyes of mothers at bookstalls,--puss in boots, illustrated; a most definite work of the color school--red jackets and white paws and yellow coaches as distinct as giotto or raphael would have kept them. but the thing is done by fools for money, and becomes entirely monstrous and abominable. here, again, is color art produced by fools for religion: here is indian sacred painting,--a black god with a hundred arms, with a green god on one side of him and a red god on the other; still a most definite work of the color school. giotto or raphael could not have made the black more resolutely black, (though the whole color of the school of athens is kept in distinct separation from one black square in it), nor the green more unquestionably green. yet the whole is pestilent and loathsome. . now but one point more, and i have done with this subject for to-day. you must not think that this manifest brilliancy and harlequin's-jacket character is essential in the color school. the essential matter is only that everything should be of _its own_ definite color: it may be altogether sober and dark, yet the distinctness of hue preserved with entire fidelity. here, for instance, is a picture of hogarth's,--one of quite the most precious things we have in our galleries. it represents a meeting of some learned society--gentlemen of the last century, very gravely dressed, but who, nevertheless, as gentlemen pleasantly did in that day,--you remember goldsmith's weakness on the point--wear coats of tints of dark red, blue, or violet. there are some thirty gentlemen in the room, and perhaps seven or eight different tints of subdued claret-color in their coats; and yet every coat is kept so distinctly of its own proper claret-color, that each gentleman's servant would know his master's. yet the whole canvas is so gray and quiet, that as i now hold it by this dutch landscape, with the vermilion jacket, you would fancy hogarth's had no color in it at all, and that the dutchman was half-way to becoming a titian; whereas hogarth's is a consummate piece of the most perfect colorist school, which titian could not beat, in its way; and the dutchman could no more paint half an inch of it than he could summon a rainbow into the clouds. . here then, you see, are, altogether, five works, all of the absolutely pure color school:-- . one, indian,--religious art; . one, florentine,--religious art; . one, english,--from painted chamber, westminster,--ethic art; . one, english,--hogarth,--naturalistic art; . one, english,--to-day sold in the high street,--caricaturist art. and of these, the florentine and old english are divine work, god-inspired; full, indeed, of faults and innocencies, but divine, as good children are. then this by hogarth is entirely wise and right; but worldly-wise, not divine. while the old indian, and this, with which we feed our children at this hour, are entirely damnable art;--every bit of it done by the direct inspiration of the devil,--feeble, ridiculous,--yet mortally poisonous to every noble quality in body and soul. . i have now, i hope, guarded you sufficiently from the danger either of confusing the inferior school of chiaroscuro with that of color, or of imagining that a work must necessarily be good, on the sole ground of its belonging to the higher group. i can now proceed securely to separate the third school, that of delineation, from both; and to examine its special qualities. it begins (see "inaugural lectures," § ) in the primitive work of races insensible alike to shade and to color, and nearly devoid of thought and of sentiment, but gradually developing into both. now as the design is primitive, so are the means likely to be primitive. a line is the simplest work of art you can produce. what are the simplest means you can produce it with? a cumberland lead-pencil is a work of art in itself, quite a nineteenth-century machine. pen and ink are complex and scholarly; and even chalk or charcoal not always handy. but the primitive line, the first and last, generally the best of lines, is that which you have elementary faculty of at your fingers' ends, and which kittens can draw as well as you--the scratch. the first, i say, and the last of lines. permanent exceedingly,--even in flesh, or on mahogany tables, often more permanent than we desire. but when studiously and honorably made, divinely permanent, or delightfully--as on the venerable desks of our public schools, most of them, now, specimens of wood engraving dear to the heart of england. . engraving, then, is, in brief terms, the art of scratch. it is essentially the cutting into a solid substance for the sake of making your ideas as permanent as possible, graven with an iron pen in the rock forever. _permanence_, you observe, is the object, not multiplicability;--that is quite an accidental, sometimes not even a desirable, attribute of engraving. duration of your work--fame, and undeceived vision of all men, on the pane of glass of the window on a wet day, or on the pillars of the castle of chillon, or on the walls of the pyramids;--a primitive art,--yet first and last with us. since then engraving, we say, is essentially cutting into the surface of any solid; as the primitive design is in lines or dots, the primitive cutting of such design is a scratch or a hole; and scratchable solids being essentially three--stone, wood, metal,--we shall have three great schools of engraving to investigate in each material. . on tablet of stone, on tablet of wood, on tablet of steel,--the first giving the law to everything; the second true athenian, like athena's first statue in olive-wood, making the law legible and homely; and the third true vulcanian, having the splendor and power of accomplished labor. now of stone engraving, which is joined inseparably with sculpture and architecture, i am not going to speak at length in this course of lectures. i shall speak only of wood and metal engraving. but there is one circumstance in stone engraving which it is necessary to observe in connection with the other two branches of the art. the great difficulty for a primitive engraver is to make his scratch deep enough to be visible. visibility is quite as essential to your fame as permanence; and if you have only your furrow to depend on, the engraved tablet, at certain times of day, will be illegible, and passed without notice. but suppose you fill in your furrow with something black, then it will be legible enough at once; and if the black fall out or wash out, still your furrow is there, and may be filled again by anybody. therefore, the noble stone engravers, using marble to receive their furrow, fill that furrow with marble ink. and you have an engraved plate to purpose;--with the whole sky for its margin! look here--the front of the church of san michele of lucca,--white marble with green serpentine for ink; or here,--the steps of the giant's stair, with lead for ink; or here,--the floor of the pisan duomo, with porphyry for ink. such cutting, filled in with color or with black, branches into all sorts of developments,--florentine mosaic on the one hand, niello on the other, and infinite minor arts. . yet we must not make this filling with color part of our definition of engraving. to engrave is, in final strictness, "to decorate a surface with furrows." (cameos, in accuratest terms, are minute sculptures, not engravings.) a plowed field is the purest type of such art; and is, on hilly land, an exquisite piece of decoration. therefore it will follow that engraving distinguishes itself from ordinary drawing by greater need of muscular effort. the quality of a pen drawing is to be produced easily,--deliberately, always,[c] but with a point that _glides_ over the paper. engraving, on the contrary, requires always force, and its virtue is that of a line produced by pressure, or by blows of a chisel. it involves, therefore, always, ideas of power and dexterity, but also of restraint; and the delight you take in it should involve the understanding of the difficulty the workman dealt with. you perhaps doubt the extent to which this feeling justly extends, (in the first volume of "modern painters," expressed under the head "ideas of power.") but why is a large stone in any building grander than a small one? simply because it was more difficult to raise it. so, also, an engraved line is, and ought to be, recognized as more grand than a pen or pencil line, because it was more difficult to execute it. in this mosaic of lucca front you forgive much, and admire much, because you see it is all cut in stone. so, in wood and steel, you ought to see that every line has been costly; but observe, costly of deliberative, no less than athletic or executive power. the main use of the restraint which makes the line difficult to draw, is to give time and motive for deliberation in drawing it, and to insure its being the best in your power. . for, as with deliberation, so without repentance, your engraved line must be. it may, indeed, be burnished or beaten out again in metal, or patched and botched in stone; but always to disadvantage, and at pains which must not be incurred often. and there is a singular evidence in one of dürer's finest plates that, in his time, or at least in his manner of work, it was not possible at all. among the disputes as to the meaning of dürer's knight and death, you will find it sometimes suggested, or insisted, that the horse's raised foot is going to fall into a snare. what has been fancied a noose is only the former outline of the horse's foot and limb, uneffaced. the engraved line is therefore to be conclusive; not experimental. "i have determined this," says the engraver. much excellent pen drawing is excellent in being tentative,--in being experimental. indeterminate, not through want of meaning, but through fullness of it--halting _wisely_ between two opinions--feeling cautiously after clearer opinions. but your engraver has made up his opinion. this is so, and must forever be so, he tells you. a very proper thing for a thoughtful man to say; a very improper and impertinent thing for a foolish one to say. foolish engraving is consummately foolish work. look,--all the world,--look for evermore, says the foolish engraver; see what a fool i have been! how many lines i have laid for nothing! how many lines upon lines, with no precept, much less superprecept! . here, then, are two definite ethical characters in all engraved work. it is athletic; and it is resolute. add one more; that it is obedient;--in their infancy the nurse, but in their youth the slave, of the higher arts; servile, both in the mechanism and labor of it, and in its function of interpreting the schools of painting as superior to itself. and this relation to the higher arts we will study at the source of chief power in all the normal skill of christendom, florence; and chiefly, as i said, in the work of one florentine master, sandro botticelli. footnotes: [a] "inaugural series," "aratra pentelici," and "eagle's nest." [b] my inaugural series of seven lectures (now published uniform in size with this edition. ). [c] compare inaugural lectures, § . lecture ii. the relation of engraving to other arts in florence. . from what was laid before you in my last lecture, you must now be aware that i do not mean, by the word 'engraving,' merely the separate art of producing plates from which black pictures may be printed. i mean, by engraving, the art of producing decoration on a surface by the touches of a chisel or a burin; and i mean by its relation to other arts, the subordinate service of this linear work, in sculpture, in metal work, and in painting; or in the representation and repetition of painting. and first, therefore, i have to map out the broad relations of the arts of sculpture, metal work, and painting, in florence, among themselves, during the period in which the art of engraving was distinctly connected with them.[d] . you will find, or may remember, that in my lecture on michael angelo and tintoret i indicated the singular importance, in the history of art, of a space of forty years, between , and the year in which raphael died, . within that space of time the change was completed, from the principles of ancient, to those of existing, art;--a manifold change, not definable in brief terms, but most clearly characterized, and easily remembered, as the change of conscientious and didactic art, into that which proposes to itself no duty beyond technical skill, and no object but the pleasure of the beholder. of that momentous change itself i do not purpose to speak in the present course of lectures; but my endeavor will be to lay before you a rough chart of the course of the arts in florence up to the time when it took place; a chart indicating for you, definitely, the growth of conscience, in work which is distinctively conscientious, and the perfecting of expression and means of popular address, in that which is distinctively didactic. . means of popular address, observe, which have become singularly important to us at this day. nevertheless, remember that the power of printing, or reprinting, black _pictures_,--practically contemporary with that of reprinting black _letters_,--modified the art of the draughtsman only as it modified that of the scribe. beautiful and unique writing, as beautiful and unique painting or engraving, remain exactly what they were; but other useful and reproductive methods of both have been superadded. of these, it is acutely said by dr. alfred woltmann,[e]-- "a far more important part is played in the art-life of germany by the technical arts for the _multiplying_ of works; for germany, while it was the land of book-printing, is also the land of picture-printing. indeed, wood-engraving, which preceded the invention of book-printing, _prepared the way for it, and only left one step more necessary for it_. _book-printing_ and _picture-printing_ have both the same inner cause for their origin, namely, the impulse to make each mental gain a common blessing. not merely princes and rich nobles were to have the privilege of adorning their private chapels and apartments with beautiful religious pictures; the poorest man was also to have his delight in that which the artist had devised and produced. it was not sufficient for him when it stood in the church as an altar-shrine, visible to him and to the congregation from afar; he desired to have it as his own, to carry it about with him, to bring it into his own home. the grand importance of wood-engraving and copperplate is not sufficiently estimated in historical investigations. they were not alone of use in the advance of art; they form an epoch in the entire life of mind and culture. the idea embodied and multiplied in pictures became like that embodied in the printed word, the herald of every intellectual movement, and conquered the world." . "conquered the world"? the rest of the sentence is true, but this, hyperbolic, and greatly false. it should have been said that both painting and engraving have conquered much of the good in the world, and, hitherto, little or none of the evil. nor do i hold it usually an advantage to art, in teaching, that it _should_ be common, or constantly seen. in becoming intelligibly and kindly beautiful, while it remains solitary and unrivaled, it has a greater power. westminster abbey is more didactic to the english nation, than a million of popular illustrated treatises on architecture. nay, even that it cannot be understood but with some difficulty, and must be sought before it can be seen, is no harm. the noblest didactic art is, as it were, set on a hill, and its disciples come to it. the vilest destructive and corrosive art stands at the street corners, crying, "turn in hither; come, eat of my bread, and drink of my wine, which i have mingled." and dr. woltmann has allowed himself too easily to fall into the common notion of liberalism, that bad art, disseminated, is instructive, and good art isolated, not so. the question is, first, i assure you, whether what art you have got is good or bad. if essentially bad, the more you see of it, the worse for you. entirely popular art is all that is noble, in the cathedral, the council chamber, and the market-place; not the paltry colored print pinned on the wall of a private room. . i despise the poor!--do i, think you? not so. they only despise the poor who think them better off with police news, and colored tracts of the story of joseph and potiphar's wife, than they were with luini painting on their church walls, and donatello carving the pillars of their market-places. nevertheless, the effort to be universally, instead of locally, didactic, modified advantageously, as you know, and in a thousand ways varied, the earlier art of engraving: and the development of its popular power, whether for good or evil, came exactly--so fate appointed--at a time when the minds of the masses were agitated by the struggle which closed in the reformation in some countries, and in the desperate refusal of reformation in others.[f] the two greatest masters of engraving whose lives we are to study, were, both of them, passionate reformers: holbein no less than luther; botticelli no less than savonarola. . reformers, i mean, in the full and, accurately, the only, sense. not preachers of new doctrines; but witnesses against the betrayal of the old ones, which were on the lips of all men, and in the lives of none. nay, the painters are indeed more pure reformers than the priests. they rebuked the manifest vices of men, while they realized whatever was loveliest in their faith. priestly reform soon enraged itself into mere contest for personal opinions; while, without rage, but in stern rebuke of all that was vile in conduct or thought,--in declaration of the always-received faiths of the christian church, and in warning of the power of faith, and death,[g] over the petty designs of men,--botticelli and holbein together fought foremost in the ranks of the reformation. . to-day i will endeavor to explain how they attained such rank. then, in the next two lectures, the technics of both,--their way of speaking; and in the last two, what they had got to say. first, then, we ask how they attained this rank;--who taught _them_ what they were finally best to teach? how far must every people--how far did this florentine people--teach its masters, before _they_ could teach _it_? even in these days, when every man is, by hypothesis, as good as another, does not the question sound strange to you? you recognize in the past, as you think, clearly, that national advance takes place always under the guidance of masters, or groups of masters, possessed of what appears to be some new personal sensibility or gift of invention; and we are apt to be reverent to these alone, as if the nation itself had been unprogressive, and suddenly awakened, or converted, by the genius of one man. no idea can be more superficial. every nation must teach its tutors, and prepare itself to receive them; but the fact on which our impression is founded--the rising, apparently by chance, of men whose singular gifts suddenly melt the multitude, already at the point of fusion; or suddenly form, and _in_form, the multitude which has gained coherence enough to be capable of formation,--enables us to measure and map the gain of national intellectual territory, by tracing first the lifting of the mountain chains of its genius. . i have told you that we have nothing to do at present with the great transition from ancient to modern habits of thought which took place at the beginning of the sixteenth century. i only want to go as far as that point;--where we shall find the old superstitious art represented _finally_ by perugino, and the modern scientific and anatomical art represented _primarily_ by michael angelo. and the epithet bestowed on perugino by michael angelo, 'goffo nell' arte,' dunce, or blockhead, in art,--being, as far as my knowledge of history extends, the most cruel, the most false, and the most foolish insult ever offered by one great man to another,--does you at least good service, in showing how trenchant the separation is between the two orders of artists,[h]--how exclusively we may follow out the history of all the 'goffi nell' arte,' and write our florentine dunciad, and laus stultitiæ, in peace; and never trench upon the thoughts or ways of these proud ones, who showed their fathers' nakedness, and snatched their masters' fame. . the florentine dunces in art are a multitude; but i only want you to know something about twenty of them. twenty!--you think that a grievous number? it may, perhaps, appease you a little to be told that when you really have learned a very little, accurately, about these twenty dunces, there are only five more men among the artists of christendom whose works i shall ask you to examine while you are under my care. that makes twenty-five altogether,--an exorbitant demand on your attention, you still think? and yet, but a little while ago, you were all agog to get me to go and look at mrs. a's sketches, and tell you what was to be thought about _them_; and i've had the greatest difficulty to keep mrs. b's photographs from being shown side by side with the raphael drawings in the university galleries. and you will waste any quantity of time in looking at mrs. a's sketches or mrs. b's photographs; and yet you look grave, because, out of nineteen centuries of european art-labor and thought, i ask you to learn something seriously about the works of five-and-twenty men! . it is hard upon you, doubtless, considering the quantity of time you must nowadays spend in trying which can hit balls farthest. so i will put the task into the simplest form i can. | | | + + + + + niccola pisano |-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-| | | | | | | | | | | | | arnolfo |-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-| | | | | | | | | | cimabue |-|-|-|-|-|-| | | | | | | | | | | giovanni pisano |-|-|-|-|-|-|-| | | | | | | | | andrea pisano |-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-| | | | | | giotto |-|-|-|-|-|-|-| | | | | | | orcagna |-|-|-|-|-|-|-| | | | | | + + + + + quercia |-|-|-|-|-|-|-| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | brunelleschi |-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | ghiberti |-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | donatello |-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-| | | | | | | | | | | | | | luca della robbia |-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-| | | | | | | | | | | | | filippo lippi |-|-|-|-|-|-| | | | | | | | | | | | | | giovanni bellini |-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-| | | | | | | | | mantegna |-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-| | | | | | | | | | verrocchio |-|-|-|-|-|-| | | | | | | | | | | | perugino |-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-| | | | | | | | botticelli |-|-|-|-|-|-|-| | | | | | | | | luini |-|-|-|-|-|-|-| | | | | | | dürer |-|-|-|-|-|-| | | | | | | | cima |-|-|-|-| | | | | | | | | carpaccio |-|-|-|-| | | | | | | | correggio |-|-|-|-|-| | | | | | | holbein |-|-|-|-|-| | | | | | tintoret |-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-| here are the names of the twenty-five men,[i] and opposite each, a line indicating the length of his life, and the position of it in his century. the diagram still, however, needs a few words of explanation. very chiefly, for those who know anything of my writings, there is needed explanation of its not including the names of titian, reynolds, velasquez, turner, and other such men, always reverently put before you at other times. they are absent, because i have no fear of your not looking at these. all your lives through, if you care about art, you will be looking at them. but while you are here at oxford, i want to make you learn what you should know of these earlier, many of them weaker, men, who yet, for the very reason of their greater simplicity of power, are better guides for you, and of whom some will remain guides to all generations. and, as regards the subject of our present course, i have a still more weighty reason;--vandyke, gainsborough, titian, reynolds, velasquez, and the rest, are essentially portrait painters. they give you the likeness of a man: they have nothing to say either about his future life, or his gods. 'that is the look of him,' they say: 'here, on earth, we know no more.' . but these, whose names i have engraved, have something to say--generally much,--either about the future life of man, or about his gods. they are therefore, literally, seers or prophets. false prophets, it may be, or foolish ones; of that you must judge; but you must read before you can judge; and read (or hear) them consistently; for you don't know them till you have heard them out. but with sir joshua, or titian, one portrait is as another: it is here a pretty lady, there a great lord; but speechless, all;--whereas, with these twenty-five men, each picture or statue is not merely another person of a pleasant society, but another chapter of a sibylline book. . for this reason, then, i do not want sir joshua or velasquez in my defined group; and for my present purpose, i can spare from it even four others:--namely, three who have _too_ special gifts, and must each be separately studied--correggio, carpaccio, tintoret;--and one who has no special gift, but a balanced group of many--cima. this leaves twenty-one for classification, of whom i will ask you to lay hold thus. you must continually have felt the difficulty caused by the names of centuries not tallying with their years;--the year being the first of the thirteenth century, and so on. i am always plagued by it myself, much as i have to think and write with reference to chronology; and i mean for the future, in our art chronology, to use as far as possible a different form of notation. . in my diagram the vertical lines are the divisions of tens of years; the thick black lines divide the centuries. the horizontal lines, then, at a glance, tell you the length and date of each artist's life. in one or two instances i cannot find the date of birth; in one or two more, of death; and the line indicates then only the ascertained[j] period during which the artist worked. and, thus represented, you see nearly all their lives run through the year of a new century; so that if the lines representing them were needles, and the black bars of the years , , were magnets, i could take up nearly all the needles by lifting the bars. . i will actually do this, then, in three other simple diagrams. i place a rod for the year over the lines of life, and i take up all it touches. i have to drop niccola pisano, but i catch five. now, with my rod of , i have dropped orcagna indeed, but i again catch five. now, with my rod of , i indeed drop filippo lippi and verrocchio, but i catch seven. and here i have three pennons, with the staves of the years , , and running through them,--holding the names of nearly all the men i want you to study in easily remembered groups of five, five, and seven. and these three groups i shall hereafter call the group, group, and group. . ^ | - cimabue +-+-+-+-+-+-+ | - giovanni pisano +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ | - arnolfo -+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ | - andrea pisano +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+- | - giotto +-+-+-+-+-+ . ^ | - quercia -+-+-+-+-+-+-+ | - ghiberti +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+- | - brunelleschi +-+-+-+-+-+-+- | - donatello +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+- | - luca +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ . ^ | - mantegna -+-+-+-+-+-+-+- | - botticelli +-+-+-+-+-+- | - bellini +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+- | - perugino +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ | - luini +-+-+-+-+-+-+- | - dürer -+-+-+-+-+- | - holbein +-+-+-+-+ . but why should four unfortunate masters be dropped out? well, i want to drop them out, at any rate; but not in disrespect. in hope, on the contrary, to make you remember them very separately indeed;--for this following reason. we are in the careless habit of speaking of men who form a great number of pupils, and have a host of inferior satellites round them, as masters of great schools. but before you call a man a master, you should ask, are his pupils greater or less than himself? if they are greater than himself, he is a master indeed;--he has been a true teacher. but if all his pupils are less than himself, he may have been a great _man_, but in all probability has been a bad _master_, or no master. now these men, whom i have signally left out of my groups, are true _masters_. niccola pisano taught all italy; but chiefly his own son, who succeeded, and in some things very much surpassed him. orcagna taught all italy, after him, down to michael angelo. and these two--lippi, the religious schools, verrocchio, the artist schools, of their century. lippi taught sandro botticelli; and verrocchio taught lionardo da vinci, lorenzo di credi, and perugino. have i not good reason to separate the masters of such pupils from the schools they created? . but how is it that i can drop just the cards i want out of my pack? well, certainly i force and fit matters a little: i leave some men out of my list whom i should like to have in it;--benozzo gozzoli, for instance, and mino da fiesole; but i can do without them, and so can you also, for the present. i catch luca by a hair's-breadth only, with my rod; but on the whole, with very little coaxing, i get the groups in this memorable and quite literally 'handy' form. for see, i write my lists of five, five, and seven, on bits of pasteboard; i hinge my rods to these; and you can brandish the school of in your left hand, and of in your right, like--railway signals;--and i wish all railway signals were as clear. once learn, thoroughly, the groups in this artificially contracted form, and you can refine and complete afterwards at your leisure. . and thus actually flourishing my two pennons, and getting my grip of the men, in either hand, i find a notable thing concerning my two flags. the men whose names i hold in my left hand are all sculptors; the men whose names i hold in my right are all painters. you will infallibly suspect me of having chosen them thus on purpose. no, honor bright!--i chose simply the greatest men,--those i wanted to talk to you about. i arranged them by their dates; i put them into three conclusive pennons; and behold what follows! . farther, note this: in the group, four out of the five men are architects as well as sculptors and painters. in the group, there is one architect; in the , none. and the meaning of that is, that in the arts were all united, and duly led by architecture; in , sculpture began to assume too separate a power to herself; in , painting arrogated all, and, at last, betrayed all. from which, with much other collateral evidence, you may justly conclude that the three arts ought to be practiced together, and that they naturally are so. i long since asserted that no man could be an architect who was not a sculptor. as i learned more and more of my business, i perceived also that no man could be a sculptor who was not an architect;--that is to say, who had not knowledge enough, and pleasure enough in structural law, to be able to build, on occasion, better than a mere builder. and so, finally, i now positively aver to you that nobody, in the graphic arts, can be quite rightly a master of anything, who is not master of everything! . the junction of the three arts in men's minds, at the best times, is shortly signified in these words of chaucer. love's garden, everidele enclosed was, and walled well with high walls, embatailled, portrayed without, and well entayled with many rich portraitures. the french original is better still, and gives four arts in unison:-- quant suis avant un pou alé et vy un vergier grant et le, bien cloz de bon mur batillié pourtrait dehors, et entaillié ou (for au) maintes riches escriptures. read also carefully the description of the temples of mars and venus in the knight's tale. contemporary french uses 'entaille' even of solid sculpture and of the living form; and pygmalion, as a perfect master, professes wood carving, ivory carving, waxwork, and iron-work, no less than stone sculpture:-- pimalion, uns entaillieres pourtraians en fuz[k] et en pierres, en mettaux, en os, et en cire, et en toute autre matire. . i made a little sketch, when last in florence, of a subject which will fix the idea of this unity of the arts in your minds. at the base of the tower of giotto are two rows of hexagonal panels, filled with bas-reliefs. some of these are by unknown hands,--some by andrea pisano, some by luca della robbia, two by giotto himself; of these i sketched the panel representing the art of painting. you have in that bas-relief one of the foundation-stones of the most perfectly built tower in europe; you have that stone carved by its architect's own hand; you find, further, that this architect and sculptor was the greatest painter of his time, and the friend of the greatest poet; and you have represented by him a painter in his shop,--bottega,--as symbolic of the entire art of painting. . in which representation, please note how carefully giotto shows you the tabernacles or niches, in which the paintings are to be placed. not independent of their frames, these panels of his, you see! have you ever considered, in the early history of painting, how important also is the history of the frame maker? it is a matter, i assure you, needing your very best consideration. for the frame was made before the picture. the painted window is much, but the aperture it fills was thought of before it. the fresco by giotto is much, but the vault it adorns was planned first. who thought of these;--who built? questions taking us far back before the birth of the shepherd boy of fésole--questions not to be answered by history of painting only, still less of painting in _italy_ only. . and in pointing out to you this fact, i may once for all prove to you the essential unity of the arts, and show you how impossible it is to understand one without reference to another. which i wish you to observe all the more closely, that you may use, without danger of being misled, the data, of unequaled value, which have been collected by crowe and cavalcaselle, in the book which they have called a history of painting in italy, but which is in fact only a dictionary of details relating to that history. such a title is an absurdity on the face of it. for, first, you can no more write the history of painting in italy than you can write the history of the south wind in italy. the sirocco does indeed produce certain effects at genoa, and others at rome; but what would be the value of a treatise upon the winds, which, for the honor of any country, assumed that every city of it had a native sirocco? but, further,--imagine what success would attend the meteorologist who should set himself to give an account of the south wind, but take no notice of the north! and, finally, suppose an attempt to give you an account of either wind, but none of the seas, or mountain passes, by which they were nourished, or directed. . for instance, i am in this course of lectures to give you an account of a single and minor branch of graphic art,--engraving. but observe how many references to local circumstances it involves. there are three materials for it, we said;--stone, wood, and metal. stone engraving is the art of countries possessing marble and gems; wood engraving, of countries overgrown with forest; metal engraving, of countries possessing treasures of silver and gold. and the style of a stone engraver is formed on pillars and pyramids; the style of a wood engraver under the eaves of larch cottages; the style of a metal engraver in the treasuries of kings. do you suppose i could rightly explain to you the value of a single touch on brass by finiguerra, or on box by bewick, unless i had grasp of the great laws of climate and country; and could trace the inherited sirocco or tramontana of thought to which the souls and bodies of the men owed their existence? . you see that in this flag of there is a dark strong line in the center, against which you read the name of arnolfo. in writing our florentine dunciad, or history of fools, can we possibly begin with a better day than all fools' day? on all fools' day--the first, if you like better so to call it, of the month of _opening_,--in the year , is signed the document making arnolfo a citizen of florence, and in he dies, chief master of the works of the cathedral there. to this man, crowe and cavalcaselle give half a page, out of three volumes of five hundred pages each. but lower down in my flag, (not put there because of any inferiority, but by order of chronology,) you will see a name sufficiently familiar to you--that of giotto; and to him, our historians of painting in italy give some hundred pages, under the impression, stated by them at page of their volume, that "in his hands, art in the peninsula became entitled for the first time to the name of italian." . art became italian! yes, but _what_ art? your authors give a perspective--or what they call such,--of the upper church of assisi, as if that were merely an accidental occurrence of blind walls for giotto to paint on! but how came the upper church of assisi there? how came it to be vaulted--to be aisled? how came giotto to be asked to paint upon it? the art that built it, good or bad, must have been an italian one, before giotto. he could not have painted on the air. let us see how his panels were made for him. . this captain--the center of our first group--arnolfo, has always hitherto been called 'arnolfo di lapo;'--arnolfo the son of lapo. modern investigators come down on us delightedly, to tell us--arnolfo was _not_ the son of lapo. in these days you will have half a dozen doctors, writing each a long book, and the sense of all will be,--arnolfo wasn't the son of lapo. much good may you get of that! well, you will find the fact to be, there was a great northman builder, a true son of thor, who came down into italy in , served the order of st. francis there, built assisi, taught arnolfo how to build, with thor's hammer, and disappeared, leaving his name uncertain--jacopo--lapo--nobody knows what. arnolfo always recognizes this man as his true father, who put the soul-life into him; he is known to his florentines always as lapo's arnolfo. that, or some likeness of that, is the vital fact. you never can get at the literal limitation of living facts. they disguise themselves by the very strength of their life: get told again and again in different ways by all manner of people;--the literalness of them is turned topsy-turvy, inside-out, over and over again;--then the fools come and read them wrong side upwards, or else, say there never was a fact at all. nothing delights a true blockhead so much as to prove a negative;--to show that everybody has been wrong. fancy the delicious sensation, to an empty-headed creature, of fancying for a moment that he has emptied everybody else's head as well as his own! nay, that, for once, his own hollow bottle of a head has had the best of other bottles, and has been _first_ empty;--first to know--nothing. . hold, then, steadily the first tradition about this arnolfo. that his real father was called "cambio" matters to you not a straw. that he never called himself cambio's arnolfo--that nobody else ever called him so, down to vasari's time, is an infinitely significant fact to you. in my twenty-second letter in fors clavigera you will find some account of the noble habit of the italian artists to call themselves by their masters' names, considering their master as their true father. if not the name of the master, they take that of their native place, as having owed the character of their life to that. they rarely take their own family name: sometimes it is not even known,--when best known, it is unfamiliar to us. the great pisan artists, for instance, never bear any other name than 'the pisan;' among the other five-and-twenty names in my list, not above six, i think, the two german, with four italian, are family names. perugino, (peter of perugia,) luini, (bernard of luino,) quercia, (james of quercia,) correggio, (anthony of correggio,) are named from their native places. nobody would have understood me if i had called giotto, 'ambrose bondone;' or tintoret, robusti; or even raphael, sanzio. botticelli is named from his master; ghiberti from his father-in-law; and ghirlandajo from his work. orcagna, who _did_, for a wonder, name himself from his father, andrea cione, of florence, has been always called 'angel' by everybody else; while arnolfo, who never named himself from his father, is now like to be fathered against his will. but, i again beg of you, keep to the old story. for it represents, however inaccurately in detail, clearly in sum, the fact, that some great master of german gothic at this time came down into italy, and changed the entire form of italian architecture by his touch. so that while niccola and giovanni pisano are still virtually greek artists, experimentally introducing gothic forms, arnolfo and giotto adopt the entire gothic ideal of form, and thenceforward use the pointed arch and steep gable as the limits of sculpture. . hitherto i have been speaking of the relations of my twenty-five men to each other. but now, please note their relations altogether to the art before them. these twenty-five include, i say, all the great masters of _christian_ art. before them, the art was too savage to be christian; afterwards, too carnal to be christian. too savage to be christian? i will justify that assertion hereafter; but you will find that the european art of includes all the most developed and characteristic conditions of the style in the north which you have probably been accustomed to think of as norman, and which you may always most conveniently call so; and the most developed conditions of the style in the south, which, formed out of effete greek, persian, and roman tradition, you may, in like manner, most conveniently express by the familiar word byzantine. whatever you call them, they are in origin adverse in temper, and remain so up to the year . then an influence appears, seemingly that of one man, nicholas the pisan, (our first master, observe,) and a new spirit adopts what is best in each, and gives to what it adopts a new energy of its own; namely, this conscientious and didactic power which is the speciality of its progressive existence. and just as the new-born and natural art of athens collects and reanimates pelasgian and egyptian tradition, purifying their worship, and perfecting their work, into the living heathen faith of the world, so this new-born and natural art of florence collects and animates the norman and byzantine tradition, and forms out of the perfected worship and work of both, the honest christian faith, and vital craftsmanship, of the world. . get this first summary, therefore, well into your minds. the word 'norman' i use roughly for north-savage;--roughly, but advisedly. i mean lombard, scandinavian, frankish; everything north-savage that you can think of, except saxon. (i have a reason for that exception; never mind it just now.)[l] all north-savage i call norman, all south-savage i call byzantine; this latter including dead native greek primarily--then dead foreign greek, in rome;--then arabian--persian--phoenician--indian--all you can think of, in art of hot countries, up to this year , i rank under the one term byzantine. now all this cold art--norman, and all this hot art--byzantine, is virtually dead, till . it has no conscience, no didactic power;[m] it is devoid of both, in the sense that dreams are. then in the thirteenth century, men wake as if they heard an alarum through the whole vault of heaven, and true human life begins again, and the cradle of this life is the val d'arno. there the northern and southern nations meet; there they lay down their enmities; there they are first baptized unto john's baptism for the remission of sins; there is born, and thence exiled,--thought faithless, for breaking the font of baptism to save a child from drowning, in his 'bel san giovanni,'--the greatest of christian poets; he who had pity even for the lost. . now, therefore, my whole history of _christian_ architecture and painting begins with this baptistery of florence, and with its associated cathedral. arnolfo brought the one into the form in which you now see it; he laid the foundation of the other, and that to purpose, and he is therefore the captain of our first school. for this florentine baptistery[n] is the great one of the world. here is the center of christian knowledge and power. and it is one piece of large _engraving_. white substance, cut into, and filled with black, and dark-green. no more perfect work was afterwards done; and i wish you to grasp the idea of this building clearly and irrevocably,--first, in order (as i told you in a previous lecture) to quit yourselves thoroughly of the idea that ornament should be decorated construction; and, secondly, as the noblest type of the intaglio ornamentation, which developed itself into all minor application of black and white to engraving. . that it should do so first at florence, was the natural sequence, and the just reward, of the ancient skill of etruria in chased metal-work. the effects produced in gold, either by embossing or engraving, were the direct means of giving interest to his surfaces at the command of the 'auri faber,' or orfevre: and every conceivable artifice of studding, chiseling, and interlacing was exhausted by the artists in gold, who were at the head of the metal-workers, and from whom the ranks of the sculptors were reinforced. the old french word 'orfroiz,' (aurifrigia,) expresses essentially what we call 'frosted' work in gold; that which resembles small dew or crystals of hoar-frost; the 'frigia' coming from the latin frigus. to chase, or enchase, is not properly said of the gold; but of the jewel which it secures with hoops or ridges, (french, _en_chasser[o]). then the armorer, or cup and casket maker, added to this kind of decoration that of flat inlaid enamel; and the silver-worker, finding that the raised filigree (still a staple at genoa) only attracted tarnish, or got crushed, early sought to decorate a surface which would bear external friction, with labyrinths of safe incision. . of the _security_ of incision as a means of permanent decoration, as opposed to ordinary carving, here is a beautiful instance in the base of one of the external shafts of the cathedral of lucca; thirteenth-century work, which by this time, had it been carved in relief, would have been a shapeless remnant of indecipherable bosses. but it is still as safe as if it had been cut yesterday, because the smooth round mass of the pillar is entirely undisturbed; into that, furrows are cut with a chisel as much under command and as powerful as a burin. the effect of the design is trusted entirely to the depth of these incisions--here dying out and expiring in the light of the marble, there deepened, by drill holes, into as definitely a black line as if it were drawn with ink; and describing the outline of the leafage with a delicacy of touch and of perception which no man will ever surpass, and which very few have rivaled, in the proudest days of design. . this security, in silver plates, was completed by filling the furrows with the black paste which at once exhibited and preserved them. the transition from that niello-work to modern engraving is one of no real moment: my object is to make you understand the qualities which constitute the _merit_ of the engraving, whether charged with niello or ink. and this i hope ultimately to accomplish by studying with you some of the works of the four men, botticelli and mantegna in the south, dürer and holbein in the north, whose names i have put in our last flag, above and beneath those of the three mighty painters, perugino the captain, bellini on one side--luini on the other. the four following lectures[p] will contain data necessary for such study: you must wait longer before i can place before you those by which i can justify what must greatly surprise some of my audience--my having given perugino the captain's place among the three painters. . but i do so, at least primarily, because what is commonly thought affected in his design is indeed the true remains of the great architectural symmetry which was soon to be lost, and which makes him the true follower of arnolfo and brunelleschi; and because he is a sound craftsman and workman to the very heart's core. a noble, gracious, and quiet laborer from youth to death,--never weary, never impatient, never untender, never untrue. not tintoret in power, not raphael in flexibility, not holbein in veracity, not luini in love,--their gathered gifts he has, in balanced and fruitful measure, fit to be the guide, and impulse, and father of all. footnotes: [d] compare "aratra pentelici," § . [e] "holbein and his time," to, bentley, , (a very valuable book,) p. . italics mine. [f] see carlyle, "frederick," book iii., chap. viii. [g] i believe i am taking too much trouble in writing these lectures. this sentence, § , has cost me, i suppose, first and last, about as many hours as there are lines in it;--and my choice of these two words, faith and death, as representatives of power, will perhaps, after all, only puzzle the reader. [h] he is said by vasari to have called francia the like. francia is a child compared to perugino; but a finished working-goldsmith and ornamental painter nevertheless; and one of the very last men to be called 'goffo,' except by unparalleled insolence. [i] the diagram used at the lecture is engraved on page ; the reader had better draw it larger for himself, as it had to be made inconveniently small for this size of leaf. [j] 'ascertained,' scarcely any date ever is, quite satisfactorily. the diagram only represents what is practically and broadly true. i may have to modify it greatly in detail. [k] for fust, log of wood, erroneously 'fer' in the later printed editions. compare the account of the works of art and nature, towards the end of the romance of the rose. [l] of course it would have been impossible to express in any accurate terms, short enough for the compass of a lecture, the conditions of opposition between the heptarchy and the northmen;--between the byzantine and roman;--and between the byzantine and arab, which form minor, but not less trenchant, divisions of art-province, for subsequent delineation. if you can refer to my "stones of venice," see § of its first chapter. [m] again much too broad a statement: not to be qualified but by a length of explanation here impossible. my lectures on architecture, now in preparation ("val d'arno"), will contain further detail. [n] at the side of my page, here, i find the following memorandum, which was expanded in the viva-voce lecture. the reader must make what he can of it, for i can't expand it here. _sense_ of italian church plan. baptistery, to make christians in; house, or dome, for them to pray and be preached to in; bell-tower, to ring all over the town, when they were either to pray together, rejoice together, or to be warned of danger. harvey's picture of the covenanters, with a shepherd on the outlook, as a campanile. [o] and 'chassis,' a window frame, or tracery. [p] this present lecture does not, as at present published, justify its title; because i have not thought it necessary to write the viva-voce portions of it which amplified the th paragraph. i will give the substance of them in better form elsewhere; meantime the part of the lecture here given may be in its own way useful. lecture iii. the technics of wood engraving. . i am to-day to begin to tell you what it is necessary you should observe respecting methods of manual execution in the two great arts of engraving. only to _begin_ to tell you. there need be no end of telling you such things, if you care to hear them. the theory of art is soon mastered; but 'dal detto al fatto, v'e gran tratto;' and as i have several times told you in former lectures, every day shows me more and more the importance of the hand. . of the hand as a servant, observe,--not of the hand as a master. for there are two great kinds of manual work: one in which the hand is continually receiving and obeying orders; the other in which it is acting independently, or even giving orders of its own. and the dependent and submissive hand is a noble hand; but the independent or imperative hand is a vile one. that is to say, as long as the pen, or chisel, or other graphic instrument, is moved under the direct influence of mental attention, and obeys orders of the brain, it is working nobly;--the moment it moves independently of them, and performs some habitual dexterity of its own, it is base. . _dexterity_--i say;--some 'right-handedness' of its own. we might wisely keep that word for what the hand does at the mind's bidding; and use an opposite word--sinisterity,--for what it does at its own. for indeed we want such a word in speaking of modern art; it is all full of sinisterity. hands independent of brains;--the left hand, by division of labor, not knowing what the right does,--still less what it ought to do. . turning, then, to our special subject. all engraving, i said, is intaglio in the solid. but the solid, in wood engraving, is a coarse substance, easily cut; and in metal, a fine substance, not easily. therefore, in general, you may be prepared to accept ruder and more elementary work in one than the other; and it will be the means of appeal to blunter minds. you probably already know the difference between the actual methods of producing a printed impression from wood and metal; but i may perhaps make the matter a little more clear. in metal engraving, you cut ditches, fill them with ink, and press your paper into them. in wood engraving, you leave ridges, rub the tops of them with ink, and stamp them on your paper. the instrument with which the substance, whether of the wood or steel, is cut away, is the same. it is a solid plowshare, which, instead of throwing the earth aside, throws it up and out, producing at first a simple ravine, or furrow, in the wood or metal, which you can widen by another cut, or extend by successive cuts. this (fig. ) is the general shape of the solid plowshare: but it is of course made sharper or blunter at pleasure. the furrow produced is at first the wedge-shaped or cuneiform ravine, already so much dwelt upon in my lectures on greek sculpture. [illustration: fig. ] . since, then, in wood printing, you print from the surface left solid; and, in metal printing, from the hollows cut into it, it follows that if you put few touches on wood, you draw, as on a slate, with white lines, leaving a quantity of black; but if you put few touches on metal, you draw with black lines, leaving a quantity of white. now the eye is not in the least offended by quantity of white, but is, or ought to be, greatly saddened and offended by quantity of black. hence it follows that you must never put little work on wood. you must not sketch upon it. you may sketch on metal as much as you please. . "paradox," you will say, as usual. "are not all our journals,--and the best of them, punch, par excellence,--full of the most brilliantly swift and slight sketches, engraved on wood; while line-engravings take ten years to produce, and cost ten guineas each when they are done?" yes, that is so; but observe, in the first place, what appears to you a sketch on wood is not so at all, but a most laborious and careful imitation of a sketch on paper; whereas when you see what appears to be a sketch on metal, it _is_ one. and in the second place, so far as the popular fashion is contrary to this natural method,--so far as we do in reality try to produce effects of sketching in wood, and of finish in metal,--our work is wrong. those apparently careless and free sketches on the wood ought to have been stern and deliberate; those exquisitely toned and finished engravings on metal ought to have looked, instead, like free ink sketches on white paper. that is the theorem which i propose to you for consideration, and which, in the two branches of its assertion, i hope to prove to you; the first part of it, (that wood-cutting should be careful,) in this present lecture; the second, (that metal-cutting should be, at least in a far greater degree than it is now, slight, and free,) in the following one. . next, observe the distinction in respect of _thickness_, no less than number, of lines which may properly be used in the two methods. in metal engraving, it is easier to lay a fine line than a thick one; and however fine the line may be, it lasts;--but in wood engraving it requires extreme precision and skill to leave a thin dark line, and when left, it will be quickly beaten down by a careless printer. therefore, the virtue of wood engraving is to exhibit the qualities and power of _thick_ lines; and of metal engraving, to exhibit the qualities and power of _thin_ ones. all thin dark lines, therefore, in wood, broadly speaking, are to be used only in case of necessity; and thick lines, on metal, only in case of necessity. . though, however, thin _dark_ lines cannot easily be produced in wood, thin _light_ ones may be struck in an instant. nevertheless, even thin light ones must not be used, except with extreme caution. for observe, they are equally useless as outline, and for expression of mass. you know how far from exemplary or delightful your boy's first quite voluntary exercises in white line drawing on your slate were? you could, indeed, draw a goblin satisfactorily in such method;--a round o, with arms and legs to it, and a scratch under two dots in the middle, would answer the purpose; but if you wanted to draw a pretty face, you took pencil or pen, and paper--not your slate. now, that instinctive feeling that a white outline is wrong, is deeply founded. for nature herself draws with diffused light, and concentrated dark;--never, except in storm or twilight, with diffused dark, and concentrated light; and the thing we all like best to see drawn--the human face--cannot be drawn with white touches, but by extreme labor. for the pupil and iris of the eye, the eyebrow, the nostril, and the lip are all set in dark on pale ground. you can't draw a white eyebrow, a white pupil of the eye, a white nostril, and a white mouth, on a dark ground. try it, and see what a specter you get. but the same number of dark touches, skillfully applied, will give the idea of a beautiful face. and what is true of the subtlest subject you have to represent, is equally true of inferior ones. nothing lovely can be quickly represented by white touches. you must hew out, if your means are so restricted, the form by sheer labor; and that both cunning and dextrous. the florentine masters, and dürer, often practice the achievement, and there are many drawings by the lippis, mantegna, and other leading italian draughtsmen, completed to great perfection with the white line; but only for the sake of severest study, nor is their work imitable by inferior men. and such studies, however accomplished, always mark a disposition to regard chiaroscuro too much, and local color too little. we conclude, then, that we must never trust, in wood, to our power of outline with white; and our general laws, thus far determined, will be--thick lines in wood; thin ones in metal; complete drawing on wood; sketches, if we choose, on metal. . but why, in wood, lines at all? why not cut out white _spaces_, and use the chisel as if its incisions were so much white paint? many fine pieces of wood-cutting are indeed executed on this principle. bewick does nearly all his foliage so; and continually paints the light plumes of his birds with single touches of his chisel, as if he were laying on white. but this is not the finest method of wood-cutting. it implies the idea of a system of light and shade in which the shadow is totally black. now, no light and shade can be good, much less pleasant, in which all the shade is stark black. therefore the finest wood-cutting ignores light and shade, and expresses only form, and _dark local color_. and it is convenient, for simplicity's sake, to anticipate what i should otherwise defer telling you until next lecture, that fine metal engraving, like fine wood-cutting, ignores light and shade; and that, in a word, all good engraving whatsoever does so. . i hope that my saying so will make you eager to interrupt me. 'what! rembrandt's etchings, and lupton's mezzotints, and le keux's line-work,--do you mean to tell us that these ignore light and shade?' i never said that _mezzotint_ ignored light and shade, or ought to do so. mezzotint is properly to be considered as chiaroscuro drawing on metal. but i do mean to tell you that both rembrandt's etchings, and le keux's finished line-work, are misapplied labor, in so far as they regard chiaroscuro; and that consummate engraving never uses it as a primal element of pleasure. [illustration: the last furrow. (fig. ) facsimile from holbein's woodcut.] . we have now got our principles so far defined that i can proceed to illustration of them by example. here are facsimiles, very marvelous ones,[q] of two of the best wood engravings ever produced by art,--two subjects in holbein's dance of death. you will probably like best that i should at once proceed to verify my last and most startling statement, that fine engraving disdained chiaroscuro. this vignette (fig. ) represents a sunset in the open mountainous fields of southern germany. and holbein is so entirely careless about the light and shade, which a dutchman would first have thought of, as resulting from the sunset, that, as he works, he forgets altogether where his light comes from. here, actually, the shadow of the figure is cast from the side, right across the picture, while the sun is in front. and there is not the slightest attempt to indicate gradation of light in the sky, darkness in the forest, or any other positive element of chiaroscuro. this is not because holbein cannot give chiaroscuro if he chooses. he is twenty times a stronger master of it than rembrandt; but he, therefore, knows exactly when and how to use it; and that wood engraving is not the proper means for it. the quantity of it which is needful for his story, and will not, by any sensational violence, either divert, or vulgarly enforce, the attention, he will give; and that with an unrivaled subtlety. therefore i must ask you for a moment or two to quit the subject of technics, and look what these two woodcuts mean. . the one i have first shown you is of a plowman plowing at evening. it is holbein's object, here, to express the diffused and intense light of a golden summer sunset, so far as is consistent with grander purposes. a modern french or english chiaroscurist would have covered his sky with fleecy clouds, and relieved the plowman's hat and his horses against it in strong black, and put sparkling touches on the furrows and grass. holbein scornfully casts all such tricks aside; and draws the whole scene in pure white, with simple outlines. [illustration: the two preachers. (fig. ) facsimile from holbein's woodcut.] . and yet, when i put it beside this second vignette, (fig. ,) which is of a preacher preaching in a feebly lighted church, you will feel that the diffused warmth of the one subject, and diffused twilight in the other, are complete; and they will finally be to you more impressive than if they had been wrought out with every superficial means of effect, on each block. for it is as a symbol, not as a scenic effect, that in each case the chiaroscuro is given. holbein, i said, is at the head of the painter-reformers, and his dance of death is the most energetic and telling of all the forms given, in this epoch, to the _rationalist_ spirit of reform, preaching the new gospel of death,--"it is no matter whether you are priest or layman, what you believe, or what you do: here is the end." you shall see, in the course of our inquiry, that botticelli, in like manner, represents the _faithful_ and _catholic_ temper of reform. . the teaching of holbein is therefore always melancholy,--for the most part purely rational; and entirely furious in its indignation against all who, either by actual injustice in this life, or by what he holds to be false promise of another, destroy the good, or the energy, of the few days which man has to live. against the rich, the luxurious, the pharisee, the false lawyer, the priest, and the unjust judge, holbein uses his fiercest mockery; but he is never himself unjust; never caricatures or equivocates; gives the facts as he knows them, with explanatory symbols, few and clear. . among the powers which he hates, the pathetic and ingenious preaching of untruth is one of the chief; and it is curious to find his biographer, knowing this, and reasoning, as german critics nearly always do, from acquired knowledge, not perception, imagine instantly that he sees hypocrisy in the face of holbein's preacher. "how skillfully," says dr. woltmann, "is the preacher propounding his doctrines; how thoroughly is his hypocrisy expressed in the features of his countenance, and in the gestures of his hands." but look at the cut yourself, candidly. i challenge you to find the slightest trace of hypocrisy in either feature or gesture. holbein knew better. it is not the hypocrite who has power in the pulpit. it is the _sincere_ preacher of untruth who does mischief there. the hypocrite's place of power is in trade, or in general society; none but the sincere ever get fatal influence in the pulpit. this man is a refined gentleman--ascetic, earnest, thoughtful, and kind. he scarcely uses the vantage even of his pulpit,--comes aside out of it, as an eager man would, pleading; he is intent on being understood--_is_ understood; his congregation are delighted--you might hear a pin drop among them: one is asleep indeed, who cannot see him, (being under the pulpit,) and asleep just because the teacher is as gentle as he is earnest, and speaks quietly. . how are we to know, then, that he speaks in vain? first, because among all his hearers you will not find one shrewd face. they are all either simple or stupid people: there is one nice woman in front of all, (else holbein's representation had been caricature,) but she is not a shrewd one. secondly, by the light and shade. the church is not in extreme darkness--far from that; a gray twilight is over everything, but the sun is totally shut out of it;--not a ray comes in even at the window--_that_ is darker than the walls, or vault. lastly, and chiefly, by the mocking expression of death. mocking, but not angry. the man has been preaching what he thought true. death laughs at him, but is not indignant with him. death comes quietly: _i_ am going to be preacher now; here is your own hour-glass, ready for me. you have spoken many words in your day. but "of the things which you have spoken, _this_ is the sum,"--your death-warrant, signed and sealed. there's your text for to-day. . of this other picture, the meaning is more plain, and far more beautiful. the husbandman is old and gaunt, and has passed his days, not in speaking, but pressing the iron into the ground. and the payment for his life's work is, that he is clothed in rags, and his feet are bare on the clods; and he has no hat--but the brim of a hat only, and his long, unkempt gray hair comes through. but all the air is full of warmth and of peace; and, beyond his village church, there is, at last, light indeed. his horses lag in the furrow, and his own limbs totter and fail: but one comes to help him. 'it is a long field,' says death; 'but we'll get to the end of it to-day,--you and i.' . and now that we know the meaning, we are able to discuss the technical qualities farther. both of these engravings, you will find, are executed with blunt lines; but more than that, they are executed with quiet lines, entirely steady. now, here i have in my hand a lively woodcut of the present day--a good average type of the modern style of wood-cutting, which you will all recognize.[r] the shade in this is drawn on the wood, (not _cut_, but drawn, observe,) at the rate of at least ten lines in a second: holbein's, at the rate of about one line in three seconds.[s] . now there are two different matters to be considered with respect to these two opposed methods of execution. the first, that the rapid work, though easy to the artist, is very difficult to the wood-cutter; so that it implies instantly a separation between the two crafts, and that your wood-cutter has ceased to be a draughtsman. i shall return to this point. i wish to insist on the other first; namely, the effect of the more deliberate method on the drawing itself. . when the hand moves at the rate of ten lines in a second, it is indeed under the government of the muscles of the wrist and shoulder; but it cannot possibly be under the complete government of the brains. i am able to do this zigzag line evenly, because i have got the use of the hand from practice; and the faster it is done, the evener it will be. but i have no mental authority over every line i thus lay: chance regulates them. whereas, when i draw at the rate of two or three seconds to each line, my hand disobeys the muscles a little--the mechanical accuracy is not so great; nay, there ceases to be any _appearance_ of dexterity at all. but there is, in reality, more manual skill required in the slow work than in the swift,--and all the while the hand is thoroughly under the orders of the brains. holbein deliberately resolves, for every line, as it goes along, that it shall be so thick, so far from the next,--that it shall begin here, and stop there. and he is deliberately assigning the utmost quantity of meaning to it, that a line will carry. . it is not fair, however, to compare common work of one age with the best of another. here is a woodcut of tenniel's, which i think contains as high qualities as it is possible to find in modern art.[t] i hold it as beyond others fine, because there is not the slightest caricature in it. no face, no attitude, is pushed beyond the degree of natural humor they would have possessed in life; and in precision of momentary expression, the drawing is equal to the art of any time, and shows power which would, if regulated, be quite adequate to producing an immortal work. . why, then, is it _not_ immortal? you yourselves, in compliance with whose demand it was done, forgot it the next week. it will become historically interesting; but no man of true knowledge and feeling will ever keep this in his cabinet of treasure, as he does these woodcuts of holbein's. the reason is that this is base coin,--alloyed gold. there _is_ gold in it, but also a quantity of brass and lead--willfully added--to make it fit for the public. holbein's is beaten gold, seven times tried in the fire. of which commonplace but useful metaphor the meaning here is, first, that to catch the vulgar eye a quantity of,--so-called,--light and shade is added by tenniel. it is effective to an ignorant eye, and is ingeniously disposed; but it is entirely conventional and false, unendurable by any person who knows what chiaroscuro is. secondly, for one line that holbein lays, tenniel has a dozen. there are, for instance, a hundred and fifty-seven lines in sir peter teazle's wig, without counting dots and slight cross-hatching;--but the entire face and flowing hair of holbein's preacher are done with forty-five lines, all told. . now observe what a different state of mind the two artists must be in on such conditions;--one, never in a hurry, never doing anything that he knows is wrong; never doing a line badly that he can do better; and appealing only to the feelings of sensitive persons, and the judgment of attentive ones. that is holbein's habit of soul. what is the habit of soul of every modern engraver? always in a hurry; everywhere doing things which he knows to be wrong--(tenniel knows his light and shade to be wrong as well as i do)--continually doing things badly which he was able to do better; and appealing exclusively to the feelings of the dull, and the judgment of the inattentive. do you suppose that is not enough to make the difference between mortal and immortal art,--the original genius being supposed alike in both?[u] . thus far of the state of the artist himself. i pass, next to the relation between him and his subordinate, the wood-cutter. the modern artist requires him to cut a hundred and fifty-seven lines in the wig only,--the old artist requires him to cut forty-five for the face, and long hair, altogether. the actual proportion is roughly, and on the average, about one to twenty of cost in manual labor, ancient to modern,--the twentieth part of the mechanical labor, to produce an immortal instead of a perishable work,--the twentieth part of the labor; and--which is the greatest difference of all--that twentieth part, at once less mechanically difficult, and more mentally pleasant. mr. otley, in his general history of engraving, says, "the greatest difficulty in wood engraving occurs in clearing out the minute quadrangular lights;" and in any modern woodcut you will see that where the lines of the drawing cross each other to produce shade, the white interstices are cut out so neatly that there is no appearance of any jag or break in the lines; they look exactly as if they had been drawn with a pen. it is chiefly difficult to cut the pieces clearly out when the lines cross at right angles; easier when they form oblique or diamond-shaped interstices; but in any case some half-dozen cuts, and in square crossings as many as twenty, are required to clear one interstice. therefore if i carelessly draw six strokes with my pen across other six, i produce twenty-five interstices, each of which will need at least six, perhaps twenty, careful touches of the burin to clear out.--say ten for an average; and i demand two hundred and fifty exquisitely precise touches from my engraver, to render ten careless ones of mine. . now i take up punch, at his best. the whole of the left side of john bull's waistcoat--the shadow on his knee-breeches and great-coat--the whole of the lord chancellor's gown, and of john bull's and sir peter teazle's complexions, are worked with finished precision of cross-hatching. these have indeed some purpose in their texture; but in the most wanton and gratuitous way, the wall below the window is cross-hatched too, and that not with a double, but a treble line (fig. ). there are about thirty of these columns, with thirty-five interstices each: approximately, , --certainly not fewer--interstices to be deliberately cut clear, to get that two inches square of shadow. now calculate--or think enough to feel the impossibility of calculating--the number of woodcuts used daily for our popular prints, and how many men are night and day cutting , square holes to the square inch, as the occupation of their manly life. and mrs. beecher stowe and the north americans fancy they have abolished slavery! [illustration: fig. .] . the workman cannot have even the consolation of pride; for his task, even in its finest accomplishment, is not really difficult,--only tedious. when you have once got into the practice, it is as easy as lying. to cut regular holes without a purpose is easy enough; but to cut _ir_regular holes with a purpose, that is difficult, forever;--no tricks of tool or trade will give you power to do that. the supposed difficulty--the thing which, at all events, it takes time to learn, is to cut the interstices neat, and each like the other. but is there any reason, do you suppose, for their being neat, and each like the other? so far from it, they would be twenty times prettier if they were irregular, and each different from the other. and an old wood-cutter, instead of taking pride in cutting these interstices smooth and alike, resolutely cuts them rough and irregular; taking care, at the same time, never to have any more than are wanted, this being only one part of the general system of intelligent manipulation, which made so good an artist of the engraver that it is impossible to say of any standard old woodcut, whether the draughtsman engraved it himself or not. i should imagine, from the character and subtlety of the touch, that every line of the dance of death had been engraved by holbein; we know it was not, and that there can be no certainty given by even the finest pieces of wood execution of anything more than perfect harmony between the designer and workman. and consider how much this harmony demands in the latter. not that the modern engraver is unintelligent in applying his mechanical skill: very often he greatly improves the drawing; but we never could mistake his hand for holbein's. . the true merit, then, of wood execution, as regards this matter of cross-hatching, is first that there be no more crossing than necessary; secondly, that all the interstices be various, and rough. you may look through the entire series of the dance of death without finding any cross-hatching whatever, except in a few unimportant bits of background, so rude as to need scarcely more than one touch to each interstice. albert dürer crosses more definitely; but yet, in any fold of his drapery, every white spot differs in size from every other, and the arrangement of the whole is delightful, by the kind of variety which the spots on a leopard have. on the other hand, where either expression or form can be rendered by the shape of the lights and darks, the old engraver becomes as careful as in an ordinary ground he is careless. the endeavor, with your own hand, and common pen and ink, to copy a small piece of either of the two holbein woodcuts (figures and ) will prove this to you better than any words. . i said that, had tenniel been rightly trained, there might have been the making of a holbein, or nearly a holbein, in him. i do not know; but i can turn from his work to that of a man who was not trained at all, and who was, without training, holbein's equal. equal, in the sense that this brown stone, in my left hand, is the equal, though not the likeness, of that in my right. they are both of the same true and pure crystal; but the one is brown with iron, and never touched by forming hand; the other has never been in rough companionship, and has been exquisitely polished. so with these two men. the one was the companion of erasmus and sir thomas more. his father was so good an artist that you cannot always tell their drawings asunder. but the other was a farmer's son; and learned his trade in the back shops of newcastle. yet the first book i asked you to get was his biography; and in this frame are set together a drawing by hans holbein, and one by thomas bewick. i know which is most scholarly; but i do _not_ know which is best. . it is much to say for the self-taught englishman;--yet do not congratulate yourselves on his simplicity. i told you, a little while since, that the english nobles had left the history of birds to be written, and their spots to be drawn, by a printer's lad;--but i did not tell you their farther loss in the fact that this printer's lad could have written their own histories, and drawn their own spots, if they had let him. but they had no history to be written; and were too closely maculate to be portrayed;--white ground in most places altogether obscured. had there been mores and henrys to draw, bewick could have drawn them; and would have found his function. as it was, the nobles of his day left him to draw the frogs, and pigs, and sparrows--of his day, which seemed to him, in his solitude, the best types of its nobility. no sight or thought of beautiful things was ever granted him;--no heroic creature, goddess-born--how much less any native deity--ever shone upon him. to his utterly english mind, the straw of the sty, and its tenantry, were abiding truth;--the cloud of olympus, and its tenantry, a child's dream. he could draw a pig, but not an aphrodite. . the three pieces of woodcut from his fables (the two lower ones enlarged) in the opposite plate, show his utmost strength and utmost rudeness. i must endeavor to make you thoroughly understand both:--the magnificent artistic power, the flawless virtue, veracity, tenderness,--the infinite humor of the man; and yet the difference between england and florence, in the use they make of such gifts in their children. for the moment, however, i confine myself to the examination of technical points; and we must follow our former conclusions a little further. [illustration: i. things celestial and terrestrial, as apparent to the english mind.] . because our lines in wood must be thick, it becomes an extreme virtue in wood engraving to economize lines,--not merely, as in all other art, to save time and power, but because, our lines being necessarily blunt, we must make up our minds to do with fewer, by many, than are in the object. but is this necessarily a disadvantage? _absolutely_, an immense disadvantage,--a woodcut never can be so beautiful or good a thing as a painting, or line engraving. but in its own separate and useful way, an excellent thing, because, practiced rightly, it exercises in the artist, and summons in you, the habit of abstraction; that is to say, of deciding what are the essential points in the things you see, and seizing these; a habit entirely necessary to strong humanity; and so natural to all humanity, that it leads, in its indolent and undisciplined states, to all the vulgar amateur's liking of sketches better than pictures. the sketch seems to put the thing for him into a concentrated and exciting form. . observe, therefore, to guard you from this error, that a bad sketch is good for nothing; and that nobody can make a good sketch unless they generally are trying to finish with extreme care. but the abstraction of the essential particulars in his subject by a line-master, has a peculiar didactic value. for painting, when it is complete, leaves it much to your own judgment what to look at; and, if you are a fool, you look at the wrong thing;--but in a fine woodcut, the master says to you, "you _shall_ look at this, or at nothing." . for example, here is a little tailpiece of bewick's, to the fable of the frogs and the stork.[v] he is, as i told you, as stout a reformer as holbein,[w] or botticelli, or luther, or savonarola; and, as an impartial reformer, hits right and left, at lower or upper classes, if he sees them wrong. most frequently, he strikes at vice, without reference to class; but in this vignette he strikes definitely at the degradation of the viler popular mind which is incapable of being governed, because it cannot understand the nobleness of kingship. he has written--better than written, engraved, sure to suffer no slip of type--his legend under the drawing; so that we know his meaning: "set them up with a king, indeed!" . there is an audience of seven frogs, listening to a speaker, or croaker, in the middle; and bewick has set himself to show in all, but especially in the speaker, essential frogginess of mind--the marsh temper. he could not have done it half so well in painting as he has done by the abstraction of wood-outline. the characteristic of a manly mind, or body, is to be gentle in temper, and firm in constitution; the contrary essence of a froggy mind and body is to be angular in temper, and flabby in constitution. i have enlarged bewick's orator-frog for you, plate i. c., and i think you will feel that he is entirely expressed in those essential particulars. this being perfectly good wood-cutting, notice especially its deliberation. no scrawling or scratching, or cross-hatching, or '_free_' work of any sort. most deliberate laying down of solid lines and dots, of which you cannot change one. the real difficulty of wood engraving is to cut every one of these black lines or spaces of the exactly right shape, and not at all to cross-hatch them cleanly. . next, examine the technical treatment of the pig, above. i have purposely chosen this as an example of a white object on dark ground, and the frog as a dark object on light ground, to explain to you what i mean by saying that fine engraving regards local color, but not light and shade. you see both frog and pig are absolutely without light and shade. the frog, indeed, casts a shadow; but his hind leg is as white as his throat. in the pig you don't even know which way the light falls. but you know at once that the pig is white, and the frog brown or green. . there are, however, two pieces of chiaroscuro _implied_ in the treatment of the pig. it is assumed that his curly tail would be light against the background--dark against his own rump. this little piece of heraldic quartering is absolutely necessary to solidify him. he would have been a white ghost of a pig, flat on the background, but for that alternative tail, and the bits of dark behind the ears. secondly: where the shade is necessary to suggest the position of his ribs, it is given with graphic and chosen points of dark, as few as possible; not for the sake of the shade at all, but of the skin and bone. . that, then, being the law of refused chiaroscuro, observe further the method of outline. we said that we were to have thick lines in wood, if possible. look what thickness of black outline bewick has left under our pig's chin, and above his nose. but that is not a line at all, you think? no;--a modern engraver would have made it one, and prided himself on getting it fine. bewick leaves it actually thicker than the snout, but puts all his ingenuity of touch to vary the forms, and break the extremities of his white cuts, so that the eye may be refreshed and relieved by new forms at every turn. the group of white touches filling the space between snout and ears might be a wreath of fine-weather clouds, so studiously are they grouped and broken. and nowhere, you see, does a single black line cross another. look back to figure , page , and you will know, henceforward, the difference between good and bad wood-cutting. . we have also, in the lower woodcut, a notable instance of bewick's power of abstraction. you will observe that one of the chief characters of this frog, which makes him humorous,--next to his vain endeavor to get some firmness into his fore feet,--is his obstinately angular hump-back. and you must feel, when you see it so marked, how important a general character of a frog it is to have a hump-back,--not at the shoulders, but the loins. . here, then, is a case in which you will see the exact function that anatomy should take in art. all the most scientific anatomy in the world would never have taught bewick, much less you, how to draw a frog. but when once you _have_ drawn him, or looked at him, so as to know his points, it then becomes entirely interesting to find out _why_ he has a hump-back. so i went myself yesterday to professor rolleston for a little anatomy, just as i should have gone to professor phillips for a little geology; and the professor brought me a fine little active frog; and we put him on the table, and made him jump all over it, and then the professor brought in a charming squelette of a frog, and showed me that he needed a projecting bone from his rump, as a bird needs it from its breast,--the one to attach the strong muscles of the hind legs, as the other to attach those of the fore legs or wings. so that the entire leaping power of the frog is in his hump-back, as the flying power of the bird is in its breast-bone. and thus this frog parliament is most literally a rump parliament--everything depending on the hind legs, and nothing on the brains; which makes it wonderfully like some other parliaments we know of nowadays, with mr. ayrton and mr. lowe for their æsthetic and acquisitive eyes, and a rump of railway directors. . now, to conclude, for want of time only--i have but touched on the beginning of my subject,--understand clearly and finally this simple principle of all art, that the best is that which realizes absolutely, if possible. here is a viper by carpaccio: you are afraid to go near it. here is an arm-chair by carpaccio: you who came in late, and are standing, to my regret, would like to sit down in it. this is consummate art; but you can only have that with consummate means, and exquisitely trained and hereditary mental power. with inferior means, and average mental power, you must be content to give a rude abstraction; but if rude abstraction _is_ to be made, think what a difference there must be between a wise man's and a fool's; and consider what heavy responsibility lies upon you in your youth, to determine, among realities, by what you will be delighted, and, among imaginations, by whose you will be led. footnotes: [q] by mr. burgess. the toil and skill necessary to produce a facsimile of this degree of precision will only be recognized by the reader who has had considerable experience of actual work. [r] the ordinary title-page of punch. [s] in the lecture-room, the relative rates of execution were shown; i arrive at this estimate by timing the completion of two small pieces of shade in the two methods. [t] john bull, as sir oliver surface, with sir peter teazle and joseph surface. it appeared in punch, early in . [u] in preparing these passages for the press, i feel perpetual need of qualifications and limitations, for it is impossible to surpass the humor, or precision of expressional touch, in the really golden parts of tenniel's works; and they _may_ be immortal, as representing what is best in their day. [v] from bewick's Æsop's fables. [w] see _ante_, § . lecture iv. the technics of metal engraving. . we are to-day to examine the proper methods for the technical management of the most perfect of the arms of precision possessed by the artist. for you will at once understand that a line cut by a finely-pointed instrument upon the smooth surface of metal is susceptible of the utmost fineness that can be given to the _definite_ work of the human hand. in drawing with pen upon paper, the surface of the paper is slightly rough; necessarily, two points touch it instead of one, and the liquid flows from them more or less irregularly, whatever the draughtsman's skill. but you cut a metallic surface with one edge only; the furrow drawn by a skater on the surface of ice is like it on a large scale. your surface is polished, and your line may be wholly faultless, if your hand is. . and because, in such material, effects may be produced which no penmanship could rival, most people, i fancy, think that a steel plate half engraves itself; that the workman has no trouble with it, compared to that of a pen draughtsman. to test your feeling in this matter accurately, here is a manuscript book written with pen and ink, and illustrated with flourishes and vignettes. you will all, i think, be disposed, on examining it, to exclaim, how wonderful! and even to doubt the possibility of every page in the book being completed in the same manner. again, here are three of my own drawings, executed with the pen, and indian ink, when i was fifteen. they are copies from large lithographs by prout; and i imagine that most of my pupils would think me very tyrannical if i requested them to do anything of the kind themselves. and yet, when you see in the shop windows a line engraving like this,[x] or this,[x] either of which contains, alone, as much work as fifty pages of the manuscript book, or fifty such drawings as mine, you look upon its effect as quite a matter of course,--you never say 'how wonderful' _that_ is, nor consider how you would like to have to live, by producing anything of the same kind yourselves. [illustration: ii. the star of florence.] . yet you cannot suppose it is in reality easier to draw a line with a cutting point, not seeing the effect at all, or, if any effect, seeing a gleam of light instead of darkness, than to draw your black line at once on the white paper? you cannot really think[y] that there is something complacent, sympathetic, and helpful in the nature of steel; so that while a pen-and-ink sketch may always be considered an achievement proving cleverness in the sketcher, a sketch on steel comes out by mere favor of the indulgent metal; or that the plate is woven like a piece of pattern silk, and the pattern is developed by pasteboard cards punched full of holes? not so. look close at this engraving, or take a smaller and simpler one, turner's mercury and argus,--imagine it to be a drawing in pen and ink, and yourself required similarly to produce its parallel! true, the steel point has the one advantage of not blotting, but it has tenfold or twentyfold disadvantage, in that you cannot slur, nor efface, except in a very resolute and laborious way, nor play with it, nor even see what you are doing with it at the moment, far less the effect that is to be. you must _feel_ what you are doing with it, and know precisely what you have got to do; how deep, how broad, how far apart your lines must be, etc. and etc., (a couple of lines of etceteras would not be enough to imply all you must know). but suppose the plate _were_ only a pen drawing: take your pen--your finest--and just try to copy the leaves that entangle the head of io, and her head itself; remembering always that the kind of work required here is mere child's play compared to that of fine figure engraving. nevertheless, take a small magnifying glass to this--count the dots and lines that gradate the nostrils and the edges of the facial bone; notice how the light is left on the top of the head by the stopping, at its outline, of the coarse touches which form the shadows under the leaves; examine it well, and then--i humbly ask of you--try to do a piece of it yourself! you clever sketcher--you young lady or gentleman of genius--you eye-glassed dilettante--you current writer of criticism royally plural,--i beseech you,--do it yourself; do the merely etched outline yourself, if no more. look you,--you hold your etching needle this way, as you would a pencil, nearly; and then,--you scratch with it! it is as easy as lying. or if you think that too difficult, take an easier piece;--take either of the light sprays of foliage that rise against the fortress on the right, pass your lens over them--look how their fine outline is first drawn, leaf by leaf; then how the distant rock is put in between, with broken lines, mostly stopping before they touch the leaf-outline; and again, i pray you, do it yourself,--if not on that scale, on a larger. go on into the hollows of the distant rock,--traverse its thickets,--number its towers;--count how many lines there are in a laurel bush--in an arch--in a casement; some hundred and fifty, or two hundred, deliberately drawn lines, you will find, in every square quarter of an inch;--say _three thousand to the inch_,--each, with skillful intent, put in its place! and then consider what the ordinary sketcher's work must appear, to the men who have been trained to this! . "but might not more have been done by three thousand lines to a square inch?" you will perhaps ask. well, possibly. it may be with lines as with soldiers: three hundred, knowing their work thoroughly, may be stronger than three thousand less sure of their aim. we shall have to press close home this question about numbers and purpose presently;--it is not the question now. suppose certain results required,--atmospheric effects, surface textures, transparencies of shade, confusions of light,--then, more could _not_ be done with less. there are engravings of this modern school, of which, with respect to their particular aim, it may be said, most truly, they "cannot be better done." here is one just finished,--or, at least, finished to the eyes of ordinary mortals, though its fastidious master means to retouch it;--a quite pure line engraving, by mr. charles henry jeens; (in calling it pure line, i mean that there are no mixtures of mezzotint or any mechanical tooling, but all is steady hand-work,) from a picture by mr. armytage, which, without possessing any of the highest claims to admiration, is yet free from the vulgar vices which disgrace most of our popular religious art; and is so sweet in the fancy of it as to deserve, better than many works of higher power, the pains of the engraver to make it a common possession. it is meant to help us to imagine the evening of the day when the father and mother of christ had been seeking him through jerusalem: they have come to a well where women are drawing water; st. joseph passes on,--but the tired madonna, leaning on the well's margin, asks wistfully of the women if they have seen such and such a child astray. now will you just look for a while into the lines by which the expression of the weary and anxious face is rendered; see how unerring they are,--how calm and clear; and think how many questions have to be determined in drawing the most minute portion of any one,--its curve,--its thickness,--its distance from the next,--its own preparation for ending, invisibly, where it ends. think what the precision must be in these that trace the edge of the lip, and make it look quivering with disappointment, or in these which have made the eyelash heavy with restrained tears. . or if, as must be the case with many of my audience, it is impossible for you to conceive the difficulties here overcome, look merely at the draperies, and other varied substances represented in the plate; see how silk, and linen, and stone, and pottery, and flesh, are all separated in texture, and gradated in light, by the most subtle artifices and appliances of line,--of which artifices, and the nature of the mechanical labor throughout, i must endeavor to give you to-day a more distinct conception than you are in the habit of forming. but as i shall have to blame some of these methods in their general result, and i do not wish any word of general blame to be associated with this most excellent and careful plate by mr. jeens, i will pass, for special examination, to one already in your reference series, which for the rest exhibits more various treatment in its combined landscape, background, and figures; the belle jardinière of raphael, drawn and engraved by the baron desnoyers. you see, in the first place, that the ground, stones, and other coarse surfaces are distinguished from the flesh and draperies by broken and wriggled lines. those broken lines cannot be executed with the burin, they are etched in the early states of the plate, and are a modern artifice, never used by old engravers; partly because the older men were not masters of the art of etching, but chiefly because even those who were acquainted with it would not employ lines of this nature. they have been developed by the importance of landscape in modern engraving, and have produced some valuable results in small plates, especially of architecture. but they are entirely erroneous in principle, for the surface of stones and leaves is not broken or jagged in this manner, but consists of mossy, or blooming, or otherwise organic texture, which cannot be represented by these coarse lines; their general consequence has therefore been to withdraw the mind of the observer from all beautiful and tender characters in foreground, and eventually to destroy the very school of landscape engraving which gave birth to them. considered, however, as a means of relieving more delicate textures, they are in some degree legitimate, being, in fact, a kind of chasing or jagging one part of the plate surface in order to throw out the delicate tints from the rough field. but the same effect was produced with less pains, and far more entertainment to the eye, by the older engravers, who employed purely ornamental variations of line; thus in plate iv., opposite § , the drapery is sufficiently distinguished from the grass by the treatment of the latter as an ornamental arabesque. the grain of wood is elaborately engraved by marc antonio, with the same purpose, in the plate given in your standard series. . next, however, you observe what difference of texture and force exists between the smooth, continuous lines themselves, which are all really _engraved_. you must take some pains to understand the nature of this operation. the line is first cut lightly through its whole course, by absolute decision and steadiness of hand, which you may endeavor to imitate if you like, in its simplest phase, by drawing a circle with your compass-pen; and then, grasping your penholder so that you can push the point like a plow, describing other circles inside or outside of it, in exact parallelism with the mathematical line, and at exactly equal distances. to approach, or depart, with your point at finely gradated intervals, may be your next exercise, if you find the first unexpectedly easy. . when the line is thus described in its proper course, it is plowed deeper, where depth is needed, by a second cut of the burin, first on one side, then on the other, the cut being given with gradated force so as to take away most steel where the line is to be darkest. every line of gradated depth in the plate has to be thus cut eight or ten times over at least, with retouchings to smooth and clear all in the close. jason has to plow his field ten-furrow deep, with his fiery oxen well in hand, all the while. when the essential lines are thus produced in their several directions, those which have been drawn across each other, so as to give depth of shade, or richness of texture, have to be farther enriched by dots in the interstices; else there would be a painful appearance of network everywhere; and these dots require each four or five jags to produce them; and each of these jags must be done with what artists and engravers alike call 'feeling,'--the sensibility, that is, of a hand completely under mental government. so wrought, the dots look soft, and like touches of paint; but mechanically dug in, they are vulgar and hard. . now, observe, that, for every piece of shadow throughout the work, the engraver has to decide with what quantity and kind of line he will produce it. exactly the same quantity of black, and therefore the same depth of tint in general effect, may be given with six thick lines; or with twelve, of half their thickness; or with eighteen, of a third of the thickness. the second six, second twelve, or second eighteen, may cross the first six, first twelve, or first eighteen, or go between them; and they may cross at any angle. and then the third six may be put between the first six, or between the second six, or across both, and at any angle. in the network thus produced, any kind of dots may be put in the severally shaped interstices. and for any of the series of superadded lines, dots, of equivalent value in shade, may be substituted. (some engravings are wrought in dots altogether.) choice infinite, with multiplication of infinity, is, at all events, to be made, for every minute space, from one side of the plate to the other. . the excellence of a beautiful engraving is primarily in the use of these resources to exhibit the qualities of the original picture, with delight to the eye in the method of translation; and the language of engraving, when once you begin to understand it, is, in these respects, so fertile, so ingenious, so ineffably subtle and severe in its grammar, that you may quite easily make it the subject of your life's investigation, as you would the scholarship of a lovely literature. but in doing this, you would withdraw, and necessarily withdraw, your attention from the higher qualities of art, precisely as a grammarian, who is that, and nothing more, loses command of the matter and substance of thought. and the exquisitely mysterious mechanisms of the engraver's method have, in fact, thus entangled the intelligence of the careful draughtsmen of europe; so that since the final perfection of this translator's power, all the men of finest patience and finest hand have stayed content with it;--the subtlest draughtsmanship has perished from the canvas,[z] and sought more popular praise in this labyrinth of disciplined language, and more or less dulled or degraded thought. and, in sum, i know no cause more direct or fatal, in the destruction of the great schools of european art, than the perfectness of modern line engraving. . this great and profoundly to be regretted influence i will prove and illustrate to you on another occasion. my object to-day is to explain the perfectness of the art itself; and above all to request you, if you will not look at pictures instead of photographs, at least not to allow the cheap merits of the chemical operation to withdraw your interest from the splendid human labor of the engraver. here is a little vignette from stothard, for instance, in rogers' poems, to the lines, "soared in the swing, half pleased and half afraid, 'neath sister elms, that waved their summer shade." you would think, would you not? (and rightly,) that of all difficult things to express with crossed black lines and dots, the face of a young girl must be the most difficult. yet here you have the face of a bright girl, radiant in light, transparent, mysterious, almost breathing,--her dark hair involved in delicate wreath and shade, her eyes full of joy and sweet playfulness,--and all this done by the exquisite order and gradation of a very few lines, which, if you will examine them through a lens, you find dividing and checkering the lip, and cheek, and chin, so strongly that you would have fancied they could only produce the effect of a grim iron mask. but the intelligences of order and form guide them into beauty, and inflame them with delicatest life. . and do you see the size of this head? about as large as the bud of a forget-me-not! can you imagine the fineness of the little pressures of the hand on the steel, in that space, which at the edge of the almost invisible lip, fashioned its less or more of smile? my chemical friends, if you wish ever to know anything rightly concerning the arts, i very urgently advise you to throw all your vials and washes down the gutter-trap; and if you will ascribe, as you think it so clever to do, in your modern creeds, all virtue to the sun, use that virtue through your own heads and fingers, and apply your solar energies to draw a skillful line or two, for once or twice in your life. you may learn more by trying to engrave, like goodall, the tip of an ear, or the curl of a lock of hair, than by photographing the entire population of the united states of america,--black, white, and neutral-tint. and one word, by the way, touching the complaints i hear at my having set you to so fine work that it hurts your eyes. you have noticed that all great sculptors--and most of the great painters of florence--began by being goldsmiths. why do you think the goldsmith's apprenticeship is so fruitful? primarily, because it forces the boy to do small work, and mind what he is about. do you suppose michael angelo learned his business by dashing or hitting at it? he laid the foundation of all his after power by doing precisely what i am requiring my own pupils to do,--copying german engravings in facsimile! and for your eyes--you all sit up at night till you haven't got any eyes worth speaking of. go to bed at half-past nine, and get up at four, and you'll see something out of them, in time. . nevertheless, whatever admiration you may be brought to feel, and with justice, for this lovely workmanship,--the more distinctly you comprehend its merits, the more distinctly also will the question rise in your mind, how is it that a performance so marvelous has yet taken no rank in the records of art of any permanent or acknowledged kind? how is it that these vignettes from stothard and turner,[aa] like the woodcuts from tenniel, scarcely make the name of the engraver known; and that they never are found side by side with this older and apparently ruder art, in the cabinets of men of real judgment? the reason is precisely the same as in the case of the tenniel woodcut. this modern line engraving is alloyed gold. rich in capacity, astonishing in attainment, it nevertheless admits willful fault, and misses what it ought first to have attained. it is therefore, to a certain measure, vile in its perfection; while the older work is noble even in its failure, and classic no less in what it deliberately refuses, than in what it rationally and rightly prefers and performs. . here, for instance, i have enlarged the head of one of dürer's madonnas for you out of one of his most careful plates.[ab] you think it very ugly. well, so it is. don't be afraid to think so, nor to say so. frightfully ugly; vulgar also. it is the head, simply, of a fat dutch girl, with all the pleasantness left out. there is not the least doubt about that. don't let anybody force albert dürer down your throats; nor make you expect pretty things from him. stothard's young girl in the swing, or sir joshua's age of innocence, is in quite angelic sphere of another world, compared to this black domain of poor, laborious albert. we are not talking of female beauty, so please you, just now, gentlemen, but of engraving. and the merit, the classical, indefeasible, immortal merit of this head of a dutch girl with all the beauty left out, is in the fact that every line of it, as engraving, is as good as can be;--good, not with the mechanical dexterity of a watch-maker, but with the intellectual effort and sensitiveness of an artist who knows precisely what can be done, and ought to be attempted, with his assigned materials. he works easily, fearlessly, flexibly; the dots are not all measured in distance; the lines not all mathematically parallel or divergent. he has even missed his mark at the mouth in one place, and leaves the mistake, frankly. but there are no petrified mistakes; nor is the eye so accustomed to the look of the mechanical furrow as to accept it for final excellence. the engraving is full of the painter's higher power and wider perception; it is classically perfect, because duly subordinate, and presenting for your applause only the virtues proper to its own sphere. among these, i must now reiterate, the first of all is the _decorative_ arrangement of _lines_. . you all know what a pretty thing a damask tablecloth is, and how a pattern is brought out by threads running one way in one space, and across in another. so, in lace, a certain delightfulness is given by the texture of meshed lines. similarly, on any surface of metal, the object of the engraver is, or ought to be, to cover it with lovely _lines_, forming a lace-work, and including a variety of spaces, delicious to the eye. and this is his business, primarily; before any other matter can be thought of, his work must be ornamental. you know i told you a sculptor's business is first to cover a surface with pleasant _bosses_, whether they mean anything or not; so an engraver's is to cover it with pleasant _lines_, whether they mean anything or not. that they should mean something, and a good deal of something, is indeed desirable afterwards; but first we must be ornamental. . now if you will compare plate ii. at the beginning of this lecture, which is a characteristic example of good florentine engraving, and represents the planet and power of aphrodite, with the aphrodite of bewick in the upper division of plate i., you will at once understand the difference between a primarily ornamental, and a primarily realistic, style. the first requirement in the florentine work, is that it shall be a lovely arrangement of lines; a pretty thing upon a page. bewick _has_ a secondary notion of making his vignette a pretty thing upon a page. but he is overpowered by his vigorous veracity, and bent first on giving you his idea of venus. quite right, he would have been, mind you, if he had been carving a statue of her on mount eryx; but not when he was engraving a vignette to Æsop's fables. to engrave well is to ornament a surface well, not to create a realistic impression. i beg your pardon for my repetitions; but the point at issue is the root of the whole business, and i _must_ get it well asserted, and variously. let me pass to a more important example. . three years ago, in the rough first arrangement of the copies in the educational series, i put an outline of the top of apollo's scepter, which, in the catalogue, was said to be probably by baccio bandini of florence, for your first real exercise; it remains so, the olive being put first only for its mythological rank. the series of engravings to which the plate from which that exercise is copied belongs, are part of a number, executed chiefly, i think, from early designs of sandro botticelli, and some in great part by his hand. he and his assistant, baccio, worked together; and in such harmony, that bandini probably often does what sandro wants, better than sandro could have done it himself; and, on the other hand, there is no design of bandini's over which sandro does not seem to have had influence. and wishing now to show you three examples of the finest work of the old, the renaissance, and the modern schools,--of the old, i will take baccio bandini's astrologia, plate iii., opposite. of the renaissance, dürer's adam and eve. and of the modern, this head of the daughter of herodias, engraved from luini by beaugrand, which is as affectionately and sincerely wrought, though in the modern manner, as any plate of the old schools. [illustration: iii. "at ev'ning from the top of fésole."] . now observe the progress of the feeling for light and shade in the three examples. the first is nearly all white paper; you think of the outline as the constructive element throughout. the second is a vigorous piece of _white_ and _black_--not of _light_ and _shade_,--for all the high lights are equally white, whether of flesh, or leaves, or goat's hair. the third is complete in chiaroscuro, as far as engraving can be. now the dignity and virtue of the plates is in the exactly inverse ratio of their fullness in chiaroscuro. bandini's is excellent work, and of the very highest school. dürer's entirely accomplished work, but of an inferior school. and beaugrand's, excellent work, but of a vulgar and non-classical school. and these relations of the schools are to be determined by the quality in the _lines_; we shall find that in proportion as the light and shade is neglected, the lines are studied; that those of bandini are perfect; of dürer perfect, only with a lower perfection; but of beaugrand, entirely faultful. . i have just explained to you that in modern engraving the lines are cut in clean furrow, widened, it may be, by successive cuts; but, whether it be fine or thick, retaining always, when printed, the aspect of a continuous line drawn with the pen, and entirely black throughout its whole course. now we may increase the delicacy of this line to any extent by simply printing it in gray color instead of black. i obtained some very beautiful results of this kind in the later volumes of 'modern painters,' with mr. armytage's help, by using subdued purple tints; but, in any case, the line thus engraved must be monotonous in its character, and cannot be expressive of the finest qualities of form. accordingly, the old florentine workmen constructed the line _itself_, in important places, of successive minute touches, so that it became a chain of delicate links which could be opened or closed at pleasure.[ac] if you will examine through a lens the outline of the face of this astrology, you will find it is traced with an exquisite series of minute touches, susceptible of accentuation or change absolutely at the engraver's pleasure; and, in result, corresponding to the finest conditions of a pencil line drawing by a consummate master. in the fine plates of this period, you have thus the united powers of the pen and pencil, and both absolutely secure and multipliable. . i am a little proud of having independently discovered, and had the patience to carry out, this florentine method of execution for myself, when i was a boy of thirteen. my good drawing-master had given me some copies calculated to teach me freedom of hand; the touches were rapid and vigorous,--many of them in mechanically regular zigzags, far beyond any capacity of mine to imitate in the bold way in which they were done. but i was resolved to have them, somehow; and actually facsimiled a considerable portion of the drawing in the florentine manner, with the finest point i could cut to my pencil, taking a quarter of an hour to forge out the likeness of one return in the zigzag which my master carried down through twenty returns in two seconds; and so successfully, that he did not detect my artifice till i showed it him,--on which he forbade me ever to do the like again. and it was only thirty years afterwards that i found i had been quite right after all, and working like baccio bandini! but the patience which carried me through that early effort, served me well through all the thirty years, and enabled me to analyze, and in a measure imitate, the method of work employed by every master; so that, whether you believe me or not at first, you will find what i tell you of their superiority, or inferiority, to be true. . when lines are studied with this degree of care, you may be sure the master will leave room enough for you to see them and enjoy them, and not use any at random. all the finest engravers, therefore, leave much white paper, and use their entire power on the outlines. . next to them come the men of the renaissance schools, headed by dürer, who, less careful of the beauty and refinement of the line, delight in its vigor, accuracy, and complexity. and the essential difference between these men and the moderns is that these central masters cut their line for the most part with a single furrow, giving it depth by force of hand or wrist, and retouching, _not in the furrow itself, but with others beside it_.[ad] such work can only be done well on copper, and it can display all faculty of hand or wrist, precision of eye, and accuracy of knowledge, which a human creature can possess. but the dotted or hatched line is not used in this central style, and the higher conditions of beauty never thought of. in the astrology of bandini,--and remember that the astrologia of the florentine meant what we mean by astronomy, and much more,--he wishes you first to look at the face: the lip half open, faltering in wonder; the amazed, intense, dreaming gaze; the pure dignity of forehead, undisturbed by terrestrial thought. none of these things could be so much as attempted in dürer's method; he can engrave flowing hair, skin of animals, bark of trees, wreathings of metal-work, with the free hand; also, with labored chiaroscuro, or with sturdy line, he can reach expressions of sadness, or gloom, or pain, or soldierly strength,--but pure beauty,--never. . lastly, you have the modern school, deepening its lines in successive cuts. the instant consequence of the introduction of this method is the restriction of curvature; you cannot follow a complex curve again with precision through its furrow. if you are a dextrous plowman, you can drive your plow any number of times along the simple curve. but you cannot repeat again exactly the motions which cut a variable one.[ae] you may retouch it, energize it, and deepen it in parts, but you cannot cut it all through again equally. and the retouching and energizing in parts is a living and intellectual process; but the cutting all through, equally, a mechanical one. the difference is exactly such as that between the dexterity of turning out two similar moldings from a lathe, and carving them with the free hand, like a pisan sculptor. and although splendid intellect, and subtlest sensibility, have been spent on the production of some modern plates, the mechanical element introduced by their manner of execution always overpowers both; nor _can any plate of consummate value ever be produced in the modern method_. . nevertheless, in landscape, there are two examples in your reference series, of insuperable skill and extreme beauty: miller's plate, before instanced, of the grand canal, venice; and e. goodall's of the upper fall of the tees. the men who engraved these plates might have been exquisite artists; but their patience and enthusiasm were held captive in the false system of lines, and we lost the painters; while the engravings, wonderful as they are, are neither of them worth a turner etching, scratched in ten minutes with the point of an old fork; and the common types of such elaborate engraving are none of them worth a single frog, pig, or puppy, out of the corner of a bewick vignette. . and now, i think, you cannot fail to understand clearly what you are to look for in engraving, as a separate art from that of painting. turn back to the 'astrologia' as a perfect type of the purest school. she is gazing at stars, and crowned with them. but the stars are _black_ instead of shining! you cannot have a more decisive and absolute proof that you must not look in engraving for chiaroscuro. nevertheless, her body is half in shade, and her left foot; and she casts a shadow, and there is a bar of shade behind her. all these are merely so much acceptance of shade as may relieve the forms, and give value to the linear portions. the face, though turned from the light, is shadowless. again. every lock of the hair is designed and set in its place with the subtlest care, but there is no luster attempted,--no texture,--no mystery. the plumes of the wings are set studiously in their places,--they, also, lusterless. that even their filaments are not drawn, and that the broad curve embracing them ignores the anatomy of a bird's wing, are conditions of design, not execution. of these in a future lecture.[af] [illustration: iv. "by the springs of parnassus."] . the 'poesia,' plate iv., opposite, is a still more severe, though not so generic, an example; its decorative foreground reducing it almost to the rank of goldsmith's ornamentation. i need scarcely point out to you that the flowing water shows neither luster nor reflection; but notice that the observer's attention is supposed to be so close to every dark touch of the graver that he will see the minute dark spots which indicate the sprinkled shower falling from the vase into the pool. . this habit of strict and calm attention, constant in the artist, and expected in the observer, makes all the difference between the art of intellect, and of mere sensation. for every detail of this plate has a meaning, if you care to understand it. this is poetry, sitting by the fountain of castalia, which flows first out of a formal urn, to show that it is not artless; but the rocks of parnassus are behind, and on the top of them--only one tree, like a mushroom with a thick stalk. you at first are inclined to say, how very absurd, to put only one tree on parnassus! but this one tree is the immortal plane tree, planted by agamemnon, and at once connects our poesia with the iliad. then, this is the hem of the robe of poetry,--this is the divine vegetation which springs up under her feet,--this is the heaven and earth united by her power,--this is the fountain of castalia flowing out afresh among the grass,--and these are the drops with which, out of a pitcher, poetry is nourishing the fountain of castalia. all which you may find out if you happen to know anything about castalia, or about poetry; and pleasantly think more upon, for yourself. but the poor dunces, sandro and baccio, feeling themselves but 'goffi nell' arte,' have no hope of telling you all this, except suggestively. they can't engrave grass of parnassus, nor sweet springs so as to look like water; but they can make a pretty damasked surface with ornamental leaves, and flowing lines, and so leave you something to think of--if you will. . 'but a great many people won't, and a great many more can't; and surely the finished engravings are much more delightful, and the only means we have of giving any idea of finished pictures, out of our reach.' yes, all that is true; and when we examine the effects of line engraving upon taste in recent art, we will discuss these matters; for the present, let us be content with knowing what the best work is, and why it is so. although, however, i do not now press further my cavils at the triumph of modern line engraving, i must assign to you, in few words, the reason of its recent decline. engravers complain that photography and cheap wood-cutting have ended their finer craft. no complaint can be less grounded. they themselves destroyed their own craft, by vulgarizing it. content in their beautiful mechanism, they ceased to learn, and to feel, as artists; they put themselves under the order of publishers and print-sellers; they worked indiscriminately from whatever was put into their hands,--from bartlett as willingly as from turner, and from mulready as carefully as from raphael. they filled the windows of print-sellers, the pages of gift books, with elaborate rubbish, and piteous abortions of delicate industry. they worked cheap, and cheaper,--smoothly, and more smoothly,--they got armies of assistants, and surrounded themselves with schools of mechanical tricksters, learning their stale tricks with blundering avidity. they had fallen--before the days of photography--into providers of frontispieces for housekeepers' pocket-books. i do not know if photography itself, their redoubted enemy, has even now ousted them from that last refuge. . such the fault of the engraver,--very pardonable; scarcely avoidable,--however fatal. fault mainly of humility. but what has _your_ fault been, gentlemen? what the patrons' fault, who have permitted so wide waste of admirable labor, so pathetic a uselessness of obedient genius? it was yours to have directed, yours to have raised and rejoiced in, the skill, the modesty, the patience of this entirely gentle and industrious race;--copyists with their _heart_. the common painter-copyists who encumber our european galleries with their easels and pots, are, almost without exception, persons too stupid to be painters, and too lazy to be engravers. the real copyists--the men who can put their soul into another's work--are employed at home, in their narrow rooms, striving to make their good work profitable to all men. and in their submission to the public taste they are truly national servants as much as prime ministers are. they fulfill the demand of the nation; what, as a people, you wish to have for possession in art, these men are ready to give you. and what have you hitherto asked of them?--ramsgate sands, and dolly vardens, and the paddington station,--these, i think, are typical of your chief demands; the cartoons of raphael--which you don't care to see themselves; and, by way of a flight into the empyrean, the madonna di san sisto. and literally, there are hundreds of cities and villages in italy in which roof and wall are blazoned with the noblest divinity and philosophy ever imagined by men; and of all this treasure, i can, as far as i know, give you not _one_ example, in line engraving, by an english hand! well, you are in the main matter right in this. you want essentially ramsgate sands and the paddington station, because there you can see yourselves. make yourselves, then, worthy to be seen forever, and let english engraving become noble as the record of english loveliness and honor. footnotes: [x] miller's large plate of the grand canal, venice, after turner; and goodall's, of tivoli, after turner. the other examples referred to are left in the university galleries. [y] this paragraph was not read at the lecture, time not allowing:--it is part of what i wrote on engraving some years ago, in the papers for the art journal, called the cestus of aglaia. (refer now to "on the old road.") [z] an effort has lately been made in france, by meissonier, gérome, and their school, to recover it, with marvelous collateral skill of engravers. the etching of gérome's louis xiv. and molière is one of the completest pieces of skillful mechanism ever put on metal. [aa] i must again qualify the too sweeping statement of the text. i think, as time passes, some of these nineteenth century line engravings will become monumental. the first vignette of the garden, with the cut hedges and fountain, for instance, in rogers' poems, is so consummate in its use of every possible artifice of delicate line, (note the look of _tremulous_ atmosphere got by the undulatory etched lines on the pavement, and the broken masses, worked with dots, of the fountain foam,) that i think it cannot but, with some of its companions, survive the refuse of its school, and become classic. i find in like manner, even with all their faults and weaknesses, the vignettes to heyne's virgil to be real art-possessions. [ab] plate xi., in the appendix, taken from the engraving of the virgin sitting in the fenced garden, with two angels crowning her. [ac] the method was first developed in engraving designs on silver--numbers of lines being executed with dots by the punch, for variety's sake. for niello, and printing, a transverse cut was substituted for the blow. the entire style is connected with the later roman and byzantine method of drawing lines with the drill hole, in marble. see above, lecture ii., section . [ad] this most important and distinctive character was pointed out to me by mr. burgess. [ae] this point will be further examined and explained in the appendix. [af] see appendix, article i. lecture v. design in the german schools of engraving. . by reference to the close of the preface to 'eagle's nest,' you will see, gentlemen, that i meant these lectures, from the first, rather to lead you to the study of the characters of two great men, than to interest you in the processes of a secondary form of art. as i draw my materials into the limited form necessary for the hour, i find my divided purpose doubly failing; and would fain rather use my time to-day in supplying the defects of my last lecture, than in opening the greater subject, which i must treat with still more lamentable inadequacy. nevertheless, you must not think it is for want of time that i omit reference to other celebrated engravers, and insist on the special power of these two only. many not inconsiderable reputations are founded merely on the curiosity of collectors of prints, or on partial skill in the management of processes; others, though resting on more secure bases, are still of no importance to you in the general history of art; whereas you will find the work of holbein and botticelli determining for you, without need of any farther range, the principal questions of moment in the relation of the northern and southern schools of design. nay, a wider method of inquiry would only render your comparison less accurate in result. it is only in holbein's majestic range of capacity, and only in the particular phase of teutonic life which his art adorned, that the problem can be dealt with on fair terms. we northerns can advance no fairly comparable antagonist to the artists of the south, except at that one moment, and in that one man. rubens cannot for an instant be matched with tintoret, nor memling with lippi; while reynolds only rivals titian in what he learned from him. but in holbein and botticelli we have two men trained independently, equal in power of intellect, similar in material and mode of work, contemporary in age, correspondent in disposition. the relation between them is strictly typical of the constant aspects to each other of the northern and southern schools. . their point of closest contact is in the art of engraving, and this art is developed entirely as the servant of the great passions which perturbed or polluted europe in the fifteenth century. the impulses which it obeys are all new; and it obeys them with its own nascent plasticity of temper. painting and sculpture are only modified by them; but engraving is educated. these passions are in the main three; namely, . the thirst for classical literature, and the forms of proud and false taste which arose out of it, in the position it had assumed as the enemy of christianity. . the pride of science, enforcing (in the particular domain of art) accuracy of perspective, shade, and anatomy, never before dreamed of. . the sense of error and iniquity in the theological teaching of the christian church, felt by the highest intellects of the time, and necessarily rendering the formerly submissive religious art impossible. to-day, then, our task is to examine the peculiar characters of the design of the northern schools of engraving, as affected by these great influences. . i have not often, however, used the word 'design,' and must clearly define the sense in which i now use it. it is vaguely used in common art-parlance; often as if it meant merely the drawing of a picture, as distinct from its color; and in other still more inaccurate ways. the accurate and proper sense, underlying all these, i must endeavor to make clear to you. 'design' properly signifies that power in any art-work which has a purpose other than of imitation, and which is 'designed,' composed, or separated to that end. it implies the rejection of some things, and the insistence upon others, with a given object.[ag] let us take progressive instances. here is a group of prettily dressed peasant children, charmingly painted by a very able modern artist--not absolutely without design, for he really wishes to show you how pretty peasant children can be, (and, in so far, is wiser and kinder than murillo, who likes to show how ugly they can be); also, his group is agreeably arranged, and its component children carefully chosen. nevertheless, any summer's day, near any country village, you may come upon twenty groups in an hour as pretty as this; and may see--if you have eyes--children in them twenty times prettier than these. a photograph, if it could render them perfectly, and in color, would far excel the charm of this painting; for in it, good and clever as it is, there is nothing supernatural, and much that is subnatural. . beside this group of, in every sense of the word, 'artless' little country girls, i will now set one--in the best sense of the word--'artful' little country girl,--a sketch by gainsborough. you never saw her like before. never will again, now that gainsborough is dead. no photography,--no science,--no industry, will touch or reach for an instant this _super_-naturalness. you will look vainly through the summer fields for such a child. "nor up the lawn, nor by the wood," is she. whence do you think this marvelous charm has come? alas! if we knew, would not we all be gainsboroughs? this only you may practically ascertain, as surely as that a flower will die if you cut its root away, that you cannot alter a single touch in gainsborough's work without injury to the whole. half a dozen spots, more or less, in the printed gowns of these other children whom i first showed you, will not make the smallest difference to them; nor a lock or two more or less in their hair, nor a dimple or two more or less in their cheeks. but if you alter one wave of the hair of gainsborough's girl, the child is gone. yet the art is so subtle, that i do not expect you to believe this. it looks so instinctive, so easy, so 'chanceux,'--the french word is better than ours. yes, and in their more accurate sense, also, 'il a de la chance.' a stronger designer than he was with him. he could not tell you himself how the thing was done. . i proceed to take a more definite instance--this greek head of the lacinian juno. the design or appointing of the forms now entirely prevails over the resemblance to nature. no real hair could ever be drifted into these wild lines, which mean the wrath of the adriatic winds round the cape of storms. and yet, whether this be uglier or prettier than gainsborough's child--(and you know already what i think about it, that no greek goddess was ever half so pretty as an english girl, of pure clay and temper,)--uglier or prettier, it is more dignified and impressive. it at least belongs to the domain of a lordlier, more majestic, more guiding and ordaining art. . i will go back another five hundred years, and place an egyptian beside the greek divinity. the resemblance to nature is now all but lost, the ruling law has become all. the lines are reduced to an easily counted number, and their arrangement is little more than a decorative sequence of pleasant curves cut in porphyry,--in the upper part of their contour following the outline of a woman's face in profile, over-crested by that of a hawk, on a kind of pedestal. but that the sign-engraver meant by his hawk, immortality, and by her pedestal, the house or tavern of truth, is of little importance now to the passing traveler, not yet preparing to take the sarcophagus for his place of rest. . how many questions are suggested to us by these transitions! is beauty contrary to law, and grace attainable only through license? what we gain in language, shall we lose in thought? and in what we add of labor, more and more forget its ends? not so. look at this piece of sandro's work, the libyan sibyl.[ah] it is as ordered and normal as the egyptian's--as graceful and facile as gainsborough's. it retains the majesty of old religion; it is invested with the joy of newly awakened childhood. mind, i do not expect you--do not wish you--to enjoy botticelli's dark engraving as much as gainsborough's aerial sketch; for due comparison of the men, painting should be put beside painting. but there is enough even in this copy of the florentine plate to show you the junction of the two powers in it--of prophecy, and delight. . will these two powers, do you suppose, be united in the same manner in the contemporary northern art? that northern school is my subject to-day; and yet i give you, as type of the intermediate condition between egypt and england--not holbein, but botticelli. i am obliged to do this; because in the southern art, the religious temper remains unconquered by the doctrines of the reformation. botticelli was--what luther wished to be, but could not be--a reformer still believing in the church: his mind is at peace; and his art, therefore, can pursue the delight of beauty, and yet remain prophetic. but it was far otherwise in germany. there the reformation of manners became the destruction of faith; and art therefore, not a prophecy, but a protest. it is the chief work of the greatest protestant who ever lived,[ai] which i ask you to study with me to-day. . i said that the power of engraving had developed itself during the introduction of three new--(practically and vitally new, that is to say)--elements, into the minds of men: elements which briefly may be expressed thus: . classicism, and literary science. . medicine, and physical science.[aj] . reformation, and religious science. and first of classicism. you feel, do not you, in this typical work of gainsborough's, that his subject as well as his picture is 'artless' in a lovely sense;--nay, not only artless, but ignorant, and unscientific, in a beautiful way? you would be afterwards remorseful, i think, and angry with yourself--seeing the effect produced on her face--if you were to ask this little lady to spell a very long word? also, if you wished to know how many times the sevens go in forty-nine, you would perhaps wisely address yourself elsewhere. on the other hand, you do not doubt that _this_ lady[ak] knows very well how many times the sevens go in forty-nine, and is more mistress of arts than any of us are masters of them. . you have then, in the one case, a beautiful simplicity, and a blameless ignorance; in the other, a beautiful artfulness, and a wisdom which you do not dread,--or, at least, even though dreading, love. but you know also that we may remain in a hateful and culpable ignorance; and, as i fear too many of us in competitive effort feel, become possessed of a hateful knowledge. ignorance, therefore, is not evil absolutely; but, innocent, may be lovable. knowledge also is not good absolutely; but, guilty, may be hateful. so, therefore, when i now repeat my former statement, that the first main opposition between the northern and southern schools is in the simplicity of the one, and the scholarship of the other, that statement may imply sometimes the superiority of the north, and sometimes of the south. you may have a heavenly simplicity opposed to a hellish (that is to say, a lustful and arrogant) scholarship; or you may have a barbarous and presumptuous ignorance opposed to a divine and disciplined wisdom. ignorance opposed to learning in both cases; but evil to good, as the case may be. . for instance: the last time i was standing before raphael's arabesques in the loggias of the vatican, i wrote down in my pocket-book the description, or, more modestly speaking, the inventory, of the small portion of that infinite wilderness of sensual fantasy which happened to be opposite me. it consisted of a woman's face, with serpents for hair, and a virgin's breasts, with stumps for arms, ending in blue butterflies' wings, the whole changing at the waist into a goat's body, which ended below in an obelisk upside-down, to the apex at the bottom of which were appended, by graceful chains, an altar, and two bunches of grapes. now you know in a moment, by a glance at this 'design'--beautifully struck with free hand, and richly gradated in color,--that the master was familiar with a vast range of art and literature: that he knew all about egyptian sphinxes, and greek gorgons; about egyptian obelisks, and hebrew altars; about hermes, and venus, and bacchus, and satyrs, and goats, and grapes. you know also--or ought to know, in an instant,--that all this learning has done him no good; that he had better have known nothing than any of these things, since they were to be used by him only to such purpose; and that his delight in armless breasts, legless trunks, and obelisks upside-down, has been the last effort of his expiring sensation, in the grasp of corrupt and altogether victorious death. and you have thus, in gainsborough as compared with raphael, a sweet, sacred, and living simplicity, set against an impure, profane, and paralyzed knowledge. . but, next, let us consider the reverse conditions. let us take instance of contrast between faultful and treacherous ignorance, and divinely pure and fruitful knowledge. in the place of honor at the end of one of the rooms of your royal academy--years ago--stood a picture by an english academician, announced as a representation of moses sustained by aaron and hur, during the discomfiture of amalek. in the entire range of the pentateuch, there is no other scene (in which the visible agents are mortal only) requiring so much knowledge and thought to reach even a distant approximation to the probabilities of the fact. one saw in a moment that the painter was both powerful and simple, after a sort; that he had really sought for a vital conception, and had originally and earnestly read his text, and formed his conception. and one saw also in a moment that he had chanced upon this subject, in reading or hearing his bible, as he might have chanced on a dramatic scene accidentally in the street. that he knew nothing of the character of moses,--nothing of his law,--nothing of the character of aaron, nor of the nature of a priesthood,--nothing of the meaning of the event which he was endeavoring to represent, of the temper in which it would have been transacted by its agents, or of its relations to modern life. . on the contrary, in the fresco of the earlier scenes in the life of moses, by sandro botticelli, you know--not 'in a moment,' for the knowledge of knowledge cannot be so obtained; but in proportion to the discretion of your own reading, and to the care you give to the picture, you _may_ know,--that here is a sacredly guided and guarded learning; here a master indeed, at whose feet you may sit safely, who can teach you, better than in words, the significance of both moses' law and aaron's ministry; and not only these, but, if he chose, could add to this an exposition as complete of the highest philosophies both of the greek nation, and of his own; and could as easily have painted, had it been asked of him, draco, or numa, or justinian, as the herdsman of jethro. . it is rarely that we can point to an opposition between faultful, because insolent, ignorance, and virtuous, because gracious, knowledge, so direct, and in so parallel elements, as in this instance. in general, the analysis is much more complex. it is intensely difficult to indicate the mischief of involuntary and modest ignorance, calamitous only in a measure; fruitful in its lower field, yet sorrowfully condemned to that lower field--not by sin, but fate. when first i introduced you to bewick, we closed our too partial estimate of his entirely magnificent powers with one sorrowful concession--he could draw a pig, but not a venus. eminently he could so, because--which is still more sorrowfully to be conceded--he liked the pig best. i have put now in your educational series a whole galaxy of pigs by him; but, hunting all the fables through, i find only one venus, and i think you will all admit that she is an unsatisfactory venus.[al] there is honest simplicity here; but you regret it; you miss something that you find in holbein, much more in botticelli. you see in a moment that this man knows nothing of sphinxes, or muses, or graces, or aphrodites; and, besides, that, knowing nothing, he would have no liking for them even if he saw them; but much prefers the style of a well-to-do english housekeeper with corkscrew curls, and a portly person. . you miss something, i said, in bewick which you find in holbein. but do you suppose holbein himself, or any other northern painter, could wholly quit himself of the like accusations? i told you, in the second of these lectures, that the northern temper, refined from savageness, and the southern, redeemed from decay, met, in florence. holbein and botticelli are the purest types of the two races. holbein is a civilized boor; botticelli a reanimate greek. holbein was polished by companionship with scholars and kings, but remains always a burgher of augsburg in essential nature. bewick and he are alike in temper; only the one is untaught, the other perfectly taught. but botticelli _needs_ no teaching. he is, by his birth, scholar and gentleman to the heart's core. christianity itself can only inspire him, not refine him. he is as tried gold chased by the jeweler,--the roughest part of him is the outside. now how differently must the newly recovered scholastic learning tell upon these two men. it is all out of holbein's way; foreign to his nature, useless at the best, probably cumbrous. but botticelli receives it as a child in later years recovers the forgotten dearness of a nursery tale; and is more himself, and again and again himself, as he breathes the air of greece, and hears, in his own italy, the lost voice of the sibyl murmur again by the avernus lake. . it is not, as we have seen, every one of the southern race who can thus receive it. but it graces them all; is at once a part of their being; destroys them, if it is to destroy, the more utterly because it so enters into their natures. it destroys raphael; but it graces him, and is a part of him. it all but destroys mantegna; but it graces him. and it does not hurt holbein, just because it does _not_ grace him--never is for an instant a part of him. it is with raphael as with some charming young girl who has a new and beautifully made dress brought to her, which entirely becomes her,--so much, that in a little while, thinking of nothing else, she becomes _it_; and is only the decoration of her dress. but with holbein it is as if you brought the same dress to a stout farmer's daughter who was going to dine at the hall; and begged her to put it on that she might not discredit the company. she puts it on to please you; looks entirely ridiculous in it, but is not spoiled by it,--remains herself, in spite of it. . you probably have never noticed the extreme awkwardness of holbein in wearing this new dress; you would the less do so because his own people think him all the finer for it, as the farmer's wife would probably think her daughter. dr. woltmann, for instance, is enthusiastic in praise of the splendid architecture in the background of his annunciation. a fine mess it must have made in the minds of simple german maidens, in their notion of the virgin at home! i cannot show you this annunciation; but i have under my hand one of holbein's bible cuts, of the deepest seriousness and import--his illustration of the canticles, showing the church as the bride of christ. [illustration] you could not find a subject requiring more tenderness, purity, or dignity of treatment. in this maid, symbolizing the church, you ask for the most passionate humility, the most angelic beauty: "behold, thou art fair, my dove." now here is holbein's ideal of that fairness; here is his "church as the bride." i am sorry to associate this figure in your minds, even for a moment, with the passages it is supposed to illustrate; but the lesson is too important to be omitted. remember, holbein represents the temper of northern reformation. he has all the nobleness of that temper, but also all its baseness. he represents, indeed, the revolt of german truth against italian lies; but he represents also the revolt of german animalism against hebrew imagination. this figure of holbein's is half-way from solomon's mystic bride, to rembrandt's wife, sitting on his knee while he drinks. but the key of the question is not in this. florentine animalism has at this time, also, enough to say for itself. but florentine animalism, at this time, feels the joy of a gentleman, not of a churl. and a florentine, whatever he does,--be it virtuous or sinful, chaste or lascivious, severe or extravagant,--does it with a grace. . you think, perhaps, that holbein's solomon's bride is so ungraceful chiefly because she is overdressed, and has too many feathers and jewels. no; a florentine would have put any quantity of feathers and jewels on her, and yet never lost her grace. you shall see him do it, and that to a fantastic degree, for i have an example under my hand. look back, first, to bewick's venus (lecture iii.). you can't accuse her of being overdressed. she complies with every received modern principle of taste. sir joshua's precept that drapery should be "drapery, and nothing more," is observed more strictly even by bewick than by michael angelo. if the absence of decoration could exalt the beauty of his venus, here had been her perfection. now look back to plate ii. (lecture iv.), by sandro; venus in her planet, the ruling star of florence. anything more grotesque in conception, more unrestrained in fancy of ornament, you cannot find, even in the final days of the renaissance. yet venus holds her divinity through all; she will become majestic to you as you gaze; and there is not a line of her chariot wheels, of her buskins, or of her throne, which you may not see was engraved by a gentleman. [illustration: v. "heat considered as a mode of motion." florentine natural philosophy.] . again, plate v., opposite, is a facsimile of another engraving of the same series--the sun in leo. it is even more extravagant in accessories than the venus. you see the sun's epaulets before you see the sun; the spiral scrolls of his chariot, and the black twisted rays of it, might, so far as types of form only are considered, be a design for some modern court-dress star, to be made in diamonds. and yet all this wild ornamentation is, if you will examine it, more purely greek in spirit than the apollo belvedere. you know i have told you, again and again, that the soul of greece is her veracity; that what to other nations were fables and symbolisms, to her became living facts--living gods. the fall of greece was instant when her gods again became fables. the apollo belvedere is the work of a sculptor to whom apollonism is merely an elegant idea on which to exhibit his own skill. he does not himself feel for an instant that the handsome man in the unintelligible attitude,[am] with drapery hung over his left arm, as it would be hung to dry over a clothes-line, is the power of the sun. but the florentine believes in apollo with his whole mind, and is trying to explain his strength in every touch. for instance; i said just now, "you see the sun's epaulets before the sun." well, _don't_ you, usually, as it rises? do you not continually mistake a luminous cloud for it, or wonder where it is, behind one? again, the face of the apollo belvedere is agitated by anxiety, passion, and pride. is the sun's likely to be so, rising on the evil and the good? this prince sits crowned and calm: look at the quiet fingers of the hand holding the scepter,--at the restraint of the reins merely by a depression of the wrist. . you have to look carefully for those fingers holding the scepter, because the hand--which a great anatomist would have made so exclusively interesting--is here confused with the ornamentation of the arm of the chariot on which it rests. but look what the ornamentation is;--fruit and leaves, abundant, in the mouth of a cornucopia. a quite vulgar and meaningless ornament in ordinary renaissance work. is it so here, think you? are not the leaves and fruits of earth in the sun's hand?[an] you thought, perhaps, when i spoke just now of the action of the right hand, that less than a depression of the wrist would stop horses such as those. you fancy botticelli drew them so, because he had never seen a horse; or because, able to draw fingers, he could not draw hoofs! how fine it would be to have, instead, a prancing four-in-hand, in the style of piccadilly on the derby-day, or at least horses like the real greek horses of the parthenon! yes; and if they had had real ground to trot on, the florentine would have shown you he knew how they should trot. but these have to make their way up the hill-side of other lands. look to the example in your standard series, hermes eriophoros. you will find his motion among clouds represented precisely in this laboring, failing, half-kneeling attitude of limb. these forms, toiling up through the rippled sands of heaven, are--not horses;--they are clouds themselves, _like_ horses, but only a little like. look how their hoofs lose themselves, buried in the ripples of cloud; it makes one think of the quicksands of morecambe bay. and their tails--what extraordinary tufts of tails, ending in points! yes; but do you not see, nearly joining with them, what is not a horse tail at all; but a flame of fire, kindled at apollo's knee? all the rest of the radiance about him shoots _from_ him. but this is rendered _up_ to him. as the fruits of the earth are in one of his hands, its fire is in the other. and all the warmth, as well as all the light of it, are his. we had a little natural philosophy, gentlemen, as well as theology, in florence, once upon a time. . natural philosophy, and also natural art, for in this the greek reanimate was a nobler creature than the greek who had died. his art had a wider force and warmer glow. i have told you that the first greeks were distinguished from the barbarians by their simple humanity; the second greeks--these florentine greeks reanimate--are human more strongly, more deeply, leaping from the byzantine death at the call of christ, "loose him, and let him go." and there is upon them at once the joy of resurrection, and the solemnity of the grave. [illustration: vi. fairness of the sea and air. in venice and athens.] . of this resurrection of the greek, and the form of the tomb he had been buried in "those four days," i have to give you some account in the last lecture. i will only to-day show you an illustration of it which brings us back to our immediate question as to the reasons why northern art could not accept classicism. when, in the closing lecture of "aratra pentelici,"[ao] i compared florentine with greek work, it was to point out to you the eager passions of the first as opposed to the formal legalism and proprieties of the other. greek work, i told you, while truthful, was also restrained, and never but under majesty of law; while gothic work was true, in the perfect law of liberty or franchise. and now i give you in facsimile (plate vi.) the two aphrodites thus compared--the aphrodite thalassia of the tyrrhene seas, and the aphrodite urania of the greek skies. you may not at first like the tuscan best; and why she is the best, though both are noble, again i must defer explaining to next lecture. but now turn back to bewick's venus, and compare her with the tuscan venus of the stars, (plate ii.); and then here, in plate vi., with the tuscan venus of the seas, and the greek venus of the sky. why is the english one vulgar? what is it, in the three others, which makes them, if not beautiful, at least refined?--every one of them 'designed' and drawn, indisputably, by a gentleman? i never have been so puzzled by any subject of analysis as, for these ten years, i have been by this. every answer i give, however plausible it seems at first, fails in some way, or in some cases. but there is the point for you, more definitely put, i think, than in any of my former books;--at present, for want of time, i must leave it to your own thoughts. . ii. the second influence under which engraving developed itself, i said, was that of medicine and the physical sciences. gentlemen, the most audacious, and the most valuable, statement which i have yet made to you on the subject of practical art, in these rooms, is that of the evil resulting from the study of anatomy. it is a statement so audacious, that not only for some time i dared not make it to you, but for ten years, at least, i dared not make it to myself. i saw, indeed, that whoever studied anatomy was in a measure injured by it; but i kept attributing the mischief to secondary causes. it _can't_ be this drink itself that poisons them, i said always. this drink is medicinal and strengthening: i see that it kills them, but it must be because they drink it cold when they have been hot, or they take something else with it that changes it into poison. the drink itself _must_ be good. well, gentlemen, i found out the drink itself to be poison at last, by the breaking of my choicest venice glass. i could not make out what it was that had killed tintoret, and laid it long to the charge of chiaroscuro. it was only after my thorough study of his paradise, in , that i gave up this idea, finding the chiaroscuro, which i had thought exaggerated, was, in all original and undarkened passages, beautiful and most precious. and then at last i got hold of the true clue: "il disegno di michel agnolo." and the moment i had dared to accuse that, it explained everything; and i saw that the betraying demons of italian art, led on by michael angelo, had been, not pleasure, but knowledge; not indolence, but ambition; and not love, but horror. . but when first i ventured to tell you this, i did not know, myself, the fact of all most conclusive for its confirmation. it will take me a little while to put it before you in its total force, and i must first ask your attention to a minor point. in one of the smaller rooms of the munich gallery is holbein's painting of st. margaret and st. elizabeth of hungary,--standard of his early religious work. here is a photograph from the st. elizabeth; and, in the same frame, a french lithograph of it. i consider it one of the most important pieces of comparison i have arranged for you, showing you at a glance the difference between true and false sentiment. of that difference, generally, we cannot speak to-day, but one special result of it you are to observe;--the omission, in the french drawing, of holbein's daring representation of disease, which is one of the vital honors of the picture. quite one of the chief strengths of st. elizabeth, in the roman catholic view, was in the courage of her dealing with disease, chiefly leprosy. now observe, i say _roman_ catholic view, very earnestly just now; i am not at all sure that it is so in a catholic view--that is to say, in an eternally christian and divine view. and this doubt, very nearly now a certainty, only came clearly into my mind the other day after many and many a year's meditation on it. i had read with great reverence all the beautiful stories about christ's appearing as a leper, and the like; and had often pitied and rebuked myself alternately for my intense dislike and horror of disease. i am writing at this moment within fifty yards of the grave of st. francis, and the story of the likeness of his feelings to mine had a little comforted me, and the tradition of his conquest of them again humiliated me; and i was thinking very gravely of this, and of the parallel instance of bishop hugo of lincoln, always desiring to do service to the dead, as opposed to my own unmitigated and louis-quinze-like horror of funerals;--when by chance, in the cathedral of palermo, a new light was thrown for me on the whole matter. . i was drawing the tomb of frederick ii., which is shut off by a grating from the body of the church; and i had, in general, quite an unusual degree of quiet and comfort at my work. but sometimes it was paralyzed by the unconscious interference of one of the men employed in some minor domestic services about the church. when he had nothing to do, he used to come and seat himself near my grating, not to look at my work, (the poor wretch had no eyes, to speak of,) nor in any way meaning to be troublesome; but there was his habitual seat. his nose had been carried off by the most loathsome of diseases; there were two vivid circles of scarlet round his eyes; and as he sat, he announced his presence every quarter of a minute (if otherwise i could have forgotten it) by a peculiarly disgusting, loud, and long expectoration. on the second or third day, just i had forced myself into some forgetfulness of him, and was hard at my work, i was startled from it again by the bursting out of a loud and cheerful conversation close to me; and on looking round, saw a lively young fledgling of a priest, seventeen or eighteen years old, in the most eager and spirited chat with the man in the chair. he talked, laughed, and spat, himself, companionably, in the merriest way, for a quarter of an hour; evidently without feeling the slightest disgust, or being made serious for an instant, by the aspect of the destroyed creature before him. . his own face was simply that of the ordinary vulgar type of thoughtless young italians, rather beneath than above the usual standard; and i was certain, as i watched him, that he was not at all my superior, but very much my inferior, in the coolness with which he beheld what was to me so dreadful. i was positive that he could look this man in the face, precisely because he could _not_ look, discerningly, at any beautiful or noble thing; and that the reason i dared not, was because i had, spiritually, as much better eyes than the priest, as, bodily, than his companion. having got so much of clear evidence given me on the matter, it was driven home for me a week later, as i landed on the quay of naples. almost the first thing that presented itself to me was the sign of a traveling theatrical company, displaying the principal scene of the drama to be enacted on their classical stage. fresh from the theater of taormina, i was curious to see the subject of the neapolitan popular drama. it was the capture, by the police, of a man and his wife who lived by boiling children. one section of the police was coming in, armed to the teeth, through the passage; another section of the police, armed to the teeth, and with high feathers in its caps, was coming up through a trap-door. in fine dramatic unconsciousness to the last moment, like the clown in a pantomime, the child-boiler was represented as still industriously chopping up a child, pieces of which, ready for the pot, lay here and there on the table in the middle of the picture. the child-boiler's wife, however, just as she was taking the top off the pot to put the meat in, had caught a glimpse of the foremost policeman, and stopped, as much in rage as in consternation. . now it is precisely the same feeling, or want of feeling, in the lower italian (nor always in the lower classes only) which makes him demand the kind of subject for his secular drama; and the crucifixion and pietà for his religious drama. the only part of christianity he can enjoy is its horror; and even the saint and saintess are not always denying themselves severely, either by the contemplation of torture, or the companionship with disease. nevertheless, we must be cautious, on the other hand, to allow full value to the endurance, by tender and delicate persons, of what is really loathsome or distressful to them in the service of others; and i think this picture of holbein's indicative of the exact balance and rightness of his own mind in this matter, and therefore of his power to conceive a true saint also. he had to represent st. catherine's chief effort;--he paints her ministering to the sick, and, among them, is a leper; and finding it thus his duty to paint leprosy, he courageously himself studies it from the life. not to insist on its horror; but to assert it, to the needful point of fact, which he does with medical accuracy. now here is just a case in which science, in a subordinate degree, is really required for a spiritual and moral purpose. and you find holbein does not shrink from it even in this extreme case in which it is most painful. . if, therefore, you _do_ find him in other cases not using it, you may be sure he knew it to be unnecessary. now it may be disputable whether in order to draw a living madonna, one needs to know how many ribs she has; but it would have seemed indisputable that in order to draw a skeleton, one must know how many ribs _it_ has. holbein is par excellence the draughtsman of skeletons. his painted dance of death was, and his engraved dance of death is, principal of such things, without any comparison or denial. he draws skeleton after skeleton, in every possible gesture; but never so much as counts their ribs! he neither knows nor cares how many ribs a skeleton has. there are always enough to rattle. monstrous, you think, in impudence,--holbein for his carelessness, and i for defending him! nay, i triumph in him; nothing has ever more pleased me than this grand negligence. nobody wants to know how many ribs a skeleton has, any more than how many bars a gridiron has, so long as the one can breathe, and the other broil; and still less, when the breath and the fire are both out. . but is it only of the bones, think you, that holbein is careless?[ap] nay, incredible though it may seem to you,--but, to me, explanatory at once of much of his excellence,--he did not know anatomy at all! i told you in my preface,[aq] already quoted, holbein studies the face first, the body secondarily; but i had no idea, myself, how completely he had refused the venomous science of his day. i showed you a dead christ of his, long ago. can you match it with your academy drawings, think you? and yet he did not, and would not, know anatomy. _he_ would not; but dürer would, and did:--went hotly into it--wrote books upon it, and upon 'proportions of the human body,' etc., etc., and all your modern recipes for painting flesh. how did his studies prosper his art? people are always talking of his knight and death, and his melancholia, as if those were his principal works. they are his characteristic ones, and show what he might have been _without_ his anatomy; but they were mere by-play compared to his greater fortune, and adam and eve. look at these. here is his full energy displayed; here are both male and female forms drawn with perfect knowledge of their bones and muscles, and modes of action and digestion,--and i hope you are pleased. but it is not anatomy only that master albert studies. he has a taste for optics also; and knows all about refraction and reflection. what with his knowledge of the skull inside, and the vitreous lens outside, if any man in the world is to draw an eye, here's the man to do it, surely! with a hand which can give lessons to john bellini, and a care which would fain do all so that it can't be done better, and acquaintance with every crack in the cranium, and every humor in the lens,--if we can't draw an eye, we should just like to know who can! thinks albert. so having to engrave the portrait of melanchthon, instead of looking at melanchthon as ignorant holbein would have been obliged to do,--wise albert looks at the room window; and finds it has four cross-bars in it, and knows scientifically that the light on melanchthon's eye must be a reflection of the window with its four bars--and engraves it so, accordingly; and who shall dare to say, now, it isn't like melanchthon? unfortunately, however, it isn't, nor like any other person in his senses; but like a madman looking at somebody who disputes his hobby. while in this drawing of holbein's, where a dim gray shadow leaves a mere crumb of white paper,--accidentally it seems, for all the fine scientific reflection,--behold, it is an eye indeed, and of a noble creature. . what is the reason? do you ask me; and is all the common teaching about generalization of details true, then? no; not a syllable of it is true. holbein is right, not because he draws more generally, but more truly, than dürer. dürer draws what he knows is there; but holbein, only what he sees. and, as i have told you often before, the really scientific artist is he who not only asserts bravely what he _does_ see, but confesses honestly what he does _not_. you must not draw all the hairs in an eyelash; not because it is sublime to generalize them, but because it is impossible to see them. how many hairs there are, a sign painter or anatomist may count; but how few of them you can see, it is only the utmost masters, carpaccio, tintoret, reynolds, and velasquez, who count, or know. . such was the effect, then, of his science upon dürer's ideal of beauty, and skill in portraiture. what effect had it on the temper and quantity of his work, as compared with poor ignorant holbein's! you have only three portraits, by dürer, of the great men of his time, and those bad ones; while he toils his soul out to draw the hoofs of satyrs, the bristles of swine, and the distorted aspects of base women and vicious men. what, on the contrary, has ignorant holbein done for you? shakespeare and he divide between them, by word and look, the story of england under henry and elizabeth. . of the effect of science on the art of mantegna and marc antonio, (far more deadly than on dürer's,) i must tell you in a future lecture;--the effect of it on their minds, i must partly refer to now, in passing to the third head of my general statement--the influence of new theology. for dürer and mantegna, chiefly because of their science, forfeited their place, not only as painters of men, but as servants of god. neither of them has left one completely noble or completely didactic picture; while holbein and botticelli, in consummate pieces of art, led the way before the eyes of all men, to the purification of their church and land. . iii. but the need of reformation presented itself to these two men last named on entirely different terms. to holbein, when the word of the catholic church proved false, and its deeds bloody; when he saw it selling permission of sin in his native augsburg, and strewing the ashes of its enemies on the pure alpine waters of constance, what refuge was there for _him_ in more ancient religion? shall he worship thor again, and mourn over the death of balder? he reads nature in her desolate and narrow truth, and she teaches him the triumph of death. but, for botticelli, the grand gods are old, are immortal. the priests may have taught falsely the story of the virgin;--did they not also lie, in the name of artemis, at ephesus;--in the name of aphrodite, at cyprus?--but shall, therefore, chastity or love be dead, or the full moon paler over arno? saints of heaven and gods of earth!--shall _these_ perish because vain men speak evil of them! let _us_ speak good forever, and grave, as on the rock, for ages to come, the glory of beauty, and the triumph of faith. . holbein had bitterer task. of old, the one duty of the painter had been to exhibit the virtues of this life, and hopes of the life to come. holbein had to show the vices of this life, and to obscure the hope of the future. "yes, we walk through the valley of the shadow of death, and fear all evil, for thou art not with us, and thy rod and thy staff comfort us not." he does not choose this task. it is thrust upon him,--just as fatally as the burial of the dead is in a plague-struck city. these are the things he sees, and must speak. he will not become a better artist thereby; no drawing of supreme beauty, or beautiful things, will be possible to him. yet we cannot say he ought to have done anything else, nor can we praise him specially in doing this. it is his fate; the fate of all the bravest in that day. [illustration: the child's bedtime. (fig. ) facsimile from holbein's woodcut.] . for instance, there is no scene about which a shallow and feeble painter would have been more sure to adopt the commonplaces of the creed of his time than the death of a child,--chiefly, and most of all, the death of a country child,--a little thing fresh from the cottage and the field. surely for such an one, angels will wait by its sick bed, and rejoice as they bear its soul away; and over its shroud flowers will be strewn, and the birds will sing by its grave. so your common sentimentalist would think, and paint. holbein sees the facts, as they verily are, up to the point when vision ceases. he speaks, then, no more. the country laborer's cottage--the rain coming through its roof, the clay crumbling from its partitions, the fire lighted with a few chips and sticks on a raised piece of the mud floor,--such dais as can be contrived, for use, not for honor. the damp wood sputters; the smoke, stopped by the roof, though the rain is not, coils round again, and down. but the mother can warm the child's supper of bread and milk so--holding the pan by the long handle; and on mud floor though it be, they are happy,--she, and her child, and its brother,--if only they could be left so. they shall not be left so: the young thing must leave them--will never need milk warmed for it any more. it would fain stay,--sees no angels--feels only an icy grip on its hand, and that it cannot stay. those who loved it shriek and tear their hair in vain, amazed in grief. 'oh, little one, must you lie out in the fields then, not even under this poor torn roof of thy mother's to-night?' [illustration: "he that hath ears to hear, let him hear." (fig. ) facsimile from holbein's woodcut.] . again: there was not in the old creed any subject more definitely and constantly insisted on than the death of a miser. he had been happy, the old preachers thought, till then: but his hour has come; and the black covetousness of hell is awake and watching; the sharp harpy claws will clutch his soul out of his mouth, and scatter his treasure for others. so the commonplace preacher and painter taught. not so holbein. the devil want to snatch his soul, indeed! nay, he never _had_ a soul, but of the devil's giving. his misery to begin on his death-bed! nay, he had never an unmiserable hour of life. the fiend is with him now,--a paltry, abortive fiend, with no breath even to blow hot with. he supplies the hell-blast _with a machine_. it is winter, and the rich man has his furred cloak and cap, thick and heavy; the beggar, bare-headed to beseech him, skin and rags hanging about him together, touches his shoulder, but all in vain; there is other business in hand. more haggard than the beggar himself, wasted and palsied, the rich man counts with his fingers the gain of the years to come. but of those years, infinite that are to be, holbein says nothing. 'i know not; i see not. this only i see, on this very winter's day, the low pale stumbling-block at your feet, the altogether by you unseen and forgotten death. you shall not pass _him_ by on the other side; here is a fasting figure in skin and bone, at last, that will stop you; and for all the hidden treasures of earth, here is your spade: dig now, and find them.' . i have said that holbein was condemned to teach these things. he was not happy in teaching them, nor thanked for teaching them. nor was botticelli for his lovelier teaching. but they both could do no otherwise. they lived in truth and steadfastness; and with both, in their marvelous design, veracity is the beginning of invention, and love its end. i have but time to show you, in conclusion, how this affectionate self-forgetfulness protects holbein from the chief calamity of the german temper, vanity, which is at the root of all dürer's weakness. here is a photograph of holbein's portrait of erasmus, and a fine proof of dürer's. in holbein's, the face leads everything; and the most lovely qualities of the face lead in that. the cloak and cap are perfectly painted, just because you look at them neither more nor less than you would have looked at the cloak in reality. you don't say, 'how brilliantly they are touched,' as you would with rembrandt; nor 'how gracefully they are neglected,' as you would with gainsborough; nor 'how exquisitely they are shaded,' as you would with lionardo; nor 'how grandly they are composed,' as you would with titian. you say only, 'erasmus is surely there; and what a pleasant sight!' you don't think of holbein at all. he has not even put in the minutest letter h, that i can see, to remind you of him. drops his h's, i regret to say, often enough. 'my hand should be enough for you; what matters my name?' but now, look at dürer's. the very first thing you see, and at any distance, is this great square tablet with "the image of erasmus, drawn from the life by albert dürer, ," and a great straddling a.d. besides. then you see a cloak, and a table, and a pot, with flowers in it, and a heap of books with all their leaves and all their clasps, and all the little bits of leather gummed in to mark the places; and last of all you see erasmus's face; and when you do see it, the most of it is wrinkles. all egotism and insanity, this, gentlemen. hard words to use; but not too hard to define the faults which rendered so much of dürer's great genius abortive, and to this day paralyze, among the details of a lifeless and ambitious precision, the student, no less than the artist, of german blood. for too many an erasmus, too many a dürer, among them, the world is all cloak and clasp, instead of face or book; and the first object of their lives is to engrave their initials. . for us, in england, not even so much is at present to be hoped; and yet, singularly enough, it is more our modesty, unwisely submissive, than our vanity, which has destroyed our english school of engraving. at the bottom of the pretty line engravings which used to represent, characteristically, our english skill, one saw always _two_ inscriptions. at the left-hand corner, "drawn by--so-and-so;" at the right-hand corner, "engraved by--so-and-so." only under the worst and cheapest plates--for the stationers' almanack, or the like--one saw sometimes, "drawn and engraved by--so-and-so," which meant nothing more than that the publisher would not go to the expense of an artist, and that the engraver haggled through as he could. (one fortunate exception, gentlemen, you have in the old drawings for your oxford almanack, though the publishers, i have no doubt, even in that case, employed the cheapest artist they could find.[ar]) but in general, no engraver thought himself able to draw; and no artist thought it his business to engrave. . but the fact that this and the following lecture are on the subject of design in engraving, implies of course that in the work we have to examine, it was often the engraver himself who designed, and as often the artist who engraved. and you will observe that the only engravings which bear imperishable value are, indeed, in this kind. it is true that, in wood-cutting, both dürer and holbein, as in our own days leech and tenniel, have workmen under them who can do all they want. but in metal cutting it is not so. for, as i have told you, in metal cutting, ultimate perfection of line has to be reached; and it can be reached by none but a master's hand; nor by his, unless in the very moment and act of designing. never, unless under the vivid first force of imagination and intellect, can the line have its full value. and for this high reason, gentlemen, that paradox which perhaps seemed to you so daring, is nevertheless deeply and finally true, that while a woodcut may be laboriously finished, a grand engraving on metal must be comparatively incomplete. for it must be done, throughout, with the full fire of temper in it, visibly governing its lines, as the wind does the fibers of cloud. . the value hitherto attached to rembrandt's etchings, and others imitating them, depends on a true instinct in the public mind for this virtue of line. but etching is an indolent and blundering method at the best; and i do not doubt that you will one day be grateful for the severe disciplines of drawing required in these schools, in that they will have enabled you to know what a line may be, driven by a master's chisel on silver or marble, following, and fostering as it follows, the instantaneous strength of his determined thought. footnotes: [ag] if you paint a bottle only to amuse the spectator by showing him how like a painting may be to a bottle, you cannot be considered, in art-philosophy, as a designer. but if you paint the cork flying out of the bottle, and the contents arriving in an arch at the mouth of a recipient glass, you are so far forth a designer or signer; probably meaning to express certain ultimate facts respecting, say, the hospitable disposition of the landlord of the house; but at all events representing the bottle and glass in a designed, and not merely natural, manner. not merely natural--nay, in some sense non-natural, or supernatural. and all great artists show both this fantastic condition of mind in their work, and show that it has arisen out of a communicative or didactic purpose. they are the signpainters of god. i have added this note to the lecture in copying my memoranda of it here at assisi, june th, being about to begin work in the tavern, or tabernaculum, of the lower church, with its variously significant four great 'signs.' [ah] plate x., lecture vi. [ai] i do not mean the greatest teacher of reformed faith; but the greatest protestant against faith unreformed. [aj] it has become the permitted fashion among modern mathematicians, chemists, and apothecaries, to call themselves 'scientific men,' as opposed to theologians, poets, and artists. they know their sphere to be a separate one; but their ridiculous notion of its being a peculiarly scientific one ought not to be allowed in our universities. there is a science of morals, a science of history, a science of grammar, a science of music, and a science of painting; and all these are quite beyond comparison higher fields for human intellect, and require accuracies of intenser observation, than either chemistry, electricity, or geology. [ak] the cumaean sibyl, plate vii., lecture vi. [al] lecture iii., § . [am] i read somewhere, lately, a new and very ingenious theory about the attitude of the apollo belvedere, proving, to the author's satisfaction, that the received notion about watching the arrow was all a mistake. the paper proved, at all events, one thing--namely, the statement in the text. for an attitude which has been always hitherto taken to mean one thing, and is plausibly asserted now to mean another, must be in itself unintelligible. [an] it may be asked, why not corn also? because that belongs to ceres, who is equally one of the great gods. [ao] "aratra pentelici," § . [ap] or inventive! see woltmann, p. . "the shinbone, or the lower part of the arm, exhibits only one bone, while the upper arm and thigh are often allowed the luxury of two!" [aq] see ante, § . the "preface" is that to "the eagle's nest." [ar] the drawings were made by turner, and are now among the chief treasures of the oxford galleries. i ought to add some notice of hogarth to this lecture in the appendix; but fear i shall have no time: besides, though i have profound respect for hogarth, as, in literature, i have for fielding, i can't criticise them, because i know nothing of their subjects. lecture vi. design in the florentine schools of engraving. . in the first of these lectures, i stated to you their subject, as the investigation of the engraved work of a group of men, to whom engraving, as a means of popular address, was above all precious, because their art was distinctively didactic. some of my hearers must be aware that, of late years, the assertion that art should be didactic has been clamorously and violently derided by the countless crowd of artists who have nothing to represent, and of writers who have nothing to say; and that the contrary assertion--that art consists only in pretty colors and fine words,--is accepted, readily enough, by a public which rarely pauses to look at a picture with attention, or read a sentence with understanding. . gentlemen, believe me, there never was any great advancing art yet, nor can be, without didactic purpose. the leaders of the strong schools are, and must be always, either teachers of theology, or preachers of the moral law. i need not tell you that it was as teachers of theology on the walls of the vatican that the masters with whose names you are most familiar obtained their perpetual fame. but however great their fame, you have not practically, i imagine, ever been materially assisted in your preparation for the schools either of philosophy or divinity by raphael's 'school of athens,' by raphael's 'theology,'--or by michael angelo's 'judgment.' my task, to-day, is to set before you some part of the design of the first master of the works in the sistine chapel; and i believe that, from his teaching, you will, even in the hour which i ask you now to give, learn what may be of true use to you in all your future labor, whether in oxford or elsewhere. . you have doubtless, in the course of these lectures, been occasionally surprised by my speaking of holbein and sandro botticelli, as reformers, in the same tone of respect, and with the same implied assertion of their intellectual power and agency, with which it is usual to speak of luther and savonarola. you have been accustomed, indeed, to hear painting and sculpture spoken of as supporting or enforcing church doctrine; but never as reforming or chastising it. whether protestant or roman catholic, you have admitted what in the one case you held to be the abuse of painting in the furtherance of idolatry,--in the other, its amiable and exalting ministry to the feebleness of faith. but neither has recognized,--the protestant his ally,--or the catholic his enemy, in the far more earnest work of the great painters of the fifteenth century. the protestant was, in most cases, too vulgar to understand the aid offered to him by painting; and in all cases too terrified to believe in it. he drove the gift-bringing greek with imprecations from his sectarian fortress, or received him within it only on the condition that he should speak no word of religion there. . on the other hand, the catholic, in most cases too indolent to read, and, in all, too proud to dread, the rebuke of the reforming painters, confused them with the crowd of his old flatterers, and little noticed their altered language or their graver brow. in a little while, finding they had ceased to be amusing, he effaced their works, not as dangerous, but as dull; and recognized only thenceforward, as art, the innocuous bombast of michael angelo, and fluent efflorescence of bernini. but when you become more intimately and impartially acquainted with the history of the reformation, you will find that, as surely and earnestly as memling and giotto strove in the north and south to set forth and exalt the catholic faith, so surely and earnestly did holbein and botticelli strive, in the north, to chastise, and, in the south, to revive it. in what manner, i will try to-day briefly to show you. . i name these two men as the reforming leaders: there were many, rank and file, who worked in alliance with holbein; with botticelli, two great ones, lippi and perugino. but both of these had so much pleasure in their own pictorial faculty, that they strove to keep quiet, and out of harm's way,--involuntarily manifesting themselves sometimes, however; and not in the wisest manner. lippi's running away with a novice was not likely to be understood as a step in church reformation correspondent to luther's marriage.[as] nor have protestant divines, even to this day, recognized the real meaning of the reports of perugino's 'infidelity.' botticelli, the pupil of the one, and the companion of the other, held the truths they taught him through sorrow as well as joy; and he is the greatest of the reformers, because he preached without blame; though the least known, because he died without victory. i had hoped to be able to lay before you some better biography of him than the traditions of vasari, of which i gave a short abstract some time back in fors clavigera (letter xxii.); but as yet i have only added internal evidence to the popular story, the more important points of which i must review briefly. it will not waste your time if i read,--instead of merely giving you reference to,--the passages on which i must comment. . "his father, mariano filipepi, a florentine citizen, brought him up with care, and caused him to be instructed in all such things as are usually taught to children before they choose a calling. but although the boy readily acquired whatever he wished to learn, yet was he constantly discontented; neither would he take any pleasure in reading, writing, or accounts, insomuch that the father, disturbed by the eccentric habits of his son, turned him over in despair to a gossip of his, called botticello, who was a goldsmith, and considered a very competent master of his art, to the intent that the boy might learn the same." "he took no pleasure in reading, writing, nor accounts"! you will find the same thing recorded of cimabue; but it is more curious when stated of a man whom i cite to you as typically a gentleman and a scholar. but remember, in those days, though there were not so many entirely correct books issued by the religious tract society for boys to read, there were a great many more pretty things in the world for boys to see. the val d'arno was pater-noster row to purpose; their father's row, with books of his writing on the mountain shelves. and the lad takes to looking at things, and thinking about them, instead of reading about them,--which i commend to you also, as much the more scholarly practice of the two. to the end, though he knows all about the celestial hierarchies, he is not strong in his letters, nor in his dialect. i asked mr. tyrwhitt to help me through with a bit of his italian the other day. mr. tyrwhitt could only help me by suggesting that it was "botticelli for so-and-so." and one of the minor reasons which induced me so boldly to attribute these sibyls to him, instead of bandini, is that the lettering is so ill done. the engraver would assuredly have had his lettering all right,--or at least neat. botticelli blunders through it, scratches impatiently out when he goes wrong: and as i told you there's no repentance in the engraver's trade, leaves all the blunders visible. . i may add one fact bearing on this question lately communicated to me.[at] in the autumn of i possessed myself of an italian book of pen drawings, some, i have no doubt, by mantegna in his youth, others by sandro himself. in examining these, i was continually struck by the comparatively feeble and blundering way in which the titles were written, while all the rest of the handling was really superb; and still more surprised when, on the sleeves and hem of the robe of one of the principal figures of women, ("helena rapita da paris,") i found what seemed to be meant for inscriptions, intricately embroidered; which nevertheless, though beautifully drawn, i could not read. in copying botticelli's zipporah this spring, i found the border of her robe wrought with characters of the same kind, which a young painter, working with me, who already knows the minor secrets of italian art better than i,[au] assures me are letters,--and letters of a language hitherto undeciphered. . "there was at that time a close connection and almost constant intercourse between the goldsmiths and the painters, wherefore sandro, who possessed considerable ingenuity, and was strongly disposed to the arts of design, became enamored of painting, and resolved to devote himself entirely to that vocation. he acknowledged his purpose at once to his father; and the latter, who knew the force of his inclination, took him accordingly to the carmelite monk, fra filippo, who was a most excellent painter of that time, with whom he placed him to study the art, as sandro himself had desired. devoting himself thereupon entirely to the vocation he had chosen, sandro so closely followed the directions, and imitated the manner, of his master, that fra filippo conceived a great love for him, and instructed him so effectually, that sandro rapidly attained to such a degree in art as none would have predicted for him." i have before pointed out to you the importance of training by the goldsmith. sandro got more good of it, however, than any of the other painters so educated,--being enabled by it to use gold for light to color, in a glowing harmony never reached with equal perfection, and rarely attempted, in the later schools. to the last, his paintings are partly treated as work in niello; and he names himself, in perpetual gratitude, from this first artisan master. nevertheless, the fortunate fellow finds, at the right moment, another, even more to his mind, and is obedient to him through his youth, as to the other through his childhood. and this master loves him; and instructs him 'so effectually,'--in grinding colors, do you suppose, only; or in laying of lines only; or in anything more than these? . i will tell you what lippi must have taught any boy whom he loved. first, humility, and to live in joy and peace, injuring no man--if such innocence might be. nothing is so manifest in every face by him, as its gentleness and rest. secondly, to finish his work perfectly, and in such temper that the angels might say of it--not he himself--'iste perfecit opus.' do you remember what i told you in the eagle's nest (§ ), that true humility was in hoping that angels might sometimes admire _our_ work; not in hoping that we should ever be able to admire _theirs_? thirdly,--a little thing it seems, but was a great one,--love of flowers. no one draws such lilies or such daisies as lippi. botticelli beat him afterwards in roses, but never in lilies. fourthly, due honor for classical tradition. lippi is the only religious painter who dresses john baptist in the camelskin, as the greeks dressed heracles in the lion's--over the head. lastly, and chiefly of all,--le père hyacinthe taught his pupil certain views about the doctrine of the church, which the boy thought of more deeply than his tutor, and that by a great deal; and master sandro presently got himself into such question for painting heresy, that if he had been as hot-headed as he was true-hearted, he would soon have come to bad end by the tar-barrel. but he is so sweet and so modest, that nobody is frightened; so clever, that everybody is pleased: and at last, actually the pope sends for him to paint his own private chapel,--where the first thing my young gentleman does, mind you, is to paint the devil in a monk's dress, tempting christ! the sauciest thing, out and out, done in the history of the reformation, it seems to me; yet so wisely done, and with such true respect otherwise shown for what was sacred in the church, that the pope didn't mind: and all went on as merrily as marriage bells. . i have anticipated, however, in telling you this, the proper course of his biography, to which i now return. "while still a youth he painted the figure of fortitude, among those pictures of the virtues which antonio and pietro pollaiuolo were executing in the mercatanzia, or tribunal of commerce, in florence. in santo spirito, a church of the same city, he painted a picture for the chapel of the bardi family: this work he executed with great diligence, and finished it very successfully, depicting certain olive and palm trees therein with extraordinary care." it is by a beautiful chance that the first work of his, specified by his italian biographer, should be the fortitude.[av] note also what is said of his tree drawing. "having, in consequence of this work, obtained much credit and reputation, sandro was appointed by the guild of porta santa maria to paint a picture in san marco, the subject of which is the coronation of our lady, who is surrounded by a choir of angels--the whole extremely well designed, and finished by the artist with infinite care. he executed various works in the medici palace for the elder lorenzo, more particularly a figure of pallas on a shield wreathed with vine branches, whence flames are proceeding: this he painted of the size of life. a san sebastiano was also among the most remarkable of the works executed for lorenzo. in the church of santa maria maggiore, in florence, is a pietà, with small figures, by this master: this is a very beautiful work. for different houses in various parts of the city sandro painted many pictures of a round form, with numerous figures of women undraped. of these there are still two examples at castello, a villa of the duke cosimo,--one representing the birth of venus, who is borne to earth by the loves and zephyrs; the second also presenting the figure of venus crowned with flowers by the graces: she is here intended to denote the spring, and the allegory is expressed by the painter with extraordinary grace." our young reformer enters, it seems, on a very miscellaneous course of study; the coronation of our lady; st. sebastian; pallas in vine-leaves; and venus,--without fig-leaves. not wholly calvinistic, fra filippo's teaching seems to have been! all the better for the boy--being such a boy as he was: but i cannot in this lecture enter farther into my reasons for saying so. . vasari, however, has shot far ahead in telling us of this picture of the spring, which is one of botticelli's completest works. long before he was able to paint greek nymphs, he had done his best in idealism of greater spirits; and, while yet quite a youth, painted, at castello, the assumption of our lady, with "the patriarchs, the prophets, the apostles, the evangelists, the martyrs, the confessors, the doctors, the virgins, and the hierarchies!" imagine this subject proposed to a young, (or even old) british artist, for his next appeal to public sensation at the academy! but do you suppose that the young british artist is wiser and more civilized than lippi's scholar, because his only idea of a patriarch is of a man with a long beard; of a doctor, the m.d. with the brass plate over the way; and of a virgin, miss ---- of the ---- theater? not that even sandro was able, according to vasari's report, to conduct the entire design himself. the proposer of the subject assisted him; and they made some modifications in the theology, which brought them both into trouble--so early did sandro's innovating work begin, into which subjects our gossiping friend waives unnecessary inquiry, as follows. "but although this picture is exceedingly beautiful, and ought to have put envy to shame, yet there were found certain malevolent and censorious persons who, not being able to affix any other blame to the work, declared that matteo and sandro had erred gravely in that matter, and had fallen into grievous heresy. "now, whether this be true or not, let none expect the judgment of that question from me: it shall suffice me to note that the figures executed by sandro in that work are entirely worthy of praise; and that the pains he took in depicting those circles of the heavens must have been very great, to say nothing of the angels mingled with the other figures, or of the various foreshortenings, all which are designed in a very good manner. "about this time sandro received a commission to paint a small picture with figures three parts of a braccio high,--the subject an adoration of the magi. "it is indeed a most admirable work; the composition, the design, and the coloring are so beautiful that every artist who examines it is astonished; and, at the time, it obtained so great a name in florence, and other places, for the master, that pope sixtus iv. having erected the chapel built by him in his palace at rome, and desiring to have it adorned with paintings, commanded that sandro botticelli should be appointed superintendent of the work." . vasari's words, "about this time," are evidently wrong. it must have been many and many a day after he painted matteo's picture that he took such high standing in florence as to receive the mastership of the works in the pope's chapel at rome. of his position and doings there, i will tell you presently; meantime, let us complete the story of his life. "by these works botticelli obtained great honor and reputation among the many competitors who were laboring with him, whether florentines or natives of other cities, and received from the pope a considerable sum of money; but this he consumed and squandered totally, during his residence in rome, where he lived without due care, as was his habit." . well, but one would have liked to hear _how_ he squandered his money, and whether he was without care--of other things than money. it is just possible, master vasari, that botticelli may have laid out his money at higher interest than you know of; meantime, he is advancing in life and thought, and becoming less and less comprehensible to his biographer. and at length, having got rid, somehow, of the money he received from the pope; and finished the work he had to do, and uncovered it,--free in conscience, and empty in purse, he returned to florence, where, "being a sophistical person, he made a comment on a part of dante, and drew the inferno, and put it in engraving, in which he consumed much time; and not working for this reason, brought infinite disorder into his affairs." . unpaid work, this engraving of dante, you perceive,--consuming much time also, and not appearing to vasari to be work at all. it is but a short sentence, gentlemen,--this, in the old edition of vasari, and obscurely worded,--a very foolish person's contemptuous report of a thing to him totally incomprehensible. but the thing itself is out-and-out the most important fact in the history of the religious art of italy. i can show you its significance in not many more words than have served to record it. botticelli had been painting in rome; and had expressly chosen to represent there,--being master of works, in the presence of the defender of the faith,--the foundation of the mosaic law; to his mind the eternal law of god,--that law of which modern evangelicals sing perpetually their own original psalm, "oh, how hate i thy law! it is my abomination all the day." returning to florence, he reads dante's vision of the hell created by its violation. he knows that the pictures he has painted in rome cannot be understood by the people; they are exclusively for the best trained scholars in the church. dante, on the other hand, can only be read in manuscript; but the people could and would understand _his_ lessons, if they were pictured in accessible and enduring form. he throws all his own lauded work aside,--all for which he is most honored, and in which his now matured and magnificent skill is as easy to him as singing to a perfect musician. and he sets himself to a servile and despised labor,--his friends mocking him, his resources failing him, infinite 'disorder' getting into his affairs--of this world. . never such another thing happened in italy any more. botticelli engraved her pilgrim's progress for her, putting himself in prison to do it. she would not read it when done. raphael and marc antonio were the theologians for her money. pretty madonnas, and satyrs with abundance of tail,--let our pilgrim's progress be in _these_ directions, if you please. botticelli's own pilgrimage, however, was now to be accomplished triumphantly, with such crowning blessings as heaven might grant to him. in spite of his friends and his disordered affairs, he went his own obstinate way; and found another man's words worth engraving as well as dante's; not without perpetuating, also, what he deemed worthy of his own. . what would that be, think you? his chosen works before the pope in rome?--his admired madonnas in florence?--his choirs of angels and thickets of flowers? some few of these yes, as you shall presently see; but "the best attempt of this kind from his hand is the triumph of faith, by fra girolamo savonarola, of ferrara, of whose sect our artist was so zealous a partisan that he totally abandoned painting, and not having any other means of living, he fell into very great difficulties. but his attachment to the party he had adopted increased; he became what was then called a piagnone, or mourner, and abandoned all labor; insomuch that, finding himself at length become old, being also very poor, he must have died of hunger had he not been supported by lorenzo de' medici, for whom he had worked at the small hospital of volterra and other places, who assisted him while he lived, as did other friends and admirers of his talents." . in such dignity and independence--having employed his talents not wholly at the orders of the dealer--died, a poor bedesman of lorenzo de' medici, the president of that high academy of art in rome, whose academicians were perugino, ghirlandajo, angelico, and signorelli; and whose students, michael angelo and raphael. 'a worthless, ill-conducted fellow on the whole,' thinks vasari, 'with a crazy fancy for scratching on copper.' well, here are some of the scratches for you to see; only, first, i must ask you seriously for a few moments to consider what the two powers were, which, with this iron pen of his, he has set himself to reprove. . two great forms of authority reigned over the entire civilized world, confessedly, and by name, in the middle ages. they reign over it still, and must forever, though at present very far from confessed; and, in most places, ragingly denied. the first power is that of the teacher, or true father; the father 'in god.' it may be--happy the children to whom it is--the actual father also; and whose parents have been their tutors. but, for the most part, it will be some one else who teaches them, and molds their minds and brain. all such teaching, when true, being from above, and coming down from the father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning, is properly that of the holy catholic '[greek: ekklêsia],' council, church, or papacy, of many fathers in god, not of one. eternally powerful and divine; reverenced of all humble and lowly scholars, in jewry, in greece, in rome, in gaul, in england, and beyond sea, from arctic zone to zone. the second authority is the power of national law, enforcing justice in conduct by due reward and punishment. power vested necessarily in magistrates capable of administering it with mercy and equity; whose authority, be it of many or few, is again divine, as proceeding from the king of kings, and was acknowledged, throughout civilized christendom, as the power of the holy empire, or holy roman empire, because first throned in rome; but it is forever also acknowledged, namelessly, or by name, by all loyal, obedient, just, and humble hearts, which truly desire that, whether for them or against them, the eternal equities and dooms of heaven should be pronounced and executed; and as the wisdom or word of their father should be taught, so the will of their father should be done, on earth, as it is in heaven. . you all here know what contention, first, and then what corruption and dishonor, had paralyzed these two powers before the days of which we now speak. reproof, and either reform or rebellion, became necessary everywhere. the northern reformers, holbein, and luther, and henry, and cromwell, set themselves to their task rudely, and, it might seem, carried it through. the southern reformers, dante, and savonarola, and botticelli, set hand to their task reverently, and, it seemed, did not by any means carry it through. but the end is not yet. . now i shall endeavor to-day to set before you the art of botticelli, especially as exhibiting the modesty of great imagination trained in reverence, which characterized the southern reformers; and as opposed to the immodesty of narrow imagination, trained in self-trust, which characterized the northern reformers. 'the modesty of great _imagination_;' that is to say, of the power which conceives all things in true relation, and not only as they affect ourselves. i can show you this most definitely by taking one example of the modern, and unschooled temper, in bewick;[aw] and setting it beside botticelli's treatment of the same subject of thought,--namely, the meaning of war, and the reforms necessary in the carrying on of war. . both the men are entirely at one in their purpose. they yearn for peace and justice to rule over the earth, instead of the sword; but see how differently they will say what is in their hearts to the people they address. to bewick, war was more an absurdity than it was a horror: he had not seen battle-fields, still less had he read of them, in ancient days. he cared nothing about heroes,--greek, roman, or norman. what he knew, and saw clearly, was that farmer hodge's boy went out of the village one holiday afternoon, a fine young fellow, rather drunk, with a colored ribbon in his hat; and came back, ten years afterwards, with one leg, one eye, an old red coat, and a tobacco-pipe in the pocket of it. that is what he has got to say, mainly. so, for the pathetic side of the business, he draws you two old soldiers meeting as bricklayers' laborers; and for the absurd side of it, he draws a stone, sloping sideways with age, in a bare field, on which you can just read, out of a long inscription, the words "glorious victory;" but no one is there to read them,--only a jackass, who uses the stone to scratch himself against. . now compare with this botticelli's reproof of war. _he_ had seen it, and often; and between noble persons;--knew the temper in which the noblest knights went out to it;--knew the strength, the patience, the glory, and the grief of it. he would fain see his florence in peace; and yet he knows that the wisest of her citizens are her bravest soldiers. so he seeks for the ideal of a soldier, and for the greatest glory of war, that in the presence of these he may speak reverently, what he must speak. he does not go to greece for his hero. he is not sure that even her patriotic wars were always right. but, by his religious faith, he cannot doubt the nobleness of the soldier who put the children of israel in possession of their promised land, and to whom the sign of the consent of heaven was given by its pausing light in the valley of ajalon. must then setting sun and risen moon stay, he thinks, only to look upon slaughter? may no soldier of christ bid them stay otherwise than so? he draws joshua, but quitting his hold of the sword: its hilt rests on his bent knee; and he kneels before the sun, not commands it; and this is his prayer:-- "oh, king of kings, and lord of lords, who alone rulest always in eternity, and who correctest all our wanderings,--giver of melody to the choir of the angels, listen thou a little to our bitter grief, and come and rule us, oh thou highest king, with thy love which is so sweet!" is not that a little better, and a little wiser, than bewick's jackass? is it not also better, and wiser, than the sneer of modern science? 'what great men are we!--we, forsooth, can make almanacs, and know that the earth turns round. joshua indeed! let us have no more talk of the old-clothes-man.' all bewick's simplicity is in that; but none of bewick's understanding. . i pass to the attack made by botticelli upon the guilt of wealth. so i had at first written; but i should rather have written, the appeal made by him against the cruelty of wealth, then first attaining the power it has maintained to this day. the practice of receiving interest had been confined, until this fifteenth century, with contempt and malediction, to the profession, so styled, of usurers, or to the jews. the merchants of augsburg introduced it as a convenient and pleasant practice among christians also; and insisted that it was decorous and proper even among respectable merchants. in the view of the christian church of their day, they might more reasonably have set themselves to defend adultery.[ax] however, they appointed dr. john eck, of ingoldstadt, to hold debates in all possible universities, at their expense, on the allowing of interest; and as these augsburgers had in venice their special mart, fondaco, called of the germans, their new notions came into direct collision with old venetian ones, and were much hindered by them, and all the more, because, in opposition to dr. john eck, there was preaching on the other side of the alps. the franciscans, poor themselves, preached mercy to the poor: one of them, brother marco of san gallo, planned the 'mount of pity' for their defense, and the merchants of venice set up the first in the world, against the german fondaco. the dispute burned far on towards our own times. you perhaps have heard before of one antonio, a merchant of venice, who persistently retained the then obsolete practice of lending money gratis, and of the peril it brought him into with the usurers. but you perhaps did not before know why it was the flesh, or heart of flesh, in him, that they so hated. . against this newly risen demon of authorized usury, holbein and botticelli went out to war together. holbein, as we have partly seen in his designs for the dance of death, struck with all his soldier's strength.[ay] botticelli uses neither satire nor reproach. he turns altogether away from the criminals; appeals only to heaven for defense against them. he engraves the design which, of all his work, must have cost him hardest toil in its execution,--the virgin praying to her son in heaven for pity upon the poor: "for these are also my children."[az] underneath, are the seven works of mercy; and in the midst of them, the building of the mount of pity: in the distance lies italy, mapped in cape and bay, with the cities which had founded mounts of pity,--venice in the distance, chief. little seen, but engraved with the master's loveliest care, in the background there is a group of two small figures--the franciscan brother kneeling, and an angel of victory crowning him. . i call it an angel of victory, observe, with assurance; although there is no legend claiming victory, or distinguishing this angel from any other of those which adorn with crowns of flowers the nameless crowds of the blessed. for botticelli has other ways of speaking than by written legends. i know by a glance at this angel that he has taken the action of it from a greek coin; and i know also that he had not, in his own exuberant fancy, the least need to copy the action of any figure whatever. so i understand, as well as if he spoke to me, that he expects me, if i am an educated gentleman, to recognize this particular action as a greek angel's; and to know that it is a temporal victory which it crowns. . and now farther, observe, that this classical learning of botticelli's, received by him, as i told you, as a native element of his being, gives not only greater dignity and gentleness, but far wider range, to his thoughts of reformation. as he asks for pity from the cruel jew to the _poor_ gentile, so he asks for pity from the proud christian to the _untaught_ gentile. nay, for more than pity, for fellowship, and acknowledgment of equality before god. the learned men of his age in general brought back the greek mythology as anti-christian. but botticelli and perugino, as pre-christian; nor only as pre-christian, but as the foundation of christianity. but chiefly botticelli, with perfect grasp of the mosaic and classic theology, thought over and seized the harmonies of both; and he it was who gave the conception of that great choir of the prophets and sibyls, of which michael angelo, more or less ignorantly borrowing it in the sistine chapel, in great part lost the meaning, while he magnified the aspect. . for, indeed, all christian and heathen mythology had alike become to michael angelo only a vehicle for the display of his own powers of drawing limbs and trunks: and having resolved, and made the world of his day believe, that all the glory of design lay in variety of difficult attitude, he flings the naked bodies about his ceiling with an upholsterer's ingenuity of appliance to the corners they could fit, but with total absence of any legible meaning. nor do i suppose that one person in a million, even of those who have some acquaintance with the earlier masters, takes patience in the sistine chapel to conceive the original design. but botticelli's mastership of the works evidently was given to him as a theologian, even more than as a painter; and the moment when he came to rome to receive it, you may hold for the crisis of the reformation in italy. the main effort to save her priesthood was about to be made by her wisest reformer,--face to face with the head of her church,--not in contest with him, but in the humblest subjection to him; and in adornment of his own chapel for his own delight, and more than delight, if it might be. . sandro brings to work, not under him, but with him, the three other strongest and worthiest men he knows, perugino, ghirlandajo, and luca signorelli. there is evidently entire fellowship in thought between botticelli and perugino. they two together plan the whole; and botticelli, though the master, yields to perugino the principal place, the end of the chapter, on which is to be the assumption of the virgin. it was perugino's favorite subject, done with his central strength; assuredly the crowning work of his life, and of lovely christian art in europe. michael angelo painted it out, and drew devils and dead bodies all over the wall instead. but there remains to us, happily, the series of subjects designed by botticelli to lead up to this lost one. . he came, i said, not to attack, but to restore the papal authority. to show the power of inherited honor, and universal claim of divine law, in the jewish and christian church,--the law delivered first by moses; then, in final grace and truth, by christ. he designed twelve great pictures, each containing some twenty figures the size of life, and groups of smaller ones scarcely to be counted. twelve pictures,--six to illustrate the giving of the law by moses; and six, the ratification and completion of it by christ. event by event, the jurisprudence of each dispensation is traced from dawn to close in this correspondence. . covenant of circumcision. . entrance on his ministry by moses. . moses by the red sea. . delivery of law on sinai. . destruction of korah. . death of moses. . covenant of baptism. . entrance on his ministry by christ. . peter and andrew by the sea of galilee. . sermon on mount. . giving keys to st. peter. . last supper. of these pictures, sandro painted three himself, perugino three, and the assumption; ghirlandajo one, signorelli one, and rosselli four.[ba] i believe that sandro intended to take the roof also, and had sketched out the main succession of its design; and that the prophets and sibyls which he meant to paint, he drew first small, and engraved his drawings afterwards, that some part of the work might be, at all events, thus communicable to the world outside of the vatican. . it is not often that i tell you my beliefs; but i am forced here, for there are no dates to found more on. is it not wonderful that among all the infinite mass of fools' thoughts about the "majestic works of michael angelo" in the sistine chapel, no slightly more rational person has ever asked what the chapel was first meant to be like, and how it was to be roofed? nor can i assume myself, still less you, that all these prophets and sibyls are botticelli's. of many there are two engravings, with variations: some are inferior in parts, many altogether. he signed none; never put grand tablets with 's. b.' into his skies; had other letters than those to engrave, and no time to spare. i have chosen out of the series three of the sibyls, which have, i think, clear internal evidence of being his; and these you shall compare with michael angelo's. but first i must put you in mind what the sibyls were. . as the prophets represent the voice of god in man, the sibyls represent the voice of god in nature. they are properly all forms of one sibyl, [greek: dios boulê], the counsel of god; and the chief one, at least in the roman mind, was the sibyl of cumae. from the traditions of her, the romans, and we through them, received whatever lessons the myth, or fact, of sibyl power has given to mortals. how much have you received, or may you yet receive, think you, of that teaching? i call it the myth, or fact; but remember that, _as_ a myth, it _is_ a fact. this story has concentrated whatever good there is in the imagination or visionary powers in women, inspired by nature only. the traditions of witch and gypsy are partly its offshoots. you despise both, perhaps. but can you, though in utmost pride of your supreme modern wisdom, suppose that the character--say, even of so poor and far-fallen a sibyl as meg merrilies--is only the coinage of scott's brain; or that, even being no more, it is valueless? admit the figure of the cumaean sibyl, in like manner, to be the coinage only of virgil's brain. as such, it, and the words it speaks, are yet facts in which we may find use, if we are reverent to them. to me, personally, (i must take your indulgence for a moment to speak wholly of myself,) they have been of the truest service--quite material and indisputable. i am writing on st. john's day, in the monastery of assisi; and i had no idea whatever, when i sat down to my work this morning, of saying any word of what i am now going to tell you. i meant only to expand and explain a little what i said in my lecture about the florentine engraving. but it seems to me now that i had better tell you what the cumaean sibyl has actually done for me. . in , partly in consequence of chagrin at the revolution in paris, and partly in great personal sorrow, i was struck by acute inflammatory illness at matlock, and reduced to a state of extreme weakness; lying at one time unconscious for some hours, those about me having no hope of my life. i have no doubt that the immediate cause of the illness was simply, eating when i was not hungry; so that modern science would acknowledge nothing in the whole business but an extreme and very dangerous form of indigestion; and entirely deny any interference of the cumaean sibyl in the matter. i once heard a sermon by dr. guthrie, in edinburgh, upon the wickedness of fasting. it was very eloquent and ingenious, and finely explained the superiority of the scotch free church to the benighted catholic church, in that the free church saw no merit in fasting. and there was no mention, from beginning to end of the sermon, of even the existence of such texts as daniel i. , or matthew vi. . without the smallest merit, i admit, in fasting, i was nevertheless reduced at matlock to a state very near starvation; and could not rise from my pillow, without being lifted, for some days. and in the first clearly pronounced stage of recovery, when the perfect powers of spirit had returned, while the body was still as weak as it well could be, i had three dreams, which made a great impression on me; for in ordinary health my dreams are supremely ridiculous, if not unpleasant; and in ordinary conditions of illness, very ugly, and always without the slightest meaning. but these dreams were all distinct and impressive, and had much meaning, if i chose to take it. . the first[bb] was of a venetian fisherman, who wanted me to follow him down into some water which i thought was too deep; but he called me on, saying he had something to show me; so i followed him; and presently, through an opening, as if in the arsenal wall, he showed me the bronze horses of st. mark's, and said, 'see, the horses are putting on their harness.' the second was of a preparation at rome, in st. peter's, (or a vast hall as large as st. peter's,) for the exhibition of a religious drama. part of the play was to be a scene in which demons were to appear in the sky; and the stage servants were arranging gray fictitious clouds, and painted fiends, for it, under the direction of the priests. there was a woman dressed in black, standing at the corner of the stage watching them, having a likeness in her face to one of my own dead friends; and i knew somehow that she was not that friend, but a spirit; and she made me understand, without speaking, that i was to watch, for the play would turn out other than the priests expected. and i waited; and when the scene came on, the clouds became real clouds, and the fiends real fiends, agitating them in slow quivering, wild and terrible, over the heads of the people and priests. i recollected distinctly, however, when i woke, only the figure of the black woman mocking the people, and of one priest in an agony of terror, with the sweat pouring from his brow, but violently scolding one of the stage servants for having failed in some ceremony, the omission of which, he thought, had given the devils their power. the third dream was the most interesting and personal. some one came to me to ask me to help in the deliverance of a company of italian prisoners who were to be ransomed for money. i said i had no money. they answered, yes, i had some that belonged to me as a brother of st. francis, if i would give it up. i said i did not know even that i _was_ a brother of st. francis; but i thought to myself, that perhaps the franciscans of fésole, whom i had helped to make hay in their field in , had adopted me for one; only i didn't see how the consequence of that would be my having any money. however, i said they were welcome to whatever i had; and then i heard the voice of an italian woman singing; and i have never heard such divine singing before nor since;--the sounds absolutely strong and real, and the melody altogether lovely. if i could have written it! but i could not even remember it when i woke,--only how beautiful it was. . now these three dreams have, every one of them, been of much use to me since; or so far as they have failed to be useful, it has been my own fault, and not theirs; but the chief use of them at the time was to give me courage and confidence in myself, both in bodily distress, of which i had still not a little to bear; and worse, much mental anxiety about matters supremely interesting to me, which were turning out ill. and through all such trouble--which came upon me as i was recovering, as if it meant to throw me back into the grave,--i held out and recovered, repeating always to myself, or rather having always murmured in my ears, at every new trial, one latin line, tu ne cede malis, sed contra fortior ito. now i had got this line out of the tablet in the engraving of raphael's vision, and had forgotten where it came from. and i thought i knew my sixth book of virgil so well, that i never looked at it again while i was giving these lectures at oxford, and it was only here at assisi, the other day, wanting to look more accurately at the first scene by the lake avernus, that i found i had been saved by the words of the cumaean sibyl. . "quam tua te fortuna sinet," the completion of the sentence, has yet more and continual teaching in it for me now; as it has for all men. her opening words, which have become hackneyed, and lost all present power through vulgar use of them, contain yet one of the most immortal truths ever yet spoken for mankind; and they will never lose their power of help for noble persons. but observe, both in that lesson, "facilis descensus averni," etc.; and in the still more precious, because universal, one on which the strength of rome was founded,--the burning of the books,--the sibyl speaks only as the voice of nature, and of her laws;--not as a divine helper, prevailing over death; but as a mortal teacher warning us against it, and strengthening us for our mortal time; but not for eternity. of which lesson her own history is a part, and her habitation by the avernus lake. she desires immortality, fondly and vainly, as we do ourselves. she receives, from the love of her _refused_ lover, apollo, not immortality, but length of life;--her years to be as the grains of dust in her hand. and even this she finds was a false desire; and her wise and holy desire at last is--to die. she wastes away; becomes a shade only, and a voice. the nations ask her, what wouldst thou? she answers, peace; only let my last words be true. "l'ultimo mie parlar sie verace." [illustration: vii. for a time, and times.] . therefore, if anything is to be conceived, rightly, and chiefly, in the form of the cumaean sibyl, it must be of fading virginal beauty, of enduring patience, of far-looking into futurity. "for after my death there shall yet return," she says, "another virgin." jam redit et virgo;--redeunt saturnia regna, ultima cumaei venit jam carminis aetas. here then is botticelli's cumaean sibyl. she is armed, for she is the prophetess of roman fortitude;--but her faded breast scarcely raises the corselet; her hair floats, not falls, in waves like the currents of a river,--the sign of enduring life; the light is full on her forehead: she looks into the distance as in a dream. it is impossible for art to gather together more beautifully or intensely every image which can express her true power, or lead us to understand her lesson. [illustration: viii. the nymph beloved of apollo. (michael angelo.)] . now you do not, i am well assured, know one of michael angelo's sibyls from another: unless perhaps the delphian, whom of course he makes as beautiful as he can. but of this especially italian prophetess, one would have thought he might, at least in some way, have shown that he knew the history, even if he did not understand it. she might have had more than one book, at all events, to burn. she might have had a stray leaf or two fallen at her feet. he could not indeed have painted her only as a voice; but his anatomical knowledge need not have hindered him from painting her virginal youth, or her wasting and watching age, or her inspired hope of a holier future. . opposite,--fortunately, photograph from the figure itself, so that you can suspect me of no exaggeration,--is michael angelo's cumaean sibyl, wasting away. it is by a grotesque and most strange chance that he should have made the figure of this sibyl, of all others in the chapel, the most fleshly and gross, even proceeding to the monstrous license of showing the nipples of the breast as if the dress were molded over them like plaster. thus he paints the poor nymph beloved of apollo,--the clearest and queenliest in prophecy and command of all the sibyls,--as an ugly crone, with the arms of goliath, poring down upon a single book. . there is one point of fine detail, however, in botticelli's cumaean sibyl, and in the next i am going to show you, to explain which i must go back for a little while to the question of the direct relation of the italian painters to the greek. i don't like repeating in one lecture what i have said in another; but to save you the trouble of reference, must remind you of what i stated in my fourth lecture on greek birds, when we were examining the adoption of the plume crests in armor, that the crest signifies command; but the diadem, _obedience_; and that every crown is primarily a diadem. it is the thing that binds, before it is the thing that honors. now all the great schools dwell on this symbolism. the long flowing hair is the symbol of life, and the [greek: diadêma] of the law restraining it. royalty, or kingliness, over life, restraining and glorifying. in the extremity of restraint--in death, whether noble, as of death to earth, or ignoble, as of death to heaven, the [greek: diadêma] is fastened with the mort-cloth: "bound hand and foot with grave-clothes, and the face bound about with the napkin." . now look back to the first greek head i ever showed you, used as the type of archaic sculpture in aratra pentelici, and then look at the crown in botticelli's astrologia. it is absolutely the greek form,--even to the peculiar oval of the forehead; while the diadem--the governing law--is set with appointed stars--to rule the destiny and thought. then return to the cumaean sibyl. she, as we have seen, is the symbol of enduring life--almost immortal. the diadem is withdrawn from the forehead--reduced to a narrow fillet--here, and the hair thrown free. [illustration: ix. in the woods of ida.] . from the cumaean sibyl's diadem, traced only by points, turn to that of the hellespontic, (plate , opposite). i do not know why botticelli chose her for the spirit of prophecy in old age; but he has made this the most interesting plate of the series in the definiteness of its connection with the work from dante, which becomes his own prophecy in old age. the fantastic yet solemn treatment of the gnarled wood occurs, as far as i know, in no other engravings but this, and the illustrations to dante; and i am content to leave it, with little comment, for the reader's quiet study, as showing the exuberance of imagination which other men at this time in italy allowed to waste itself in idle arabesque, restrained by botticelli to his most earnest purposes; and giving the withered tree-trunks, hewn for the rude throne of the aged prophetess, the same harmony with her fading spirit which the rose has with youth, or the laurel with victory. also in its weird characters, you have the best example i can show you of the orders of decorative design which are especially expressible by engraving, and which belong to a group of art instincts scarcely now to be understood, much less recovered, (the influence of modern naturalistic imitation being too strong to be conquered)--the instincts, namely, for the arrangement of pure line, in labyrinthine intricacy, through which the grace of order may give continual clue. the entire body of ornamental design, connected with writing, in the middle ages seems as if it were a sensible symbol, to the eye and brain, of the methods of error and recovery, the minglings of crooked with straight, and perverse with progressive, which constitute the great problem of human morals and fate; and when i chose the title for the collected series of these lectures, i hoped to have justified it by careful analysis of the methods of labyrinthine ornament, which, made sacred by theseian traditions,[bc] and beginning, in imitation of physical truth, with the spiral waves of the waters of babylon as the assyrian carved them, entangled in their returns the eyes of men, on greek vase and christian manuscript--till they closed in the arabesques which sprang round the last luxury of venice and rome. but the labyrinth of life itself, and its more and more interwoven occupation, become too manifold, and too difficult for me; and of the time wasted in the blind lanes of it, perhaps that spent in analysis or recommendation of the art to which men's present conduct makes them insensible, has been chiefly cast away. on the walls of the little room where i finally revise this lecture,[bd] hangs an old silken sampler of great-grandame's work: representing the domestic life of abraham: chiefly the stories of isaac and ishmael. sarah at her tent-door, watching, with folded arms, the dismissal of hagar: above, in a wilderness full of fruit trees, birds, and butterflies, little ishmael lying at the root of a tree, and the spent bottle under another; hagar in prayer, and the angel appearing to her out of a wreathed line of gloomily undulating clouds, which, with a dark-rayed sun in the midst, surmount the entire composition in two arches, out of which descend shafts of (i suppose) beneficent rain; leaving, however, room, in the corner opposite to ishmael's angel, for isaac's, who stays abraham in the sacrifice; the ram in the thicket, the squirrel in the plum tree above him, and the grapes, pears, apples, roses, and daisies of the foreground, being all wrought with involution of such ingenious needlework as may well rank, in the patience, the natural skill, and the innocent pleasure of it, with the truest works of florentine engraving. nay; the actual tradition of many of the forms of ancient art is in many places evident,--as, for instance, in the spiral summits of the flames of the wood on the altar, which are like a group of first-springing fern. on the wall opposite is a smaller composition, representing justice with her balance and sword, standing between the sun and moon, with a background of pinks, borage, and corn-cockle: a third is only a cluster of tulips and iris, with two byzantine peacocks; but the spirits of penelope and ariadne reign vivid in all the work--and the richness of pleasurable fancy is as great still, in these silken labors, as in the marble arches and golden roof of the cathedral of monreale. but what is the use of explaining or analyzing it? such work as this means the patience and simplicity of all feminine life; and can be produced, among _us_ at least, no more. gothic tracery itself, another of the instinctive labyrinthine intricacies of old, though analyzed to its last section, has become now the symbol only of a foolish ecclesiastical sect, retained for their shibboleth, joyless and powerless for all good. the very labyrinth of the grass and flowers of our fields, though dissected to its last leaf, is yet bitten bare, or trampled to slime, by the minotaur of our lust; and for the traceried spire of the poplar by the brook, we possess but the four-square furnace tower, to mingle its smoke with heaven's thunder-clouds.[be] we will look yet at one sampler more of the engraved work, done in the happy time when flowers were pure, youth simple, and imagination gay,--botticelli's libyan sibyl. glance back first to the hellespontic, noting the close fillet, and the cloth bound below the face, and then you will be prepared to understand the last i shall show you, and the loveliest of the southern pythonesses. [illustration: x. grass of the desert.] . a less deep thinker than botticelli would have made her parched with thirst, and burnt with heat. but the voice of god, through nature, to the arab or the moor, is not in the thirst, but in the fountain--not in the desert, but in the grass of it. and this libyan sibyl is the spirit of wild grass and flowers, springing in desolate places. you see, her diadem is a wreath of them; but the blossoms of it are not fastening enough for her hair, though it is not long yet--(she is only in reality a florentine girl of fourteen or fifteen)--so the little darling knots it under her ears, and then makes herself a necklace of it. but though flowing hair and flowers are wild and pretty, botticelli had not, in these only, got the power of spring marked to his mind. any girl might wear flowers; but few, for ornament, would be likely to wear grass. so the sibyl shall have grass in her diadem; not merely interwoven and bending, but springing and strong. you thought it ugly and grotesque at first, did not you? it was made so, because precisely what botticelli wanted you to look at. but that's not all. this conical cap of hers, with one bead at the top,--considering how fond the florentines are of graceful head-dresses, this seems a strange one for a young girl. but, exactly as i know the angel of victory to be greek, at his mount of pity, so i know this head-dress to be taken from a greek coin, and to be meant for a greek symbol. it is the petasus of hermes--the mist of morning over the dew. lastly, what will the libyan sibyl say to you? the letters are large on her tablet. her message is the oracle from the temple of the dew: "the dew of thy birth is as the womb of the morning."--"ecce venientem diem, et latentia aperientem, tenebit gremio gentium regina." . why the daybreak came not then, nor yet has come, but only a deeper darkness; and why there is now neither queen nor king of nations, but every man doing that which is right in his own eyes, i would fain go on, partly to tell you, and partly to meditate with you: but it is not our work for to-day. the issue of the reformation which these great painters, the scholars of dante, began, we may follow, farther, in the study to which i propose to lead you, of the lives of cimabue and giotto, and the relation of their work at assisi to the chapel and chambers of the vatican. . to-day let me finish what i have to tell you of the style of southern engraving. what sudden bathos in the sentence, you think! so contemptible the question of style, then, in painting, though not in literature? you study the 'style' of homer; the style, perhaps, of isaiah; the style of horace, and of massillon. is it so vain to study the style of botticelli? in all cases, it is equally vain, if you think of their style first. but know their purpose, and then, their way of speaking is worth thinking of. these apparently unfinished and certainly unfilled outlines of the florentine,--clumsy work, as vasari thought them,--as mr. otley and most of our english amateurs still think them,--are these good or bad engraving? you may ask now, comprehending their motive, with some hope of answering or being answered rightly. and the answer is, they are the finest gravers' work ever done yet by human hand. you may teach, by process of discipline and of years, any youth of good artistic capacity to engrave a plate in the modern manner; but only the noblest passion, and the tenderest patience, will ever engrave one line like these of sandro botticelli. . passion, and patience! nay, even these you may have to-day in england, and yet both be in vain. only a few years ago, in one of our northern iron-foundries, a workman of intense power and natural art-faculty set himself to learn engraving;--made his own tools; gave all the spare hours of his laborious life to learn their use; learnt it; and engraved a plate which, in manipulation, no professional engraver would be ashamed of. he engraved his blast furnace, and the casting of a beam of a steam engine. this, to him, was the power of god,--it was his life. no greater earnestness was ever given by man to promulgate a gospel. nevertheless, the engraving is absolutely worthless. the blast furnace _is not_ the power of god; and the life of the strong spirit was as much consumed in the flames of it, as ever driven slave's by the burden and heat of the day. how cruel to say so, if he yet lives, you think! no, my friends; the cruelty will be in you, and the guilt, if, having been brought here to learn that god is your light, you yet leave the blast furnace to be the only light of england. . it has been, as i said in the note above (§ ), with extreme pain that i have hitherto limited my notice of our own great engraver and moralist, to the points in which the disadvantages of english art-teaching made him inferior to his trained florentine rival. but, that these disadvantages were powerless to arrest or ignobly depress him;--that however failing in grace and scholarship, he should never fail in truth or vitality; and that the precision of his unerring hand[bf]--his inevitable eye--and his rightly judging heart--should place him in the first rank of the great artists not of england only, but of all the world and of all time:--that _this_ was possible to him, was simply because he lived a _country_ life. bewick himself, botticelli himself, apelles himself, and twenty times apelles, condemned to slavery in the hell-fire of the iron furnace, could have done--nothing. absolute paralysis of all high human faculty _must_ result from labor near fire. the poor engraver of the piston-rod had faculties--not like bewick's, for if he had had those, he never would have endured the degradation; but assuredly, (i know this by his work,) faculties high enough to have made him one of the most accomplished figure painters of his age. and they are scorched out of him, as the sap from the grass in the oven: while on his northumberland hill-sides, bewick grew into as stately life as their strongest pine. . and therefore, in words of his, telling consummate and unchanging truth concerning the life, honor, and happiness of england, and bearing directly on the points of difference between class and class which i have not dwelt on without need, i will bring these lectures to a close. "i have always, through life, been of opinion that there is no business of any kind that can be compared to that of a man who farms his own land. it appears to me that every earthly pleasure, with health, is within his reach. but numbers of these men (the old statesmen) were grossly ignorant, and in exact proportion to that ignorance they were sure to be offensively proud. this led them to attempt appearing above their station, which hastened them on to their ruin; but, indeed, this disposition and this kind of conduct invariably leads to such results. there were many of these lairds on tyneside; as well as many who held their lands on the tenure of 'suit and service,' and were nearly on the same level as the lairds. some of the latter lost their lands (not fairly, i think) in a way they could not help; many of the former, by their misdirected pride and folly, were driven into towns, to slide away into nothingness, and to sink into oblivion, while their 'ha' houses' (halls), that ought to have remained in their families from generation to generation, have moldered away. i have always felt extremely grieved to see the ancient mansions of many of the country gentlemen, from somewhat similar causes, meet with a similar fate. the gentry should, in an especial manner, prove by their conduct that they are guarded against showing any symptom of foolish pride; at the same time that they soar above every meanness, and that their conduct is guided by truth, integrity, and patriotism. if they wish the people to partake with them in these good qualities, they must set them the example, without which no real respect can ever be paid to them. gentlemen ought never to forget the respectable station they hold in society, and that they are the natural guardians of public morals and may with propriety be considered as the head and the heart of the country, while 'a bold peasantry' are, in truth, the arms, the sinews, and the strength of the same; but when these last are degraded, they soon become dispirited and mean, and often dishonest and useless." * * * * * "this singular and worthy man[bg] was perhaps the most invaluable acquaintance and friend i ever met with. his moral lectures and advice to me formed a most important succedaneum to those imparted by my parents. his wise remarks, his detestation of vice, his industry, and his temperance, crowned with a most lively and cheerful disposition, altogether made him appear to me as one of the best of characters. in his workshop i often spent my winter evenings. this was also the case with a number of young men who might be considered as his pupils; many of whom, i have no doubt, he directed into the paths of truth and integrity, and who revered his memory through life. he rose early to work, lay down when he felt weary, and rose again when refreshed. his diet was of the simplest kind; and he ate when hungry, and drank when dry, without paying regard to meal-times. by steadily pursuing this mode of life he was enabled to accumulate sums of money--from ten to thirty pounds. this enabled him to get books, of an entertaining and moral tendency, printed and circulated at a cheap rate. his great object was, by every possible means, to promote honorable feelings in the minds of youth, and to prepare them for becoming good members of society. i have often discovered that he did not overlook ingenious mechanics, whose misfortunes--perhaps mismanagement--had led them to a lodging in newgate. to these he directed his compassionate eye, and for the deserving (in his estimation), he paid their debt, and set them at liberty. he felt hurt at seeing the hands of an ingenious man tied up in prison, where they were of no use either to himself or to the community. this worthy man had been educated for a priest; but he would say to me, 'of a "trouth," thomas, i did not like their ways.' so he gave up the thoughts of being a priest, and bent his way from aberdeen to edinburgh, where he engaged himself to allan ramsay, the poet, then a bookseller at the latter place, in whose service he was both shopman and bookbinder. from edinburgh he came to newcastle. gilbert had had a liberal education bestowed upon him. he had read a great deal, and had reflected upon what he had read. this, with his retentive memory, enabled him to be a pleasant and communicative companion. i lived in habits of intimacy with him to the end of his life; and, when he died, i, with others of his friends, attended his remains to the grave at the ballast hills." and what graving on the sacred cliffs of egypt ever honored them, as that grass-dimmed furrow does the mounds of our northern land? footnotes: [as] the world was not then ready for le père hyacinthe;--but the real gist of the matter is that lippi did, openly and bravely, what the highest prelates in the church did basely and in secret; also he loved, where they only lusted; and he has been proclaimed therefore by them--and too foolishly believed by us--to have been a shameful person. of his true life, and the colors given to it, we will try to learn something tenable, before we end our work in florence. [at] i insert supplementary notes, when of importance, in the text of the lecture, for the convenience of the general reader. [au] mr. charles f. murray. [av] some notice of this picture is given at the beginning of my third morning in florence, 'before the soldan.' [aw] i am bitterly sorry for the pain which my partial references to the man whom of all english artists whose histories i have read, i most esteem, have given to one remaining member of his family. i hope my meaning may be better understood after she has seen the close of this lecture. [ax] read ezekiel xviii. [ay] see also the account by dr. woltmann of the picture of the triumph of riches. 'holbein and his time,' p. . [az] these words are engraved in the plate, as spoken by the virgin. [ba] cosimo rosselli, especially chosen by the pope for his gay coloring. [bb] i am not certain of their order at this distance of time. [bc] callimachus, 'delos,' , etc. [bd] in the old king's arms hotel, lancaster. [be] a manufacturer wrote to me the other day, "we don't _want_ to make smoke!" who said they did?--a hired murderer does not want to commit murder, but does it for sufficient motive. (even our shipowners don't want to drown their sailors; they will only do it for sufficient motive.) if the dirty creatures _did_ want to make smoke, there would be more excuse for them: and that they are not clever enough to consume it, is no praise to them. a man who can't help his hiccough leaves the room: why do they not leave the england they pollute? [bf] i know no drawing so subtle as bewick's, since the fifteenth century, except holbein's and turner's. i have been greatly surprised lately by the exquisite water-color work in some of stothard's smaller vignettes; but he cannot set the line like turner or bewick. [bg] gilbert gray, bookbinder. i have to correct the inaccurate--and very harmfully inaccurate, expression which i used of bewick, in love's meinie (§ ), 'a printer's lad at newcastle.' his first master was a goldsmith and engraver, else he could never have been an artist. i am very heartily glad to make this correction, which establishes another link of relation between bewick and botticelli; but my error was partly caused by the impression which the above description of his "most invaluable friend" made on me, when i first read it. much else that i meant to correct, or promised to explain, in this lecture, must be deferred to the appendix; the superiority of the tuscan to the greek aphrodite i may perhaps, even at last, leave the reader to admit or deny as he pleases, having more important matters of debate on hand. but as i mean only to play with proserpina during the spring, i will here briefly anticipate a statement i mean in the appendix to enforce, namely, of the extreme value of colored copies by hand, of paintings whose excellence greatly consists in color, as auxiliary to engravings of them. the prices now given without hesitation for nearly worthless original drawings by fifth-rate artists, would obtain for the misguided buyers, in something like a proportion of ten to one, most precious copies of drawings which can only be represented at all in engraving by entire alteration of their treatment, and abandonment of their finest purposes. i feel this so strongly that i have given my best attention, during upwards of ten years, to train a copyist to perfect fidelity in rendering the work of turner; and having now succeeded in enabling him to produce facsimiles so close as to look like replicas, facsimiles which i must sign with my own name and his, in the very work of them, to prevent their being sold for real turner vignettes, i can obtain no custom for him, and am obliged to leave him to make his bread by any power of captivation his original sketches may possess in the eyes of a public which maintains a nation of copyists in rome, but is content with black and white renderings of great english art; though there is scarcely one cultivated english gentleman or lady who has not been twenty times in the vatican, for once that they have been in the national gallery. notes. . i. the following letter, from one of my most faithful readers, corrects an important piece of misinterpretation in the text. the waving of the reins must be only in sign of the fluctuation of heat round the sun's own chariot:-- "spring field, ambleside, "february , . "dear mr. ruskin,--your fifth lecture on engraving i have to hand. "sandro intended those wavy lines meeting under the sun's right[bh] hand, (plate v.) primarily, no doubt, to represent the four ends of the four reins dangling from the sun's hand. the flames and rays are seen to continue to radiate from the platform of the chariot between and beyond these ends of the reins, and over the knee. he may have wanted to acknowledge that the warmth of the earth was apollo's, by making these ends of the reins spread out separately and wave, and thereby inclose a form like a flame. but i cannot think it. "believe me, "ever yours truly, "chas. wm. smith." ii. i meant to keep labyrinthine matters for my appendix; but the following most useful by-words from mr. tyrwhitt had better be read at once:-- "in the matter of cretan labyrinth, as connected by virgil with the ludus trojæ, or equestrian game of winding and turning, continued in england from twelfth century; and having for last relic the maze[bi] called 'troy town,' at troy farm, near somerton, oxfordshire, which itself resembles the circular labyrinth on a coin of cnossus in fors clavigera. (letter , p. .) "the connecting quotation from virg., Æn., v. , is as follows: 'ut quondam creta fertur labyrinthus in alta parietibus textum cæcis iter, ancipitemque mille viis habuisse dolum, qua signa sequendi falleret indeprensus et inremeabilis error. haud alio teucrün nati vestigia cursu impediunt, texuntque fagas et proelia ludo, delphinum similes.'" labyrinth of ariadne, as cut on the downs by shepherds from time immemorial,-- shakespeare, 'midsummer night's dream,' act ii., sc. : "_oberon._ the nine-men's morris[bj] is filled up with mud; and the quaint mazes in the wanton green by lack of tread are undistinguishable." the following passage, 'merchant of venice,' act iii., sc. , confuses (to all appearance) the athenian tribute to crete, with the story of hesione: and may point to general confusion in the elizabethan mind about the myths: "_portia._ ... with much more love than young alcides, when he did reduce the virgin-tribute paid by howling troy to the sea monster."[bk] theseus is the attic hercules, however; and troy may have been a sort of house of call for mythical monsters, in the view of midland shepherds. footnotes: [bh] "would not the design have looked better, to us, on the plate than on the print? on the plate, the reins would be in the left hand; and the whole movement be from the left to the right? the two different forms that the radiance takes would symbolize respectively heat and light, would they not?" [bi] strutt, pp. - , ed. . [bj] explained as "a game still played by the shepherds, cowkeepers," etc., in the midland counties. [bk] see iliad, , . [illustration: xi. "obediente domino voci hominis."] appendix. article i. notes on the present state of engraving in england. . i have long deferred the completion of this book, because i had hoped to find time to show, in some fullness, the grounds for my conviction that engraving, and the study of it, since the development of the modern finished school, have been ruinous to european knowledge of art. but i am more and more busied in what i believe to be better work, and can only with extreme brevity state here the conclusions of many years' thought. these, in several important particulars, have been curiously enforced on me by the carelessness shown by the picture dealers about the copies from turner which it has cost mr. ward and me[bl] fifteen years of study together to enable ourselves to make. "they are only copies," say they,--"nobody will look at them." . it never seems to occur even to the most intelligent persons that an engraving also is 'only a copy,' and a copy done with refusal of color, and with disadvantage of means in rendering shade. but just because this utterly inferior copy can be reduplicated, and introduces a different kind of skill, in another material, people are content to lose all the composition, and all the charm, of the original,--so far as these depend on the chief gift of a _painter_,--color; while they are gradually misled into attributing to the painter himself qualities impertinently added by the engraver to make his plate popular: and, which is far worse, they are as gradually and subtly prevented from looking, in the original, for the qualities which engraving could never render. further, it continually happens that the very best color-compositions engrave worst; for they often extend colors over great spaces at equal pitch, and the green is as dark as the red, and the blue as the brown; so that the engraver can only distinguish them by lines in different directions, and his plate becomes a vague and dead mass of neutral tint; but a bad and forced piece of color, or a piece of work of the bolognese school, which is everywhere black in the shadows, and colorless in the lights, will engrave with great ease, and appear spirited and forcible. hence engravers, as a rule, are interested in reproducing the work of the worst schools of painting. also, the idea that the merit of an engraving consisted in light and shade, has prevented the modern masters from even attempting to render works dependent mainly on outline and expression; like the early frescoes, which should indeed have been the objects of their most attentive and continual skill: for outline and expression are entirely within the scope of engraving; and the scripture histories of an aisle of a cloister might have been engraved, to perfection, with little more pains than are given by ordinary workmen to round a limb by correggio, or imitate the texture of a dress by sir joshua,--and both, at last, inadequately. . i will not lose more time in asserting or lamenting the mischief arising out of the existing system: but will rapidly state what the public should now ask for. . exquisitely careful engraved outlines of all remaining frescoes of the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth centuries in italy, with so much pale tinting as may be explanatory of their main masses; and with the local darks and local lights brilliantly relieved. the arundel society have published some meritorious plates of this kind from angelico,--not, however, paying respect enough to the local colors, but conventionalizing the whole too much into outline. . finished small plates for book illustration. the cheap wood-cutting and etching of popular illustrated books have been endlessly mischievous to public taste: they first obtained their power in a general reaction of the public mind from the insipidity of the lower school of line engraving, brought on it by servile persistence in hack work for ignorant publishers. the last dregs of it may still be seen in the sentimental landscapes engraved for cheap ladies' pocket-books. but the woodcut can never, educationally, take the place of serene and accomplished line engraving; and the training of young artists in whom the gift of delineation prevails over their sense of color, to the production of scholarly, but small plates, with their utmost honor of skill, would give a hitherto unconceived dignity to the character and range of our popular literature. . vigorous mezzotints from pictures of the great masters, which originally present noble contrasts of light and shade. many venetian works are magnificent in this character. . original design by painters themselves, decisively engraved in few lines--(_not_ etched); and with such insistence by dotted work on the main contours as we have seen in the examples given from italian engraving. . on the other hand, the men whose quiet patience and exquisite manual dexterity are at present employed in producing large and costly plates, such as that of the belle jardinière de florence, by m. boucher desnoyers, should be entirely released from their servile toil, and employed exclusively in producing colored copies, or light drawings, from the original work. the same number of hours of labor, applied with the like conscientious skill, would multiply precious likenesses of the real picture, full of subtle veracities which no steel line could approach, and conveying, to thousands, true knowledge and unaffected enjoyment of painting; while the finished plate lies uncared for in the portfolio of the virtuoso, serving only, so far as it is seen in the printseller's window by the people, to make them think that sacred painting must always be dull, and unnatural. . i have named the above engraving, because, for persons wishing to study the present qualities and methods of line-work, it is a pleasant and sufficient possession, uniting every variety of texture with great serenity of unforced effect, and exhibiting every possible artifice and achievement in the distribution of even and rugged, or of close and open line; artifices for which,--while i must yet once more and emphatically repeat that they are illegitimate, and could not be practiced in a revived school of classic art,--i would fain secure the reader's reverent admiration, under the conditions exacted by the school to which they belong. let him endeavor, with the finest point of pen or pencil he can obtain, to imitate the profile of this madonna in its relief against the gray background of the water surface; let him examine, through a good lens, the way in which the lines of the background are ended in a lance-point as they approach it; the exact equality of depth of shade being restored by inserted dots, which prepare for the transition to the manner of shade adopted in the flesh: then let him endeavor to trace with his own hand some of the curved lines at the edge of the eyelid, or in the rounding of the lip; or if these be too impossible, even a few of the quiet undulations which gradate the folds of the hood behind the hair; and he will, i trust, begin to comprehend the range of delightful work which would be within the reach of such an artist, employed with more tractable material on more extended subject. . if, indeed, the present system were capable of influencing the mass of the people, and enforcing among them the subtle attention necessary to appreciate it, something might be pleaded in defense of its severity. but all these plates are entirely above the means of the lower middle classes, and perhaps not one reader in a hundred can possess himself, for the study i ask of him, even of the plate to which i have just referred. what, in the stead of such, he can and does possess, let him consider,--and, if possible, just after examining the noble qualities of this conscientious engraving. . take up, for an average specimen of modern illustrated works, the volume of dickens's 'master humphrey's clock,' containing 'barnaby rudge.' you have in that book an entirely profitless and monstrous story, in which the principal characters are a coxcomb, an idiot, a madman, a savage blackguard, a foolish tavern-keeper, a mean old maid, and a conceited apprentice,--mixed up with a certain quantity of ordinary operatic pastoral stuff, about a pretty dolly in ribbons, a lover with a wooden leg, and an heroic locksmith. for these latter, the only elements of good, or life, in the filthy mass of the story,[bm] observe that the author must filch the wreck of those old times of which we fiercely and frantically destroy every living vestige, whenever it is possible. you cannot have your dolly varden brought up behind the counter of a railway station; nor your jolly locksmith trained at a birmingham brass-foundry. and of these materials, observe that you can only have the ugly ones illustrated. the cheap popular art cannot draw for you beauty, sense, or honesty; and for dolly varden, or the locksmith, you will look through the vignettes in vain. but every species of distorted folly and vice,--the idiot, the blackguard, the coxcomb, the paltry fool, the degraded woman,--are pictured for your honorable pleasure in every page, with clumsy caricature, struggling to render its dullness tolerable by insisting on defect,--if perchance a penny or two more may be coined out of the cockney reader's itch for loathsomeness. . or take up, for instance of higher effort, the 'cornhill magazine' for this month, july, . it has a vignette of venice for an illuminated letter. that is what your decorative art has become, by help of kensington! the letter to be produced is a t. there is a gondola in the front of the design, with the canopy slipped back to the stern like a saddle over a horse's tail. there is another in the middle distance, all gone to seed at the prow, with its gondolier emaciated into an oar, at the stern; then there is a church of the salute, and a ducal palace,--in which i beg you to observe all the felicity and dexterity of modern cheap engraving; finally, over the ducal palace there is something, i know not in the least what meant for, like an umbrella dropping out of a balloon, which is the ornamental letter t. opposite this ornamental design, there is an engraving of two young ladies and a parasol, between two trunks of trees. the white face and black feet of the principal young lady, being the points of the design, are done with as much care,--not with as much dexterity,--as an ordinary sketch of du maurier's in punch. the young lady's dress, the next attraction, is done in cheap white and black cutting, with considerably less skill than that of any ordinary tailor's or milliner's shop-book pattern drawing. for the other young lady, and the landscape, take your magnifying glass, and look at the hacked wood that forms the entire shaded surface--one mass of idiotic scrabble, without the remotest attempt to express a single leaf, flower, or clod of earth. it is such landscape as the public sees out of its railroad window at sixty miles of it in the hour--and good enough for such a public. . then turn to the last--the poetical plate, p. : "lifts her--lays her down with care." look at the gentleman with a spade, promoting the advance, over a hillock of hay, of the reposing figure in the black-sided tub. take your magnifying glass to _that_, and look what a dainty female arm and hand your modern scientific and anatomical schools of art have provided you with! look at the tender horizontal flux of the sea round the promontory point above. look at the tender engraving of the linear light on the divine horizon, above the ravenous sea-gull. here is development and progress for you, from the days of perugino's horizon, and dante's daybreaks! truly, here it seems "si che le bianche e le vermiglie guance per troppa etate divenivan rance." . i have chosen no gross or mean instances of modern work. it is one of the saddest points connected with the matter that the designer of this last plate is a person of consummate art faculty, but bound to the wheel of the modern juggernaut, and broken on it. these woodcuts, for 'barnaby rudge' and the 'cornhill magazine,' are favorably representative of the entire illustrative art industry of the modern press,--industry enslaved to the ghastly service of catching the last gleams in the glued eyes of the daily more bestial english mob,--railroad born and bred, which drags itself about the black world it has withered under its breath, in one eternal grind and shriek,--gobbling,--staring,--chattering,--giggling,--trampling out every vestige of national honor and domestic peace, wherever it sets the staggering hoof of it; incapable of reading, of hearing, of thinking, of looking,--capable only of greed for money, lust for food, pride of dress, and the prurient itch of momentary curiosity for the politics last announced by the newsmonger, and the religion last rolled by the chemist into electuary for the dead. . in the miserably competitive labor of finding new stimulus for the appetite--daily more gross--of this tyrannous mob, we may count as lost, beyond any hope, the artists who are dull, docile, or distressed enough to submit to its demands; and we may count the dull and the distressed by myriads;--and among the docile, many of the best intellects we possess. the few who have sense and strength to assert their own place and supremacy, are driven into discouraged disease by their isolation, like turner and blake; the one abandoning the design of his 'liber studiorum' after imperfectly and sadly, against total public neglect, carrying it forward to what it is,--monumental, nevertheless, in landscape engraving; the other producing, with one only majestic series of designs from the book of job, nothing for his life's work but coarsely iridescent sketches of enigmatic dream. . and, for total result of our english engraving industry during the last hundred and fifty years, i find that practically at this moment i cannot get a _single_ piece of true, sweet, and comprehensible art, to place for instruction in any children's school! i can get, for ten pounds apiece, well-engraved portraits of sir joshua's beauties showing graceful limbs through flowery draperies; i can get--dirt-cheap--any quantity of dutch flats, ditches, and hedges, enlivened by cows chewing the cud, and dogs behaving indecently; i can get heaps upon heaps of temples, and forums, and altars, arranged as for academical competition, round seaports, with curled-up ships that only touch the water with the middle of their bottoms. i can get, at the price of lumber, any quantity of british squires flourishing whips and falling over hurdles; and, in suburban shops, a dolorous variety of widowed mothers nursing babies in a high light with the bible on a table, and baby's shoes on a chair. also, of cheap prints, painted red and blue, of christ blessing little children, of joseph and his brethren, the infant samuel, or daniel in the lions' den, the supply is ample enough to make every child in these islands think of the bible as a somewhat dull story-book, allowed on sunday;--but of trained, wise, and worthy art, applied to gentle purposes of instruction, no single example can be found in the shops of the british printseller or bookseller. and after every dilettante tongue in european society has filled drawing-room and academy alike with idle clatter concerning the divinity of raphael and michael angelo, for these last hundred years, i cannot at this instant, for the first school which i have some power of organizing under st. george's laws, get a good print of raphael's madonna of the tribune, or an ordinarily intelligible view of the side and dome of st. peter's! . and there are simply no words for the mixed absurdity and wickedness of the present popular demand for art, as shown by its supply in our thoroughfares. abroad, in the shops of the rue de rivoli, brightest and most central of parisian streets, the putrescent remnant of what was once catholicism promotes its poor gilded pedlars' ware of nativity and crucifixion into such honorable corners as it can find among the more costly and studious illuminations of the brothel: and although, in pall mall, and the strand, the large-margined landseer,--stanfield,--or turner-proofs, in a few stately windows, still represent, uncared-for by the people, or inaccessible to them, the power of an english school now wholly perished,--these are too surely superseded, in the windows that stop the crowd, by the thrilling attraction with which doré, gérome, and tadema have invested the gambling table, the dueling ground, and the arena; or by the more material and almost tangible truth with which the apothecary-artist stereographs the stripped actress, and the railway mound. . under these conditions, as i have now repeatedly asserted, no professorship, nor school, of art can be of the least use to the general public. no race can understand a visionary landscape, which blasts its real mountains into ruin, and blackens its river-beds with foam of poison. nor is it of the least use to exhibit ideal diana at kensington, while substantial phryne may be worshiped in the strand. the only recovery of our art-power possible,--nay, when once we know the full meaning of it, the only one desirable,--must result from the purification of the nation's heart, and chastisement of its life: utterly hopeless now, for our adult population, or in our large cities, and their neighborhood. but, so far as any of the sacred influence of former design can be brought to bear on the minds of the young, and so far as, in rural districts, the first elements of scholarly education can be made pure, the foundation of a new dynasty of thought may be slowly laid. i was strangely impressed by the effect produced in a provincial seaport school for children, chiefly of fishermen's families, by the gift of a little colored drawing of a single figure from the paradise of angelico in the accademia of florence. the drawing was wretched enough, seen beside the original; i had only bought it from the poor italian copyist for charity: but, to the children, it was like an actual glimpse of heaven; they rejoiced in it with pure joy, and their mistress thanked me for it more than if i had sent her a whole library of good books. of such copies, the grace-giving industry of young girls, now worse than lost in the spurious charities of the bazaar, or selfish ornamentations of the drawing-room, might, in a year's time, provide enough for every dame-school in england; and a year's honest work of the engravers employed on our base novels, might represent to our advanced students every frescoed legend of philosophy and morality extant in christendom. . for my own part, i have no purpose, in what remains to me of opportunity, either at oxford or elsewhere, to address any farther course of instruction towards the development of existing schools. after seeing the stream of the teviot as black as ink, and a putrid carcass of a sheep lying in the dry channel of the jed, under jedburgh abbey, (the entire strength of the summer stream being taken away to supply a single mill,) i know, finally, what value the british mind sets on the 'beauties of nature,' and shall attempt no farther the excitement of its enthusiasm in that direction. i shall indeed endeavor to carry out, with mr. ward's help, my twenty years' held purpose of making the real character of turner's work known, to the persons who, formerly interested by the engravings from him, imagined half the merit was of the engraver's giving. but i know perfectly that to the general people, trained in the midst of the ugliest objects that vice can design, in houses, mills, and machinery, _all_ beautiful form and color is as invisible as the seventh heaven. it is not a question of appreciation at all; the thing is physically invisible to them, as human speech is inaudible during a steam whistle. . and i shall also use all the strength i have to convince those, among our artists of the second order, who are wise and modest enough not to think themselves the matches of turner or michael angelo, that in the present state of art they only waste their powers in endeavoring to produce original pictures of human form or passion. modern aristocratic life is too vulgar, and modern peasant life too unhappy, to furnish subjects of noble study; while, even were it otherwise, the multiplication of designs by painters of second-rate power is no more desirable than the writing of music by inferior composers. they may, with far greater personal happiness, and incalculably greater advantage to others, devote themselves to the affectionate and sensitive copying of the works of men of just renown. the dignity of this self-sacrifice would soon be acknowledged with sincere respect; for copies produced by men working with such motive would differ no less from the common trade-article of the galleries than the rendering of music by an enthusiastic and highly trained executant differs from the grinding of a street organ. and the change in the tone of public feeling, produced by familiarity with such work, would soon be no less great than in their musical enjoyment, if having been accustomed only to hear black christys, blind fiddlers, and hoarse beggars scrape or howl about their streets, they were permitted daily audience of faithful and gentle orchestral rendering of the work of the highest classical masters. . i have not, until very lately, rightly appreciated the results of the labor of the arundel society in this direction. although, from the beginning, i have been honored in being a member of its council, my action has been hitherto rather of check than help, because i thought more of the differences between our copies and the great originals, than of their unquestionable superiority to anything the public could otherwise obtain. i was practically convinced of their extreme value only this last winter, by staying at the house of a friend in which the arundel engravings were the principal decoration; and where i learned more of masaccio from the arundel copy of the contest with simon magus, than in the brancacci chapel itself; for the daily companionship with the engraving taught me subtleties in its composition which had escaped me in the multitudinous interest of visits to the actual fresco. but the work of the society has been sorely hindered hitherto, because it has had at command only the skill of copyists trained in foreign schools of color, and accustomed to meet no more accurate requisitions than those of the fashionable traveler. i have always hoped for, and trust at last to obtain, co-operation with our too mildly laborious copyists, of english artists possessing more brilliant color faculty; and the permission of our subscribers to secure for them the great ruins of the noble past, undesecrated by the trim, but treacherous, plastering of modern emendation. . finally, i hope to direct some of the antiquarian energy often to be found remaining, even when love of the picturesque has passed away, to encourage the accurate delineation and engraving of historical monuments, as a direct function of our schools of art. all that i have generally to suggest on this matter has been already stated with sufficient clearness in the first of my inaugural lectures at oxford: and my forthcoming 'elements of drawing'[bn] will contain all the directions i can give in writing as to methods of work for such purpose. the publication of these has been hindered, for at least a year, by the abuses introduced by the modern cheap modes of printing engravings. i find the men won't use any ink but what pleases them; nor print but with what pressure pleases them; and if i can get the foreman to attend to the business, and choose the ink right, the men change it the moment he leaves the room, and threaten to throw up the job when they are detected. all this, i have long known well, is a matter of course, in the outcome of modern principles of trade; but it has rendered it hitherto impossible for me to produce illustrations, which have been ready, as far as my work or that of my own assistants is concerned, for a year and a half. any one interested in hearing of our progress--or arrest, may write to my turner copyist, mr. ward:[bo] and, in the meantime, they can help my designs for art education best by making these turner copies more generally known; and by determining, when they travel, to spend what sums they have at their disposal, not in fady photography, but in the encouragement of any good _water-color_ and _pencil_ draughtsmen whom they find employed in the _galleries_ of europe. article ii. detached notes. i. _on the series of sibyl engravings attributed to botticelli._ . since i wrote the earlier lectures in this volume, i have been made more doubtful on several points which were embarrassing enough before, by seeing some better (so-called) impressions of my favorite plates containing light and shade which did not improve them. i do not choose to waste time or space in discussion, till i know more of the matter; and that more i must leave to my good friend mr. reid of the british museum to find out for me; for i have no time to take up the subject myself, but i give, for frontispiece to this appendix, the engraving of joshua referred to in the text, which however beautiful in thought, is an example of the inferior execution and more elaborate shade which puzzle me. but whatever is said in the previous pages of the plates chosen for example, by whomsoever done, is absolutely trustworthy. thoroughly fine they are, in their existing state, and exemplary to all persons and times. and of the rest, in fitting place i hope to give complete--or at least satisfactory account. ii. _on the three excellent engravers representative of the first, middle, and late schools._ [illustration: xii. the coronation in the garden.] . i have given opposite a photograph, slightly reduced from the dürer madonna, alluded to often in the text, as an example of his best conception of womanhood. it is very curious that dürer, the least able of all great artists to represent womanhood, should of late have been a very principal object of feminine admiration. the last thing a woman should do is to write about art. they never see anything in pictures but what they are told, (or resolve to see out of contradiction,)--or the particular things that fall in with their own feelings. i saw a curious piece of enthusiastic writing by an edinburgh lady, the other day, on the photographs i had taken from the tower of giotto. she did not care a straw what giotto had meant by them, declared she felt it her duty only to announce what they were to _her_; and wrote two pages on the bas-relief of heracles and antæus--assuming it to be the death of abel. . it is not, however, by women only that dürer has been over-praised. he stands so alone in his own field, that the people who care much for him generally lose the power of enjoying anything else rightly; and are continually attributing to the force of his imagination quaintnesses which are merely part of the general mannerism of his day. the following notes upon him, in relation to two other excellent engravers, were written shortly for extempore expansion in lecturing. i give them, with the others in this terminal article, mainly for use to myself in future reference; but also as more or less suggestive to the reader, if he has taken up the subject seriously, and worth, therefore, a few pages of this closing sheet. . the men i have named as representative of all the good ones composing their school, are alike resolved their engraving shall be lovely. but botticelli, the ancient, wants, with as little engraving, as much sibyl as possible. dürer, the central, wants, with as much engraving as possible, anything of sibyl that may chance to be picked up with it. beaugrand, the modern, wants, as much sibyl as possible, and as much engraving too. . i repeat--for i want to get this clear to you--botticelli wants, with as little engraving, as much sibyl as possible. for his head is full of sibyls, and his heart. he can't draw them fast enough: one comes, and another and another; and all, gracious and wonderful and good, to be engraved forever, if only he had a thousand hands and lives. he scratches down one, with no haste, with no fault, divinely careful, scrupulous, patient, but with as few lines as possible. 'another sibyl--let me draw another, for heaven's sake, before she has burnt all her books, and vanished.' dürer is exactly botticelli's opposite. he is a workman, to the heart, and will do his work magnificently. 'no matter what i do it on, so that my craft be honorably shown. anything will do; a sibyl, a skull, a madonna and christ, a hat and feather, an adam, an eve, a cock, a sparrow, a lion with two tails, a pig with five legs,--anything will do for me. but see if i don't show you what engraving is, be my subject what it may!' . thirdly: beaugrand, i said, wants as much sibyl as possible, and as much engraving. he is essentially a copyist, and has no ideas of his own, but deep reverence and love for the work of others. he will give his life to represent another man's thought. he will do his best with every spot and line,--exhibit to you, if you will only look, the most exquisite completion of obedient skill; but will be content, if you will not look, to pass his neglected years in fruitful peace, and count every day well spent that has given softness to a shadow, or light to a smile. iii. _on dürer's landscape, with reference to the sentence on p. _: "i hope you are pleased." . i spoke just now only of the ill-shaped body of this figure of fortune, or pleasure. beneath her feet is an elaborate landscape. it is all drawn out of dürer's head;--he would look at bones or tendons carefully, or at the leaf details of foreground;--but at the breadth and loveliness of real landscape, never. he has tried to give you a bird's-eye view of germany; rocks, and woods, and clouds, and brooks, and the pebbles in their beds, and mills, and cottages, and fences, and what not; but it is all a feverish dream, ghastly and strange, a monotone of diseased imagination. and here is a little bit of the world he would not look at--of the great river of his land, with a single cluster of its reeds, and two boats, and an island with a village, and the way for the eternal waters opened between the rounded hills.[bp] it is just what you may see any day, anywhere,--innocent, seemingly artless; but the artlessness of turner is like the face of gainsborough's village girl, and a joy forever. iv. _on the study of anatomy._ . the virtual beginner of artistic anatomy in italy was a man called 'the poulterer'--from his grandfather's trade; 'pollajuolo,' a man of immense power, but on whom the curse of the italian mind in this age[bq] was set at its deepest. any form of passionate excess has terrific effects on body and soul, in nations as in men; and when this excess is in rage, and rage against your brother, and rage accomplished in habitual deeds of blood,--do you think nature will forget to set the seal of her indignation upon the forehead? i told you that the great division of spirit between the northern and southern races had been reconciled in the val d'arno. the font of florence, and the font of pisa, were as the very springs of the life of the christianity which had gone forth to teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the prince of peace. yet these two brother cities were to each other--i do not say as abel and cain, but as eteocles and polynices, and the words of Æschylus are now fulfilled in them to the uttermost. the arno baptizes their dead bodies:--their native valley between its mountains is to them as the furrow of a grave;--"and so much of their land they have, as is sepulcher." nay, not of florence and pisa only was this true: venice and genoa died in death-grapple; and eight cities of lombardy divided between them the joy of leveling milan to her lowest stone. nay, not merely in city against city, but in street against street, and house against house, the fury of the theban dragon flamed ceaselessly, and with the same excuse upon men's lips. the sign of the shield of polynices, justice bringing back the exile, was to them all, in turn, the portent of death: and their history, in the sum of it and substance, is as of the servants of joab and abner by the pool of gibeon. "they caught every one his fellow by the head, and thrust his sword in his fellow's side; so they fell down together: wherefore that place was called 'the field of the strong men.'" . now it is not possible for christian men to live thus, except under a fever of insanity. i have before, in my lectures on prudence and insolence in art, deliberately asserted to you the logical accuracy of the term 'demoniacal possession'[br]--the being in the power or possession of a betraying spirit; and the definite sign of such insanity is delight in witnessing pain, usually accompanied by an instinct that gloats over or plays with physical uncleanness or disease, and always by a morbid egotism. it is not to be recognized for demoniacal power so much by its _viciousness_, as its _paltriness_,--the taking pleasure in minute, contemptible, and loathsome things.[bs] now, in the middle of the gallery of the brera at milan, there is an elaborate study of a dead christ, entirely characteristic of early fifteenth century italian madman's work. it is called--and was presented to the people as--a christ; but it _is_ only an anatomical study of a vulgar and ghastly dead body, with the soles of the feet set straight at the spectator, and the rest foreshortened. it is either castagno's or mantegna's,--in my mind, set down to castagno; but i have not looked at the picture for years, and am not sure at this moment. it does not matter a straw which: it is exactly characteristic of the madness in which all of them--pollajuolo, castagno, mantegna, lionardo da vinci, and michael angelo, polluted their work with the science of the sepulcher,[bt] and degraded it with presumptuous and paltry technical skill. foreshorten your christ, and paint him, if you can, half putrefied,--that is the scientific art of the renaissance. . it is impossible, however, in so vast a subject to distinguish always the beginner of things from the establisher. to the poulterer's son, pollajuolo, remains the eternal shame of first making insane contest the only subject of art; but the two _establishers_ of anatomy were lionardo and michael angelo. you hear of lionardo chiefly because of his last supper, but italy did not hear of him for that. this was not what brought _her_ to worship lionardo--but the battle of the standard. v. _fragments on holbein and others._ . of holbein's st. elizabeth, remember, she is not a perfect saint elizabeth, by any means. she is an honest and sweet german lady,--the best he could see; he could do no better;--and so i come back to my old story,--no man can do better than he sees: if he can reach the nature round him, it is well; he may fall short of it; he cannot rise above it; "the best, in this kind, are but shadows." * * * * * yet that intense veracity of holbein is indeed the strength and glory of all the northern schools. they exist only in being true. their work among men is the definition of what is, and the abiding by it. they cannot dream of what is not. they make fools of themselves if they try. think how feeble even shakspere is when he tries his hand at a goddess;--women, beautiful and womanly, as many as you choose; but who cares what his minerva or juno says, in the masque of the tempest? and for the painters--when sir joshua tries for a madonna, or vandyke for a diana--they can't even _paint_! they become total simpletons. look at rubens' mythologies in the louvre, or at modern french heroics, or german pietisms! why, all--cornelius, hesse, overbeck, and david--put together, are not worth one de hooghe of an old woman with a broom sweeping a back-kitchen. the one thing we northerns can do is to find out what is fact, and insist on it: mean fact it may be, or noble--but fact always, or we die. . yet the intensest form of northern realization can be matched in the south, when the southerns choose. there are two pieces of animal drawing in the sistine chapel unrivaled for literal veracity. the sheep at the well in front of zipporah; and afterwards, when she is going away, leading her children, her eldest boy, like every one else, has taken his chief treasure with him, and this treasure is his pet dog. it is a little sharp-nosed white fox-terrier, full of fire and life; but not strong enough for a long walk. so little gershom, whose name was "the stranger" because his father had been a stranger in a strange land,--little gershom carries his white terrier under his arm, lying on the top of a large bundle to make it comfortable. the doggie puts its sharp nose and bright eyes out, above his hand, with a little roguish gleam sideways in them, which means,--if i can read rightly a dog's expression,--that he has been barking at moses all the morning and has nearly put him out of temper:--and without any doubt, i can assert to you that there is not any other such piece of animal painting in the world,--so brief, intense, vivid, and absolutely balanced in truth: as tenderly drawn as if it had been a saint, yet as humorously as landseer's lord chancellor poodle. . oppose to-- holbein's veracity--botticelli's fantasy. " shade " color. " despair " faith. " grossness " purity. true fantasy. botticelli's tree in hellespontic sibyl. not a real tree at all--yet founded on intensest perception of beautiful reality. so the swan of clio, as opposed to dürer's cock, or to turner's swan. the italian power of abstraction into one mythologic personage--holbein's death is only literal. he has to split his death into thirty different deaths; and each is but a skeleton. but orcagna's death is one--the power of death itself. there may thus be as much _breadth in thought_, as in execution. * * * * * . what then, we have to ask, is a man _conscious of_ in what he sees? for instance, in all cruikshank's etchings--however slight the outline--there is an intense consciousness of light and shade, and of local color, _as a part_ of light and shade; but none of color itself. he was wholly incapable of coloring; and perhaps this very deficiency enabled him to give graphic harmony to engraving. * * * * * bewick--snow-pieces, etc. _gray_ predominant; _perfect sense of color_, coming out in patterns of birds;--yet so uncultivated, that he engraves the brown birds better than pheasant or peacock! for quite perfect consciousness of color makes engraving impossible, and you have instead--correggio. vi. _final notes on light and shade._ . you will find in the th and th paragraphs of my inaugural lectures, statements which, if you were reading the book by yourselves, would strike you probably as each of them difficult, and in some degree inconsistent,--namely, that the school of color has exquisite character and sentiment; but is childish, cheerful, and fantastic; while the school of shade is deficient in character and sentiment; but supreme in intellect and veracity. "the way by light and shade," i say, "is taken by men of the highest powers of thought and most earnest desire for truth." the school of shade, i say, is deficient in character and sentiment. compare any of dürer's madonnas with any of angelico's. yet you may discern in the apocalypse engravings that dürer's mind was seeking for truths, and dealing with questions, which no more could have occurred to angelico's mind than to that of a two-years-old baby. . the two schools unite in various degrees; but are always distinguishably generic, the two headmost masters representing each being tintoret and perugino. the one, deficient in sentiment, and continually offending us by the want of it, but full of intellectual power and suggestion. the other, repeating ideas with so little reflection that he gets blamed for doing the same thing over again, (vasari); but exquisite in sentiment and the conditions of taste which it forms, so as to become the master of it to raphael and to all succeeding him; and remaining such a type of sentiment, too delicate to be felt by the latter practical mind of dutch-bred england, that goldsmith makes the admiration of him the test of absurd connoisseurship. but yet, with under-current of intellect, which gets him accused of free-thinking, and therefore with under-current of entirely exquisite chiaroscuro. light and shade, then, imply the understanding of things--color, the imagination and the sentiment of them. . in turner's distinctive work, color is scarcely acknowledged unless under influence of sunshine. the sunshine is his treasure; his lividest gloom contains it; his grayest twilight regrets it, and remembers. blue is always a blue shadow; brown or gold, always light;--nothing is cheerful but sunshine; wherever the sun is not, there is melancholy or evil. apollo is god; and all forms of death and sorrow exist in opposition to him. but in perugino's distinctive work,--and therefore i have given him the captain's place over all,--there is simply _no_ darkness, _no_ wrong. every color is lovely, and every space is light. the world, the universe, is divine: all sadness is a part of harmony; and all gloom, a part of peace. the end. footnotes: [bl] see note to the close of this article, p. . [bm] the raven, however, like all dickens's animals, is perfect: and i am the more angry with the rest because i have every now and then to open the book to look for him. [bn] "laws of fésole." [bo] , church terrace, richmond, surrey. note.--i have hitherto permitted mr. ward to copy any turner drawing he was asked to do; but, finding there is a run upon the vignettes of loch lomond and derwent, i have forbidden him to do more of them for the present, lest his work should get the least mechanical. the admirable drawings of venice, by my good assistant, mr. bunney, resident there, will become of more value to their purchasers every year, as the buildings from which they are made are destroyed. i was but just in time, working with him at verona, to catch record of fra giocondo's work in the smaller square; the most beautiful renaissance design in north italy. [bp] the engraving of turner's "scene on the rhine" (near bingen?) with boats on the right, and reedy foreground on the left; the opening between its mountain banks in central distance. it is exquisitely engraved, the plate being of the size of the drawing, about ten inches by six, and finished with extreme care and feeling. [bq] see the horrible picture of st. sebastian by him in our own national gallery. [br] see "the eagle's nest," § . [bs] as in the muscles of the legs and effort in stretching bows, of the executioners, in the picture just referred to. [bt] observe, i entirely distinguish the study of _anatomy_--i.e., of intense bone and muscle--from study of the nude, as the greeks practiced it. this for an entirely great painter is absolutely necessary; but yet i believe, in the case of botticelli, it was nobly restricted. the following note by mr. tyrwhitt contains, i think, the probable truth:-- "the facts relating to sandro botticelli's models, or rather to his favorite model (as it appears to me), are but few; and it is greatly to be regretted that his pictures are seldom dated;--if it were certain in what order they appeared, what follows here might approach moral certainty. "there is no doubt that he had great personal regard for fra filippo, up to that painter's death in , sandro being then twenty-two years old. he may probably have got only good from him; anyhow he would get a strong turn for realism,--i.e. the treatment of sacred and all other subjects in a realistic manner. he is described in crowe and cavalcaselle from filippino lippi's martyrdom of st. peter, as a sullen and sensual man, with beetle brows, large fleshy mouth, etc., etc. probably he was a strong man, and intense in physical and intellectual habit. "this man, then, begins to paint in his strength, with conviction--rather happy and innocent than not--that it is right to paint any beautiful thing, and best to paint the most beautiful,--say in , at twenty-three years of age. the allegorical spring and the graces, and the aphrodite now in the ufficii, were painted for cosmo, and seem to be taken by vasari and others as early, or early-central, works in his life: also the portrait of simonetta vespucei[ ]. he is known to have painted much in early life for the vespucei and the medici;--and this daughter of the former house seems to have been inamorata or mistress of giuliano de' medici, murdered by the pazzi in . now it seems agreed by crowe and cavalcaselle, pater, etc., (and i am quite sure of it myself as to the pictures mentioned)--first, that the same slender and long-throated model appears in spring, the aphrodite, calumny, and other works.[ ] secondly, that she was simonetta, the original of the pitti portrait. "now i think she must have been induced to let sandro draw from her whole person undraped, more or less; and that he must have done so as such a man probably would, in strict honor as to deed, word, and _definite_ thought, but under occasional accesses of passion of which he said nothing, and which in all probability and by grace of god refined down to nil, or nearly so, as he got accustomed to look in honor at so beautiful a thing. (he may have left off the undraped after her death.) first, her figure is absolutely fine gothic; i don't think any antique is so slender. secondly, she has the sad, passionate, and exquisite lombard mouth. thirdly, her limbs shrink together, and she seems not quite to have 'liked it' or been an accustomed model. fourthly, there is tradition, giving her name to all those forms. "her lover giuliano was murdered in , and savonarola hanged and burnt in . now, can her distress, and savonarola's preaching, between them, have taken, in few years, all the carnality out of sandro, supposing him to have come already, by seventy-eight, to that state in which the sight of her delighted him, without provoking ulterior feelings? all decent men accustomed to draw from the nude tell us they get to that. "sandro's dante is dated as published in . he may have been saddening by that time, and weary of beauty, pure or mixed;--though he went on painting madonnas, i fancy. (can simonetta be traced in any of them? i think not. the sistine paintings extend from to , however. i cannot help thinking zipporah is impressed with her.) after savonarola's death, sandro must have lost heart, and gone into dante altogether. most ways in literature and art lead to dante; and this question about the nude and the purity of botticelli is no exception to the rule. "now in the purgatorio, lust is the last sin of which we are to be made pure, and it has to be burnt out of us; being itself as searching as fire, as smoldering, devouring, and all that. corruptio: optimi pessima; and it is the most searching and lasting of evils, because it really is a corruption attendant on true love, which is eternal--whatever the word means. that this is so, seems to me to demonstrate the truth of the fall of man from the condition of moral very-goodness in god's sight. and i think that dante connected the purifying pains of his intermediate state with actual sufferings in this life, working out repentance,--in himself and others. and the 'torment' of this passion, to the repentant or resisting, or purity-seeking soul is decidedly like the pain of physical burning. "further, its casuistry is impracticable; because the more you stir the said 'fire' the stronger hold it takes. therefore, men and women are _rightly_ secret about it, and detailed confessions unadvisable. much talk about 'hypocrisy' in this matter is quite wrong and unjust. then, its connection with female beauty, as a cause of love between man and woman, seems to me to be the inextricable nodus of the fall, the here inseparable mixture of good and evil, till soul and body are parted. for the sense of seen beauty is the awakening of love, at whatever distance from any kind of return or sympathy--as with a rose, or what not. sandro may be the man who has gone nearest to the right separation of delight from desire: supposing that he began with religion and a straight conscience; saw lovingly the error of fra filippo's way; saw with intense distant love the error of simonetta's; and reflected on florence and _its_ way, and drew nearer and nearer to savonarola, being yet too big a man for asceticism; and finally wearied of all things and sunk into poverty and peace." [ ] pitti, stanza di prometeo, . [ ] i think zipporah may be a remembrance of her. +----------------------------------------------------------------------+ | transcribers' notes | | | | | | general: corrections to punctuation have not been individually | | documented | | | | list of plates: fac-simile standardised to facsimile ( occurrences) | | | | list of plates, illustration iii: fesole standardised to fésole | | | | list of plates: obedienta corrected to obediente | | | | pages , , : leonardo standardised to lionardo | | | | pages , : nell' arte as in original | | | | page : diagram has been split into two parts as it was too wide to | | display | | | | page : durer standardised to dürer (in diagram) | | | | page : line work standardised to line-work (first occurrence) | | | | page , , , , : wood-cuts standardised to woodcuts | | | | page , , , , , , , , : wood-cut standardised to | | woodcut | | | | page : dexterous standardised to dextrous | | | | page : "holbein had bitterer task." as in the original | | | | page : beame corrected to became | +----------------------------------------------------------------------+ library edition the complete works of john ruskin stones of venice volume iii giotto lectures on architecture harbours of england a joy forever national library association new york chicago the complete works of john ruskin volume x giotto and his works lectures on architecture the harbors of england political economy of art (a joy forever) the harbors of england. contents. page the harbors of england i. dover ii. ramsgate iii. plymouth iv. catwater v. sheerness vi. margate vii. portsmouth viii. falmouth ix. sidmouth x. whitby xi. deal xii. scarborough editor's preface. "turner's _harbors of england_," as it is generally called, is a book which, for various reasons, has never received from readers of mr. ruskin's writings the attention it deserves. true, it has always been sought after by connoisseurs, and collectors never fail with their eleven or twelve guineas whenever a set of artist's proofs of the first edition of comes into the market. but to the general reader the book with its twelve exquisitely delicate mezzotints--four of which mr. ruskin has declared to be among the very finest executed by turner from his marine subjects--is practically unknown. the primary reason for this neglect is not far to seek. since no new edition of the work has been published, and thus it has gradually passed from public knowledge, though still regarded with lively interest by those to whom mr. ruskin's words--particularly words written in further unfolding of the subtleties of turner's art--at all times appeal so strongly. in his own preface mr. ruskin has told us all that in it was necessary to know of the genesis of the _harbors_. that account may now be supplemented with the following additional facts. in turner (in conjunction with lupton, the engraver) projected and commenced a serial publication entitled _the ports of england_. but both artist and engraver lacked the opportunity required to carry the undertaking to a successful conclusion, and three numbers only were completed. each of these contained two engravings. part i., introducing _scarborough_ and _whitby_, duly appeared in ; part ii., with _dover_ and _ramsgate_, in ; and in part iii., containing _sheerness_ and _portsmouth_, closed the series.[a] twenty-eight years afterwards (that is, in , five years after turner's death) these six plates, together with six new ones, were published by messrs. e. gambart & co., at whose invitation mr. ruskin consented to write the essay on turner's marine painting which accompanied them. the book, a handsome folio, appears to have been immediately successful, for in the following year a second edition was called for. this was a precise reprint of the edition; but, unhappily, the delicate plates already began to exhibit signs of wear. the copyright (which had not been retained by mr. ruskin, but remained the property of messrs. e. gambart & co.) then passed to messrs. day & son, who, after producing the third edition of , in turn disposed of it to mr. t. j. allman. allman issued a fourth edition in , and then parted with his rights to messrs. smith, elder & co., who in brought out the fifth, and, until now, last edition. since that date the work has been out of print, and has remained practically inaccessible to the ordinary reader. [a] to ornament the covers of these parts, turner designed a vignette, which was printed upon the center of the front wrapper of each. as _the ports of england_ is an exceptionally scarce book, and as the vignette can be obtained in no other form, a facsimile of it is here given. the original drawing was presented by mr. ruskin to the fitz-william museum, at cambridge, where it may now be seen. it is matter for congratulation that at length means have been found to bring _the harbors of england_ once more into currency, and to issue the book through mr. george allen at a price which will place it within the reach of the reading public at large. the last edition of , with its worn and "retouched" plates,[b] was published at twenty-five shillings; less than a third of that sum will suffice to procure a copy of this new issue in which the prints (save for their reduced size) more nearly approach the clearness and beauty of the originals of than any of the three editions which have immediately preceded it. [b] by this time ( ) the plates had become considerably worn, and were accordingly "retouched" by mr. chas. a. tomkins. but such retouching proved worse than useless. the delicacy of the finer work had entirely vanished, and the plates remained but a ghost of their former selves, such as no one would recognize as doing justice to turner. the fifth is unquestionably the least satisfactory of the five original editions containing lupton's engravings. i have before me the following interesting letter addressed by mr. ruskin's father to mr. w. smith williams, for many years literary adviser to messrs. smith, elder & co.:-- "chamouni, _august th, ._ "my dear sir,--i hear that in _the athenæum_ of th july there is a good article on my son's _harbors of england_, and i should be greatly obliged by mr. gordon smith sending me that number.... "the history of this book, i believe, i told you. gambart, the french publisher and picture dealer, said some months ago that he was going to put out turner plates, never published, of english harbors, and he would give my son two good turner drawings for a few pages of text to illustrate them.[c] john agreed, and wrote the text, when poorly in the spring of , at tunbridge wells; and it seems the work has just come out. it was in my opinion an extremely well done thing, and more likely, as far as it went, if not to be extremely popular, at least to be received without cavil than anything he had written. if there is a very favorable review in _the athenæum_ ... it may tend to disarm the critics, and partly influence opinion of his larger works....--with our united kind regards, "yours very truly, "john james ruskin." [c] mr. e. gambart (who is still living) states that, to the best of his recollection, he paid mr. ruskin guineas for his work. probably this was the price originally agreed upon, the two turner drawings being ultimately accepted as a more welcome and appropriate form of remuneration. in all save one particular the text here given follows precisely that of the previous issues. it has been the good fortune of the present editor to be able to restore a characteristic passage suppressed from motives of prudence when the work was originally planned.[d] the proof-sheets of the first edition, worked upon by mr. ruskin, were given by him to his old nurse anne.[e] she, fortunately, carefully preserved them, and in turn gave them to mr. allen, some ten years before he became mr. ruskin's publisher. these proofs had been submitted as they came from the press to mr. w. h. harrison (well known to readers of _on the old road_, etc., as "my first editor"), who marked them freely with notes and suggestions. to one passage he appears to have taken so decided an objection that its author was prevailed upon to delete it. but, whilst deferring thus to the judgment of others, and consenting to remove a sentence which he doubtless regarded with particular satisfaction as expressing a decided opinion upon a favorite picture, mr. ruskin indulged in one of those pleasantries which now and again we observe in his informal letters, though seldom, if ever, in his serious writings. in the margin, below the canceled passage, he wrote boldly: "_sacrificed to the muse of prudence. j. r._"[f] [d] see _post_, p. . [e] see _præterita_. she died march th, . [f] the accompanying illustration is a facsimile of the portion of the proof-sheet described above--slightly reduced to fit the smaller page. that mr. harrison was justified in raising objection to this "moderate estimate" of turner's picture will, i think, be readily allowed. in those days mr. ruskin's influence was, comparatively speaking, small; and the expression of an opinion which heaped praise upon the single painting of a partially understood painter at the expense of a great and popular institution would only have served to arouse opposition, and possibly to attract ridicule. it is different to-day. we know the keen enthusiasm of the author of _the seven lamps_, and have seen again and again how he expresses himself in terms of somewhat exaggerated admiration when writing of a painter whom he appreciates, or a picture that he loves. to us this enthusiasm is an attractive characteristic. it has never been permitted to distort the vision or cloud the critical faculty; and we follow the teaching of the master all the more closely because we feel his fervor, and know how completely he becomes possessed with a subject which appeals to his imagination or his heart. i have therefore not scrupled to revive the words which he consented to immolate at the shrine of prudence. it is not my province here to enter into any criticism of the pages which follow; but, for the benefit of those who are not versed in the minutiæ of shelleyan topics, a word may be said regarding mr. ruskin's reference[g] to the poet who met his death in the bay of spezzia. the _don juan_ was no "traitorous" craft. fuller and more authentic information is to hand now than the meager facts at the disposal of a writer in ; and we know that the greed of man, and not the lack of sea-worthiness in his tiny vessel, caused percy shelley to "... suffer a sea change into something rich and strange." [g] see _post_, p. . there is, unhappily, no longer any room for doubt that the _don juan_ was willfully run down by a felucca whose crew coveted the considerable sum of money they believed byron to have placed on board, and cared nothing for the sacrifice of human life in their eagerness to seize the gold. the twelve engravings, to which reference has already been made, have been reproduced by the photogravure process from a selected set of early examples; and, in addition, the plates so prepared have been carefully worked upon by mr. allen himself. it will thus be apparent that everything possible has been done to produce a worthy edition of a worthy book, and to place in the hands of the public what to the present generation of readers is tantamount to a new work from a pen which--alas!--has now for so long a time been still. thomas j. wise. author's original preface. among the many peculiarities which distinguished the late j. m. w. turner from other landscape painters, not the least notable, in my apprehension, were his earnest desire to arrange his works in connected groups, and his evident intention, with respect to each drawing, that it should be considered as expressing part of a continuous system of thought. the practical result of this feeling was that he commenced many series of drawings,--and, if any accident interfered with the continuation of the work, hastily concluded them,--under titles representing rather the relation which the executed designs bore to the materials accumulated in his own mind, than the position which they could justifiably claim when contemplated by others. the _river scenery_ was closed without a single drawing of a rapidly running stream; and the prints of his annual tours were assembled, under the title of the _rivers of france_, without including a single illustration either of the rhone or the garonne. the title under which the following plates are now presented to the public, is retained merely out of respect to this habit of turner's. under that title he commenced the publication, and executed the vignette for its title-page, intending doubtless to make it worthy of taking rank with, if not far above, the consistent and extensive series of the _southern coast_, executed in his earlier years. but procrastination and accident equally interfered with his purpose. the excellent engraver mr. lupton, in co-operation with whom the work was undertaken, was unfortunately also a man of genius, and seems to have been just as capricious as turner himself in the application of his powers to the matter in hand. had one of the parties in the arrangement been a mere plodding man of business, the work would have proceeded; but between the two men of talent it came very naturally to a stand. they petted each other by reciprocal indulgence of delay; and at turner's death, the series, so magnificently announced under the title of the _harbors of england_, consisted only of twelve plates, all the less worthy of their high-sounding title in that, while they included illustrations of some of the least important of the watering-places, they did not include any illustration whatever of such harbors of england as liverpool, shields, yarmouth, or bristol. such as they were, however, i was requested to undertake their illustration. as the offer was made at a moment when much nonsense, in various forms, was being written about turner and his works; and among the twelve plates there were four[h] which i considered among the very finest that had been executed from his marine subjects, i accepted the trust; partly to prevent the really valuable series of engravings from being treated with injustice, and partly because there were several features in them by which i could render more intelligible some remarks i wished to make on turner's marine painting in general. [h] portsmouth, sheerness, scarborough, and whitby. these remarks, therefore, i have thrown together, in a connected form; less with a view to the illustration of these particular plates, than of the general system of ship-painting which was characteristic of the great artist. i have afterwards separately noted the points which seemed to me most deserving of attention in the plates themselves. of archæological information the reader will find none. the designs themselves are, in most instances, little more than spirited sea-pieces, with such indistinct suggestion of local features in the distance as may justify the name given to the subject; but even when, as in the case of the dover and portsmouth, there is something approaching topographical detail, i have not considered it necessary to lead the reader into inquiries which certainly turner himself never thought of; nor do i suppose it would materially add to the interest of these cloud distances or rolling seas, if i had the time--which i have not--to collect the most complete information respecting the raising of prospect rows, and the establishment of circulating libraries. denmark hill. [ .] the harbors of england. of all things, living or lifeless, upon this strange earth, there is but one which, having reached the mid-term of appointed human endurance on it, i still regard with unmitigated amazement. i know, indeed, that all around me is wonderful--but i cannot answer it with wonder:--a dark veil, with the foolish words, nature of things, upon it, casts its deadening folds between me and their dazzling strangeness. flowers open, and stars rise, and it seems to me they could have done no less. the mystery of distant mountain-blue only makes me reflect that the earth is of necessity mountainous;--the sea-wave breaks at my feet, and i do not see how it should have remained unbroken. but one object there is still, which i never pass without the renewed wonder of childhood, and that is the bow of a boat. not of a racing-wherry, or revenue cutter, or clipper yacht; but the blunt head of a common, bluff, undecked sea-boat, lying aside in its furrow of beach sand. the sum of navigation is in that. you may magnify it or decorate as you will: you do not add to the wonder of it. lengthen it into hatchet-like edge of iron,--strengthen it with complex tracery of ribs of oak,--carve it and gild it till a column of light moves beneath it on the sea,--you have made no more of it than it was at first. that rude simplicity of bent plank, that can breast its way through the death that is in the deep sea, has in it the soul of shipping. beyond this, we may have more work, more men, more money; we cannot have more miracle. for there is, first, an infinite strangeness in the perfection of the thing, as work of human hands. i know nothing else that man does, which is perfect, but that. all his other doings have some sign of weakness, affectation, or ignorance in them. they are overfinished or underfinished; they do not quite answer their end, or they show a mean vanity in answering it too well. but the boat's bow is naïvely perfect: complete without an effort. the man who made it knew not he was making anything beautiful, as he bent its planks into those mysterious, ever-changing curves. it grows under his hand into the image of a sea-shell; the seal, as it were, of the flowing of the great tides and streams of ocean stamped on its delicate rounding. he leaves it when all is done, without a boast. it is simple work, but it will keep out water. and every plank thence-forward is a fate, and has men's lives wreathed in the knots of it, as the cloth-yard shaft had their deaths in its plumes. then, also, it is wonderful on account of the greatness of the thing accomplished. no other work of human hands ever gained so much. steam-engines and telegraphs indeed help us to fetch, and carry, and talk; they lift weights for us, and bring messages, with less trouble than would have been needed otherwise; this saving of trouble, however, does not constitute a new faculty, it only enhances the powers we already possess. but in that bow of the boat is the gift of another world. without it, what prison wall would be so strong as that "white and wailing fringe" of sea. what maimed creatures were we all, chained to our rocks, andromeda-like, or wandering by the endless shores; wasting our incommunicable strength, and pining in hopeless watch of unconquerable waves? the nails that fasten together the planks of the boat's bow are the rivets of the fellowship of the world. their iron does more than draw lightning out of heaven, it leads love round the earth. then also, it is wonderful on account of the greatness of the enemy that it does battle with. to lift dead weight; to overcome length of languid space; to multiply or systematize a given force; this we may see done by the bar, or beam, or wheel, without wonder. but to war with that living fury of waters, to bare its breast, moment after moment, against the unwearied enmity of ocean,--the subtle, fitful, implacable smiting of the black waves, provoking each other on, endlessly, all the infinite march of the atlantic rolling on behind them to their help,--and still to strike them back into a wreath of smoke and futile foam, and win its way against them, and keep its charge of life from them;--does any other soulless thing do as much as this? i should not have talked of this feeling of mine about a boat, if i had thought it was mine only; but i believe it to be common to all of us who are not seamen. with the seaman, wonder changes into fellowship and close affection; but to all landsmen, from youth upwards, the boat remains a piece of enchantment; at least unless we entangle our vanity in it, and refine it away into mere lath, giving up all its protective nobleness for pace. with those in whose eyes the perfection of a boat is swift fragility, i have no sympathy. the glory of a boat is, first its steadiness of poise--its assured standing on the clear softness of the abyss; and, after that, so much capacity of progress by oar or sail as shall be consistent with this defiance of the treachery of the sea. and, this being understood, it is very notable how commonly the poets, creating for themselves an ideal of motion, fasten upon the charm of a boat. they do not usually express any desire for wings, or, if they do, it is only in some vague and half-unintended phrase, such as "flit or soar," involving wingedness. seriously, they are evidently content to let the wings belong to horse, or muse, or angel, rather than to themselves; but they all, somehow or other, express an honest wish for a spiritual boat. i will not dwell on poor shelley's paper navies, and seas of quicksilver, lest we should begin to think evil of boats in general because of that traitorous one in spezzia bay; but it is a triumph to find the pastorally minded wordsworth imagine no other way of visiting the stars than in a boat "no bigger than the crescent moon";[i] and to find tennyson--although his boating, in an ordinary way, has a very marshy and punt-like character--at last, in his highest inspiration, enter in where the wind began "to sweep a music out of sheet and shroud."[j] but the chief triumph of all is in dante. he had known all manner of traveling; had been borne through vacancy on the shoulders of chimeras, and lifted through upper heaven in the grasp of its spirits; but yet i do not remember that he ever expresses any positive _wish_ on such matters, except for a boat. [i] prologue to _peter bell_. [j] _in memoriam_, ci. "guido, i wish that lapo, thou, and i, led by some strong enchantment, might ascend a magic ship, whose charmed sails should fly with winds at will where'er our thoughts might wend, so that no change nor any evil chance should mar our joyous voyage; but it might be that even satiety should still enhance between our souls their strict community: and that the bounteous wizard then would place vanna and bice, and our lapo's love, companions of our wandering, and would grace with passionate talk, wherever we might rove, our time, and each were as content and free as i believe that thou and i should be." and of all the descriptions of motion in the _divina commedia_, i do not think there is another quite so fine as that in which dante has glorified the old fable of charon by giving a boat also to the bright sea which surrounds the mountain of purgatory, bearing the redeemed souls to their place of trial; only an angel is now the pilot, and there is no stroke of laboring oar, for his wings are the sails. "my preceptor silent yet stood, while the brightness that we first discerned opened the form of wings: then, when he knew the pilot, cried aloud, 'down, down; bend low thy knees; behold god's angel: fold thy hands: now shalt thou see true ministers indeed. lo! how all human means he sets at nought; so that nor oar he needs, nor other sail except his wings, between such distant shores. lo! how straight up to heaven he holds them reared, winnowing the air with those eternal plumes, that not like mortal hairs fall off or change.' "as more and more toward us came, more bright appeared the bird of god, nor could the eye endure his splendor near: i mine bent down. he drove ashore in a small bark so swift and light, that in its course no wave it drank. the heavenly steersman at the prow was seen, visibly written blessed in his looks. within, a hundred spirits and more there sat." i have given this passage at length, because it seems to me that dante's most inventive adaptation of the fable of charon to heaven has not been regarded with the interest that it really deserves; and because, also, it is a description that should be remembered by every traveler when first he sees the white fork of the felucca sail shining on the southern sea. not that dante had ever seen such sails;[k] his thought was utterly irrespective of the form of canvas in any ship of the period; but it is well to be able to attach this happy image to those felucca sails, as they now float white and soft above the blue glowing of the bays of adria. nor are other images wanting in them. seen far away on the horizon, the neapolitan felucca has all the aspect of some strange bird stooping out of the air and just striking the water with its claws; while the venetian, when its painted sails are at full swell in sunshine, is as beautiful as a butterfly with its wings half-closed.[l] there is something also in them that might remind us of the variegated and spotted angel wings of orcagna, only the venetian sail never looks majestic; it is too quaint and strange, yet with no peacock's pride or vulgar gayety,--nothing of milton's dalilah: "so bedecked, ornate and gay like a stately ship of tarsus, bound for the isles of javan or gadire with all her bravery on and tackle trim, sails filled and streamers waving." that description could only have been written in a time of vulgar women and vulgar vessels. the utmost vanity of dress in a woman of the fourteenth century would have given no image of "sails filled or streamers waving"; nor does the look or action of a really "stately" ship ever suggest any image of the motion of a weak or vain woman. the beauties of the court of charles ii., and the gilded galleys of the thames, might fitly be compared; but the pomp of the venetian fisher-boat is like neither. the sail seems dyed in its fullness by the sunshine, as the rainbow dyes a cloud; the rich stains upon it fade and reappear, as its folds swell or fall; worn with the adrian storms, its rough woof has a kind of noble dimness upon it, and its colors seem as grave, inherent, and free from vanity as the spots of the leopard, or veins of the seashell. [k] i am not quite sure of this, not having studied with any care the forms of mediæval shipping; but in all the mss. i have examined the sails of the shipping represented are square. [l] it is not a little strange that in all the innumerable paintings of venice, old and modern, no notice whatever had been taken of these sails, though they are _exactly_ the most striking features of the marine scenery around the city, until turner fastened upon them, painting one important picture, "the sun of venice," entirely in their illustration. yet, in speaking of poets' love of boats, i ought to have limited the love to _modern_ poets; dante, in this respect, as in nearly every other, being far in advance of his age. it is not often that i congratulate myself upon the days in which i happen to live; but i do so in this respect, that, compared with every other period of the world, this nineteenth century (or rather, the period between and ) may not improperly be called the age of boats; while the classic and chivalric times, in which boats were partly dreaded, partly despised, may respectively be characterized, with regard to their means of locomotion, as the age of chariots, and the age of horses. for, whatever perfection and costliness there may be in the present decorations, harnessing, and horsing of any english or parisian wheel equipage, i apprehend that we can from none of them form any high ideal of wheel conveyance; and that unless we had seen an egyptian king bending his bow with his horses at the gallop, or a greek knight leaning with his poised lance over the shoulder of his charioteer, we have no right to consider ourselves as thoroughly knowing what the word "chariot," in its noblest acceptation, means. so, also, though much chivalry is yet left in us, and we english still know several things about horses, i believe that if we had seen charlemagne and roland ride out hunting from aix, or coeur de lion trot into camp on a sunny evening at ascalon, or a florentine lady canter down the val d'arno in dante's time, with her hawk on her wrist, we should have had some other ideas even about horses than the best we can have now. but most assuredly, nothing that ever swung at the quay sides of carthage, or glowed with crusaders' shields above the bays of syria, could give to any contemporary human creature such an idea of the meaning of the word boat, as may be now gained by any mortal happy enough to behold as much as a newcastle collier beating against the wind. in the classical period, indeed, there was some importance given to shipping as the means of locking a battle-field together on the waves; but in the chivalric period, the whole mind of man is withdrawn from the sea, regarding it merely as a treacherous impediment, over which it was necessary sometimes to find conveyance, but from which the thoughts were always turned impatiently, fixing themselves in green fields, and pleasures that may be enjoyed by land--the very supremacy of the horse necessitating the scorn of the sea, which would not be trodden by hoofs. it is very interesting to note how repugnant every oceanic idea appears to be to the whole nature of our principal english mediæval poet, chaucer. read first the man of lawe's tale, in which the lady constance is continually floated up and down the mediterranean, and the german ocean, in a ship by herself; carried from syria all the way to northumberland, and there wrecked upon the coast; thence yet again driven up and down among the waves for five years, she and her child; and yet, all this while, chaucer does not let fall a single word descriptive of the sea, or express any emotion whatever about it, or about the ship. he simply tells us the lady sailed here and was wrecked there; but neither he nor his audience appear to be capable of receiving any sensation, but one of simple aversion, from waves, ships, or sands. compare with his absolutely apathetic recital, the description by a modern poet of the sailing of a vessel, charged with the fate of another constance: "it curled not tweed alone, that breeze-- for far upon northumbrian seas it freshly blew, and strong; where from high whitby's cloistered pile, bound to st. cuthbert's holy isle, it bore a bark along. upon the gale she stooped her side, and bounded o'er the swelling tide as she were dancing home. the merry seamen laughed to see their gallant ship so lustily furrow the green sea foam." now just as scott enjoys this sea breeze, so does chaucer the soft air of the woods; the moment the older poet lands, he is himself again, his poverty of language in speaking of the ship is not because he despises description, but because he has nothing to describe. hear him upon the ground in spring: "these woodes else recoveren greene, that drie in winter ben to sene, and the erth waxeth proud withall, for sweet dewes that on it fall, and the poore estate forget, in which that winter had it set: and then becomes the ground so proude, that it wol have a newe shroude, and maketh so queint his robe and faire, that it had hewes an hundred paire, of grasse and floures, of inde and pers, and many hewes full divers: that is the robe i mean ywis through which the ground to praisen is." in like manner, wherever throughout his poems we find chaucer enthusiastic, it is on a sunny day in the "good green-wood," but the slightest approach to the sea-shore makes him shiver; and his antipathy finds at last positive expression, and becomes the principal foundation of the frankeleine's tale, in which a lady, waiting for her husband's return in a castle by the sea, behaves and expresses herself as follows:-- "another time wold she sit and thinke, and cast her eyen dounward fro the brinke; but whan she saw the grisly rockes blake, for veray fere so wold hire herte quake that on hire feet she might hire not sustene than wold she sit adoun upon the grene, and pitously into the see behold, and say right thus, with careful sighes cold. 'eterne god, that thurgh thy purveance ledest this world by certain governance, in idel, as men sain, ye nothing make. _but, lord, thise grisly fendly rockes blake, that semen rather a foule confusion of werk, than any faire creation_ of swiche a parfit wise god and stable, why han ye wrought this werk unresonable?'" the desire to have the rocks out of her way is indeed severely punished in the sequel of the tale; but it is not the less characteristic of the age, and well worth meditating upon, in comparison with the feelings of an unsophisticated modern french or english girl among the black rocks of dieppe or ramsgate. on the other hand, much might be said about that peculiar love of _green fields and birds_ in the middle ages; and of all with which it is connected, purity and health in manners and heart, as opposed to the too frequent condition of the modern mind-- "as for the birds in the thicket, thrush or ousel in leafy niche, linnet or finch--she was far too rich to care for a morning concert to which she was welcome, without a ticket."[m] [m] thomas hood. but this would lead us far afield, and the main fact i have to point out to the reader is the transition of human grace and strength from the exercises of the land to those of the sea in the course of the last three centuries. down to elizabeth's time chivalry lasted; and grace of dress and mien, and all else that was connected with chivalry. then came the ages which, when they have taken their due place in the depths of the past, will be, by a wise and clear-sighted futurity, perhaps well comprehended under a common name, as the ages of starch; periods of general stiffening and bluish-whitening, with a prevailing washerwoman's taste in everything; involving a change of steel armor into cambric; of natural hair into peruke; of natural walking into that which will disarrange no wristbands; of plain language into quips and embroideries; and of human life in general, from a green race-course, where to be defeated was at worst only to fall behind and recover breath, into a slippery pole, to be climbed with toil and contortion, and in clinging to which, each man's foot is on his neighbor's head. but, meanwhile, the marine deities were incorruptible. it was not possible to starch the sea; and precisely as the stiffness fastened upon men, it vanished from ships. what had once been a mere raft, with rows of formal benches, pushed along by laborious flap of oars, and with infinite fluttering of flags and swelling of poops above, gradually began to lean more heavily into the deep water, to sustain a gloomy weight of guns, to draw back its spider-like feebleness of limb, and open its bosom to the wind, and finally darkened down from all its painted vanities into the long, low hull, familiar with the overflying foam; that has no other pride but in its daily duty and victory; while, through all these changes, it gained continually in grace, strength, audacity, and beauty, until at last it has reached such a pitch of all these, that there is not, except the very loveliest creatures of the living world, anything in nature so absolutely notable, bewitching, and, according to its means and measure, heart-occupying, as a well-handled ship under sail in a stormy day. any ship, from lowest to proudest, has due place in that architecture of the sea; beautiful, not so much in this or that piece of it, as in the unity of all, from cottage to cathedral, into their great buoyant dynasty. yet, among them, the fisher-boat, corresponding to the cottage on the land (only far more sublime than a cottage ever can be), is on the whole the thing most venerable. i doubt if ever academic grove were half so fit for profitable meditation as the little strip of shingle between two black, steep, overhanging sides of stranded fishing-boats. the clear, heavy water-edge of ocean rising and falling close to their bows, in that unaccountable way which the sea has always in calm weather, turning the pebbles over and over as if with a rake, to look for something, and then stopping a moment down at the bottom of the bank, and coming up again with a little run and clash, throwing a foot's depth of salt crystal in an instant between you and the round stone you were going to take in your hand; sighing, all the while, as if it would infinitely rather be doing something else. and the dark flanks of the fishing-boats all aslope above, in their shining quietness, hot in the morning sun, rusty and seamed with square patches of plank nailed over their rents; just rough enough to let the little flat-footed fisher-children haul or twist themselves up to the gunwales, and drop back again along some stray rope; just round enough to remind us, in their broad and gradual curves, of the sweep of the green surges they know so well, and of the hours when those old sides of seared timber, all ashine with the sea, plunge and dip into the deep green purity of the mounded waves more joyfully than a deer lies down among the grass of spring, the soft white cloud of foam opening momentarily at the bows, and fading or flying high into the breeze where the sea-gulls toss and shriek,--the joy and beauty of it, all the while, so mingled with the sense of unfathomable danger, and the human effort and sorrow going on perpetually from age to age, waves rolling forever, and winds moaning forever, and faithful hearts trusting and sickening forever, and brave lives dashed away about the rattling beach like weeds forever; and still at the helm of every lonely boat, through starless night and hopeless dawn, his hand, who spread the fisher's net over the dust of the sidonian palaces, and gave into the fisher's hand the keys of the kingdom of heaven. next after the fishing-boat--which, as i said, in the architecture of the sea represents the cottage, more especially the pastoral or agricultural cottage, watchful over some pathless domain of moorland or arable, as the fishing-boat swims, humbly in the midst of the broad green fields and hills of ocean, out of which it has to win such fruit as they can give, and to compass with net or drag such flocks as it may find,--next to this ocean-cottage ranks in interest, it seems to me, the small, over-wrought, under-crewed, ill-caulked merchant brig or schooner; the kind of ship which first shows its couple of thin masts over the low fields or marshes as we near any third-rate sea-port; and which is sure somewhere to stud the great space of glittering water, seen from any sea-cliff, with its four or five square-set sails. of the larger and more polite tribes of merchant vessels, three-masted, and passenger-carrying, i have nothing to say, feeling in general little sympathy with people who want to _go_ anywhere; nor caring much about anything, which in the essence of it expresses a desire to get to other sides of the world; but only for homely and stay-at-home ships, that live their life and die their death about english rocks. neither have i any interest in the higher branches of commerce, such as traffic with spice islands, and porterage of painted tea-chests or carved ivory; for all this seems to me to fall under the head of commerce of the drawing-room; costly, but not venerable. i respect in the merchant service only those ships that carry coals, herrings, salt, timber, iron, and such other commodities, and that have disagreeable odor, and unwashed decks. but there are few things more impressive to me than one of these ships lying up against some lonely quay in a black sea-fog, with the furrow traced under its tawny keel far in the harbor slime. the noble misery that there is in it, the might of its rent and strained unseemliness, its wave-worn melancholy, resting there for a little while in the comfortless ebb, unpitied, and claiming no pity; still less honored, least of all conscious of any claim to honor; casting and craning by due balance whatever is in its hold up to the pier, in quiet truth of time; spinning of wheel, and slackening of rope, and swinging of spade, in as accurate cadence as a waltz music; one or two of its crew, perhaps, away forward, and a hungry boy and yelping dog eagerly interested in something from which a blue dull smoke rises out of pot or pan; but dark-browed and silent, their limbs slack, like the ropes above them, entangled as they are in those inextricable meshes about the patched knots and heaps of ill-reefed sable sail. what a majestic sense of service in all that languor! the rest of human limbs and hearts, at utter need, not in sweet meadows or soft air, but in harbor slime and biting fog; so drawing their breath once more, to go out again, without lament, from between the two skeletons of pier-heads, vocal with wash of under wave, into the gray troughs of tumbling brine; there, as they can, with slacked rope, and patched sail, and leaky hull, again to roll and stagger far away amidst the wind and salt sleet, from dawn to dusk and dusk to dawn, winning day by day their daily bread; and for last reward, when their old hands, on some winter night, lose feeling along the frozen ropes, and their old eyes miss mark of the lighthouse quenched in foam, the so-long impossible rest, that shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more,--their eyes and mouths filled with the brown sea-sand. after these most venerable, to my mind, of all ships, properly so styled, i find nothing of comparable interest in any floating fabric until we come to the great achievement of the th century. for one thing this century will in after ages be considered to have done in a superb manner, and one thing, i think, only. it has not distinguished itself in political spheres; still less in artistical. it has produced no golden age by its reason; neither does it appear eminent for the constancy of its faith. its telescopes and telegraphs would be creditable to it, if it had not in their pursuit forgotten in great part how to see clearly with its eyes, and to talk honestly with its tongue. its natural history might have been creditable to it also, if it could have conquered its habit of considering natural history to be mainly the art of writing latin names on white tickets. but, as it is, none of these things will be hereafter considered to have been got on with by us as well as might be; whereas it will always be said of us, with unabated reverence, "they built ships of the line." take it all in all, a ship of the line is the most honorable thing that man, as a gregarious animal, has ever produced. by himself, unhelped, he can do better things than ships of the line; he can make poems and pictures, and other such concentrations of what is best in him. but as a being living in flocks, and hammering out, with alternate strokes and mutual agreement, what is necessary for him in those flocks, to get or produce, the ship of the line is his first work. into that he has put as much of his human patience, common sense, forethought, experimental philosophy, self-control, habits of order and obedience, thoroughly wrought handwork, defiance of brute elements, careless courage, careful patriotism, and calm expectation of the judgment of god, as can well be put into a space of feet long by broad. and i am thankful to have lived in an age when i could see this thing so done. considering, then, our shipping, under the three principal types of fishing-boat, collier, and ship of the line, as the great glory of this age; and the "new forest" of mast and yard that follows the windings of the thames, to be, take it all in all, a more majestic scene, i don't say merely than any of our streets or palaces as they now are, but even than the best that streets and palaces can generally be; it has often been a matter of serious thought to me how far this chiefly substantial thing done by the nation ought to be represented by the art of the nation; how far our great artists ought seriously to devote themselves to such perfect painting of our ships as should reveal to later generations--lost perhaps in clouds of steam and floating troughs of ashes--the aspect of an ancient ship of battle under sail. to which, i fear, the answer must be sternly this: that no great art ever was, or can be, employed in the careful imitation of the work of man as its principal subject. that is to say, art will not bear to be reduplicated. a ship is a noble thing, and a cathedral a noble thing, but a painted ship or a painted cathedral is not a noble thing. art which reduplicates art is necessarily second-rate art. i know no principle more irrefragably authoritative than that which i had long ago occasion to express: "all noble art is the expression of man's delight in god's work; not in his own." "how!" it will be asked, "are stanfield, isabey, and prout necessarily artists of the second order because they paint ships and buildings instead of trees and clouds?" yes, necessarily of the second order; so far as they paint ships rather than sea, and so far as they paint buildings rather than the natural light, and color, and work of years upon those buildings. for, in this respect, a ruined building is a noble subject, just as far as man's work has therein been subdued by nature's; and stanfield's chief dignity is his being a painter less of shipping than of the seal of time or decay upon shipping.[n] for a wrecked ship, or shattered boat, is a noble subject, while a ship in full sail, or a perfect boat, is an ignoble one; not merely because the one is by reason of its ruin more picturesque than the other, but because it is a nobler act in man to meditate upon fate as it conquers his work, than upon that work itself. [n] as in the very beautiful picture of this year's academy, "the abandoned." shipping, therefore, in its perfection, never can become the subject of noble art; and that just because to represent it in its perfection would tax the powers of art to the utmost. if a great painter could rest in drawing a ship, as he can rest in drawing a piece of drapery, we might sometimes see vessels introduced by the noblest workmen, and treated by them with as much delight as they would show in scattering luster over an embroidered dress, or knitting the links of a coat of mail. but ships cannot be drawn at times of rest. more complicated in their anatomy than the human frame itself, so far as that frame is outwardly discernible; liable to all kinds of strange accidental variety in position and movement, yet in each position subject to imperative laws which can only be followed by unerring knowledge; and involving, in the roundings and foldings of sail and hull, delicacies of drawing greater than exist in any other inorganic object, except perhaps a snow wreath,[o]--they present, irrespective of sea or sky, or anything else around them, difficulties which could only be vanquished by draughtsmanship quite accomplished enough to render even the subtlest lines of the human face and form. but the artist who has once attained such skill as this will not devote it to the drawing of ships. he who can paint the face of st. paul will not elaborate the parting timbers of the vessel in which he is wrecked; and he who can represent the astonishment of the apostles at the miraculous draught will not be solicitous about accurately showing that their boat is overloaded. [o] the catenary and other curves of tension which a sail assumes under the united influence of the wind, its own weight, and the particular tensions of the various ropes by which it is attached, or against which it presses, show at any moment complexities of arrangement to which fidelity, except after the study of a lifetime, is impossible. "what!" it will perhaps be replied, "have, then, ships never been painted perfectly yet, even by the men who have devoted most attention to them?" assuredly not. a ship never yet has been painted at all, in any other sense than men have been painted in "landscapes with figures." things have been painted which have a general effect of ships, just as things have been painted which have a general effect of shepherds or banditti; but the best average ship-painting no more reaches the truth of ships than the equestrian troops in one of van der meulen's battle-pieces express the higher truths of humanity. [illustration: fig. .] take a single instance. i do not know any work in which, on the whole, there is a more unaffected love of ships for their own sake, and a fresher feeling of sea breeze always blowing, than stanfield's "coast scenery." now, let the reader take up that book, and look through all the plates of it at the way in which the most important parts of a ship's skeleton are drawn, those most wonderful junctions of mast with mast, corresponding to the knee or hip in the human frame, technically known as "tops." under its very simplest form, in one of those poor collier brigs, which i have above endeavored to recommend to the readers affection, the junction of the top-gallant-mast with the topmast, when the sail is reefed, will present itself under no less complex and mysterious form than this in fig. , a horned knot of seven separate pieces of timber, irrespective of the two masts and the yard; the whole balanced and involved in an apparently inextricable web of chain and rope, consisting of at least sixteen ropes about the top-gallant-mast, and some twenty-five crossing each other in every imaginable degree of slackness and slope about the topmast. two-thirds of these ropes are omitted in the cut, because i could not draw them without taking more time and pains than the point to be illustrated was worth; the thing, as it is, being drawn quite well enough to give some idea of the facts of it. well, take up stanfield's "coast scenery," and look through it in search of tops, and you will invariably find them represented as in fig. , or even with fewer lines; the example fig. being one of the tops of the frigate running into portsmouth harbor, magnified to about twice its size in the plate. [illustration: fig. .] "well, but it was impossible to do more on so small a scale." by no means: but take what scale you choose, of stanfield's or any other marine painter's most elaborate painting, and let me magnify the study of the real top in proportion, and the deficiency of detail will always be found equally great: i mean in the work of the higher artists, for there are of course many efforts at greater accuracy of delineation by those painters of ships who are to the higher marine painter what botanical draughtsmen are to the landscapists; but just as in the botanical engraving the spirit and life of the plant are always lost, so in the technical ship-painting the life of the ship is always lost, without, as far as i can see, attaining, even by this sacrifice, anything like completeness of mechanical delineation. at least, i never saw the ship drawn yet which gave me the slightest idea of the entanglement of real rigging. respecting this lower kind of ship-painting, it is always matter of wonder to me that it satisfies sailors. some years ago i happened to stand longer than pleased my pensioner guide before turner's "battle of trafalgar," at greenwich hospital; a picture which, at a moderate estimate, is simply worth all the rest of the hospital--ground--walls--pictures and models put together. my guide, supposing me to be detained by indignant wonder at seeing it in so good a place, assented to my supposed, sentiments by muttering in a low voice: "well, sir, it _is_ a shame that that thing should be there. we ought to 'a 'ad a uggins; that's sartain." i was not surprised that my sailor friend should be disgusted at seeing the _victory_ lifted nearly right out of the water, and all the sails of the fleet blowing about to that extent that the crews might as well have tried to reef as many thunder-clouds. but i was surprised at his perfect repose of respectful faith in "uggins," who appeared to me--unfortunate landsman as i was--to give no more idea of the look of a ship of the line going through the sea, than might be obtained from seeing one of the correct models at the top of the hall floated in a fishpond. leaving, however, the sailor to his enjoyment, on such grounds as it may be, of this model drawing, and being prepared to find only a vague and hasty shadowing forth of shipping in the works of artists proper, we will glance briefly at the different stages of excellence which such shadowing forth has reached, and note in their consecutive changes the feelings with which shipping has been regarded at different periods of art. . _mediæval period._ the vessel is regarded merely as a sort of sea-carriage, and painted only so far as it is necessary for complete display of the groups of soldiers or saints on the deck: a great deal of quaint shipping, richly hung with shields, and gorgeous with banners, is, however, thus incidently represented in th-century manuscripts, embedded in curly green waves of sea full of long fish; and although there is never the slightest expression of real sea character, of motion, gloom, or spray, there is more real interest of marine detail and incident than in many later compositions. . _early venetian period._ a great deal of tolerably careful boat-drawing occurs in the pictures of carpaccio and gentile bellini, deserving separate mention among the marine schools, in confirmation of what has been stated above, that the drawing of boats is more difficult than that of the human form. for, long after all the perspectives and fore-shortenings of the human body were completely understood, as well as those of architecture, it remained utterly beyond the power of the artists of the time to draw a boat with even tolerable truth. boats are always tilted up on end, or too long, or too short, or too high in the water. generally they appear to be regarded with no interest whatever, and are painted merely where they are matters of necessity. this is perfectly natural: we pronounce that there is romance in the venetian conveyance by oars, merely because we ourselves are in the habit of being dragged by horses. a venetian, on the other hand, sees vulgarity in a gondola, and thinks the only true romance is in a hackney coach. and thus, it was no more likely that a painter in the days of venetian power should pay much attention to the shipping in the grand canal than that an english artist should at present concentrate the brightest rays of his genius on a cab-stand. . _late venetian period._ deserving mention only for its notably negative character. none of the great venetian painters, tintoret, titian, veronese, bellini, giorgione, bonifazio, ever introduce a ship if they can help it. they delight in ponderous architecture, in grass, flowers, blue mountains, skies, clouds, and gay dresses; nothing comes amiss to them but ships and the sea. when they are forced to introduce these, they represent merely a dark-green plain, with reddish galleys spotted about it here and there, looking much like small models of shipping pinned on a green board. in their marine battles, there is seldom anything discernible except long rows of scarlet oars, and men in armor falling helplessly through them. . _late roman period._ that is to say, the time of the beginning of the renaissance landscape by the caracci, claude, and salvator. first, in their landscapes, shipping begins to assume something like independent character, and to be introduced for the sake of its picturesque interest; although what interest could be taken by any healthy human creature in such vessels as were then painted has always remained a mystery to me. the ships of claude, having hulls of a shape something between a cocoa-nut and a high-heeled shoe, balanced on their keels on the top of the water, with some scaffolding and cross-sticks above, and a flag at the top of every stick, form perhaps the _purest_ exhibition of human inanity and fatuity which the arts have yet produced. the harbors also, in which these model navies ride, are worthy of all observation for the intensity of the false taste which, endeavoring to unite in them the characters of pleasure-ground and port, destroys the veracity of both. there are many inlets of the italian seas where sweet gardens and regular terraces descend to the water's edge; but these are not the spots where merchant vessels anchor, or where bales are disembarked. on the other hand, there are many busy quays and noisy arsenals upon the shores of italy; but queen's palaces are not built upon the quays, nor are the docks in any wise adorned with conservatories or ruins. it was reserved for the genius of claude to combine the luxurious with the lucrative, and rise to a commercial ideal, in which cables are fastened to temple pillars, and lighthouses adorned with rows of beaupots. it seems strange also that any power which salvator showed in the treatment of other subjects utterly deserts him when he approaches the sea. though always coarse, false, and vulgar, he has at least energy, and some degree of invention, as long as he remains on land; his terrestrial atrocities are animated, and his rock-born fancies formidable. but the sea air seems to dim his sight and paralyze his hand. his love of darkness and destruction, far from seeking sympathy in the rage of ocean, disappears as he approaches the beach; after having tortured the innocence of trees into demoniac convulsions, and shattered the loveliness of purple hills into colorless dislocation, he approaches the real wrath and restlessness of ocean without either admiration or dismay, and appears to feel nothing at its shore except a meager interest in bathers, fishermen, and gentlemen in court dress bargaining for state cabins. of all the pictures by men who bear the reputation of great masters which i have ever seen in my life (except only some by domenichino), the two large "marines" in the pitti palace, attributed to salvator, are, on the whole, the most vapid and vile examples of human want of understanding. in the folly of claude there is still a gleam of grace and innocence; there is refreshment in his childishness, and tenderness in his inability. but the folly of salvator is disgusting in its very nothingness: it is like the vacuity of a plague-room in an hospital, shut up in uncleansed silence, emptied of pain and motion, but not of infection. . _dutch period._ although in artistical qualities lower than is easily by language expressible, the italian marine painting usually conveys an idea of three facts about the sea,--that it is green, that it is deep, and that the sun shines on it. the dark plain which stands for far away adriatic with the venetians, and the glinting swells of tamed wave which lap about the quays of claude, agree in giving the general impression that the ocean consists of pure water, and is open to the pure sky. but the dutch painters, while they attain considerably greater dexterity than the italian in mere delineation of nautical incident, were by nature precluded from ever becoming aware of these common facts; and having, in reality, never in all their lives seen the sea, but only a shallow mixture of sea-water and sand; and also never in all their lives seen the sky, but only a lower element between them and it, composed of marsh exhalation and fog-bank; they are not to be with too great severity reproached for the dullness of their records of the nautical enterprise of holland. _we_ only are to be reproached, who, familiar with the atlantic, are yet ready to accept with faith, as types of sea, the small waves _en papillote_, and peruke-like puffs of farinaceous foam, which were the delight of backhuysen and his compeers. if one could but arrest the connoisseurs in the fact of looking at them with belief, and, magically introducing the image of a true sea-wave, let it roll up to them through the room,--one massive fathom's height and rood's breadth of brine, passing them by but once,--dividing, red sea-like, on right hand and left,--but at least setting close before their eyes, for once in inevitable truth, what a sea-wave really is; its green mountainous giddiness of wrath, its overwhelming crest--heavy as iron, fitful as flame, clashing against the sky in long cloven edge,--its furrowed flanks, all ghastly clear, deep in transparent death, but all laced across with lurid nets of spume, and tearing open into meshed interstices their churned veil of silver fury, showing still the calm gray abyss below; that has no fury and no voice, but is as a grave always open, which the green sighing mounds do but hide for an instant as they pass. would they, shuddering back from this wave of the true, implacable sea, turn forthwith to the papillotes? it might be so. it is what we are all doing, more or less, continually. well, let the waves go their way; it is not of them that we have here to reason; but be it remembered, that men who cannot enter into the mind of the sea, cannot for the same reason enter into the mind of ships, in their contention with it; and the fluttering, tottering, high-pooped, flag-beset fleets of these dutch painters have only this much superiority over the caricatures of the italians, that they indeed appear in some degree to have been studied from the high-pooped and flag-beset nature which was in that age visible, while the claude and salvator ships are ideals of the studio. but the effort is wholly unsuccessful. any one who has ever attempted to sketch a vessel in motion knows that he might as easily attempt to sketch a bird on the wing, or a trout on the dart. ships can only be drawn, as animals must be, by the high instinct of momentary perception, which rarely developed itself in any dutch painter, and least of all in their painters of marine. and thus the awkward forms of shipping, the shallow impurity of the sea, and the cold incapacity of the painter, joining in disadvantageous influence over them, the dutch marine paintings may be simply, but circumstantially, described as the misrepresentation of undeveloped shipping in a discolored sea by distempered painters. an exception ought to be made in favor of the boats of cuyp, which are generally well floated in calm and sunny water; and, though rather punts or tubs than boats, have in them some elements of a slow, warm, square-sailed, sleepy grandeur--respectable always, when compared either with the flickering follies of backhuysen, or the monstrous, unmanly, and _à fortiori_, unsailorly absurdities of metaphysical vessels, puffed on their way by corpulent genii, or pushed by protuberant dolphins, which rubens and the other so-called historical painters of his time were accustomed to introduce in the mythology of their court-adulation; that marvelous faith of the th century, which will one day, and that not far off, be known for a thing more truly disgraceful to human nature than the polynesian's dance round his feather idol, or egyptian's worship of the food he fattened on. from salvator and domenichino it is possible to turn in a proud indignation, knowing that theirs are no fair examples of the human mind; but it is with humbled and woful anger that we must trace the degradation of the intellect of rubens in his pictures of the life of mary of medicis.[p] [p] "the town of lyons, seated upon a chariot drawn by two lions, _lifts its eyes towards heaven_, and admires there--'les nouveaux epoux,'--represented in the character of jupiter and juno."--_notice des tableaux du musée impérial_, nde partie, paris, , p. . "the queen upon her throne holds with one hand the scepter, in the other the balance. minerva and cupid are at her sides. abundance and prosperity distribute metals, laurels, 'et d'autres récompenses,' to the genii of the fine arts. time, crowned with the productions of the seasons, leads france to the--age of gold!"--p. . so thought the queen, and rubens, and the court. time himself, "crowned with the productions of the seasons," was, meanwhile, as thomas carlyle would have told us, "quite of another opinion." with view of arrival at golden age all the sooner, the court determine to go by water; "and marie de medicis gives to her son the government of the state, under the emblem of a vessel, of which he holds the rudder." this piece of royal pilotage, being on the whole the most characteristic example i remember of the mythological marine above alluded to, is accordingly recommended to the reader's serious attention. . _modern period._ the gradual appreciation of the true character both of shipping and the ocean, in the works of the painters of the last half century, is part of that successful study of other elements of landscape, of which i have long labored at a consistent investigation, now partly laid before the public; i shall not, therefore, here enter into any general inquiry respecting modern sea-painting, but limit myself to a notice of the particular feelings which influenced turner in his marine studies, so far as they are shown in the series of plates which have now been trusted to me for illustration. among the earliest sketches from nature which turner appears to have made, in pencil and indian ink, when a boy of twelve or fourteen, it is very singular how large a proportion consists of careful studies of stranded boats. now, after some fifteen years of conscientious labor, with the single view of acquiring knowledge of the ends and powers of art, i have come to one conclusion, which at the beginning of those fifteen years would have been very astonishing to myself--that, of all our modern school of landscape painters, next to turner, and before the rise of the pre-raphaelites, the man whose works are on the whole most valuable, and show the highest intellect, is samuel prout. it is very notable that also in prout's early studies, shipping subjects took not merely a prominent, but i think even a principal, place. the reason of this is very evident: both turner and prout had in them an untaught, inherent perception of what was great and pictorial. they could not find it in the buildings or in the scenes immediately around them. but they saw some element of real power in the boats. prout afterwards found material suited to his genius in other directions, and left his first love; but turner retained the early affection to the close of his life, and the last oil picture which he painted, before his noble hand forgot its cunning, was the wreck-buoy. the last thoroughly perfect picture he ever painted, was the old téméraire. the studies which he was able to make from nature in his early years, are chiefly of fishing-boats, barges, and other minor marine still life; and his better acquaintance with this kind of shipping than with the larger kind is very marked in the liber studiorum, in which there are five careful studies of fishing-boats under various circumstances; namely, calais harbor, sir john mildmay's picture, flint castle, marine dabblers, and the calm; while of other shipping, there are only two subjects, both exceedingly unsatisfactory. turner, however, deemed it necessary to his reputation at that period that he should paint pictures in the style of vandevelde; and, in order to render the resemblance more complete, he appears to have made careful drawings of the different parts of old dutch shipping. i found a large number of such drawings among the contents of his neglected portfolios at his death; some were clearly not by his own hand, others appeared to be transcripts by him from prints or earlier drawings; the quantity altogether was very great, and the evidence of his prolonged attention to the subject more distinct than with respect to any other element of landscape. of plants, rocks, or architecture, there were very few careful pieces of anatomical study. but several drawers were entirely filled with these memoranda of shipping. in executing the series of drawings for the work known as the southern coast, turner appears to have gained many ideas about shipping, which, once received, he laid up by him for use in after years. the evidence of this laying by of thought in his mind, as it were in reserve, until he had power to express it, is curious and complete throughout his life; and although the southern coast drawings are for the most part quiet in feeling, and remarkably simple in their mode of execution, i believe it was in the watch over the cornish and dorsetshire coast, which the making of those drawings involved, that he received all his noblest ideas about sea and ships. of one thing i am certain; turner never drew anything that could be _seen_, without having seen it. that is to say, though he would draw jerusalem from some one else's sketch, it would be, nevertheless, entirely from his own experience of ruined walls: and though he would draw ancient shipping (for an imitation of vandevelde, or a vignette to the voyage of columbus) from such data as he could get about things which he could no more see with his own eyes, yet when, of his own free will, in the subject of ilfracombe, he, in the year , introduces a shipwreck, i am perfectly certain that, before the year , he had _seen_ a shipwreck, and, moreover, one of that horrible kind--a ship dashed to pieces in deep water, at the foot of an inaccessible cliff. having once seen this, i perceive, also, that the image of it could not be effaced from his mind. it taught him two great facts, which he never afterwards forgot; namely, that both ships and sea were things that broke to pieces. _he never afterwards painted a ship quite in fair order._ there is invariably a feeling about his vessels of strange awe and danger; the sails are in some way loosening, or flapping as if in fear; the swing of the hull, majestic as it may be, seems more at the mercy of the sea than in triumph over it; the ship never looks gay, never proud, only warlike and enduring. the motto he chose, in the catalogue of the academy, for the most cheerful marine he ever painted, the sun of venice going to sea, marked the uppermost feeling in his mind: "nor heeds the demon that in grim repose expects his evening prey." i notice above the subject of his last marine picture, the wreck-buoy, and i am well persuaded that from that year , when first he saw a ship rent asunder, he never beheld one at sea, without, in his mind's eye, at the same instant, seeing her skeleton. but he had seen more than the death of the ship. he had seen the sea feed her white flames on souls of men; and heard what a storm-gust sounded like, that had taken up with it, in its swirl of a moment, the last breaths of a ship's crew. he never forgot either the sight or the sound. among the last plates prepared by his own hand for the liber studiorum, (all of them, as was likely from his advanced knowledge, finer than any previous pieces of the series, and most of them unfortunately never published, being retained beside him for some last touch--forever delayed,) perhaps the most important is one of the body of a drowned sailor, dashed against a vertical rock in the jaws of one merciless, immeasurable wave. he repeated the same idea, though more feebly expressed, later in life, in a small drawing of grandville, on the coast of france. the sailor clinging to the boat in the marvelous drawing of dunbar is another reminiscence of the same kind. he hardly ever painted a steep rocky coast without some fragment of a devoured ship, grinding in the blanched teeth of the surges,--just enough left to be a token of utter destruction. of his two most important paintings of definite shipwreck i shall speak presently. i said that at this period he first was assured of another fact, namely, that the _sea_ also was a thing that broke to pieces. the sea up to that time had been generally regarded by painters as a liquidly composed, level-seeking consistent thing, with a smooth surface, rising to a water-mark on sides of ships; in which ships were scientifically to be embedded, and wetted, up to said water-mark, and to remain dry above the same. but turner found during his southern coast tour that the sea was _not_ this: that it was, on the contrary, a very incalculable and unhorizontal thing, setting its "water mark" sometimes on the highest heavens, as well as on sides of ships;--very breakable into pieces; half of a wave separable from the other half, and on the instant carriageable miles inland;--not in any wise limiting itself to a state of apparent liquidity, but now striking like a steel gauntlet, and now becoming a cloud, and vanishing, no eye could tell whither; one moment a flint cave, the next a marble pillar, the next a mere white fleece thickening the thundery rain. he never forgot those facts; never afterwards was able to recover the idea of positive distinction between sea and sky, or sea and land. steel gauntlet, black rock, white cloud, and men and masts gnashed to pieces and disappearing in a few breaths and splinters among them;--a little blood on the rock angle, like red sea-weed, sponged away by the next splash of the foam, and the glistering granite and green water all pure again in vacant wrath. so stayed by him, forever, the image of the sea. one effect of this revelation of the nature of ocean to him was not a little singular. it seemed that ever afterwards his appreciation of the calmness of water was deepened by what he had witnessed of its frenzy, and a certain class of entirely tame subjects were treated by him even with increased affection after he had seen the full manifestation of sublimity. he had always a great regard for canal boats, and instead of sacrificing these old, and one would have thought unentertaining, friends to the deities of storm, he seems to have returned with a lulling pleasure from the foam and danger of the beach to the sedgy bank and stealthy barge of the lowland river. thenceforward his work which introduces shipping is divided into two classes; one embodying the poetry of silence and calmness, the other of turbulence and wrath. of intermediate conditions he gives few examples; if he lets the wind down upon the sea at all, it is nearly always violent, and though the waves may not be running high, the foam is torn off them in a way which shows they will soon run higher. on the other hand, nothing is so perfectly calm as turner's calmness. to the canal barges of england he soon added other types of languid motion; the broad-ruddered barks of the loire, the drooping sails of seine, the arcaded barks of the italian lakes slumbering on expanse of mountain-guarded wave, the dreamy prows of pausing gondolas on lagoons at moon-rise; in each and all commanding an intensity of calm, chiefly because he never admitted an instant's rigidity. the surface of quiet water with other painters becomes fixed. with turner it looks as if a fairy's breath would stir it, but the fairy's breath is not there. so also his boats are intensely motionless, because intensely capable of motion. no other painter ever floated a boat quite rightly; all other boats stand on the water, or are fastened in it; only his _float_ in it. it is very difficult to trace the reasons of this, for the rightness of the placing on the water depends on such subtle curves and shadows in the floating object and its reflection, that in most cases the question of entirely right or entirely wrong resolves itself into the "estimation of an hair": and what makes the matter more difficult still, is, that sometimes we may see a boat drawn with the most studied correctness in every part, which yet will not swim; and sometimes we may find one drawn with many easily ascertainable errors, which yet swims well enough; so that the drawing of boats is something like the building of them, one may set off their lines by the most authentic rules, and yet never be sure they will sail well. it is, however, to be observed that turner seemed, in those southern coast storms, to have been somewhat too strongly impressed by the disappearance of smaller crafts in surf, and was wont afterwards to give an uncomfortable aspect even to his gentlest seas, by burying his boats too deeply. when he erred, in this or other matters, it was not from want of pains, for of all accessories to landscape, ships were throughout his life those which he studied with the greatest care. his figures, whatever their merit or demerit, are certainly never the beloved part of his work; and though the architecture was in his early drawings careful, and continued to be so down to the hakewell's italy series, it soon became mannered and false whenever it was principal. he would indeed draw a ruined tower, or a distant town, incomparably better than any one else, and a staircase or a bit of balustrade very carefully; but his temples and cathedrals showed great ignorance of detail, and want of understanding of their character. but i am aware of no painting from the beginning of his life to its close, containing _modern_ shipping as its principal subject, in which he did not put forth his full strength, and pour out his knowledge of detail with a joy which renders those works, as a series, among the most valuable he ever produced. take for instance: . lord yarborough's shipwreck. . the trafalgar, at greenwich hospital. . the trafalgar, in his own gallery. . the pas de calais. . the large cologne. . the havre. . the old téméraire. i know no fourteen pictures by turner for which these seven might be wisely changed; and in all of these the shipping is thoroughly principal, and studied from existing ships. a large number of inferior works were, however, also produced by him in imitation of vandevelde, representing old dutch shipping; in these the shipping is scattered, scudding and distant, the sea gray and lightly broken. such pictures are, generally speaking, among those of least value which he has produced. two very important ones, however, belong to the imitative school: lord ellesmere's, founded on vandevelde; and the dort, at farnley, on cuyp. the latter, as founded on the better master, is the better picture, but still possesses few of the true turner qualities, except his peculiar calmness, in which respect it is unrivaled; and if joined with lord yarborough's shipwreck, the two may be considered as the principal symbols, in turner's early oil paintings, of his two strengths in terror and repose. among his drawings, shipping, as the principal subject, does not always constitute a work of the first class; nor does it so often occur. for the difficulty, in a drawing, of getting good color is so much less, and that of getting good form so much greater, than in oil, that turner naturally threw his elaborate studies of ship form into oil, and made his noblest work in drawing rich in hues of landscape. yet the cowes, devonport, and gosport, from the england and wales (the saltash is an inferior work), united with two drawings of this series, portsmouth and sheerness, and two from farnley, one of the wreck of an indiaman, and the other of a ship of the line taking stores, would form a series, not indeed as attractive at first sight as many others, but embracing perhaps more of turner's peculiar, unexampled, and unapproachable gifts than any other group of drawings which could be selected, the choice being confined to one class of subject. i have only to state, in conclusion, that these twelve drawings of the harbors of england are more representable by engraving than most of his works. few parts of them are brilliant in color; they were executed chiefly in brown and blue, and with more direct reference to the future engraving than was common with turner. they are also small in size, generally of the exact dimensions of the plate, and therefore the lines of the compositions are not spoiled by contraction; while finally, the touch of the painter's hand upon the wave-surface is far better imitated by mezzotint engraving than by any of the ordinary expedients of line. take them all in all, they form the most valuable series of marine studies which have as yet been published from his works; and i hope that they may be of some use hereafter in recalling the ordinary aspect of our english seas, at the exact period when the nation had done its utmost in the wooden and woven strength of ships, and had most perfectly fulfilled the old and noble prophecy-- "they shall ride over ocean wide, with hempen bridle, and horse of tree." _thomas of ercildoune._ i.--dover. [illustration: dover.] this port has some right to take precedence of others, as being that assuredly which first exercises the hospitality of england to the majority of strangers who set foot on her shores. i place it first therefore among our present subjects; though the drawing itself, and chiefly on account of its manifestation of turner's faulty habit of local exaggeration, deserves no such pre-eminence. he always painted, not the place itself, but his impression of it, and this on steady principle; leaving to inferior artists the task of topographical detail; and he was right in this principle, as i have shown elsewhere, when the impression was a genuine one; but in the present case it is not so. he has lost the real character of dover cliffs by making the town at their feet three times lower in proportionate height than it really is; nor is he to be justified in giving the barracks, which appear on the left hand, more the air of a hospice on the top of an alpine precipice, than of an establishment which, out of snargate street, can be reached, without drawing breath, by a winding stair of some steps; making the slope beside them more like the side of skiddaw than what it really is, the earthwork of an unimportant battery. this design is also remarkable as an instance of that restlessness which was above noticed even in turner's least stormy seas. there is nothing tremendous here in scale of wave, but the whole surface is fretted and disquieted by torturing wind; an effect which was always increased during the progress of the subjects, by turner's habit of scratching out small sparkling lights, in order to make the plate "bright," or "lively."[q] in a general way the engravers used to like this, and, as far as they were able, would tempt turner farther into the practice, which was precisely equivalent to that of supplying the place of healthy and heart-whole cheerfulness by dram-drinking. [q] see the farther explanation of this practice in the notice of the subject of "portsmouth." the two sea-gulls in the front of the picture were additions of this kind, and are very injurious, confusing the organization and concealing the power of the sea. the merits of the drawing are, however, still great as a piece of composition. the left-hand side is most interesting, and characteristic of turner: no other artist would have put the round pier so exactly under the round cliff. it is under it so accurately, that if the nearly vertical falling line of that cliff be continued, it strikes the sea-base of the pier to a hair's breadth. but turner knew better than any man the value of echo, as well as of contrast,--of repetition, as well as of opposition. the round pier repeats the line of the main cliff, and then the sail repeats the diagonal shadow which crosses it, and emerges above it just as the embankment does above the cliff brow. lower, come the opposing curves in the two boats, the whole forming one group of sequent lines up the whole side of the picture. the rest of the composition is more commonplace than is usual with the great master; but there are beautiful transitions of light and shade between the sails of the little fishing-boat, the brig behind her, and the cliffs. note how dexterously the two front sails[r] of the brig are brought on the top of the white sail of the fishing-boat to help to detach it from the white cliffs. [r] i think i shall be generally more intelligible by explaining what i mean in this way, and run less chance of making myself ridiculous in the eyes of sensible people, than by displaying the very small nautical knowledge i possess. my sailor friends will perhaps be gracious enough to believe that i _could_ call these sails by their right names if i liked. ii.--ramsgate. [illustration: ramsgate.] this, though less attractive, at first sight, than the former plate, is a better example of the master, and far truer and nobler as a piece of thought. the lifting of the brig on the wave is very daring; just one of the things which is seen in every gale, but which no other painter than turner ever represented; and the lurid transparency of the dark sky, and wild expression of wind in the fluttering of the falling sails of the vessel running into the harbor, are as fine as anything of the kind he has done. there is great grace in the drawing of this latter vessel: note the delicate switch forward of her upper mast. there is a very singular point connected with the composition of this drawing, proving it (as from internal evidence was most likely) to be a record of a thing actually seen. three years before the date of this engraving turner had made a drawing of ramsgate for the southern coast series. that drawing represents the _same day_, the _same moment_, and the _same ships_, from a different point of view. it supposes the spectator placed in a boat some distance out at sea, beyond the fishing-boats on the left in the present plate, and looking towards the town, or into the harbor. the brig, which is near us here, is then, of course, in the distance on the right; the schooner entering the harbor, and, in both plates, lowering her fore-topsail, is, of course, seen foreshortened; the fishing-boats only are a little different in position and set of sail. the sky is precisely the same, only a dark piece of it, which is too far to the right to be included in _this_ view, enters into the wider distance of the other, and the town, of course, becomes a more important object. the persistence in one conception furnishes evidence of the very highest imaginative power. on a common mind, what it has seen is so feebly impressed, that it mixes other ideas with it immediately; forgets it--modifies it--adorns it,--does anything but keep _hold_ of it. but when turner had once seen that stormy hour at ramsgate harbor-mouth, he never quitted his grasp of it. he had _seen_ the two vessels; one go in, the other out. he could have only seen them at that one moment--from one point; but the impression on his imagination is so strong, that he is able to handle it three years afterwards, as if it were a real thing, and turn it round on the table of his brain, and look at it from the other corner. he will see the brig near, instead of far off: set the whole sea and sky so many points round to the south, and see how they look, so. i never traced power of this kind in any other man. iii.--plymouth. [illustration: plymouth.] the drawing for this plate is one of turner's most remarkable, though not most meritorious, works: it contains the brightest rainbow he ever painted, to my knowledge; not the best, but the most dazzling. it has been much modified in the plate. it is very like one of turner's pieces of caprice to introduce a rainbow at all as a principal feature in such a scene; for it is not through the colors of the iris that we generally expect to be shown eighteen-pounder batteries and ninety-gun ships. whether he meant the dark cloud (intensely dark blue in the original drawing), with the sunshine pursuing it back into distance; and the rainbow, with its base set on a ship of battle, to be together types of war and peace, and of the one as the foundation of the other, i leave it to the reader to decide. my own impression is, that although turner might have some askance symbolism in his mind, the present design is, like the former one, in many points a simple reminiscence of a seen fact.[s] [s] i have discovered, since this was written, that the design was made from a vigorous and interesting sketch by mr. s. cousins, in which the rainbow and most of the ships are already in their places. turner was, therefore, in this case, as i have found him in several other instances, realizing, not a fact seen by himself, but a fact as he supposed it to have been seen by another. however, whether reminiscent or symbolic, the design is, to my mind, an exceedingly unsatisfactory one, owing to its total want of principal subject. the fort ceases to be of importance because of the bank and tower in front of it; the ships, necessarily for the effect, but fatally for themselves, are confused, and incompletely drawn, except the little sloop, which looks paltry and like a toy; and the foreground objects are, for work of turner, curiously ungraceful and uninteresting. it is possible, however, that to some minds the fresh and dewy space of darkness, so animated with latent human power, may give a sensation of great pleasure, and at all events the design is worth study on account of its very strangeness. iv.--catwater. [illustration: catwater.] i have placed in the middle of the series those pictures which i think least interesting, though the want of interest is owing more to the monotony of their character than to any real deficiency in their subjects. if, after contemplating paintings of arid deserts or glowing sunsets, we had come suddenly upon this breezy entrance to the crowded cove of plymouth, it would have gladdened our hearts to purpose; but having already been at sea for some time, there is little in this drawing to produce renewal of pleasurable impression: only one useful thought may be gathered from the very feeling of monotony. at the time when turner executed these drawings, his portfolios were full of the most magnificent subjects--coast and inland,--gathered from all the noblest scenery of france and italy. he was ready to realize these sketches for any one who would have asked it of him, but no consistent effort was ever made to call forth his powers; and the only means by which it was thought that the public patronage could be secured for a work of this kind, was by keeping familiar names before the eye, and awakening the so-called "patriotic," but in reality narrow and selfish, associations belonging to well-known towns or watering-places. it is to be hoped, that when a great landscape painter appears among us again, we may know better how to employ him, and set him to paint for us things which are less easily seen, and which are somewhat better worth seeing, than the mists of the catwater, or terraces of margate. v.--sheerness. [illustration: sheerness.] i look upon this as one of the noblest sea-pieces which turner ever produced. it has not his usual fault of over-crowding or over-glitter; the objects in it are few and noble, and the space infinite. the sky is quite one of his best: not violently black, but full of gloom and power; the complicated roundings of its volumes behind the sloop's mast, and downwards to the left, have been rendered by the engraver with notable success; and the dim light entering along the horizon, full of rain, behind the ship of war, is true and grand in the highest degree. by comparing it with the extreme darkness of the skies in the plymouth, dover, and ramsgate, the reader will see how much more majesty there is in moderation than in extravagance, and how much more darkness, as far as sky is concerned, there is in gray than in black. it is not that the plymouth and dover skies are false,--such impenetrable forms of thunder-cloud are amongst the commonest phenomena of storm; but they have more of spent flash and past shower in them than the less passionate, but more truly stormy and threatening, volumes of the sky here. the plymouth storm will very thoroughly wet the sails, and wash the decks, of the ships at anchor, but will send nothing to the bottom. for these pale and lurid masses, there is no saying what evil they may have in their thoughts, or what they may have to answer for before night. the ship of war in the distance is one of many instances of turner's dislike to draw _complete_ rigging; and this not only because he chose to give an idea of his ships having seen rough service, and being crippled; but also because in men-of-war he liked the mass of the hull to be increased in apparent weight and size by want of upper spars. all artists of any rank share this last feeling. stanfield never makes a careful study of a hull without shaking some or all of its masts out of it first, if possible. see, in the coast scenery, portsmouth harbor, falmouth, hamoaze, and rye old harbors; and compare, among turner's works, the near hulls in the devonport, saltash, and castle upnor, and distance of gosport. the fact is, partly that the precision of line in the complete spars of a man-of-war is too formal to come well into pictorial arrangements, and partly that the chief glory of a ship of the line is in its aspect of being "one that hath had losses." the subtle varieties of curve in the drawing of the sails of the near sloop are altogether exquisite; as well as the contrast of her black and glistering side with those sails, and with the sea. examine the wayward and delicate play of the dancing waves along her flank, and between her and the brig in ballast, plunging slowly before the wind; i have not often seen anything so perfect in fancy, or in execution of engraving. the heaving and black buoy in the near sea is one of turner's "echoes," repeating, with slight change, the head of the sloop with its flash of luster. the chief aim of this buoy is, however, to give comparative lightness to the shadowed part of the sea, which is, indeed, somewhat overcharged in darkness, and would have been felt to be so, but for this contrasting mass. hide it with the hand, and this will be immediately felt. there is only one other of turner's works which, in its way, can be matched with this drawing, namely, the mouth of the humber in the river scenery. the latter is, on the whole, the finer picture; but this by much the more interesting in the shipping. vi.--margate. [illustration: margate.] this plate is not, at first sight, one of the most striking of the series; but it is very beautiful, and highly characteristic of turner.[t] first, in its choice of subjects: for it seems very notably capricious in a painter eminently capable of rendering scenes of sublimity and mystery, to devote himself to the delineation of one of the most prosaic of english watering-places--not once or twice, but in a series of elaborate drawings, of which this is the fourth. the first appeared in the southern coast series, and was followed by an elaborate drawing on a large scale, with a beautiful sunrise; then came another careful and very beautiful drawing in the england and wales series; and finally this, which is a sort of poetical abstract of the first. now, if we enumerate the english ports one by one, from berwick to whitehaven, round the island, there will hardly be found another so utterly devoid of all picturesque or romantic interest as margate. nearly all have some steep eminence of down or cliff, some pretty retiring dingle, some roughness of old harbor or straggling fisher-hamlet, some fragment of castle or abbey on the heights above, capable of becoming a leading point in a picture; but margate is simply a mass of modern parades and streets, with a little bit of chalk cliff, an orderly pier, and some bathing-machines. turner never conceives it as anything else; and yet for the sake of this simple vision, again and again he quits all higher thoughts. the beautiful bays of northern devon and cornwall he never painted but once, and that very imperfectly. the finest subjects of the southern coast series--the minehead, clovelly, ilfracombe, watchet, east and west looe, tintagel, boscastle--he never touched again; but he repeated ramsgate, deal, dover, and margate, i know not how often. [t] it was left unfinished at his death, and i would not allow it to be touched afterwards, desiring that the series should remain as far as possible in an authentic state. whether his desire for popularity, which, in spite of his occasional rough defiances of public opinion, was always great, led him to the selection of those subjects which he thought might meet with most acceptance from a large class of the london public, or whether he had himself more pleasurable associations connected with these places than with others, i know not; but the fact of the choice itself is a very mournful one, considered with respect to the future interests of art. there is only this one point to be remembered, as tending to lessen our regret, that it is possible turner might have felt the necessity of compelling himself sometimes to dwell on the most familiar and prosaic scenery, in order to prevent his becoming so much accustomed to that of a higher class as to diminish his enthusiasm in its presence. into this probability i shall have occasion to examine at greater length hereafter. the plate of margate now before us is nearly as complete a duplicate of the southern coast view as the previous plate is of that of ramsgate; with this difference, that the position of the spectator is here the same, but the class of ship is altered, though the ship remains precisely in the same spot. a piece of old wreck, which was rather an important object to the left of the other drawing, is here removed. the figures are employed in the same manner in both designs. the details of the houses of the town are executed in the original drawing with a precision which adds almost painfully to their natural formality. it is certainly provoking to find the great painter, who often only deigns to bestow on some rhenish fortress or french city, crested with gothic towers, a few misty and indistinguishable touches of his brush, setting himself to indicate, with unerring toil, every separate square window in the parades, hotels, and circulating libraries of an english bathing-place. the whole of the drawing is well executed, and free from fault or affectation, except perhaps in the somewhat confused curlings of the near sea. i had much rather have seen it breaking in the usual straightforward way. the brilliant white of the piece of chalk cliff is evidently one of the principal aims of the composition. in the drawing the sea is throughout of a dark fresh blue, the sky grayish blue, and the grass on the top of the cliffs a little sunburnt, the cliffs themselves being left in the almost untouched white of the paper. vii.--portsmouth. [illustration: portsmouth.] this beautiful drawing is a _third_ recurrence by turner to his earliest impression of portsmouth, given in the southern coast series. the buildings introduced differ only by a slight turn of the spectator towards the right; the buoy is in the same spot; the man-of-war's boat nearly so; the sloop exactly so, but on a different tack; and the man-of-war, which is far off to the left at anchor in the southern coast view, is here nearer, and getting up her anchor. the idea had previously passed through one phase of greater change, in his drawing of "gosport" for the england, in which, while the sky of the southern coast view was almost cloud for cloud retained, the interest of the distant ships of the line had been divided with a collier brig and a fast-sailing boat. in the present view he returns to his early thought, dwelling, however, now with chief insistence on the ship of the line, which is certainly the most majestic of all that he has introduced in his drawings. it is also a very curious instance of that habit of turner's before referred to (p. ), of never painting a ship quite in good order. on showing this plate the other day to a naval officer, he complained of it, first that "the jib[u] would not be wanted with the wind blowing out of harbor," and, secondly, that "a man-of-war would never have her foretop-gallant sail set, and her main and mizzen top-gallants furled:--all the men would be on the yards at once." [u] the sail seen, edge on, like a white sword, at the head of the ship. i believe this criticism to be perfectly just, though it has happened to me, very singularly, whenever i have had the opportunity of making complete inquiry into any technical matter of this kind, respecting which some professional person had blamed turner, that i have always found, in the end, turner was right, and the professional critic wrong, owing to some want of allowance for possible accidents, and for necessary modes of pictorial representation. still, this cannot be the case in every instance; and supposing my sailor informant to be perfectly right in the present one, the disorderliness of the way in which this ship is represented as setting her sails, gives us farther proof of the imperative instinct in the artist's mind, refusing to contemplate a ship, even in her proudest moments, but as in some way over-mastered by the strengths of chance and storm. the wave on the left hand beneath the buoy, presents a most interesting example of the way in which turner used to spoil his work by retouching. all his truly fine drawings are either done quickly, or at all events straight forward, without alteration: he never, as far as i have examined his works hitherto, altered but to destroy. when he saw a plate look somewhat dead or heavy, as, compared with the drawing, it was almost sure at first to do, he used to scratch out little lights all over it, and make it "sparkling"; a process in which the engravers almost unanimously delighted,[v] and over the impossibility of which they now mourn, declaring it to be hopeless to engrave after turner, since he cannot now scratch their plates for them. it is quite true that these small lights were always placed beautifully; and though the plate, after its "touching," generally looked as if ingeniously salted out of her dredging-box by an artistical cook, the salting was done with a spirit which no one else can now imitate. but the original power of the work was forever destroyed. if the reader will look carefully beneath the white touches on the left in this sea, he will discern dimly the form of a round nodding hollow breaker. this in the early state of the plate is a gaunt, dark, angry wave, rising at the shoal indicated by the buoy;--mr. lupton has fac-similed with so singular skill the scratches of the penknife by which turner afterwards disguised this breaker, and spoiled his picture, that the plate in its present state is almost as interesting as the touched proof itself; interesting, however, only as a warning to all artists never to lose hold of their first conception. they may tire even of what is exquisitely right, as they work it out, and their only safety is in the self-denial of calm completion. [v] not, let me say with all due honor to him, the careful and skillful engraver of these plates, who has been much more tormented than helped by turner's alterations. viii.--falmouth. [illustration: falmouth.] this is one of the most beautiful and best-finished plates of the series, and turner has taken great pains with the drawing; but it is sadly open to the same charges which were brought against the dover, of an attempt to reach a false sublimity by magnifying things in themselves insignificant. the fact is that turner, when he prepared these drawings, had been newly inspired by the scenery of the continent; and with his mind entirely occupied by the ruined towers of the rhine, he found himself called upon to return to the formal embrasures and unappalling elevations of english forts and hills. but it was impossible for him to recover the simplicity and narrowness of conception in which he had executed the drawing of the southern coast, or to regain the innocence of delight with which he had once assisted gravely at the drying of clothes over the limekiln at comb martin, or penciled the woodland outlines of the banks of dartmouth cove. in certain fits of prosaic humorism, he would, as we have seen, condemn himself to delineation of the parades of a watering-place; but the moment he permitted himself to be enthusiastic, vaster imaginations crowded in upon him: to modify his old conception in the least, was to exaggerate it; the mount of pendennis is lifted into rivalship with ehrenbreitstein, and hardworked falmouth glitters along the distant bay, like the gay magnificence of resina or sorrento. this effort at sublimity is all the more to be regretted, because it never succeeds completely. shade, or magnify, or mystify as he may, even turner cannot make the minute neatness of the english fort appeal to us as forcibly as the remnants of gothic wall and tower that crown the continental crags; and invest them as he may with smoke or sunbeam, the details of our little mounded hills will not take the rank of cliffs of alp, or promontories of apennine; and we lose the english simplicity, without gaining the continental nobleness. i have also a prejudice against this picture for being disagreeably noisy. wherever there is something serious to be done, as in a battle piece, the noise becomes an element of the sublimity; but to have great guns going off in every direction beneath one's feet on the right, and all round the other side of the castle, and from the deck of the ship of the line, and from the battery far down the cove, and from the fort on the top of the hill, and all for nothing, is to my mind eminently troublesome. the drawing of the different wreaths and depths of smoke, and the explosive look of the flash on the right, are, however, very wonderful and peculiarly turneresque; the sky is also beautiful in form, and the foreground, in which we find his old regard for washerwomen has not quite deserted him, singularly skillful. it is curious how formal the whole picture becomes if this figure and the gray stones beside it are hidden with the hand. ix.--sidmouth. [illustration: sidmouth.] this drawing has always been interesting to me among turner's sea pieces, on account of the noble gathering together of the great wave on the left,--the back of a breaker, just heaving itself up, and provoking itself into passion, before its leap and roar against the beach. but the enjoyment of these designs is much interfered with by their monotony: it is seriously to be regretted that in all but one the view is taken from the sea; for the spectator is necessarily tired by the perpetual rush and sparkle of water, and ceases to be impressed by it. it would be felt, if this plate were seen alone, that there are few marine paintings in which the weight and heaping of the sea are given so faithfully. for the rest it is perhaps more to be regretted that we are kept to our sea-level at sidmouth than at any other of the localities illustrated. what claim the pretty little village has to be considered as a port of england, i know not; but if it was to be so ranked, a far more interesting study of it might have been made from the heights above the town, whence the ranges of dark-red sandstone cliffs stretching to the southwest are singularly bold and varied. the detached fragment of sandstone which forms the principal object in turner's view has long ago fallen, and even while it stood could hardly have been worth the honor of so careful illustration. x.--whitby. [illustration: whitby.] as an expression of the general spirit of english coast scenery, this plate must be considered the principal one of the series. like all the rest, it is a little too grand for its subject; but the exaggerations of space and size are more allowable here than in the others, as partly necessary to convey the feeling of danger conquered by activity and commerce, which characterizes all our northerly eastern coast. there are cliffs more terrible, and winds more wild, on other shores; but nowhere else do so many white sails lean against the bleak wind, and glide across the cliff shadows. nor do i know many other memorials of monastic life so striking as the abbey on that dark headland. we are apt in our journeys through lowland england, to watch with some secret contempt the general pleasantness of the vales in which our abbeys were founded, without taking any pains to inquire into the particular circumstances which directed or compelled the choice of the monks, and without reflecting that, if the choice were a selfish one, the selfishness is that of the english lowlander turning monk, not that of monachism; since, if we examine the sites of the swiss monasteries and convents, we shall always find the snow lying round them in july; and it must have been cold meditating in these cloisters of st. hilda's when the winter wind set from the east. it is long since i was at whitby, and i am not sure whether turner is right in giving so monotonous and severe verticality to the cliff above which the abbey stands; but i believe it must have some steep places about it, since the tradition which, in nearly all parts of the island where fossil ammonites are found, is sure to be current respecting them, takes quite an original form at whitby, owing to the steepness of this rock. in general, the saint of the locality has simply turned all the serpents to stone; but at whitby, st. hilda drove them over the cliff, and the serpents, before being petrified, had all their heads broken off by the fall! xi.--deal. [illustration: deal.] i have had occasion,[w] elsewhere, to consider at some length, the peculiar love of the english for neatness and minuteness: but i have only considered, without accounting for, or coming to any conclusion about it; and, the more i think of it, the more it puzzles me to understand what there can be in our great national mind which delights to such an extent in brass plates, red bricks, square curbstones, and fresh green paint, all on the tiniest possible scale. the other day i was dining in a respectable english "inn and posting-house," not ten miles from london, and, measuring the room after dinner, i found it exactly twice and a quarter the height of my umbrella. it was a highly comfortable room, and associated, in the proper english manner, with outdoor sports and pastimes, by a portrait of jack hall, fisherman of eton, and of mr. c. davis on his favorite mare; but why all this hunting and fishing enthusiasm should like to reduce itself, at home, into twice and a quarter the height of an umbrella, i could not in any wise then, nor have i at any other time been able to ascertain. [w] _modern painters_, vol. iv. chap. . perhaps the town of deal involves as much of this question in its aspect and reputation, as any other place in her majesty's dominions: or at least it seemed so to me, coming to it as i did, after having been accustomed to the boat-life at venice, where the heavy craft, massy in build and massy in sail, and disorderly in aquatic economy, reach with their mast-vanes only to the first stories of the huge marble palaces they anchor among. it was very strange to me, after this, knowing that whatever was brave and strong in the english sailor was concentrated in our deal boatmen, to walk along that trim strip of conventional beach, which the sea itself seems to wash in a methodical manner, one shingle-step at a time; and by its thin toy-like boats, each with its head to sea, at regular intervals, looking like things that one would give a clever boy to play with in a pond, when first he got past petticoats; and the row of lath cots behind, all tidiness and telegraph, looking as if the whole business of the human race on earth was to know what o'clock it was, and when it would be high water,--only some slight weakness in favor of grog being indicated here and there by a hospitable-looking open door, a gay bow-window, and a sign intimating that it is a sailor's duty to be not only accurate, but "jolly." turner was always fond of this neat, courageous, benevolent, merry, methodical deal. he painted it very early, in the southern coast series, insisting on one of the tavern windows as the principal subject, with a flash of forked lightning streaming beyond it out at sea like a narrow flag. he has the same association in his mind in the present plate; disorder and distress among the ships on the left, with the boat going out to help them; and the precision of the little town stretching in sunshine along the beach. xii.--scarborough. [illustration: scarborough.] i have put this plate last in the series, thinking that the reader will be glad to rest in its morning quietness, after so much tossing among the troubled foam. i said in the course of the introduction, that nothing is so perfectly calm as turner's calmness; and i know very few better examples of this calmness than the plate before us, uniting, as it does, the glittering of the morning clouds, and trembling of the sea, with an infinitude of peace in both. there are one or two points of interest in the artifices by which the intense effect of calm is produced. much is owing, in the first place, to the amount of absolute gloom obtained by the local blackness of the boats on the beach; like a piece of the midnight left unbroken by the dawn. but more is owing to the treatment of the distant harbor mouth. in general, throughout nature, reflection and repetition are _peaceful_ things; that is to say, the image of any object, seen in calm water, gives us an impression of quietness, not merely because we know the water must be quiet in order to be reflective; but because the fact of the repetition of this form is lulling to us in its monotony, and associated more or less with an idea of quiet succession, or reproduction, in events or things throughout nature:--that one day should be like another day, one town the image of another town, or one history the repetition of another history, being more or less results of quietness, while dissimilarity and non-succession are also, more or less, results of interference and disquietude. and thus, though an echo actually increases the quantity of sound heard, its repetition of the notes or syllables of sound, gives an idea of calmness attainable in no other way; hence the feeling of calm given to a landscape by the notes of the cuckoo. understanding this, observe the anxious _doubling_ of every object by a visible echo or shadow throughout this picture. the grandest feature of it is the steep distant cliff; and therefore the dualism is more marked here than elsewhere; the two promontories or cliffs, and two piers below them, being arranged so that the one looks almost like the shadow of the other, cast irregularly on mist. in all probability, the more distant pier would in reality, unless it is very greatly higher than the near one, have been lowered by perspective so as not to continue in the same longitudinal line at the top,--but turner will not have it so; he reduces them to exactly the same level, so that the one looks like the phantom of the other; and so of the cliffs above. then observe, each pier has, just below the head of it, in a vertical line, another important object, one a buoy, and the other a stooping figure. these carry on the double group in the calmest way, obeying the general law of vertical reflection, and throw down two long shadows on the near beach. the intenseness of the parallelism would catch the eye in a moment, but for the lighthouse, which breaks the group and prevents the artifice from being too open. next come the two heads of boats, with their two bowsprits, and the two masts of the one farthest off, all monotonously double, but for the diagonal mast of the nearer one, which again hides the artifice. next, put your finger over the white central figure, and follow the minor incidents round the beach; first, under the lighthouse, a stick, with its echo below a little to the right; above, a black stone, and its echo to the right; under the white figure, another stick, with its echo to the left; then a starfish,[x] and a white spot its echo to the left; then a dog, and a basket to double its light; above, a fisherman, and his wife for an echo; above them, two lines of curved shingle; above them, two small black figures; above them, two unfinished ships, and two forked masts; above the forked masts, a house with two gables, and its echo exactly over it in two gables more; next to the right, two fishing-boats with sails down; farther on, two fishing-boats with sails up, each with its little white reflection below; then two larger ships, which, lest his trick should be found out, turner puts a dim third between; then below, two fat colliers, leaning away from each other, and two thinner colliers, leaning towards each other; and now at last, having doubled everything all round the beach, he gives one strong single stroke to gather all together, places his solitary central white figure, and the calm is complete. [x] i have mentioned elsewhere that turner was fond of this subject of scarborough, and that there are four drawings of it by him, if not more, under different effects, having this much common to the four, that there is always a starfish on the beach. it is also to be noticed, that not only the definite repetition has a power of expressing serenity, but even the slight sense of _confusion_ induced by the continual doubling is useful; it makes us feel not well awake, drowsy, and as if we were out too early, and had to rub our eyes yet a little, before we could make out whether there were really two boats or one. i do not mean that every means which we may possibly take to enable ourselves to see things double, will be always the most likely to insure the ultimate tranquillity of the scene, neither that any such artifice as this would be of avail, without the tender and loving drawing of the things themselves, and of the light that bathes them; nevertheless the highest art is full of these little cunnings, and it is only by the help of them that it can succeed in at all equaling the force of the natural impression. one great monotony, that of the successive sigh and vanishing of the slow waves upon the sand, no art can render to us. perhaps the silence of early light, even on the "field dew consecrate" of the grass itself, is not so tender as the lisp of the sweet belled lips of the clear waves in their following patience. we will leave the shore as their silver fringes fade upon it, desiring thus, as far as may be, to remember the sea. we have regarded it perhaps too often as an enemy to be subdued; let us, at least this once, accept from it, and from the soft light beyond the cliffs above, the image of the state of a perfect human spirit,-- "the memory, like a cloudless air, the conscience, like a sea at rest." +--------------------------------------------------------------+ | transcriber's note | | | | there was one instance each of 'sea-shell' and 'seashell'. | | these have not been changed. | | | | one instance of the 'oe' ligature has been transcribed as | | oe. | +--------------------------------------------------------------+ +contributions from the museum of history and technology: paper + +rembrandt's etching technique: an example+ _peter morse_ [illustration: figure _landscape with a hay barn and a flock of sheep._ etching by rembrandt, shown in original size.] _by peter morse_ _rembrandt's etching technique: an example_ _a rembrandt print in the collection of the smithsonian institution has been made the subject of a study of the artist's etching technique. the author is associate curator, division of graphic arts, in the smithsonian institution's museum of history and technology._ all footnotes appear at the end of this paper. rembrandt's print, _landscape with a hay barn and a flock of sheep_,[ ] is a singularly apt example of the variety of etching treatment used by the artist in his mature period.[ ] the print, in black ink, × mm. in size (approximately - / × inches), is signed and dated .[ ] it shows a peaceful dutch landscape along the onderdijk road on the south side of the saint anthony's dike, only a short walk from rembrandt's home in amsterdam. the picture is, as usual, the mirror reversal of the actual scene.[ ] the observer's attention, from his raised position, is first drawn to the center of the print, attracted by the bright highlights on the trees and barn, then is snapped abruptly to the left side by the figure of the woman outlined against the sky. now the eye moves slowly across the bottom, noticing the flock of sheep and the shepherd, and is led further by the soft dark line of the creek bank, to pick up the distant town and then the cows on the right. only after completely circling the composition does one notice the horse, rolling in the grass and joyfully kicking its feet in the air. such artistic command seldom comes spontaneously. in rembrandt's case, it is clearly the result of careful preparation, many years of learning and experience, and hard work in the creation of each picture. such a process has produced in this print--one of nine landscapes which mark a turning point in --a work of stylistic synthesis, which integrates rembrandt's previous knowledge and leads on to his later masterpieces. [illustration: figure mirror reversal of _landscape with a hay barn and a flock of sheep_.] in rembrandt was evidently in a tranquil state of mind. he was years old. young hendrickje stoffels, who had entered his household in as a maid, was well settled as housekeeper and mistress. geertghe dircx--who had been the nurse of rembrandt's son, titus, since the death of his wife, saskia, in --had just been taken to an institution after a nasty breach of promise suit.[ ] rembrandt's finances were in good shape; his insolvency was not to come until , after the international economic crisis of .[ ] the artist certainly had the fullest confidence and experience in his working methods, having already done close to prints.[ ] this state of well-being is reflected in the fact that of the prints rembrandt did in the three years, - , no fewer than are landscapes of a serene character.[ ] this is an unusually large proportion of a single subject and surely reflects the artist's state of mind, which helped him to produce this masterpiece of serenity, humor, and technical virtuosity. his etching technique can be clearly studied in this print. in summary, all the evidence shows that rembrandt here laid a foundation of lines on his plate with a single etching. he then mantled the sketch with rich drypoint lines, to give a sensitive chiaroscuro to the finished work. the integration of etching and drypoint is striking. there are few areas of this print (except the sky) that do not contain both kinds of line. rembrandt evidently had an excellent idea of his design before he ever touched the needle to the plate. though he is often admired for his spontaneity, particularly in his landscapes,[ ] this is a misconception. benesch lists no fewer than landscape drawings by rembrandt in the years - ,[ ] and there were perhaps many more, now lost or unidentified. for this etching alone, there are at least five likely preparatory drawings, each giving certain essential features of the final print. the most interesting is the _landscape with a rolling horse_.[ ] here we see that the horse, apparently the happiest of impulsive inspirations, is instead a carefully considered part of the final design, copied from the drawing previously done on the spot. as the horse in the drawing is the mirror image of that in the print, we can feel certain that the drawing came first and not the etching. two other drawings[ ] (figures and ) delineate the clump of trees, in form and placement very similar to the print. a fourth[ ] (figure ) is a sketch of a hay barn of the type shown in the print, evidently quite common in the dutch countryside, and a fifth[ ] (figure ) foreshadows the scheme of composition used in the print, principally the relationship of the road and the dark central mass. all these drawings are the mirror reversal of the print. [illustration: figure _landscape with a rolling horse._ drawing by rembrandt. after benesch, vol. , fig. . (smithsonian photo , with the permission of phaidon press, ltd., and the groningen museum.)] [illustration: figure _a clump of trees._ drawing by rembrandt. after benesch, vol. , fig. . (smithsonian photo , with the permission of phaidon press, ltd.)] [illustration: figure _farm building among trees._ drawing by rembrandt. (_photo courtesy of the albertina museum, vienna._)] [illustration: figure _farmstead with a hay barn._ drawing by rembrandt. after benesch, vol. , fig. . (smithsonian photo , with the permission of phaidon press, ltd., and the royal museum of fine arts, copenhagen.)] [illustration: figure _farm buildings beside a road with distant farmstead._ drawing by rembrandt. (_photo courtesy of the ashmolean museum, oxford._)] it is very much a modern taste to admire spontaneity more than craft. we must understand that rembrandt's work was anything but spontaneous in execution. the existence of so many drawings prior to this print certainly suggests that rembrandt collected his ideas from many sources, on the spot, but did his finished work in the quiet of his studio, with his notes ready at hand. he used the sketches as the raw material for a work of art. rembrandt said that the only rule that should bind the artist is nature,[ ] but he was certainly not distracted by nature. the individual genius here lies in assembling many observations from nature into a work which goes beyond nature and yet appears fresh and natural. the metal plates he commonly used were of thin, cold-hammered copper, as shown by extant examples.[ ] the hammering had the effect of making the metal harder than today's rolled copper sheets. this enabled more prints to be taken from the plate than is possible for a present-day printmaker. today, we tend to consider drypoint a very fugitive medium, because the burr perishes so quickly under the pressure of the printing press. rembrandt undoubtedly had fewer inhibitions about drypoint, for he could expect his harder copper to hold up longer, perhaps for as many as fifty excellent prints from the same plate. hammered copper, unlike the modern rolled variety, is also completely free of grain in the metal. this enables a drypoint needle to move freely in any direction without encountering the resistance of a grain. here again, rembrandt had more incentive to use drypoint than a modern artist. rembrandt's etching ground has been the subject of considerable discussion. a book published in , nine years before the artist's death, contains a recipe for "the ground of rinebrant of rine."[ ] this ground, similar to that described by bosse as a "soft" ground,[ ] consists of two parts wax, one part mastic, and one part asphaltum. there are countless formulae for such grounds, but virtually all are permutations of the same three ingredients, with only slight differences in the proportions.[ ] the ground given as rembrandt's is a thoroughly conventional one. a knotty problem, however, is introduced by the last line of this description: "... lay your black ground very thin, and the white ground upon it. this is the only way of rinebrant...."[ ] no elaboration is given. this one line presents a number of problems, not all of which are soluble. to take it at face value is to accept the contemporary evidence that rembrandt not only used a white ground but used it exclusively. this assertion cannot be taken uncritically. it will readily be seen that a white ground might be of considerable assistance to an artist. his needle penetrates the white to the copper, giving the familiar effect of a reddish ink line on white paper. a normal ground, without treatment, is virtually transparent, making the etcher's lines rather difficult to see.[ ] the most usual procedure, both in the th century and today, is to smoke the ground and incorporate the soot with the ground by heating the plate slightly. this gives a black ground, against which the lines appear light, the negative of the ultimate print. the black ground is favored, both out of long-established tradition and because it is very easy to apply. furthermore, artists today explain that they also enjoy the feeling of working slightly blind, that one of their greatest rewards is the sense of surprise in peeling the first proof print off the plate. for whatever reason, the black ground has been preferred by the great majority of artists, both past and present. the description of rembrandt's ground in takes knowledge of the white ground for granted. its technique certainly appears to have been generally well known among artists in the middle of the th century. rubens, in a letter as early as , mentions having received a recipe for a white ground, although he could not remember it.[ ] the first technical explanation of the process appeared in bosse's pioneer treatise in .[ ] there is no reason why rembrandt should not have known of the white-ground technique and every reason to suppose that he did. there is one piece of strong evidence that he did use a white ground about . one of rembrandt's drawings exists which, unlike most of his sketches is an exact prototype (in reverse) of a specific etching, _diana at the bath_.[ ] the back of this drawing is covered with black chalk, and its lines show the indentation of tracing. the only reasonable explanation of this evidence is that rembrandt placed his prepared drawing on top of a white-grounded plate and traced the lines, depositing the black chalk lines on the ground, where he could then trace them with his etching needle. another similarly indented drawing--for the portrait of cornelis claesz anslo--has been held to show the same procedure as late as . this drawing, however, is backed, not with black chalk as previously cited, but with ocher tempera.[ ] although surely used for tracing, this gives perhaps even more evidence of his use of a black ground rather than white, although ocher lines would show on either. these conclusions are not meant to imply in any way that rembrandt used the tracing of a drawing for his _landscape with a hay barn_.... there is every probability that he did not do so. the implication is rather that only where a traced drawing with black backing exists do we have circumstantial evidence for the use, and possibly a more general use, of white ground. without the published recipe no question would be likely to arise that rembrandt used anything but the standard black ground. with it, we must search for corroboration. though the case must be left as "not proven," the use of a white etching ground is consistent with rembrandt's practice of using the simplest effective means for achieving his artistic aims. the distinctive quality of the print under consideration here is the artist's remarkable placement and articulation of areas of black against the white paper. rembrandt may have found it far easier to visualize this ultimate effect by using a white background for dark lines on his plate, rather than the negative. rembrandt almost certainly made all the etched lines in this print in a single operation. the lines were put on the plate before it went into the acid. the plate was then etched by the acid in a single biting, without stopping-out. the evidence for these assertions comes from the print itself, as we have no direct testimony in the matter. in the first place, the etched lines must be distinguished from the drypoint lines applied at a later stage. the differences between the types of line are more easily seen than described. the etched line is clear and strong, from the clean biting of the acid. it is freer and more autographic because it is drawn through a wax surface, not scratched in a resisting metal surface. [illustration: figure detail of _landscape with a hay barn and a flock of sheep_, left center, showing light drypoint lines of the horizon and etched lines of figures and hillside. enlarged times. (smithsonian photo .)] [illustration: figure detail of _landscape with a hay barn and a flock of sheep_, left center, showing forceful lines of tree branch in pure drypoint. enlarged times. (smithsonian photo .)] [illustration: figure detail of _landscape with a hay barn and a flock of sheep_, center, showing diagonal lines of light drypoint without burr. enlarged times. (smithsonian photo .)] the drypoint line, by its nature, is more abrupt and forceful, showing the quality of having been scratched rather than drawn. there are two basic drypoint lines, depending upon the position in which the drypoint needle is held. when it is vertical or nearly so, the resulting line is shallow and prints more weakly and distantly than the etched line. when the needle is pulled at an angle of about ° to °, a very perceptible furrow of copper burr is thrown up on one or both sides of the line on the plate. this burr holds more ink than the clear channel and prints with a highly distinctive inky richness. basically, etching removes metal from the plate entirely, whereas drypoint displaces it in furrows of burr. the rich fuzzy line produced by the burr is what we most typically associate with drypoint work. the first sort, the thin distant line, is nevertheless just as truly drypoint as the latter and is distinguishable by its forcefulness and clear direction.[ ] the same line may also be created, with slightly more work, by using a scraper to remove the burr from a rich drypoint line. [illustration: figure detail of _landscape with a hay barn and a flock of sheep_, bottom right, showing rich drypoint lines with burr. enlarged times. (smithsonian photo .)] another way of making lines in a plate is with a burin--an instrument with a sharp triangular point--which is pushed through the copper, instead of being pulled, as is the drypoint needle. when used conventionally, the burin produces a very characteristic hard, controlled printed line, one which does not appear in this print. when used lightly, however, its line is virtually indistinguishable from that of the vertical drypoint needle. it is quite possible that rembrandt used the burin in some of his work on this and other prints, but it seems a somewhat less likely tool than the drypoint. first, the non-etched lines in this print seem to have a more freely moving quality than could probably be produced with a burin, a rather stiff, if extremely precise tool. second, when rembrandt was commissioned in to engrave a portrait expressly with a burin, he found himself unable to do so.[ ] his inability, however, may be attributed as easily to rembrandt's artistic independence as to his inexperience with the burin. rembrandt's general use of the burin has been widely accepted. the question may not be that simple. these visible differences, then, enable us to separate the kinds of line within this print. the author has attempted, by tracing only the etched lines in the print, to recreate the state of the plate after rembrandt's etching and before the application of drypoint (figure ). it can be seen that rembrandt's etched lines form only a foundation or skeleton for the finished work. it is in no sense complete in itself. more important, the picture lacks all the rich contrasts of light and shade which distinguish this print and most of rembrandt's finished work. [illustration: figure traced sketch by the author, showing only the etched lines in rembrandt's print, _landscape with a hay barn and a flock of sheep_. (smithsonian photo .)] it has been generally assumed that rembrandt went through a fairly normal process of stopping-out and also re-etching in the course of his print-making. the visual evidence would indicate that he did not follow this procedure here. stopping-out is, of course, a means of creating variations in the printed intensity of etched lines. after a plate has etched for a certain time--depending on the artist's inclination--it may be removed from the acid and some of its lines covered with a stop-out varnish, similar in texture and acid resistance to the basic ground. the plate is then put back in the acid and the remaining lines etched more deeply. this can be repeated any number of times, giving a wide range of intensity to the various etched lines. no such wide range of etched lines appears in the finished print. further, where the edge of applied stop-out varnish crosses a single line, the change in depth of acid biting at that point is readily visible. again, no such change of depth of a single line is visible here. the inference, unless attributed to very long coincidence, seems probable that rembrandt used only a single acid etch on the entire plate, with no stopping-out. re-etching also seems unlikely. if the original ground has been removed from a plate, the entire plate must be re-grounded, without smoking or whitening, so that the previously etched lines show through. noticeably heavier etched lines appear at only a few places on this plate, principally in the grass at the lower right. it is probable that rembrandt used a number of etching needles of different widths. we do not see the typical changes in the lines produced by stopping-out or re-etching. re-etching of new lines crossing previously etched lines often causes a slight penetration of acid under the ground into the old lines. this shows in the printing as a dark spot at the point of crossing. such an effect is not found in this print. a similar result in the cross-hatching at the lower left is caused instead by drypoint lines crossing etched lines. no direct evidence has been found concerning the acid corrosive used by rembrandt to bite his plate.[ ] only tentative conclusions can be drawn from this and other prints. the etched lines in the _landscape with a hay barn_ ... appear to be bitten with a fairly strong acid. the lines are relatively broad in relation to their depth, a strong-acid effect. furthermore, illustrations of some of rembrandt's original plates from this period show a similar broad line.[ ] in addition, in the photograph (figure ) of at least one of the plates there is seen a peculiarly ragged line which is often caused by bubbles formed on the plate by acid action.[ ] this appearance of bubbles is characteristic only of the strong acids. of the acid formulae suggested by bosse in , only one--a distillate of vitriol, saltpeter, and alum--appears to be strong enough to produce the observed effects.[ ] generally speaking, rembrandt's later etchings show evidence of stronger acid biting than his earlier work, which has more of the characteristics of weak mordants.[ ] certainly, a strong acid would produce a much speedier biting and bolder etched lines, providing him with a solid foundation for his fine drypoint work, and enabling him to work continuously, with a minimum of delay. [illustration: figure detail of rembrandt's finished print, _landscape with a hay barn and a flock of sheep_, lower right, showing lines of pure etching. enlarged times. (smithsonian photo .)] [illustration: figure detail of the etched copper plate for rembrandt's print, _christ seated disputing with the doctors_. after coppier, p. . (smithsonian photo .)] [illustration: figure detail of rembrandt's finished print, _landscape with a hay barn and a flock of sheep_, far right, showing drypoint drawing of sheep and post. enlarged times. (smithsonian photo .)] rembrandt's use of drypoint is, as jakob rosenberg says, "the most important innovation in rembrandt's mature graphic work."[ ] after etching his skeletal design on the plate, he went to work with his drypoint needles--long, stiff, iron instruments--sharpened to a fine point. an artist generally has several available, so that he does not have to stop and re-sharpen in the course of his work. rembrandt evidently went even further and deliberately used dull needles to obtain certain light line effects. when the finished print is compared with the sketch of the etched lines alone, it can be seen how vital the drypoint is to rembrandt's whole conception. the needle held vertically and slightly dulled, for instance, produced the light shadings on the central hillock at lower left. the sharp needle, held at an angle, threw up the burr which printed as the rich blacks on both sides of the hay barn, along the bank of the stream, and on the road at left center. the sheep and post at the far right were completely drawn with drypoint, as was the shepherd of the flock at left center (figure ). it is interesting to note that the flock originally had two shepherds, evidently a man and a woman, standing at the center of the road and behind the flock.[ ] these figures were drawn in the ground and etched in the first stage of the print. rembrandt then must have decided that their proportion was wrong for his composition. he reworked the area, using a scraper or burnisher to flatten out his etched lines, and covered the remaining ghosts of the figures with a mesh of drypoint cross-hatching. he then added the single small figure of the shepherd boy entirely in drypoint. [illustration: figure detail of rembrandt's finished print, _landscape with a hay barn and a flock of sheep_, showing shepherd in drypoint, erased figures behind flock, signature, and date. enlarged times. (smithsonian photo .)] houbraken, writing in , talked of rembrandt's technical secrets, "which he would not let his pupils see."[ ] in truth, there are no secrets to this artist's _technique_ in the etching medium. but his mastery of the _art_ goes far beyond communicable secrets. footnotes [ ] hind (+a. m. hind+, _a catalogue of rembrandt's etchings_, vol., rev. ed., london, ), bartsch (+adam bartsch+, _catalogue raisonne de toutes les estampes ... de rembrandt_ ..., vienna, ). the particular example studied here is an impression of the second state (of two) in the collection of the united states national museum, smithsonian institution. the author wishes to express his deepest gratitude to jacob kainen, curator of graphic arts at the smithsonian institution, for his acute knowledge, unfailing helpfulness, and encouragement in the preparation of this paper. [ ] p. g. hamerton, for one, calls special attention to the technical importance of this print: "i recommend the student to familiarize himself with the workmanship of this plate...." (_the etchings of rembrandt_, london, , p. .) [ ] the date is unquestionably difficult to read. bartsch misread it as (op. cit., p. ). charles middleton (_descriptive catalogue of the etched work of rembrandt van ryn_, london, , p. ) was the first to identify the date as . this has been accepted by all modern authorities except george biörklund (_rembrandt's etchings: true and false_, stockholm, , no. -a, p. ) who reads it as . this seems unlikely to me, not only on the great stylistic affinity of this print to rembrandt's unquestioned works of , but also on the basis of my own reading of the date. the presumed digit " " is quite unlike the " " in hind's and , rembrandt's only dated prints of . (_see_ figure .) [ ] the general location of this scene, as well as many others in rembrandt's oeuvre, has been identified by frits lugt (_mit rembrandt in amsterdam_, berlin, , pp. - , revised from the original dutch, _wandelingen met rembrandt in en om amsterdam_, amsterdam, ; see also +lugt+, "rembrandt's amsterdam," _print collector's quarterly_, april , vol. , no. , pp. - , and the attached map). [ ] +cornelis hofstede de groot+, ed., _die urkunden über rembrandt ( - )_, the hague, . on the lawsuit, see nos. , , , - , , and . geertghe was taken to the institution on july , . [ ] on the financial troubles, starting in , see ibid., nos. ff. [ ] the exact number is, of course, impossible to determine, because of many uncertainties of attribution and dating. a. m. hind, op. cit., lists prints before the year , which seems as accurate a count as is possible. [ ] according to hind, op. cit., the landscapes nos. - and - are attributable to the years - . of the prints from these three years, are actually signed and dated by rembrandt. nine of these are landscapes. [ ] e.g., +c. j. holmes+, "the development of rembrandt as an etcher," _burlington magazine_ (august ), vol. , no. , p. . the well-known story of his having drawn "six's bridge" (hind ) on the plate while the servant went for the mustard is also often cited (e.g., +hind+, op. cit., p. ), but if true appears to be atypical. [ ] +otto benesch+, _the drawings of rembrandt_, vol., london, - . [ ] benesch no. , groningen (netherlands) museum, inv. no. , dated about , the wash added by another hand. this drawing was formerly in the personal collection of cornelis hofstede de groot and was first reproduced and discussed by otto hirschmann in "die handzeichnungen-sammlung dr. hofstede de groot im haag, ii," _der cicerone_ (leipzig, january ), vol. , no. / , pp. - . [ ] benesch , _a clump of trees_, the hermitage, leningrad, about - , and benesch , _farm building among trees_, albertina, vienna, inv. no. , hofstede de groot (_die handzeichnungen rembrandts_ ..., haarlem, ), about - . [ ] benesch , _farmstead with a hay barn_, copenhagen, about . [ ] benesch , _farm buildings beside a road with distant farmstead_, ashmolean museum, oxford, hofstede de groot , about , with later additions. ludwig münz (_rembrandt's etchings_, vols., london, , no. , vol. , p. ) cites two drawings, one in the ashmolean, one in the university gallery, oxford. since the two museums are now one and the same, münz appears to have confused two listings of the same drawing. mr. hugh macandrew of the ashmolean museum has very kindly confirmed, in a letter to the author, that in their collection there is only the one drawing which is similar to this print. there is yet another drawing, _farm with hay barn_, in the bonnat collection at the louvre, paris, hofstede de groot , which is cited by hind as a study sketch. though very similar to this print, in reverse, it is considered a school piece by both lugt and benesch. it is quite possible that one of rembrandt's pupils accompanied him on his walks and sketched many of the same subjects as the master. the drawing reproduced in +lugt+, _mit rembrandt_ ..., op. cit., fig. , is also not by rembrandt. [ ] joachim von sandrart, a former pupil of rembrandt, writing in , quoted in +hofstede de groot+, _die ... urkunden_, op. cit., no. , p. . [ ] the plate for the print under discussion here is not known to have survived. there are, however, still some rembrandt plates whose present locations are known. of these, are in the collection of robert lee humber, on deposit at the north carolina museum of art, raleigh, north carolina. these are discussed at some length by andré charles coppier (_les eaux-fortes de rembrandt_, paris, , pp. - ). he gives the chemical content of the plate for the _presentation in the temple_ (hind , about ), as % copper with impurities of tin, lead, zinc, arsenic, and silver. this may presumably be taken as typical. +münz+, op. cit., vol. , p. , gives a listing of the surviving plates, but mistakenly presumes the humber plates to be in the bibliothèque nationale, paris. as a matter of interest, the plate of the print, _the gold-weigher_ (hind ), said by münz to be in the rosenwald collection, philadelphia, is not and never has been in that collection. it is completely unknown to mr. lessing j. rosenwald and his curator. its present whereabouts is unknown to the author. [ ] _the whole art of drawing, painting, limning, and etching. collected out of the choicest italian and german authors.... originally invented and written by the famous italian painter odoardo fialetti, painter of boloign. published for the benefit of all ingenuous gentlemen and artists by alexander brown practitioner. london, printed for peter stint at the signe of the white horse in giltspurre street, and simon miller at the starre in st. paul's churchyard, mdclx._ page . london, . quoted by +münz+, op. cit., vol. , p. , who first discovered the reference. since fialetti died in , the reference to rembrandt's ground is likely to be by brown or an anonymous contemporary editor. [ ] +abraham bosse+, _traicté des manieres de graver en taille douce_ ..., paris, , p. . bosse's soft-ground formula, for comparison's sake, is three parts wax, two parts mastic, and one part asphaltum, which is very close to the cited rembrandt ground. [ ] numerous similar grounds are given in +e. s. lumsden+, _the art of etching_ (london: seeley service and co., ); reprint (new york: dover publications, inc., ), pp. - . [ ] loc. cit. (footnote ). [ ] some etchers, however, prefer this effect. cf. +lumsden+, op. cit., p. . [ ] +münz+, op. cit., vol. , p. , quotes this letter without giving the source. evidently this is the first written reference to white ground. [ ] op. cit., pp. - . knowledge of the process seems to have disappeared completely during the th and th centuries. hubert herkomer, writing in , believed that he had invented the white ground for the first time (_etching and mezzotint engraving_, london, , pp. and ). [ ] the etching is hind . the drawing (benesch , hofstede de groot ) is in the british museum. the black chalk has been confirmed (see footnote ). it is also clear that the backing is not graphite, which would, of course, show up on a black ground as well as a white one. [ ] the etching is hind . the drawing (benesch , hofstede de groot ) is in the british museum. some scholarly misinformation has unfortunately been passed on for years. +münz+, op. cit., vol. , p. , cites jan six ("rembrandt's vorbereiding ...," _onze kunst_, , ii, p. ), who in turn cites the personal observation of a. m. hind of the british museum, to the effect that this drawing of anslo was backed with black chalk. the two drawings had apparently not been lifted from their mounts in something like sixty years. in answer to the author's inquiry, mr. j. k. rowlands, assistant keeper, department of prints and drawings, the british museum, very kindly wrote: "i can now tell you about the backs of h. and h. [that is, the drawings for these two prints], which have now been lifted. the reverse of _the woman bathing_ [_diana at the bath_] has the remains of black unrefined chalk upon it and the portrait of anslo is backed with ochre tempera. i think this news will interest you." i am most grateful to mr. rowlands and his staff for their trouble and kindness. [ ] an excellent example of this type of line is seen in the horizon lines on the left, which in this case were added only after several proofs had been pulled from the plate. the addition of these lines constitutes the difference between the recorded first and second states of this print. [ ] the documents on this story were first published by bredius in ("rembrandt als plaatsnijder," _oud-holland_, v. , pp. f.) and have been frequently cited since then. the print is the portrait of jan antonides van der linden (hind ). [ ] confusion has arisen over a note, clearly in rembrandt's hand, on one of his drawings (benesch , hofstede de groot , dated about - ). the dutch text is given in +benesch+, op. cit., vol. , p. . it reads, "in order to etch ...," and gives a recipe consisting of turpentine and turpentine oil. this, of course, could not possibly be a mordant. münz discusses it (op. cit., vol. , p. ) and concludes that with the addition of mastic, this could be a kind of stop-out varnish. we are not likely to come closer to an answer for this cryptic inscription. [ ] +coppier+, op. cit. [ ] _ibid._, p. . detail of plate for hind , dated . [ ] +bosse+, op. cit., pp. and . vitriol is copper or iron sulfate, saltpeter is potassium nitrate, and alum is an aluminum sulfate salt. bosse's other two acids are distilled pure vinegar (acetic acid) and a boiled mixture of vinegar and chloride salts. both are relatively weak. my thanks to dr. robert p. multhauf for his advice on th-century chemistry. [ ] +felix brunner+ (_a handbook of graphic reproduction processes_, new york: hastings house, , p. ), suggests that rembrandt may have used ferric chloride, a weaker mordant, around . [ ] +rosenberg+, _rembrandt: life and work_ (london: phaidon press, rev. ed., ), p. . [ ] my gratitude to jacob kainen for first pointing out the existence of these disembodied spirits. [ ] arnold houbraken, quoted in +hofstede de groot+, _die urkunden_ ..., op. cit., no. , p. . u.s. government printing office: for sale by the superintendent of documents, u.s. government printing office washington, d. c. price cents the essentials of illustration a practical guide to the reproduction of drawings & photographs for the use of scientists & others by t. g. hill reader in vegetable physiology in the university of london, university college london william wesley & son essex street, strand printed by the westminster press, london, w. contents page intaglio printing intaglio plates line engraving etching soft-ground etching mezzotint photogravure plane surface printing lithography chromolithography photolithographic processes collotype the preparation of illustrated pages relief printing woodcuts and engravings the half-tone process the half-tone three-colour process photomechanical line blocks the drawing of microscopic details the drawing of diagrams and apparatus the drawing of maps the drawing of graphs or curves the swelled gelatine process the relative cost of blocks and plates by various processes literature illustrations . plates plate an original lithograph by mr. harry becker. chromolithograph. messrs. gerrards, ltd. - collotype. messrs. andré, sleigh & anglo, ltd. half tone. swan electric engraving co., ltd. half tone. \ | photogravure. | | collotype. | messrs. andré, sleigh & > anglo, ltd. half tone. | | half tone. | | half tone three colour. / . text figures tailpiece, p. . electrotype from the original wood engraving by bewick. tailpiece, p. . line block. messrs. bourne & co. fig. . wood engraving. messrs. edmund evans, ltd. fig. . wood cut. mr. g. n. oliver. figs. - . line blocks. messrs. andré, sleigh & anglo, ltd. figs. and . line blocks, reproductions of a wood engraving. mr. c. butterworth. fig. . line block. figs. - . line blocks, reproductions of wood engravings. fig. . line block. fig. . line block. messrs. andré, sleigh & anglo, ltd. fig. . line block. swan electric engraving co., ltd. fig. . line block. messrs. andré, sleigh & anglo, ltd. figs. - . line blocks. figs. - . line blocks. messrs. bourne & co. figs. and . line blocks. fig. . line block. messrs. bourne & co. fig. . line block. figs. and . line blocks. messrs. andré, sleigh & anglo, ltd. fig. . line block. mr. c. butterworth. fig. . line block. messrs. andré, sleigh & anglo, ltd. fig. . line block. mr. c. butterworth. figs. and . line blocks. figs. and . line blocks. messrs. andré, sleigh & anglo, ltd. fig. . line block. messrs. bourne & co. fig. . lithograph reproduced by the swelled gelatine process. artists illustrators, ltd. tailpiece, p. . line block. messrs. andré, sleigh & anglo, ltd. preface modern scientific publications, although they may in some or even many cases equal in their scientific quality the memoirs of earlier workers, do not, on the average, reach a high standard as regards illustration. for instance, in great britain botany is pre-eminent in its morphological aspects; it should therefore follow that the illustrations, which form so important a part of such papers, should be beyond reproach. this is not always so, a fact which must be patent to anyone with the slightest critical knowledge who looks through a typical journal. this is a fact much to be regretted, since many of the earlier scientists were accomplished draughtsmen and, indeed, often artists; in this connection the hookers and professor daniel oliver may be mentioned. the implication is not intended that there are no good amateur draughtsmen nowadays; there are, and in some cases possessed of great ability. the beautiful work of church in his floral mechanisms may be cited as an example. it may, of course, be argued that any picture which serves to illustrate the particular feature is good enough; this is the contention of one who takes an insufficient pride in his work. a feature worthy of an illustration deserves the best the author can produce, more especially as a literary form is still, fortunately, preserved or, at any rate, aimed at. the reason for indifferent illustrations is primarily due to bad or mediocre drawings, or to their unsuitability for the kind of reproduction in view. with regard to the first point: this lack of draughtsmanship often obtains; when education entirely replaces mere instruction, it is to be hoped that all students of science will be trained in the rudiments of drawing. meanwhile the difficulty can be partly overcome, as will be seen later on, by the simple means of drawing on an enlarged scale, in order that in reproduction reduction can be made. the second reason, the onus of which also falls on the authors, is a lack of knowledge regarding the kind of drawing suitable for the different modes of reproduction; this is a very important point, for "technical conditions govern even genius itself." authors, however, are not always to blame; it would appear that even editors sometimes are wanting in the requisite knowledge, for we have known straightforward line drawings reproduced by half-tone; in other cases the paper used is unsuitable for the reproduction and, at other times, the printers are at fault. with a view to remedying, at any rate in part, these deficiencies, a course of lectures, arranged by the board of studies in botany of the university of london, was delivered in the lent term of in the department of botany of university college, london. in gratifying the wish expressed by some that these lectures should be given a more permanent dress, the author feels that some apology is necessary, for he can lay no claim to authoritative knowledge of much of the subject-matter; questions relating to the graphic arts and to illustrations, however, have always been of interest to him, so that he has tried various experiments, often with disastrous results, and thus has gained some experience. in these matters the author has benefited much through his association with professor f. w. oliver, who, characteristically, has been ever ready to discuss these problems with, and to place his knowledge and experience at the disposal of the author. the outline of the ways and means of illustration contained in the following pages is primarily intended for ordinary working scientists, not for artists, professional draughtsmen or skilled amateurs. the point of view is mainly botanical, primarily because the present writer is a botanist and also because the requirements of modern botany in the way of illustrations are more extensive than those of any other science; the requirements of other sciences, however, have not been overlooked. with regard to other branches of knowledge, the principles considered will, it is hoped, prove of some value to the workers therein. the details of technique have been kept as brief as possible; in fact, sufficient only has been said to indicate the main principles involved. in the literature cited, to which the author is indebted particularly for matters relating to technique, will be found full, and sometimes exhaustive, accounts. with regard to the illustrations, these have been selected to illustrate the various methods of reproduction described or to demonstrate the points raised. in those instances where the source has not been acknowledged or the draughtsman or photographer mentioned by name, the figure is by the author: and since the actual making of plates and blocks is of considerable importance, the firms, when known, responsible for their making are mentioned in the table of illustrations. in this connexion the author desires to express his appreciation of the skill shewn and care taken by messrs. andré, sleigh and anglo, limited, who prepared the majority of the new illustrations which appear in the following pages. the author is indebted to many who have helped in various ways in the production of his work; particularly is he desirous of expressing his warmest thanks to miss o. johnston for the charming drawing of _geranium columbinum_ (plate ) and to mr. harry becker for his beautiful lithograph (plate ). to miss s. m. baker, dr. w. g. ridewood, and miss winifred smith thanks are due for the loan of original drawings; also to mr. edward hunter and mr. hugh hunter for information regarding matters of technique and cost. the number of illustrations would have been less but for the generosity of messrs. chapman and hall, the editors of the "annals of botany," "the imprint," and the "new phytologist," professor f. w. oliver and mr. g. n. oliver in lending blocks. recognition also must be made of the kindness of mr. richard g. hatton in consenting to the use of certain blocks from his admirable "craftsman's handbook," of the delegates of the clarendon press for permission to reproduce figure , and of messrs. frederick warne and co. for permission to make use of the wood engraving by messrs. edmund evans, ltd., of kate greenaway's charming milkmaid. finally, the author desires to express his sincerest thanks to mr. gerard t. meynell, of the westminster press, for the keen interest he has taken in the work, for his help with the illustrations, and for the great care he has taken in the production of the book. university college, london _january, ._ intaglio printing in the biological sciences the massing of illustrations into plates is still the favourite method of illustration, although text-figures have recently become more numerous. this is partly due to innate conservatism, for most of the earlier memoirs were so illustrated, doubtless because it saved time, since if wood engravings were used with a view to text-figures, the compositor had to wait for the blocks, whereas in the case of plates the compositor and the engraver worked independently. also the possibilities of plates are enormous; they may be very beautiful indeed besides being biologically satisfactory, for much finer results can be obtained by engraving metal than by engraving wood. then again there are many different processes available for the making of plates, so that if one proves unsuitable for a subject an excellent reproduction may be obtained by another. before passing on it is desirable to point out the essential differences in the three ways of printing. _intaglio printing._ if the finger-tips be examined, many ridges and furrows will be seen on their under surfaces; if now a thick ink be well rubbed into these so as to fill well the furrows, and the superfluous ink be wiped off from the general surface, an impression will be obtained of the furrows on pressing the fingers on to a piece of smooth white paper. better still, if the copper plate of a visiting card be examined, the name will be found cut into the surface. if an intimate mixture of tallow and lamp-black be well rubbed into these depressions and the excess of ink wiped off the surface of the plate, an impression can be obtained by placing a piece of damp paper on the plate and passing both through the domestic mangle--the kind with rubber-covered rollers. in each case the principle is the same, the pressure forces the paper into the depressions of the plate so that it takes up the ink. _plane surface printing._ this is characteristic of lithography and allied processes. writing or a design well chalked on a blackboard can be transferred on to a smooth piece of paper merely by a little vigorous rubbing on the back of the paper placed in position over the drawing. the transfers of childhood provide a further simple illustration, so also does the hectograph (jellygraph). _relief printing._ in this case, the design is raised above the general surface of the substance. a rubber stamp is an obvious example. it will be noticed that intaglio and relief are the reverse one of the other, whilst plane-surface printing is intermediate between these extremes. in intaglio, the ink is taken from a depression; in relief from an elevation; and in flat printing from a plane surface. intaglio plates. there are several methods of making intaglio plates, but only a few are used in the illustration of scientific papers; attention however may be drawn to the others, not only for their own sake, but also on account of their influence on some modern photo-mechanical processes. line-engraving. line engraving, by which is meant cutting lines into copper, steel, or other suitable material with a burin or graver, is a very ancient art. its employment for illustrative purposes is an outcome of the art of the metal workers--particularly the florentine goldsmiths of the fifteenth century--who filled up the lines cut in the metal with a black enamel of silver and lead sulphides (niello) which was made by heating together a mixture of these metals with sulphur. this enamel when once in was very hard to remove, so that in order to see how their lines were progressing, the artists rubbed well into the metal, in order to fill up the lines, a sticky ink. the superfluous ink was then wiped off the general surface of the metal and a piece of paper was placed in position and pressed sufficiently hard to make it enter the depressions, which alone contained the pigment, and take up the ink. a print was thus obtained of the work and so its state was ascertained. metal engraving is carried out in the same fashion at the present time. a flat plate of copper or steel is well polished and is worked upon with a graver or burin, so that the picture is represented by lines cut into the metal. any line, however fine, will give an impression on printing, hence it is hardly surprising that engraving has long been a popular means of expression by artists, since force, depth and delicacy are possible of attainment. the printing is carried out in exactly the same way as by the early metal workers: the plate is covered with a thick ink which is forced well into the lines and then the superfluous ink is removed. the plate is now ready for printing; to do this, the plate is placed in the bed of a copper-plate press and over it is laid a sheet of damped paper which is covered with two or three layers of blanket. the whole is then passed under the roller which forces the paper into the incised lines, so that not only is the ink picked out, but a mould of them is taken on the paper, hence the very finest lines will give an impression. having passed through the press the paper is carefully peeled off, and thus the print is obtained. with regard to the metal employed, copper is commonly used, since it is soft and easy to work; its softness however is, in a sense, a disadvantage, since the plate will soon wear, the finest lines being the first to go, so that a limited edition of good impressions only is possible. to overcome this difficulty, the plate may be faced with steel, by which means it is rendered very durable. steel, although once popular, is not much used nowadays owing to its hardness and the rapidity with which it rusts. as compared with copper engravings, steel gives a somewhat harder line, whilst copper gives a soft line, but this, of course, does not mean that steel engravings are harsh; the finest work can be done on steel and of remarkable delicacy. at the present day line engraving is seldom or never used as a means of illustrating scientific work. it is obvious that the average scientist has not the time and he certainly does not possess the skill to make his own plates; the engraver must translate the originals into lines, so that much consultation would be necessary. further, a line engraving takes a long time to make, and most publishers would certainly look at the expense. in the past, however, the line engraving was much used, and very beautiful work was often accomplished. the following works contain outstanding examples. bojanus: _anatome testudinis europaeæ_, vilnae, - . the plates are beautiful engravings by lehmann after the drawings by the author. chatin: _anatomie comparée des végétaux_. good steel engravings illustrating the structure of various plants. curtis: _flora londinensis_, london, . the illustrations are hand-coloured copper engravings by sowerby and others, many of which, particularly the earlier ones, are of outstanding excellence. the engraving is often nothing more than the mere outline of the plant, whilst in cases where the structures are more massive, a certain amount of shading is used. the colouring is very good indeed, and it is obvious that much care was taken not only in the actual painting but also in the choice of pigments which, as far as can be judged, are as fresh now as when first used. _curtis's botanical magazine_ and _edwards's botanical register_ contain some excellent examples of hand-coloured copper engravings. levaillant: _histoire naturelle des oiseaux d'afrique_. paris, - . this work contains beautifully coloured engravings by feesard. the original drawings were by reinold. lyonet: _traite anatomique de la chenille_. la haye, . the plates are amongst the best illustrative of zoological science. martius: _flora brasiliensis_. the earlier volumes, _e.g._, vol. , part i, contain excellent engravings. passæus: _hortus floridus_. arnheim, - . sowerby and smith: _english botany_. london, - . the illustrations are hand-coloured copper engravings. thuret et bornet: _etudes phycologiques_. paris, . this work contains the finest plates ever published in a botanical work. riocreux drew from the preparations, and his drawings were engraved on steel by picart, thomas and others. etching. etching is a term very loosely used; strictly speaking it consists in corroding a metal plate or a flat stone with acid, or other substance possessed of a kindred action, so that depressions are formed. a pen and ink drawing, although usually so termed, is not an etching. briefly the method is this: a well polished copper, steel or zinc plate is covered with a substance, known as the etching ground, consisting commonly of a mixture of asphaltum, white wax and pitch, which resists the action of the acid. the ground may be laid in more than one way; the simplest, perhaps, is to dissolve the etching ground in some solvent such as chloroform, which readily volatilises, and to pour the solution on to the plate, which is tilted this way and that until the liquid is evenly distributed; the excess is poured off and what remains is allowed to dry, the plate being kept level during the process. the plate is then warmed until the ground is softened, when it is held over a smoking candle and is rapidly moved here and there so that if properly done the fine soot is evenly incorporated in the ground. when the plate is cold, the drawing may be made by cutting through the etching ground, so as to expose the underlying copper, with needles of various sizes. the work is then etched by means of dilute nitric acid. when this is satisfactorily accomplished, the ground is cleaned off, the plate well inked with copperplate ink, and the surface ink removed by coarse muslin. the plate is then gone over with fine muslin, but the ink must not be removed from the depressions; finally the damped paper is placed in position and impressions obtained by the use of the copper-plate press. etching, although suitable, especially when natural-printed,[a] for the illustration of many scientific subjects, is but seldom employed at the present time for this purpose; the preliminary announcement of warburg's _die pflanzenwelt_, however, states that some of the illustrations are etchings. [footnote a: a plate is said to be natural-printed when all the ink is removed except from the depressions; in artificial printing some ink is allowed to remain on the flat parts. artists frequently, after removing the superfluous ink, lightly dab the plate in order to make the pigment spread slightly beyond the actual limits of the depressions; this is known as _retroussage_.] soft-ground etching. this is a somewhat rare method of reproduction nowadays; it may, however, be described briefly, for it would appear to be suitable for scientific purposes, since it should not prove a matter of great difficulty for an author who is a sufficiently skilled draughtsman to make his own plates. the polished copper plate is laid with ordinary ground to which is added lard in a quantity according to the warmth of the weather. over the plate is then placed a sheet, larger than the plate by an inch or two, of damp, thin, grained paper, the edges of which are folded over and pasted to the back of the plate. when the paper is dry it will be well stretched and in close contact with the plate. with the hand resting on a bridge, in order to avoid inadvertent touching of the plate, the drawing is made on the paper with a pencil of a hardness suited to the softness or otherwise of the etching ground. when the drawing is finished the paper is carefully removed; wherever the pencil has been used, the etching ground will adhere to the paper, so that in such places the metal will be exposed. the plate is then etched and printed as in the normal process. no reproductions of drawings of scientific subjects apparently have been reproduced by this method. examples can conveniently be examined in _the seven lamps of architecture_ by ruskin. mezzotint. the characteristic feature of mezzotint is that the subject is translated into tones rather than lines as in the preceding intaglio methods. the surface of a smooth metal plate--usually copper--is raised into innumerable and minute projections by going over it in all directions with a curved steel tool, known as a rocker, the edge of which is finely toothed. an impression taken of the plate in this condition will give a deep rich tone. the high lights are obtained by scraping and burnishing away the elevations so that there are no pits left to hold the ink, and, similarly, intermediate tones are produced by partly removing the pile so that the pits are made of varying degrees of shallowness and consequently will print in tones according to their depth. impressions are taken in the same way as in the case of etchings. mezzotint apparently has never been used for the reproduction of scientific subjects. indeed, in a sense, this process is much too artistic for the purpose. at their best, illustrations reproduced by this method have mystery and depth and give the imagination much employ; in a word, they are subjective rather than objective, qualities unsuited for our purpose. photogravure. photogravure may next be considered, for although it is a photo-mechanical process, it corresponds to mezzotint. excellent results may be obtained by its use provided the drawings--usually executed in monochrome such as sepia--be really good, otherwise they are hardly worth reproducing by this relatively expensive method.[a] [footnote a: this account refers only to plates made and printed entirely by hand, not to photogravure for printing on a rotary machine.] photogravure is particularly suitable for the reproduction of drawings showing a large amount of detail and made up of a variety of tones rather than lines or stipple. the photographic part of the process is essentially the same as making a carbon print from a photographic negative. this consists in exposing under the negative the carbon tissue, which is a mixture of gelatine, in which is dissolved bichromate of potash, and a suitable pigment. such a film of bichromate gelatine is, when dry, sensitive to light. if no light gains access to it, the gelatine is readily soluble in warm water; if light acts upon it, the gelatine becomes insoluble in proportion to the degree of its exposure. obviously, the pigment will be retained in varying degrees according to the relative insolubility of the different parts of the gelatine. the carbon tissue having been exposed, is rolled down on a wet sheet of paper covered with some adhesive and is dried under pressure. the paper is then soaked in warm water when the basis of the carbon tissue easily peels off; the picture is developed by laving in warm water, which will dissolve the gelatine in proportion to its exposure to the light. the print when dry is remarkably permanent and, from the picturesque point of view, is infinitely superior to the ordinary silver print. the method of making the photogravure plate is, in outline, as follows: the original drawing is photographed, and it is very important that the negative should be as perfect as possible. from the negative, a positive is made upon transparency carbon tissue which is mounted upon a sheet of plate glass. the procedure is, in essentials, exactly the same as described above for the making of a carbon print. this positive when dry may be touched up; after which a negative, which also may be touched up, is made from it upon an ordinary sheet of carbon tissue. the negative so obtained is transferred to a prepared plate of copper, developed with warm water and dried. the copper plate is prepared as follows: after being well polished until quite free from all scratches, the surface is dusted over with finely powdered resin or, more usually, bitumen. the plate is then heated until the dust adheres. after the carbon negative has been stuck on to the plate, developed and dried, the margins and back of the copper are protected with an acid-resisting varnish. when dry, the plate is placed in the etching bath of nitric acid or, more generally, of ferric chloride. the etching fluid will pass through the thinnest parts of the negative first, so that the surface of the copper will be etched to a degree corresponding to the thickness of the gelatine. the high lights on the negative obviously will be represented by thick coatings of gelatine, consequently such parts will be but slightly etched and vice versâ. if the plate had not been laid with resin, the surface after etching would show more or less extensive depressions and elevations; but the grains of resin protect the copper immediately beneath them from the action of the acid, which consequently can only dissolve the exposed parts of the metal between the resinous particles. the result is, therefore, that the plate is covered over with numberless fine pits of varying depths. the deepest ones will, on printing, give the darkest tones, since they will hold more ink, the shallower ones will give the lighter tones, whilst the shallowest and those parts unetched will give the high lights. the plate is usually etched three or four times successively in varying strengths of fluid, after which the etching ground and gelatine is cleaned off. a strong copper-plate ink is then well rubbed in by means of a dabber, after which the ink from the surface is removed, first with a coarse piece of muslin and finally, with fine muslin. the ink must not be removed from the pits. the first pull is then taken as in a line engraving with a copper-plate press, and its appearance shows what corrections are necessary. the plate nearly always requires a certain amount of engraving; the high lights may be improved by means of a burnisher, the shadows by means of a rocker or a roulette--a small steel wheel the rim of which is beset with fine teeth--and so on. finally, if a large edition is required, the plate is steel faced. although much used for the reproduction of pictures, photogravure is too rarely employed for scientific purposes; this is to be regretted, for the process is admirably suited to the reproduction of photographs and drawings with delicate tones. as compared with the usual half-tone, the cost is high, and this no doubt militates against its use. examples of outstanding excellence will be found in the _new phytologist_, vol. xi, , plates and . these are absolute facsimiles of the original drawings by mr. mclean, both as regards colour and reproduction of tones. plate may also be examined and compared with plates and which are reproductions of the same subject in collotype and half-tone respectively. plane surface printing [illustration: plate .--an original lithograph by mr. harry becker.] plane surface printing lithography. of these methods of printing, lithography is the outstanding example: it is a method of reproduction possessed of great possibilities, for by its employment a facsimile of any drawing can be obtained. as a means of artistic expression it ranks high amongst the graphic arts, and, for the reproduction of drawings of a scientific nature, it is very popular, since it meets most requirements and is comparatively inexpensive. the art, which was discovered by senefelder towards the end of the eighteenth century, depends on the fact that grease and water are immiscible: a drawing made with a greasy pigment upon a suitable surface adheres very strongly, whilst those parts free from it retain water, so that when damped and rolled up (_i.e._, inked), the ink used will stick only to the lines, etc., of the drawing, but not to the other parts. clearly the surface is all important, and this is provided by lithographic stone, a limestone occurring in germany, france, england and canada. the best stones occur at solenhofen near munich, those from other localities being inferior in quality. incidentally it may be mentioned that zinc and aluminium plates are not infrequently used in place of stone. lithographic stones vary in hardness, colour and grain. for the best work the stone should be homogeneous and of a hardness suitable for the subject; the colour affords an indication of the hardness, the lighter-coloured stones, which are much the commoner, being softer than the darker. there are two modes of procedure; the drawing may be made direct on the stone with lithographic ink or crayon--both being mixtures of tallow, wax, soap and shellac, with a sufficiency of pigment to render the drawing visible to the artist--or else the drawing may be made upon transfer paper. the former method, although the more satisfactory and often used by artists, is seldom pursued in scientific drawings except when professional draughtsmen are employed. in such cases it may be necessary to reverse the drawing, which is conveniently done by viewing it in a mirror, and, of course, all lettering must be reversed. the majority of amateur draughtsmen make their drawings in pencil or ink and these the lithographer traces upon lithographic transfer paper and transfers them to the stone; he, the lithographer, may merely trace the salient features and work the drawing up on the stone. the transfer papers are coated with gelatine, starch or gum, or mixtures of these substances, the idea being to interpose between the real paper and the pigment--in the form of lithographic crayon or ink--some substance soluble in water which will hold the pigment and prevent it soaking into the paper, so that a transfer has only to be damped through the back, pressed on to the stone and peeled off. the work, together with more or less of the film, will thus be transferred on to the stone and, of course, will be reversed, since the part uppermost on the stone will be the back of the original drawing. the original drawings may be made upon the transfer paper direct, and in so doing mistakes in tracing will be obviated. suitable papers are made for various purposes, e.g., smooth for ink work and variously granulated for crayon (see plate , which was drawn by mr. harry becker on transfer paper). another advantage in drawing directly upon the transfer paper is that the draughtsman can make corrections pretty easily for, if needs be, a bad piece of work can be entirely cut out and a fresh piece of paper inserted. assuming that the transfer method has been employed, the stone must be prepared according as the drawing is made with ink or with crayon. the stone is first thoroughly ground, in order to rid it of all traces of previous work, and then polished for ink work or grained--_i.e._ roughened--for crayon work, the small points produced taking up the crayon in proportion to the amount present on the transfer and the pressure used. the transfer is then damped with water, sometimes with a dilute solution of nitric acid, and placed in position on the stone, which is then passed two or three times through the lithographic press until dry. then the back of the paper is damped and the sheet peeled off. the stone is next proved, _i.e._, prepared for printing. it is first carefully examined for broken lines and other blemishes, which are touched up with ink or crayon. the stone is then painted over with a solution of gum in water which is allowed to dry, it is then washed in water and rolled up with ink. the drawing will now be clearly visible, for if properly inked the clear parts of the stone will not take the pigment, so that any parts which require cleaning up may be deleted. this is accomplished by means of a pencil of snake stone, a piece of pumice stone, an acid stump--a rod of hard wood, the sharpened end of which is dipped into nitric acid--or with a scraper. the stone is again washed and rolled up strongly with ink and etched with a dilute solution of nitric acid which is applied with a sponge; then the surface is again gummed and the stone allowed to dry. it is sometimes necessary to re-etch the stone; if so, the damp stone is rolled up with thin ink and allowed to dry, it is then dusted over with finely powdered resin, the superfluous resin is removed by means of a wet sponge, and the surface is painted over with a solution of gum arabic mixed with dilute nitric acid. if the resin is well incorporated with the ink, the work will suffer no damage in the process. the acid gum is then dabbed off with a rag, the stone is cleaned up with turpentine, rolled up once more, gummed and finally set aside to dry. all this appears complicated, but it is very necessary to get a good surface for printing. the action of the gum does not appear to be clearly understood, the nitric acid obviously will etch the stone, so that the gum will easily penetrate. it is sometimes supposed that the arabic acid of the gum enters into a chemical composition with the calcium carbonate, making a film which is the real ink-resisting surface. this film has not a long life, so that in printing it is necessary to renew it periodically by the application of gum solution. if possible, the stone should be allowed to rest for a day or two after proving, in order that the ink may sink well in. before printing, the gum is washed off and the stone allowed to remain in the press-room until its temperature is the same as its surroundings. the stone is then thoroughly and evenly damped all over, placed in the press, and rolled up with lithographic ink; the paper is then laid on, and the whole passed through the lithographic press. after the first few pulls it will be seen whether all is well. the essentials of a good impression are these: the lines must be black and not grey, provided black ink is used; the lines must not be wider or blacker ("smutty") than those on the stone, nor must they be ragged or broken ("rotten"). in printing, the stone must be damped and inked before each impression is taken, and occasionally re-gumming is required. good printing requires a considerable amount of ability, especially in the case of crayon drawings. the paper used is a very important matter, the selection of which can be safely left to the lithographer, provided he be a good one, unless the author possesses the necessary technical knowledge. if a smooth paper is required, and the paper is not to be damped before printing, india paper is best and plate paper next best. all coarse or grained papers must be damped before printing. as has already been remarked, lithography is a good process for scientific work; but, unfortunately, considering the number of lithographic plates published, really first-class examples are rare. this is largely due to the original draughtsman; it is unreasonable to expect a lithographer, in all probability ignorant of the subject of the plate, to turn out first-class reproductions of drawings which are obviously bad. on the other hand, lithographers vary greatly in their capabilities, and indifferent plates may be entirely due to their ability not being first rate. as drawings have to be traced, mistakes are apt to occur; the proofs should, therefore, be carefully examined, for a certain amount of correction can be made on the stone. the following works contain excellent lithographs, which should be studied by those interested in the subject. bornet et thuret: _notes algologiques_. paris, - . this contains some of the best work, illustrative of science, known to the present author. the original drawings mostly were made by bornet, and the lithography was carried out by riocreux--one of the best if not the greatest of botanical artists--arnoul, picart and pierre. davis and thurnam: _crania britannica_. london, . mirbel: _sur le cambium_, paris, . the plates provide excellent examples of ink lithography by laplante. von mohl: _schriften botanischen inhalts_. tübingen, . good examples by federer. the first volumes of the _annales des sciences naturelles_ (paris) may be referred to for lithographic work earlier than the above ( ). for more modern examples the following may be consulted: blackman and welsford: _fertilisation in lilium_, annals of botany, vol. , . gravis: _recherches anatomiques sur les organes végétatifs de l'urtica dioica_, bruxelles, . this memoir contains both good and indifferent plates. keibel: _normentafeln zu entwicklungsgeschichte der wirbeltiere_, jena, . reed: _a study of the enzyme-secreting cells in the seedlings of zea mais and ph[oe]nix dactylifera_. annals of botany, vol. , . semon: _zoologische forschungsreisen in australien_, jena, . vaizey: _on the morphology of the sporophyte of splachnum luteum_, annals of botany, vol. , . woodburn: _spermatogenesis in blasia pusilla_, annals of botany, vol. , . several memoirs in the _fauna und flora des golfes von neapel_ (berlin) are illustrated by excellent lithographic plates. many good examples of chromolithography also will be found there. chromolithography. lithography is much used for the reproduction of coloured pictures and illustrations, the process being termed chromolithography. the principles involved are the same as for ordinary work, but it is necessary to print from several stones, one for each colour. it is obvious that much skill is required, for the employment of different colours will give a large number of secondary and tertiary tints when printed one above the other in various combinations. thus, by printing part of a design in yellow and the other part in blue, the finished product would show three colours--yellow, green and blue, and by the use of three primary colours a large number of different tints may be obtained. as already mentioned, each colour is printed by a separate stone, there is thus no limit--excepting that of expense--to the number of different colours which can be obtained. in practice it is usual to make an outline of the essential parts of the composition on a stone, known as the keystone, which is not necessarily used in printing the picture. an impression of this outline is taken upon a sheet of paper, which is used to transfer the design on to the stones, on each of which the artist will draw only those parts which he desires to be printed in one particular pigment. although the sequence of colours is generally blue, red and yellow, it is obvious that various changes in this order must be made according to the colours used and the exact tint required. for instance, a body colour such as cadmium yellow would precede a glaze such as madder-lake; again, two distinct tints may be obtained from red and blue, for example, according to the order of printing--red upon blue will give a mauve, whilst blue upon red will give a purple. a knowledge of pigments is thus all important, and in printing, the superposition must be perfect. plate is an example of a chromolithograph. miss o. johnston first drew the outline of the plant, which was phototransferred on to the stone. an impression was then pulled and tinted by the artist, and from this tinted impression the colour stones were made by the lithographer. it may be added that only three colours were used in printing the plate. examples: baur: _einführung in die experimentelle vererbungslehre_ (plate ). berlin, . bruce and others: _a note on the occurrence of a trypanosome in the african elephant_. proceedings of the royal society of london, b. vol. , . cropper: _the development of a parasite of earthworms_. _id._ vol. , . oliver: _on sarcodes sanguinea_. annals of botany, vol. , - . rubbel: _ueber perlen_ ... zoologische jahrbuecher, vol. , - . biometrika, - , vol. , plate . mention has been made of the value of a knowledge of colours. the subject is much too extensive to be considered adequately on the present occasion even if it were desirable; its importance, however, warrants a few passing remarks.[a] [footnote a: see ridgway: _color standards and color nomenclature_.] no two people will describe in the same way the colour of, say, a rose petal; both will have a different conception of the colour "crimson." the majority have but a limited sense of colour, and even when this faculty is possessed, the personal equation looms large; further, the ordinary names of colours are quite inadequate for descriptive purposes. for these reasons the importance of a scientific system of colour nomenclature and colour standards is all important. by the use of such a scheme, the exact colour of an object can be found by comparison with an adequate chart, and the name there given will convey to others exactly what colour is described or desired. the plumage of a bird or the colour of a flower can thus be described correctly, and an author can indicate exactly the colour desired in certain parts of a chromolithograph or other reproduction in colour. [illustration: plate .--geranium columbinum. a chromolithographic reproduction of a drawing by miss o. johnston] photolithographic processes.--of these methods of reproduction there are several, their value lying in the fact that the originals can be reduced or enlarged with the greatest of ease. the general principles are as follows. a photographic negative is taken of the original drawing and a positive made on a film of bichromate gelatine. wherever light reaches the film, the gelatine is rendered more or less insoluble according to the intensity of the light acting upon it; through the dark parts of the negative but little light will pass, so that the gelatine will remain soluble. the exposure of the positive having been made, the film, which may be mounted on paper, is inked with lithographic ink in the dark room and then washed. the pigment will adhere to those parts acted on by light, but will wash away from those regions unacted upon; obviously the half-tones will retain ink in direct proportion to their density. the developed positive is then transferred to a stone or zinc plate and impressions taken as in pure lithography for the dark parts are resistant to water and will take the ink, whilst the high lights will retain water and so will not be inked. the intermediate tones will take the pigment according to their density. in distinction to the previous methods, corrections cannot be made except in so far as the negative can be touched up. collotype.--of the various photolithographic methods which have from time to time been employed, collotype is the one in most general use at the present time, especially for the reproduction of photographs. collotype is a simple process which does not require so extensive a technical knowledge and ability as some of those previously described. but notwithstanding this, the results are sometimes unsatisfactory and unequal; faults due to indifferent originals and to unsatisfactory conditions obtaining in the work rooms. the great drawbacks to good collotype are cold and dampness, and it is for these reasons that continental firms, blessed with a more stable climate, often produce much the best work. provided the workshops are properly heated, the collotypers of this country ought to be able to turn out good work at all times of the year; indeed, the best firms do. for this and for other processes in which photographs form the originals to be reproduced, authors should send the negative to the collotyper; if this be impossible, positives of the best possible quality, printed on ordinary p.o.p. paper, toned to various shades of purple, and also on smooth bromide paper, in ordinary black tones, should be provided in order that the collotyper can choose the print he most prefers to work with. also, it is usual to glaze the prints. the method is as follows. a piece of british plate glass, about half-an-inch in thickness, is ground on one side with fine emery powder, and then thoroughly washed and dried. the plate is covered with a filtered mixture of the colloids sodium silicate and dextrine or albumin, and placed in a warm oven to dry. if metal plates are used, such as zinc or copper, this preliminary coating is unnecessary; glass plates, however, must have the substratum in order that the sensitised gelatine--which is next put on--may stick. when the plate is dry, it is thoroughly washed with water in order to remove any free silicate; it is then dried and put away until required for use. the sensitising solution is made up of gelatine and bichromate of potash dissolved in water; before use it is filtered, freed from air bubbles and heated to not more than ° f. the plate is now placed on a stand, which is provided with levelling screws, in the oven, and, when the temperature has reached ° f., an amount of the bichromate gelatine solution sufficient to make a thickness of film proper for the mode of printing to be employed is poured upon the plate. the oven is kept at a constant temperature, ° f., until the gelatine is dry, when it is allowed to cool gradually. whilst the gelatine is setting, precautions against vibration must be taken else the plate will be spoilt. when dry, the collotype plate is sensitive to light and moisture; its surface shows a more or less regular series of convolutions which resemble those of the outer surface of the human brain, although, of course, very much smaller. the character of the grain is very important, for if it be too fine it will not take up a sufficiency of ink, and, on the other hand, if too coarse it will yield coarse impressions. a reversed negative, of a quality beyond reproach, must be made of the original; if the subject is dark or has heavy shadows the negative is frequently slightly over exposed so as to soften them. the collotype plate is then exposed under the negative and washed in cold water until the yellow bichromate no longer comes away. it is then dried. in printing, the plate is damped and rolled up with ink as in lithographic printing; the amount of ink adhering to the film depends on the extent to which the different parts have been acted on by the light, as has already been mentioned. the moistening of the plate--mis-termed etching--is best done with dilute glycerine containing per cent. of water, which when first applied should be allowed to remain on for about half-an-hour. the excess of moisture is taken up with a sponge or a ball of rag, and then the plate is inked and printed in a lithographic or a collotype press. the picture is usually masked with tin foil in order that its edges may be quite clean. of the faults which may occur, the following may be alluded to. a mottled appearance may obtain in the high lights; this is due to the coating of gelatine being too thick. more commonly, the reproductions may appear flat owing to the degradation of the high lights; this is a sign that the sensitive film has been acted upon by moisture during its critical existence between the drying and the washing out of the potassium bichromate, or that the temperature has been too low. the following contain good examples of collotype. karsten and schenck: _vegetationsbilder_, jena. oliver: _notes on trigonocarpus and polylophospermum_. new phytologist, vol. , . semon: _zoologische forschungsreisen in australien_. jena. . thompson: _the anatomy and relationships of the gnetales_. annals of botany, vol. , . see also plates , , and in the present work. the preparation of illustrated pages. of the processes dealt with, photogravure lithography and collotype are those most generally used at the present day for the printing of plates or insets. half-tone also is employed, a process which will be considered later since it is essentially relief printing. this, therefore, is a convenient opportunity to make a few general observations on plates. plates should only be employed for the reproduction of subjects of such complexity that cannot be reproduced satisfactorily by figures in the text. a plate or page made up of several illustrations should look well as a whole; in other words, it should not outrage all the canons of composition, it should have some pictorial effect. at the same time, for facility of reference, the individual figures should run in a convenient sequence. this latter point is so important that a plate composed really well is distinctly rare, for a compromise nearly always has to be made. at the same time there are, apparently, comparatively few authors who pay much attention to plate design. although it is not desired to write of the laws of pictorial composition, attention may be drawn to a few points which are amongst those generally neglected. the figures should not be crowded together; a reasonable amount of margin should be left around each. they should be arranged, as far as possible, in such a way that a sense of balance is maintained. as to how this is to be accomplished will depend upon the nature of the illustrations; if they are all about equal in tone, the largest ones should preponderate towards the base of the plate, and not _vice versâ_. the difference which this makes will be obvious if the two accompanying illustrations (figs. and , plate ) be compared. the first is a reduced copy of the plate as it was published: it will be noticed that it has a top-heavy appearance, which is corrected in the second figure by the simple device of turning it upside down. [illustration: plate .] if, on the other hand, the figures are some lighter and others darker, the latter should form the base, since low tones give the idea of solidity; this is so marked that in cases where the figures vary much in size and tone, the darker ones may nearly always be situated at the base or at any rate low down on the plate unless they are very much smaller than the lighter toned ones.[a] [footnote a: if, of course, the reader understands chiaroscuro, he will take no notice of this paragraph, but arrange his plates in accordance with his ability.] an examination of the figures on plates and will roughly illustrate these points. the upper figure of plate is well designed, and no improvement could be made, bearing in mind the compromise alluded to above. the lower figure is, however, not so good, it was obviously a difficult one to arrange; it would have been improved if figs. , and could have been placed in the top tier, but this would have seriously disturbed the sequence. the first illustration on plate is well designed; it would, however, have been improved by interchanging a and b. [illustration: plate .] [illustration: plate .] we may now pass on to the individual figures; these should shew the essential features, together with some surrounding and comparatively extraneous matter; often there is included too much of unimportance and its retention means a waste of valuable space. the first thing to do, therefore, is to trim, if needs be, the figures; their shape is more or less immaterial, provided that in cases where there are a large number of illustrations on one plate, they are not all alike. the american fashion of circular figures is particularly displeasing, at any rate to the author. having trimmed the figures, the next point to decide is whether any require reduction; if they do, cut out pieces of paper (referred to as patterns below) of the size which the figures will ultimately appear: on the whole, it is better to avoid reduction of the originals, for without a good deal of experience it is very difficult to judge exactly what the result will be; a good idea, however, may be gained by the use of a diminishing glass. the size of the available surface of the plate should now be ruled on a white sheet of fairly thick cardboard, and the figures, or their patterns, arranged so as to be easy of reference, to compose as well as may be, and spaced in such a way that, in the case of a quarto plate to be folded vertically, no figure is placed so that the fold will pass through its centre. nothing is more irritating than having an illustration spoilt in this way. all this may be done by arranging in different ways until a satisfactory result is obtained, a process which may take an hour or two. the figures should then be pasted down, covered with several sheets of blotting paper and placed in a press. a press is seldom available; when such is the case, a number of heavy books serve equally well. the lettering must next be attended to. the individual figures are usually designated by numbers; this is a bad method, since it involves referring to the description of the plate. the best way is to use a number, and after it to add the name of the plant or animal, and, if needs be, a description as short as may be. if the author can "print" or write reasonably well, well and good; if not, it is better to attach a slip to the plate with full directions relating to lettering, and to write in pencil on the plate the titles, etc., required in the proper places for the guidance of the craftsman. the typewriter is sometimes employed for this purpose by authors; it is purely a matter of taste, but some readers feel a slight shock when this method is resorted to. in some cases a key to the plate printed on tough translucent tissue paper and having the necessary information, guide lines, etc., is inserted with the plate.[a] [footnote a: see kerner and oliver: _natural history of plants_ (first edition) london, .] in the case of glossy chromolithographs this practice is best avoided, for the key is apt to stick to the plate if too much pressure is used when the book is bound. with regard to the "catch letters" used to indicate different parts: these should be as obvious as possible, and the guide lines should be either in black or in white ink, according to the general tone of the illustration. these lines should be conspicuous without being heavy. not infrequently they, together with the lettering, are printed on the plate by a second impression in red ink. the foregoing is primarily the business of the author; with regard to editors and publishers, all plates should be mounted in a manner to facilitate reference and should be printed on suitable paper; the former is seldom or never done. all plates which must be constantly referred to in reading the text should have a selvedge as broad as the book, so that when unfolded the whole plate is visible, no matter what page is being read. this would, no doubt, prove an additional expense, but this should not militate against the suggestion here made, not by any means an innovation, for in many cases it would save the expense of mounting on guards, and, further, the additional expenditure could be saved several times over in other ways. with regard to paper, this generally is satisfactory; unfortunately, highly glazed paper, mis-termed art paper, with an enamelled or chromo surface, and consisting chiefly of china clay and size, is generally used for printing the best half-tone reproductions. for this purpose a paper with a suitable surface, obtained by means other than those mentioned and not too costly, is highly desirable, since art paper has the reputation of being not at all permanent, owing to the deleterious action of moisture, and is somewhat brittle. when used, art paper, if folded, should have a proper paper hinge along the fold. half-tones are occasionally printed on a kind of vegetable parchment, a paper which should be more extensively used since it will sometimes, but not always, give as good a reproduction as art paper, and the final result is more pleasing from the artistic point of view. [illustration: g. oliver, del.] relief printing [illustration: little maid, little maid, whither goest thou? down in the meadow to milk my cow. fig. .--a wood engraving, by edmund evans, from the original drawing by kate greenaway. reproduced by permission of the publishers, fredk. warne & co.] relief printing in order that illustrations may be incorporated in the text, the blocks used must be in relief the same as the type; a mixture of intaglio and relief is impossible, for the whole surface must be level in order to be inked by the rollers, which deposit the pigment evenly, so that only one tone of colour--that of the ink--is possible. up to quite recent times wood cuts and engravings were the only means available for text-illustrations, so that this method may next be considered.[a] [footnote a: see treviranus, c.l.: _die anwendung des holtzschnitts zur bildlichen darstellung von pflanzen_. leipzig, .] wood cuts and engravings. the invention of illustrating by means of wood blocks followed closely on the heels of the use of moveable types for printing. the chinese were the first, as far as is known, to use these methods of printing and illustration; in the western world the first wood blocks date from the beginning of the fifteenth century. all the earlier cuts were made, commonly on pear wood, on the longitudinal face of the wood, in technical language "on the plank," and seemingly, in many instances, were made from drawings in ink. by cutting on the plank, the craftsmen were enabled to make large blocks, but were prohibited from doing anything more than relatively simple and straightforward work. such blocks are known as wood cuts; wood engravings were not made until the possibilities of a hard wood like box carved upon the transverse section were discovered at a much later date. this is, strictly speaking, wood engraving, an art which almost entirely, if not quite, superseded the older craft, on account of its great possibilities; indeed, wood engravers imitated metal engraving so closely as to deceive many. but such work was enormously laborious; for instance, in the case of a fishing net, if the string were to be printed black, the engraver would have to cut out hundreds of small diamond-shaped pieces of wood in order that the string of the net should be in relief. but few artists would do this of their own free will, and generally such laborious work will only be found in wood-engravings which were intended for the reproduction of ink drawings or other kinds of pictures where the lines, shading, etc., had to be faithfully copied. this point may be illustrated by the accompanying cut (fig. ), which was made by my friend mr. geoffrey oliver, who at the time was totally uninstructed in the art and knew nothing of its literature. it will be seen that he, quite unconsciously, treated his wood in the same way as an engraver would his metal; the result, of course, is just the opposite to metal engraving since the printing of the wood block is the reverse to intaglio. [illustration: fig. .] in fact, the cut illustrates the three fundamentals of wood engraving; the white line made by cutting out the wood so that no impression will be obtained when printed; the white space which is similarly obtained; and the black space, which is made by leaving the wood untouched. it was, however, necessary to employ the black line, otherwise the tape with which the two men--the artist and his father--are measuring the trunk of the tree would be invisible where it crosses the sky. in a word, the little picture illustrates very nicely the legitimate use of wood in the graphic arts. as already remarked, the majority of the earlier wood cuts and engravings are reproductions of line drawings, so that although we may admire and often marvel at the technical ability of the engraver, the credit for what artistic merit such illustrations may possess must, in the majority of cases, go to the draughtsman. the work of the earlier wood engravers may be conveniently studied in _a lyttel booke of nonsense_, by r. d., london, . (see also the relevant works cited under literature, p. ). bewick, of course, is an outstanding example of an artist who used wood engraving for illustrating natural history; the methods he pursued may be studied in the tailpiece on p. , which was printed from an electrotype of the original block. wood engraving, up to quite recent times, was the method of reproducing text figures; not only for scientific books and periodicals, but also for general literature and journals. much of this work is of outstanding excellence; for scientific work the following may be studied: duchartre: _eléments de botanique_. paris, . the drawings were made by riocreux and engraved by leblanc. baillon: _histoire des plantes_, paris, . this work contains some beautiful wood engravings, reproductions of drawings by faguet. bentham: _handbook of the british flora_, london, . the engravings are from drawings by w. h. fitch. deschanel: _natural philosophy_, london, . the engravings, many of which are of excellent quality, are by laplante, rapine and others. in many cases, notably in the representation of the rays of light passing through lenses and also in the illustrations of snow crystals, the use of the white line is admirably demonstrated. kerner: _pflanzenleben_, leipzig, . this contains some excellent engravings by winkler and others. le maout et decaisne; _traité général de botanique_, paris, . this work contains splendid examples by riocreux and steinheil (see fig. ). oliver: _first book of indian botany_, london, . this contains some characteristic work of w. h. fitch. it does not appear to be generally known that excellent reproductions in colour may be obtained from wood blocks by superposed printing in a manner comparable to that followed in chromolithography although, of course, in the present instance, the blocks are in relief (fig. ). from the foregoing account it is obvious that the engraving even of a small illustration, except it be in mere outline, involves a considerable amount of labour; in fact, if the subject were large it was usual to cut it up into areas and distribute between several engravers, the finished blocks finally being joined together to make the block of the whole picture. hence it is not surprising to find that when the photo-mechanical processes were perfected, the older methods of reproduction were ousted by the newer, more especially since they are much less expensive; these, therefore, may next be considered. the half tone process.--for the making of a relief block by photo-mechanical means, the main difficulty is the proper rendition of the tones intermediate between black and white; this has been solved, at any rate in part, by the discovery of the half-tone process. if an ordinary photographic negative be highly magnified, it will be seen that the high lights, the low lights, and the intermediate tones are made by the varying density of the reduced silver. in the lighter parts the small black particles are surrounded by colourless areas, whilst in the dark regions small colourless patches are surrounded by black areas owing to the closeness of the particles of silver (plate , fig. ). what is required, therefore, is a relief block which will print a number of dots of equal density but of unequal size. vervasser illustrates the point in an ingenious way: a plate, covered with a number of cones, is supposed to be acted upon by light in such a way that the cones are truncated in varying degrees according to intensity of the light falling upon them. the section of such a plate would therefore shew a curve (fig. ); now if the truncated cones be brought down to one level and a print taken from them, the high lights would be represented by black dots surrounded by white areas and so on. [illustration: fig. ] this illustrates the principle which obtains in the making of half-tones in which the image is made up of a large number of dots varying in size but all equally dense, so that when viewed from a suitable distance the dots are individually invisible but compose to give gradations of light and shade. in other words, the structure obtaining in a photographic negative is, in a sense, realised by optical chemical means, although the dots in a half-tone block are much coarser than those in a negative (plate , fig. ). this result is obtained by interposing between the diaphragm of the camera and the negative--for the half-tone process is a photo-mechanical one--a glass screen covered with intersecting engraved lines (fig. ). as a matter of fact, each screen consists of two plates of glass similarly ruled and cemented face to face so that the lines intersect. [illustration: fig. ] it may at first be thought that the effect of such a screen placed in front of the negative would be to produce merely a cross hatching on the reproduction; this, however, is not the case; if the screen be placed in a proper position relative to the negative and the size of the diaphragm of the camera, the picture will be reproduced in a series of dots of varying size. the optical and other reasons for this phenomenon must be sought elsewhere,[a] but the following brief consideration will serve to illustrate what happens. the rays of light which ultimately reach the sensitive plate are acted upon by two lenses, that of the camera and the meshes of the screen, each one of which acts as a lens on the principle of the pin-hole camera. each mesh, therefore, brings the image of the diaphragm to a focus on the negative, but the lens of the camera focusses the picture as a whole, thus the amount of light falling on the different pin-holes will vary in intensity, and hence the dots produced will vary in size, for it is assumed, with good reason, that each dot is built up from its centre and radially expands according to the amount of light acting upon it. [footnote a: see verfasser, _loc. cit._, p. .] it is obvious that the quality of the resulting picture will depend, other things being equal, upon the coarseness of the screen employed. screens are ruled with lines varying from to to the inch: the lower rulings give very coarse reproductions, and are only used for posters, whilst the higher rulings yield very fine impressions and are employed only for the best work. it is hardly necessary to remark that the finer the screen the better must be the skill of the printer. to illustrate the difference in the results obtained by the use of different screens, the two figures on plate have been prepared; both were made from the same negative, but for the upper figure a -line screen was used, and for the lower a -line screen. it will be observed that there is more contrast in the former, and more detail in the latter. authors should therefore mention when sending in their original pictures the qualities they require in the reproduction; it must, however, be remembered that the blocks made from the finer ruled screens will not print satisfactorily except on more or less highly glazed paper, to the use of the "art" varieties of which there are objections on æsthetic and other grounds. [illustration: plate . half tone reproduction of a photograph by mr. w. rowan. part of a shingle beach shewing plants of sea blite (_suaeda fruticosa_) and a ring plover's nest with four eggs.] before passing on it may be mentioned that screens with patterns other than that represented in fig. are sometimes employed; for instance, the wavy-line screen gives the impression of coarse collotype. the preparation of the blocks may now be briefly dealt with. a negative of the picture, using a screen suitable for the purpose, is taken on a special dry gelatine plate ("process" plates) or on some other form of negative, _e.g._, wet collodion which is most commonly employed. this negative requires very careful development in order to get the dots right. from the negative a positive is made upon a copper or zinc plate, suitably coated with a sensitive film. the usual practice is to coat the polished metal plate with a mixture of water, albumen, fish glue, ammonium bichromate, chromic acid and ammonia; the plate is then dried and, when cooled, exposed under the negative. the action of the light on such a film, the essentials of which are the albumen, the glue or gelatine and a chromate, has already been described. the mixture becomes more or less insoluble in water, according to the intensity of the light falling upon it. the positive is now rinsed in water, and is sometimes stained with an aniline dye in order to render the film more visible. next it is developed in a stream of water until the surface of the metal is visible between the dots, the last traces of the soluble gelatine being removed with warm water. after drying, the plate is evenly heated over a bunsen burner until the dots of gelatine mixture turn chocolate colour, when the plate is allowed to cool gradually. this is known as burning in. the plate, if necessary, is now touched up and the back, sides and margins varnished in order to protect them from the acid: when the varnish is dry, the plate is etched in a weak solution (about - / per cent.) of nitric acid if the metal be zinc; if the plate be copper, it is usually etched with a solution of iron perchloride. on taking a proof, there is almost certain to be a lack of contrast, the plate is then fine etched, by which means a considerable improvement can be made; and, by covering certain parts with an acid-resisting substance ("stopping out"), it is possible to fine etch locally. incidentally it may be mentioned that machine etching, by which a fine spray of the etching fluid is distributed over the plate, has recently come into vogue, for it is claimed that the results print better and are in other ways an improvement upon the older method. the plate may now pass through the hands of an engraver, who removes any blemishes, as far as is possible, improves the high lights, and so on; in fact, a skilful engraver can improve the plate considerably. after the plate is trimmed, and the superfluous metal cut out by means of a routing machine, it is firmly tacked to a wooden mount, usually of oak, but sometimes of mahogany, especially if the plate is large. in order to obtain the best results, the printing, in a typographical machine, should be done on highly calendered paper--so-called "art" paper; in fact, this is absolutely essential if a fine screen has been used; it is only the blocks made with the coarser screens that will give fair prints on ordinary paper. for this reason reproductions made by the half-tone process are very generally treated as plates unless the glazed paper is used throughout the book. the process is used principally for the reproduction of photographs, and for pencil or wash drawings. with regard to photographs, it has already been mentioned that authors should send the negative or two or three prints differently toned, in order that the operator can choose the one most likely to give the best result. it is sometimes difficult in a photograph of a landscape to obtain a negative in which the particular feature it is desired to represent--_e.g._, in photographs of vegetation--stands out with the requisite contrast. this is due to the position of the sun at the time of exposure, or to the use of ordinary plates. the remedy for the first is to take the photograph when the proper light obtains; with regard to the second, the use of colour correct plates, together with a colour screen in front of the lens, will obviate the defect. since for scientific purposes the correct interpretation of the various tones of the vegetation, for example, may not be essential, variously coloured screens may be used in order to emphasise a particular feature. for instance, it will be noticed how well the bushes in plate stand out. this effect was obtained by the use of a panchromatic plate in conjunction with a red colour screen. [illustration: plate .--half tone reproduction of a photograph taken by dr. mees through a red screen.] with regard to drawings in wash, charcoal or pencil, in which there are half-tones; these are better drawn on an enlarged scale, especially if the author is not a skilled draughtsman, for improper gradations in shading and other imperfections will not appear so noticeable in the reduced reproduction. originals should all be made in one colour; in the case of wash drawings, diluted indian ink (really chinese ink) will give excellent results. in making pencil drawings, a fairly stout hand-made paper with not too much grain should be used. if the drawing is to be of some size, the paper may be damped and pasted by its edges on to the drawing board, it will then be stretched quite flat and will not cockle when dry. the outline of the object may first be sketched in lightly with a soft pencil and then the shading may be proceeded with. to do this, broad-pointed soft pencils, b, b, or b, should be used, and it is better generally to work from the high lights to the shadows. to avoid rubbing finished parts, the work should proceed from the top of the board downwards, especially in the case of large drawings. in order to obtain a nice gradation and a more smooth appearance--more especially when a very coarse paper has been used--the work may be gone over with paper stumps of appropriate size and softness, and, of course, india rubber may be employed where it is desired to reduce the density of the shading. when finished, the edges of the various parts may appear woolly owing to the rubbing of the lead; this may be cured by cleaning up the edges with a trimmed piece of india rubber, but in so doing there is always a risk of rubbing out part of the shading, especially if the outline be at all intricate. if preferred, all the shaded parts may be fixed by painting them over with a suitable solution, gelatine for instance, paying particular attention in following the correct outline. when dry, the application of soft india-rubber will soon clean up the blurred edges. if charcoal be used the same procedure may be followed. charcoal and pencil drawings should be fixed, in order to prevent rubbing, before sending to the block makers. a suitable fixative may be purchased or one may be made by dissolving white resin in alcohol and applying it to the paper by means of a scent spray or an atomizer. a very good fixative may be made by dissolving a little gelatine in hot water and applying it whilst hot by means of a broad, flat camel hair brush, or ordinary milk may be used in a similar way. after the fixative has been put on, the drawing should be pinned up by one corner--unless, of course, it was pinned up before the fixative was employed, which is the best way when the fixative is an alcoholic solution--and allowed to dry; it may then be placed under pressure in order to flatten it, for fixed drawings generally shew a tendency to curl, especially when the preparation used for fixing has only been applied to one surface of the paper. in making drawings for reproduction by means of the half-tone process, there are a few general points to which attention should be paid. it should be remembered that there is not infrequently a tendency towards flatness in the reproduction; it is therefore important that the originals should be "plucky," and, on the whole, it is better to exaggerate with regard to high light and shade, especially if there is much modelling or perspective. finally, with regard to lighting, it is better for the majority in drawing their objects--solid objects in relief are referred to--to use a more or less lateral illumination and to represent only the high lights, shades and shadows referable to this main direction of illumination. a high relief will thus be obtained, and the effect will prove more satisfactory than if minor sources of illumination are unsuccessfully dealt with. this is especially important in drawing complicated structures such as models of vascular tissues, embryos, etc. in cases where many such figures are to occur on one page, it is highly desirable that the lighting of each should be from the same direction. the use of the half-tone block is now almost universal, so that it is hardly necessary to mention examples, more especially as they are hard to judge without seeing the original picture. those in the present book are all of a high quality. excellent examples will also be found in tansley's _types of british vegetation_ (cambridge, ) and in the _journal of the royal horticultural society_. proofs should be carefully compared with the originals, particular attention being paid to the rendering of the tones; as already remarked, fine etching will clear up a block and will often prove a remedy to flatness. an author will naturally consider whether a photograph is to be reproduced by means of photogravure, collotype or half-tone. it is impossible to lay down any laws on the subject, but the following points should be considered. if it is essential to have the reproduction in the text, a half-tone block must be used; it must, however, be remembered that the paper used for the letterpress may be very unsuited for the printing of half-tones. on the other hand, if it be immaterial where the picture is placed, then the relative merits of photogravure, collotype and kindred processes and half-tone must be weighed. provided that expense need not be considered, photogravure will, in the majority of cases, give the best results; on the other hand, if this process is too costly, then the choice lies between collotype and half-tone. the latter method will often give a result with more contrast as compared with collotype, whilst collotype will give a truer interpretation of the tones. as has already been remarked, the best results with half-tone blocks only are to be obtained by the employment of a paper which seemingly has no lasting qualities; it therefore follows that if the reproduction forms an important record, the use of collotype is indicated, since many varieties of good paper are available. as a general rule photo-micrographs are best reproduced by collotype. in order that the respective qualities of these three processes--photogravure, collotype and half-tone--may be compared, plates , , and have been made from the same photograph, a view taken by dr. f. f. blackman of the bouche d'erquy, a salt marsh in brittany, which was selected chiefly on account of the large number of tones it contains. [illustration: plate . photogravure] [illustration: plate . collotype] [illustration: plate . half tone] these three plates are not entirely comparable, since the heavy shadows in the right hand bottom portion of the photogravure have been touched up by the engraver. this was not intended by the author, but the plate was retained as it shews that directions regarding this point should not be omitted when sending the drawing or photograph to be reproduced. it also indicates that for critical work, when an exact a facsimile as possible is required, collotype should be used, for the plate cannot be touched up. with regard to the reproduction of drawings shaded by means of wash or pencil, the same remarks apply, with the addition that if it be possible to express what is desired by other means, suitable for reproduction by line block, these latter should be employed. to illustrate this point, figures , , and plate have been inserted; all illustrate the vascular skeleton of a fern (_marattia fraxinea_), the first one is in outline and the second is shaded by lines of varying thickness; both of these are reproduced by means of the line block, whilst the third is a reproduction by half-tone of a pencil-shaded drawing. in order to obtain a fair comparison, the half-tone is reproduced as a plate, owing to the fact that it would not print satisfactorily on the paper used for the letterpress. [illustration: fig. ] [illustration: fig. ] [illustration: plate ] the half-tone three colour process.--this process is much used for colour reproductions of various subjects; and, in view of the fact that the best results can only be obtained by the best photography, the object should, if possible, be sent to specialists for reproduction. in many cases, however, this is impossible, _e.g._, landscapes and animal and plant portraits amidst their natural surroundings, so that the scientist, if unable to make a water colour drawing, which will give by far the best result, must make his own negatives. the first thing to do is to purchase a set of colour-filters, adapted to the colour-correct plates to be used, from firms who specialize in these matters, messrs. paget or messrs. wratten for instance, and from them the inexperienced should obtain full information regarding exposure, etc., for it is essential that the exposure of the negatives should be correlated in order that all may have the same tone-value. the colour-screens, blue, green and orange, are made by dyeing gelatine with suitable stains; the films are stuck on to perfectly plane glass and are mounted in frames. in practice these screens are usually placed behind the lens, in which case a special camera is necessary, or they may be adapted to fit on to the front of the lens. in either case the procedure is the same; three negatives are taken one after the other through each colour filter, the exposure being modified in order that the tones in each case may be of equal value. there are thus obtained three negatives which, of course, yield positives which look very different one from the other. these prints may be sent to the block makers, but it is better, on the whole, to send the negatives with clear indications as to the colour of each. from each negative there is made by contact a transparency, and from these positives there are prepared a set of half-tone negatives from which are made the half-tone blocks. the reproductions are made by superposed printing of the three blocks, yellow being printed first, then red, and finally blue (plate ). [illustration: plate .--three colour half tone.] as indicated above, it is hardly worth while to make negatives for this process unless the operator is a really skilful or at least an efficient photographer, and even then the final product may prove unsatisfactory. better results are generally to be obtained by sending to the block maker a lumiere colour photograph with full instructions regarding any corrections in the colours which may be necessary. examples:-- bateson: _mendel's principles of heredity_, cambridge, . church: _types of floral mechanism_, oxford, . seward: _darwin and modern science_, cambridge, . photo-mechanical line blocks.--the photo-mechanical line block, commonly known as a zinco, is in a sense the lineal descendant of the wood block. as a means of reproduction the possibilities of line blocks are very great, for not only is it possible to reproduce by their means all kinds of line drawings, but also drawings in charcoal and crayon, provided they be suitably executed on a proper grained surface. in fact, an artist or draughtsman who has a thorough knowledge of the process and its capabilities can obtain extraordinary results. the process has the further advantage of being both quick and inexpensive, a few hours only being required to make the finished product. their mode of manufacture is the same in principle as for half-tone blocks; in the case of the latter, the method known as the enamel process was described; in the present instance a different procedure may be dealt with. a photograph of the drawing is taken on a negative, the wet collodion process being generally followed, although dry process plates may be used. a highly polished zinc plate is sensitised with bichromate of potash and gelatine, or by other means, and, when dry, is exposed under the negative. the exposed metal plate is then taken into the dark room and evenly, but thinly, coated with etching ink. when the ink is dry, the plate is developed in water; the unexposed gelatine, and with it, the ink, will come away, its removal being helped by the judicious application of a dabber of wet cotton wool. the plate may next be "rolled over" with an ink which will more stoutly resist the action of the acid than that used in the first inking, but prior to this it is usual to soak the plate in a mixture of gallic acid, phosphoric acid and gum. this second rolling up must be carried out as if the plate were for lithographic reproduction; and, when dry, powdered resin may be applied, in order to make a better acid-resist, as in the preparation of a lithographic stone. the plate is now etched slightly in a weak solution of nitric acid; it is then rinsed, dabbed dry and placed upon a hot plate until the resin has stuck well to the ink. when cool, the margins, sides and back are protected from the action of the acid by means of a varnish and the plate is given its first real etch, which is a very slight one. after rinsing and drying, the plate is again heated until the ink and resin have melted and flowed down the exposed sides of the ridges of metal produced in the first etching. this application of ink and resin must be repeated in order that the exposed sides of the ridges may be well covered with the acid-resist and so will not be undercut. the plate is then given its second etch, and this is done with a stronger acid, after which the sides of the lines are again protected with resinous material in the same way as before. the third etch follows, after which the metal is thoroughly cleansed from all the ink, etc. in order to smooth the shoulders of the lines, the plate is given a finishing etch: the cleaned plate is warmed and rolled up with hard etching ink; the metal is then heated until the ink becomes glazed, and, when cool, is placed in the acid bath for the requisite amount of time. if necessary the plate, after cleaning, is touched up with a graver, and the superfluous metal is cut away. finally it is mounted on a block of wood, and after the corners and sides have been trimmed square, the block is ready for the press. to illustrate the enormous improvement which may result from the block passing through the hands of a skilful engraver, two line blocks of a wood engraving by riocreux (see p. ) have been prepared. fig. is the impression given by the block as ordinarily turned out, whilst fig. is a precisely similar block which has been worked up by an engraver. [illustration: fig. ] [illustration: fig. ] there are several other methods of making the blocks, but the principles are the same as in the foregoing process. in examining the proofs it must be remembered that deletions are not the only alterations that can be made in the finished block; not only can lines be cut away, or their character altered by removing part of the metal from them, but additions can be made in reason. for instance, lines can be added across open spaces, and if part of the printing surface has been accidentally removed in cutting away the superfluous metal, the damage can be made good by building up with solder and working on this with the graver. if, however, the additions required are at all extensive or complicated, it is better to have a new block made. inasmuch as scientific illustrations are to describe and explain definite facts, the drawings must needs be materialistic rather than suggestive; in other words, a more or less conventional system must be employed. in making their drawings for reproduction by line blocks, authors have at their disposal the black line, the white line, the black space, the white space, the black dot and the white dot, all of which may be combined in various ways. no tones, other than black and white, are available; if it be desired to represent half-tones, they must be rendered by the above-mentioned means. in the majority of cases the originals should be made with black ink on white bristol board or smooth white paper; ordinary lead pencil drawings on smooth paper are useless, and lead pencil, black crayon or charcoal in combination with grained paper or board should not be employed unless the draughtsman has the requisite skill and knows exactly the limitations of the line block. for all ordinary folk black ink and bristol board cannot be improved upon. the drawing may be made first with a soft lead pencil, using the camera lucida or other optical aids to correct delineation. the pencil lines are then gone over with ink; for this purpose a good black ink is necessary. wolff's indian ink, higgins' waterproof ink and steuber's waterproof drawing ink are highly satisfactory, and there are many others. with regard to pens, a suitable implement is all-important; gillott's lithographic pens and brandauer's no. are recommended. for straight lines of an even thickness a ruling pen is very useful, and these may be obtained fitted with an adjustment which enables the worker to rule a line of a definite thickness, _e.g._, . mm. and so on. all drawings should be made larger than it is intended the reproduction to be, for slight inaccuracies, ragged lines, and other blemishes will thus appear less obvious. this drawing on a large scale is often a stumbling block, because the work appears too open and the draughtsman is tempted to put in too much; this must be avoided, else the crowded lines may join together in the reduced reproduction. also it must be remembered not to draw too finely, else the work in parts may disappear entirely in the reproduction. in drawing on an enlarged scale a certain amount of exaggeration may be employed, in order that when reduced the drawing may not be quite spiritless. when representing a solid object, such as a plant or an animal, to shew the external morphology, it is to be borne in mind that form is the main thing to represent, and this can be expressed by outline drawing alone. in fact, more or less primitive methods must be employed, and better models cannot be followed than the best wood cuts. [illustration: fig. . the lesser celandine (_ranunculus ficaria_). by r. g. hatton. (from hatton's _craftsman's handbook_).] [illustration: fig. . the lesser celandine. after fuchs. (from hatton's _craftsman's handbook_.)] an examination of figures and will shew that fuchs[a] attained his object by simple outline drawings; he never employed local colour, and shading he used very sparsely indeed, and then only to give expression to the form of some thick part. fuchs's celandine (fig. ) should be compared with the drawing of the same plant (fig. ) by r. g. hatton. [footnote a: the methods followed by the illustrators of the herbals may be conveniently studied in hatton's "the craftsman's plant book," london, , and arber's "herbals," cambridge, .] [illustration: fig. . the apple (_pyrus malus_). after matthiolus. (from hatton's _craftsman's handbook_).] the methods of matthiolus (figs. and ) were somewhat more advanced, for he used shading not only to express form but also to give a certain amount of relief. it will be noticed that he shaded by lines which followed the moulding of the parts. the work of riocreux (fig. ) should also be studied; it will be observed that he managed to get a very high relief in his drawings by the simple means of straight or curved lines, according to the shape of the part, of varying thicknesses. [illustration: fig. . charlock (_brassica sinapis_). after fuchs. (from hatton's _craftsman's handbook_)] there is no necessity for keeping all the lines of even thickness. for instance, provided the character of the form is not altered, the outline on the shaded side may be made thicker than on the illuminated side; also distance can be indicated by the use of thinner lines, for these, although really black, will give the impression of greyness. then again, a line may be drawn with local increases and decreases in thickness, as in ordinary writing, and such lines drawn by a skilled hand can be made to express a marvellous amount of modelling. [illustration: fig. . sea lavender (_statice limonium_). after matthiolus. (from hatton's _craftsman's handbook_.)] the draughtsman, however, is not restricted to lines; any marks which can be made with a pen and black ink may be employed, provided they be sufficiently firm and large. the accompanying figure ( ) which is a reduction of an illustration in church's _floral mechanisms_, illustrates the use of lines of varying lengths for shading. [illustration: fig. . _viola odorata_: floral morphology. a reduction of a figure in church's _floral mechanisms_.] in shading, the effect of shadow may be obtained by increasing the thickness of the lines, but they must not be drawn too closely together; on the other hand, the lighter parts can be represented by thinner lines placed further and further apart, and the lightest parts by the white of the paper. cross hatching may also be employed (see fig. ), but the crossed lines must not be too close together, for otherwise they will tend to thicken in the making of the block and so will print too black. [illustration: fig. . a seedling of _abronia villosa_.] for very delicate shading and tinting, stipple may be employed, but the dots must be quite definite, sufficiently large to stand reduction, and not too close together (figs. , c, and ). a particularly good example of this method will be found in butler's paper on _allomyces_ in the annals of botany, , vol. . dots have also been employed in fig. c (p. ). with regard to local colour; this may be indicated by shading, by a white space, or by a black space. hitherto, drawing with black ink on white paper alone has been considered, but the reverse is equally available; much can be expressed by drawing with white ink on black paper. drawing in white upon a black ground is not frequently attempted, but an excellent example by miss janet robertson is shewn in figure , which is well worthy of study, since it illustrates to a nicety some of the means at the disposal of the draughtsman for line blocks. the black surface is best obtained by the use of a waterproof indian ink applied with a brush to a white surface, the drawing being made with a dense white ink, using a pen or a brush. the white ink may be made by diluting any good opaque white water-colour paint, or process white may be used. the composition of this should be zinc oxide or baryta, for these do not darken with age; the author once used for this purpose a white pigment which proved excellent at the time; the drawings, however, subsequently turned dark brown owing to the fact that the basis of the paint was apparently a compound of silver. [illustration: fig. . _neuropteris heterophylla_. a line reproduction of a drawing by miss janet robertson.] the top part of the drawing (fig. ), shewing the general morphology of the plant, was drawn with a brush charged with white ink upon a black ground. in the simplest possible way relief has been obtained by representing the leaflets of the nearer fronds by white spaces, whilst those further away are represented by white outlines. an enlargement of a frond is shewn on the lower part of the picture, and here the parts are represented in black on a white ground. the leaflets are in black outline and the fruits are made to stand out, as in the upper part, by the use of local colour--in this instance black--their shape being indicated by the curve of the higher lights. in brief, a very effective drawing has been made by the simplest use of the white line, the white space, the black line and the black space. [illustration: fig. . _fucus volubilis_, var. _flexuosus_, a seaweed. (from a drawing by miss baker.)] this may be compared with figure , which was drawn by miss baker; the method pursued is entirely different to the last, it being a pure pen and ink drawing on white paper. no local colour has been employed, and the modelling has been expressed by the lines used for shading which have been made by short strokes with a fine pen. the result is suggestive of an engraving but this was not intentional; under no circumstances should an attempt be made to imitate in a relief block effects which can only be obtained by intaglio. from what has been said it is obvious that the photo-mechanical line block can be used for the reproduction of all kinds of drawings in pure black and white; to illustrate this figures - have been inserted. [illustration: fig. . the larkspur (_delphinium ajacis_). by r. g. hatton. (hatton, _craftsman's handbook_.)] [illustration: fig. . hollyhock (_althaea rosea_). by r. g. hatton. (hatton, _craftsman's handbook_.)] [illustration: fig. . a liverwort (_lepidozia reptans_). (evans, _annals of botany_, , vol. .)] [illustration: fig. . a seedling of _bruguiera gymnorhiza_, a mangrove. drawn by mrs. f. e. fritsch. (tansley and fritsch, _new phytologist_, , vol. .)] [illustration: fig. a diagrammatic sketch by mrs. f. e. fritsch of _rhizophora conjugata_, a mangrove. (tansley and fritsch, _new phytologist_, , vol. .)] [illustration: fig. a shoot of _acanthus ilicifolia_, a mangrove. drawn by mrs. f. e. fritsch. (tansley and fritsch, _new phytologist_, , vol. .)] [illustration: fig. a longitudinal section of a fossil seed, _conostoma oblongum_. drawn by dr. e. j. salisbury. (oliver and salisbury, _annals of botany_, , vol. .)] [illustration: fig. the meadowsweet (_spiraea ulmaria_), shewing four years' growth. (yapp, _annals of botany_, , vol. .).] [illustration: fig. . the chesil bank. (oliver, _new phytologist_, , vol. .)] the drawing of microscopic details. questions relating to the drawing of microscope sections may now be dealt with. usually these are drawn in pencil and reproduced by means of lithography; this is quite wrong, for in addition to its being an unnecessary expense, it is also an inconvenience to a reader, since the figures are necessarily divorced from the letterpress. there are very few histological details which cannot be represented by line blocks, and with a proper co-operation between the author, the block maker, the printer and the publisher, even the delicacies of karyokinesis could be reproduced in the text. for demonstration purposes, transverse sections of plant-structures may first be taken. the walls of the various elements may be represented by lines of more or less equal breadth, but in those cases where the walls are particularly thick, _e.g._, the elements of the wood, the thickening may be represented by an additional line. this is seen in fig. , in which it will be noticed that the middle lamellæ of the wood-elements are represented by black lines. [illustration: fig. . (from butler's paper on gummosis of _prunus_ and _citrus_. _annals of botany_, , vol. ).] this is a particularly good drawing, but, unfortunately, it has been over reduced. on the other hand, the various tissues may be represented by lines of varying breadths, the thickest walled cells having the same double contour as in the above, but with the addition of local colour in the shape of diagonal shading. this is not uncommonly found in papers dealing with the anatomy of plants by french authors; it is illustrated in figure _a_. if preferred, such thick-walled elements may be entirely represented by thick black lines as in figure _b_, and when such cells are relatively few in number, this method has much to recommend it since a greater relief is obtained. [illustration: fig. _a_ _b_ _c_ a transverse section to shew the vascular cylinder of the root of the spinach, _c_ is somewhat older than _a_ and _b_.] finally, an attempt may be made to draw in a more detailed fashion as in figure _c_. here the thickness of the cells of the wood is represented by broad black lines, the middle lamellæ being left white. the lines marking the boundaries of the other cells vary slightly in thickness, but this is to a great extent masked by the representation of the cell contents, which consist entirely of dots in the case of the protoplasm, whilst the nuclei are represented by dark ovals--black relieved with small white areas. by varying the size of the dots and their distance apart, varying densities can be indicated. it has been mentioned above that it is possible to reproduce fine detail by means of the line block; this is illustrated in figs. and . [illustration: fig. ] fig. , which illustrates a stage in the division of a nucleus, was drawn with black crayon on a rough-grained piece of whatman's water-colour paper. the cytologist will, doubtless, criticize its coarseness, but it may be mentioned that the roughest paper at hand was designedly employed in order to illustrate the point raised. that a finer grained paper will give more delicate results is shewn by fig. , which is a reproduction of a drawing, kindly lent by dr. w. g. ridewood, made with ordinary lead pencil on grained bristol board. its delicacy is obvious, and at first sight it could easily be mistaken for a lithograph.[a] [footnote a: many similar examples will be found in ridewood's memoir _on the cranial osteology of the clupeoid fishes_, proc. zoo. soc., lond., , vol. , p. .] [illustration: fig. ] a half-tone can be put on to a line block during its manufacture. all that the draughtsman has to do, is to indicate by blue pencil lines those parts on which he requires the dots, which give the half-tone, to be placed, and to select the pattern of the stipple he desires to be used. the result may appear somewhat mechanical since the dots are regularly arranged, but a drawing sometimes may be considerably improved by this means if used with judgment. it is frequently employed in representing drapery, and many examples may be found on those pages of newspapers devoted to ladies' dress (fig. ; see also fig. ). [illustration: fig. . after a water-colour design by miss winifred pearse.] the drawing of diagrams and apparatus. much valuable information may be conveyed by diagrams; in fact, these could be used more freely than they are. [illustration: fig. ] the principles to be borne in mind are the same as for other ink drawings. they should always be drawn upon an enlarged scale, and with as little detail as possible, which generally should be indicated in the most conventional ways--dots, black spaces, lines, and so on (figures and ). the main thing to be aimed at is clearness, so that it is often necessary to sacrifice true relative proportions in order to gain this end (fig. ). [illustration: fig. . a diagram by mr. e. lee. (_annals of botany_, , vol. .)] [illustration: fig. a diagram from the _annals of botany_, , vol. .] in certain cases it is possible to combine detail and diagram in one drawing; this is shewn in fig. , taken from dr. ridewood's admirably illustrated memoir on the _gills of lamellibranchiata_ (transactions of the royal society of london, b. vol. , ). the shading employed was either done by the draughtsman (at _ch_ and in the cells with irregularly arranged dots), or else was put on the block during its manufacture (_af_). if a lens be used, the difference will at once be obvious. the finished drawing should be bold and neat, and all lettering should be very clear. if several figures are included in one diagram they may be separated one from the other by ruled lines, and in no case should one tier of figures--taking the frames as the boundaries--unevenly overlap another tier, otherwise the diagram, to use an expressive phrase, will look "like a pig with one ear." under the heading of diagrams must be included the representation of apparatus. there are two ways of drawing apparatus; the objects may be drawn as a study in still life, as, for example, in many of the figures illustrating deschanel's _natural philosophy_ (london, ) or they may be represented in a purely conventional fashion. the latter is the better way, and it is preferable to draw for the most part in section in order that all connections, inlets, outlets, etc., may be clearly shewn. a study of a good example is infinitely better than a written description, wherefore figure has been inserted. [illustration: fig. ] it will be observed that all glass vessels and tubing are represented in section, and in the thermometers, the fine capillary bores are represented by a single line in each case; corks by diagonal shading; wood by lines in imitation of its grain; metal parts by vertical shading or dead black; more or less still liquids by a series of lines broken below and continuous at the surface, and gradually becoming closer and closer together towards the surface. mercury, on the other hand, may be indicated by dead black relieved by a few white lines to represent its reflecting surface, also its free surface may be drawn convex. finally thumb screws may be shewn by a combination of black areas and vertical shading. these conventionalities need not all be followed; for instance, rubber connexions may be indicated by broad black lines and wood by diagonal shading. the drawing should be very bold and the different parts clearly and freely indicated by writing or "printing." the drawing of maps. in the drawing of maps for reproduction by the line block process, if an existing map serves the purpose, a tracing may be made in ink on translucent linen. if, on the other hand, the author has to make his own map, the problem becomes more difficult. for the obtaining of the data for map making information must be sought for elsewhere, since we are only concerned in the preparation of the map for publication. and as regards this, but few general rules can be laid down since the character of maps is so diverse. the amount of detail in the physical features represented depends to a great extent upon the scale. thus streams of a greater breadth than, say, feet, may in large scale maps be represented by double lines, whilst no stream less than feet in breadth will be shewn in low scale maps. [illustration: fig. _a_ contoured. _b_ spot-levels. _c_ layered. these three figures illustrate in three different ways the varying levels of a piece of ground surveyed by prof. f. w. oliver and mr. a. g. tansley.] the indication of hills is always a problem; the most satisfactory way is by the drawing of contours (figure _a_), and this whenever possible should be followed, since it is scientifically the most correct method, inasmuch as when properly drawn the form of the hill is shewn exactly; further, contours obscure the detail to a much less extent than does shading, and but little artistic talent is required to draw them. if, however, contouring be impossible, the various heights above the datum may be shewn by spot levels (figure _b_) or the relative levels may be shewn by layers; that is to say, by a system of shading each kind of which indicates a certain level. thus dots may be used for all parts not more than feet above sea level, vertical lines for regions between and feet, horizontal lines for parts between and feet, and so on (figure _c_). it is obvious that this method cannot be pursued if vegetation also is to be shewn. the last choice is to represent the hill by shading in much the same way as many of us did when children; the method referred to was known as "herring bones" or "hairy caterpillars." the sea or a broad expanse of water may be indicated by fine lines which follow the coast-line and which may be placed at gradually increasing distances apart. if geological strata are to be represented, the accepted symbols should be used; if the map is intended to represent the distribution of soils, convenient signs may be employed, _e.g._, large dots for shingle or gravels, small dots for sand, black areas for clay, and so on; finally, if the distribution of plants or of animals is to be shewn, symbols again may be employed. these, however, must be quite simple and as far as possible give an idea of the organism represented. this, in the case of animals, may be a difficulty, but, with regard to plants, simple signs are easily inserted which give a very good idea of the plant it is intended to represent. many of the signs used by the ordnance survey are ready to hand, and these can often be used to designate plant associations. the delimitation of areas should always be clearly shewn, and all names should be very clearly "printed" indeed, and if they must be placed on a dark portion of the map, they should have a good white border around them. the north should always be indicated. this may be done by drawing in its proper position a representation of a compass or merely an arrow pointing to the north. unless otherwise stated, the arrow is assumed to point to the magnetic north, and if no north be actually shewn it is taken for granted by an intelligent reader that one of the vertical sides is a true north and south line, with the north at the top. finally, under no circumstances should a scale be omitted--it is the first thing a reader should look for. for a map to look well two things are all-important, neatness and clearness; both of these may nearly always be secured by drawing on a large scale, bearing in mind what has been said about crowding the detail, etc., and carefully considering how much reduction the original can stand. this last point is of vital importance, for an over-reduced map is an abomination; we have seen really good maps absolutely ruined by this stupid error. the inexperienced author should study the methods pursued by prof. yapp in figure . for comparison, the simpler way adopted by mr. wilson may be studied (_annals of botany_, , vol. ). [illustration: figure . a map of the fenland by prof. yapp. (_new phytologist_, , vol. )] graphs or curves. simple though it be, the plotting of a curve for reproduction requires thought and care. in the first instance, the curve is drawn on squared paper, and the question naturally arises--to what extent are the squares to be represented? if it be desired to reproduce all the lines, say the paper is ruled in millimetres, a half-tone may be employed, or all these lines can be ruled over in black ink where the reproduction by line block is possible. it is, however, seldom necessary to represent all the smallest squares; it will generally be found that the centimetre squares are sufficient. if the original be plotted on paper which is ruled in pale blue, it can be reproduced by line block without re-drawing, since the blue will photograph as white with the plates commonly used; all the essential lines and curves must, of course, be in black. if, however, the rulings of the squared paper are in red, yellow, or dark blue, a tracing must be made. the horizontal and vertical sides should be ruled with a broad black line, but the internal intersecting lines should be much thinner. the actual curve may be in a continuous line if one only be shewn on the graph; if more are drawn, then each must be different, the obvious variations being the thick continuous line ---- the thin continuous line ----, dashes either thick or thin ---- ---- ----, dots . . . . . , and finally combinations of dots and dashes ---- . ---- . ---- . owing to the difficulty which some experience in drawing freehand a continuous line, the plot should be made twice the linear size of the intended reproduction. a good rule to follow in drawing lines is to keep the eye fixed on the point where the line is to end, the hand will then guide the pen in the right path, especially after a little practice. in many cases the ruler may be used, not only for straight but also for curved lines, for good curve rules may be purchased. in order that the figure may look neat, the lines should be of an even thickness throughout their length; this is easily accomplished by means of a ruling pen. it has been stated above that bristol board is the best material to use for the making of drawings for line blocks; other materials may, however, be employed, although they are not so nice to work upon. for instance, it may be necessary to reproduce a map; this, as has already been mentioned, may be conveniently done by pinning over the map a sheet of pale blue tracing linen, and tracing the map on this with indian ink. the fact that the linen is blue does not matter, for it will photograph as if it were white. then again, many subjects may be of so complicated a nature as to be beyond the skill of the author to draw. in such a case a good plan is to take a photograph of the object and make a positive on smooth bromide paper, which need only be developed sufficiently far to give a print which just shows the features. the print, when dry, can then be worked on with fixed indian ink. the finished drawing, when quite dry, may be immersed in any solution which will dissolve out the silver; a solution of iodine in potassium iodide answers sufficiently well. the print will turn very dark, but it must be allowed to remain in the bath until all the silver has dissolved; it is then removed, rinsed under the tap and placed in an ordinary fixing bath of hyposulphite of soda. all the colouration will be quickly removed so that the ink drawing will stand out well against the white paper. all that it now requires is a thorough washing in water; when dry it may be touched up and then placed under pressure in order to make it quite flat.[a] [footnote a: the chief disadvantage of iodine solution is its slowness of action; the following methods are much quicker. (_a_) to a solution of oz. of hyposulphite of soda in one pint of water, add a per cent. aqueous solution of potassium ferricyanide until the mixture is lemon coloured. when the silver image has quite disappeared, wash the print thoroughly in water. since the mixture does not keep, the ferricyanide solution should be added to the hyposulphite solution immediately before use. (_b_) mix ccs. of a per cent. alcoholic solution of iodine with ccs. of a per cent. aqueous solution of potassium cyanide, add to the mixture litre of water. when the image has disappeared, which will be in less than a minute, wash for five minutes in water and dry.] this method of drawing over photographic prints will often save a considerable amount of time. for instance, it may be desired to reproduce a consecutive series of drawings to illustrate the microscopic structure of the subject. the ordinary way of doing this is to make camera lucida drawings of the sections, which is a lengthy and tiresome process; a photograph of each section will take much less time and will give quite as good results. before sending any line drawings to press they should be carefully examined; pencil marks may be rubbed out, lines touched up, unnecessary lines removed by painting them out with white or black ink according to the background, and, finally, a frame ruled around, if necessary. the amount of reduction, which should be marked clearly on the margin, requires very careful consideration since under reduction may cause the reproduction to appear too coarse whilst over-reduction may result in the loss of the finer detail and the drawing may, moreover, appear spiritless. it must also be remembered that a reduction of, say, / linear means that the reproduction will be a quarter the area of the original. the best way to indicate the reduction required is to draw a vertical or horizontal line, parallel to a side or the base of the picture, of the exact length; or, the line may be roughly drawn and its length indicated by figures thus ------------ - / "--------- . the question arises as to when line drawings for reproduction by the zinc block should be employed. the answer is, whenever possible. the advantages to a reader of having the illustrations in the text has already been commented upon. it is about the only method commonly employed in which practically everything depends on the draughtsman; the author thus exercises the greatest control. finally the fact that it is very inexpensive will appeal to editors and publishers. as a matter of curiosity, the present writer picked out at random a recent volume of a scientific journal to examine the illustrations; although there were a number of text figures, an examination of the plates--chiefly lithographs and collotypes--showed that there were a large number of figures which ought to have been in the text. a more detailed inspection of the plates was therefore made, with the result that nearly figures were found which with the minimum amount of alteration--merely drawing in ink instead of pencil in the majority of cases, and leaving out unnecessary shading in the others--could have been reproduced by line blocks. if this had been done, a saving of over per cent. could have been effected on the plates. some of this would, of course, have been absorbed in the making of zincos, but not much, since line blocks of excellent quality can be obtained for - / d. and d. per square inch. the above relates only to the most obvious examples; the saving in plates would have been enormous if the authors had drawn for the line process. the swelled gelatine process. from the foregoing account of the line-block it may, perhaps, be thought that a drawing shewing the finest detail cannot be reproduced in the text by a relief block made by photo-chemical means. this is not the case; the swelled gelatine process is such that at its best the very finest work can be so reproduced. the method is not extensively used, chiefly owing to the remarkable amount of skill required to produce the best results and to the facts that the blocks take longer to make and are more expensive than the ordinary line block. this, however, should not militate against its use, for the increased cost is but very little, and the longer time in making, say two days, should not be of any consequence in a monthly or quarterly periodical. the great point in its favour is its great fidelity as compared with the ordinary photo-chemical relief blocks: for instance, a close cross-hatching reproduced by a line block will often come out as a series of white dots owing to the fact that at the points of intersection the black lines tend to thicken; hence, on printing, the white spaces, instead of being sharply cut and diamond-shaped, are rounded. this will not occur in a good block made by the swelled gelatine method. further, the process does not restrict the draughtsman to dead black ink; the drawings may be made in pencil, crayon, or in ordinary writing ink: it is even claimed that wash drawings and photographs can be reproduced satisfactorily by this method. in the case of pencil drawings, the best results will be given when the surface of the paper used by the draughtsman is slightly rough; a pencil drawing on bristol board, for example, will not be so well reproduced as one on ordinary smooth drawing paper. in brief, the process is as follows: a photographic negative of the drawing is made, and under it is exposed a bichromate gelatine plate. this plate is then developed in water. as already described, the gelatine will swell up in proportion to the amount of light to which it was exposed. the "positive" thus obtained will be in relief, the high lights being at a higher level than the shadows. a wax mould of the gelatine positive is then taken, covered with a thin layer of plumbago and electrically covered with copper. the "casting" so obtained is built up with metal and then mounted on wood in the same way as a zinco or a half-tone. the capabilities of the process may be judged by a study of fig. , which is an extremely faithful reproduction of a lithograph, by s. prout, by the swelled gelatine process. [illustration: fig. . a lithograph by s. prout reproduced by the swelled gelatine process.] [illustration] cost relative cost of blocks and plates the question of cost is one of very great difficulty; in all probability no two firms will agree in their quotations for different kinds of work, and the reason for this lies in the large number of factors involved, many of which are very difficult to compute exactly. with respect to line engravings, etching, mezzotint, wood cuts and wood engravings, it is impossible to give any idea of the cost. it depends entirely on the complexity of the subject and the artist employed. as regards lithographic processes for reproduction in one colour the cost varies with the nature of the work. if an artist be commissioned to make an autolithograph, the fee would be agreed upon beforehand. photolithography and collotype, on the other hand, are processes which do not require the hand of an artist, and these methods of reproduction are relatively inexpensive. the price quoted by the lithographer or collotyper is for printing so many copies, hence the relative cost per copy depends upon the run and on the quality of the paper used. lithography is cheaper than collotype; but if several illustrations are sent at the same time to be reproduced by collotype, the cost for each would be less than if sent separately. in chromolithography a separate stone is necessary for each colour, hence the cost depends upon the number of stones used, and as several may be necessary to obtain a first-rate reproduction, it is obvious that the process may prove very expensive. turning to photomechanical processes, the prices vary according to the grade of work required--the best possible, good, and, lastly, cheap work. by best possible is meant the best that can be made under existing conditions, the price being immaterial; in good work the cost will be a limiting but not a preponderating factor, hence the work will be open to criticism; finally, in cheap work, the price is all important, so that the result is a block or a plate which will print well but which must not be criticized as regards its being a faithful reproduction of the original. it is obvious that in the last two cases the quality of the work will depend upon the agreed price, whilst in the first case the cost will depend on the amount of time and skill required. it is obvious, therefore, that a comparison of cost cannot be made between these grades; it is, however, possible to draw up a scale of relative cost of the processes under consideration for work of the same grade. in the table given below, a represents the best possible work, b indicates good work, and c stands for cheap work. since the line block is the least expensive it is taken as the unit of price; that is to say, if a line block costs d. per square inch the cost of half tone, three colour half tone and photogravure would be - / d., s., and s. - / d. respectively. a b c line half tone and swelled gelatine - / - / half tone three colour (three plates required) - / photogravure - / - / it must not be thought that if the area of a block is square inches, the cost will, therefore, be d. there is, for obvious reasons, a minimum size at which the block or plate is charged although it may be smaller. these minima vary; in general terms they may be taken as inches for line, half tone and swelled gelatine blocks, and inches for half tone three colour blocks and photogravure plates. the measurements are the areas of the etched surface, the actual plate or block may be larger, but for this margin no charge is made. with regard to cost of printing, nothing need be said about blocks which are set up with the type, namely line, swelled gelatine and coarse half tone blocks. the price of printing fine half tones and three colour blocks depends upon the quality of the paper used and the fineness of the work. photogravure plates must be hand printed (photogravure printing on rotary machines is not considered here), and skill is required; for ordinary printing on good plate paper the price would be s. to s. d. per hundred copies, whilst for india printing the cost would be about s. for the same number. literature barnes: _illustrating botanical papers_, botanical gazette, vol. , . bock: _zincography_, london, . cumming: _handbook of lithography_, london, . cundall: _a brief history of wood-engraving from its invention_, london, . gamble: _line photo-engraving_, london, n.d. hamerton: _drawing and engraving_, london, . _etching and etchers_, london, . _the graphic arts_, london, . pennell: _lithography and lithographers_, london. richmond: _grammar of lithography_, london, . robertson: _the art of etching_, london, . verfasser: _the half-tone process_, london, n.d. wilkinson: _photo-mechanical processes_, london, n.d. * * * * * transcriber's note some extraneous headings on otherwise blank pages have been removed. each footnote has been indented and placed beneath the paragraph to which it refers. the plates, which were on un-numbered pages, and some of the figures, have been moved to (usually) below the paragraphs which first refer to them. page : 'revelant' corrected to 'relevant' ... "see also the relevant works cited under literature" page : the table of costings does not appear to make sense, but has been left as in the original. hyphenation is not consistent in this book. the best portraits in engraving. by charles sumner. _fifth edition._ frederick keppel & co. new york, east th street. london, paris, duke street, adelphi. quai de l'horloge. entered according to act of congress, in the year , by frederick keppel, in the office of the librarian of congress at washington. the best portraits in engraving. engraving is one of the fine arts, and in this beautiful family has been the especial handmaiden of painting. another sister is now coming forward to join this service, lending to it the charm of color. if, in our day, the "chromo" can do more than engraving, it cannot impair the value of the early masters. with them there is no rivalry or competition. historically, as well as æsthetically, they will be masters always. everybody knows something of engraving, as of printing, with which it was associated in origin. school-books, illustrated papers, and shop windows are the ordinary opportunities open to all. but while creating a transient interest, or, perhaps, quickening the taste, they furnish little with regard to the art itself, especially in other days. and yet, looking at an engraving, like looking at a book, may be the beginning of a new pleasure and a new study. each person has his own story. mine is simple. suffering from continued prostration, disabling me from the ordinary activities of life, i turned to engravings for employment and pastime. with the invaluable assistance of that devoted connoisseur, the late dr. thies, i went through the gray collection at cambridge, enjoying it like a picture-gallery. other collections in our country were examined also. then, in paris, while undergoing severe medical treatment, my daily medicine for weeks was the vast cabinet of engravings, then called imperial, now national, counted by the million, where was everything to please or instruct. thinking of those kindly portfolios, i make this record of gratitude, as to benefactors. perhaps some other invalid, seeking occupation without burden, may find in them the solace that i did. happily, it is not necessary to visit paris for the purpose. other collections, on a smaller scale, will furnish the same remedy. in any considerable collection, portraits occupy an important place. their multitude may be inferred when i mention that, in one series of portfolios, in the paris cabinet, i counted no less than forty-seven portraits of franklin and forty-three of lafayette, with an equal number of washington, while all the early presidents were numerously represented. but, in this large company, there are very few possessing artistic value. the great portraits of modern times constitute a very short list, like the great poems or histories, and it is the same with engravings as with pictures. sir joshua reynolds, explaining the difference between an historical painter and a portrait-painter, remarks that the former "paints men in general, a portrait-painter a particular man, and consequently a defective model."[ ] a portrait, therefore, may be an accurate presentment of its subject without æsthetic value. but here, as in other things, genius exercises its accustomed sway without limitation. even the difficulties of a "defective model" did not prevent raffaelle, titian, rembrandt, rubens, velasquez, or vandyck from producing portraits precious in the history of art. it would be easy to mention heads by raffaelle, yielding in value to only two or three of his larger masterpieces, like the dresden madonna. charles the fifth stooped to pick up the pencil of titian, saying "it becomes cæsar to serve titian!" true enough; but this unprecedented compliment from the imperial successor of charlemagne attests the glory of the portrait-painter. the female figures of titian, so much admired under the names of flora, la bella, his daughter, his mistress, and even his venus, were portraits from life. rembrandt turned from his great triumphs in his own peculiar school to portraits of unwonted power; so also did rubens, showing that in this department his universality of conquest was not arrested. to these must be added velasquez and vandyck, each of infinite genius, who won fame especially as portrait-painters. and what other title has sir joshua himself? [sidenote: suyderhoef.] historical pictures are often collections of portraits arranged so as to illustrate an important event. such is the famous peace of mÜnster, by terburg, just presented by a liberal englishman to the national gallery at london. here are the plenipotentiaries of holland, spain, and austria, uniting in the great treaty which constitutes an epoch in the law of nations. the engraving by suyderhoef is rare and interesting. similar in character is the death of chatham, by copley, where the illustrious statesman is surrounded by the peers he had been addressing--every one a portrait. to this list must be added the pictures by trumbull in the rotunda of the capitol at washington, especially the declaration of independence, in which thackeray took a sincere interest. standing before these, the author and artist said to me, "these are the best pictures in the country," and he proceeded to remark on their honesty and fidelity; but doubtless their real value is in their portraits. unquestionably the finest assemblage of portraits anywhere is that of the artists occupying two halls in the gallery at florence, being autographs contributed by the masters themselves. here is raffaelle, with chestnut-brown hair, and dark eyes full of sensibility, painted when he was twenty-three, and known by the engraving of forster--julio romano, in black and red chalk on paper,--massaccio, called the father of painting, much admired--leonardo da vinci, beautiful and grand,--titian, rich and splendid,--pietro perugino, remarkable for execution and expression,--albert dürer, rigid but masterly,--gerhard dow, finished according to his own exacting style,--and reynolds, with fresh english face; but these are only examples of this incomparable collection, which was begun as far back as the cardinal leopold de medici, and has been happily continued to the present time. here are the lions, painted by themselves, except, perhaps, the foremost of all, michael angelo, whose portrait seems the work of another. the impression from this collection is confirmed by that of any group of historic artists. their portraits excel those of statesmen, soldiers, or divines, as is easily seen by engravings accessible to all. the engraved heads in arnold houbraken's biographies of the dutch and flemish painters, in three volumes, are a family of rare beauty.[ ] the relation of engraving to painting is often discussed; but nobody has treated it with more knowledge or sentiment than the consummate engraver longhi in his interesting work, _la calcografia_.[ ] dwelling on the general aid it renders to the lovers of art, he claims for it greater merit in "publishing and immortalizing the portraits of eminent men for the example of the present and future generations;" and, "better than any other art, serving as the vehicle for the most extended and remote propagation of deserved celebrity." even great monuments in porphyry and bronze are less durable than these light and fragile impressions subject to all the chances of wind, water, and fire, but prevailing by their numbers where the mass succumbs. in other words, it is with engravings as with books; nor is this the only resemblance between them. according to longhi, an engraving is not a copy or imitation, as is sometimes insisted, but a translation. the engraver translates into another language, where light and shade supply the place of colors. the duplication of a book in the same language is a copy, and so is the duplication of a picture in the same material. evidently an engraving is not a copy; it does not reproduce the original picture, except in drawing and expression; nor is it a mere imitation, but, as bryant's homer and longfellow's dante are presentations of the great originals in another language, so is the engraving a presentation of painting in another material which is like another language. thus does the engraver vindicate his art. but nobody can examine a choice print without feeling that it has a merit of its own different from any picture, and inferior only to a good picture. a work of raffaelle, or any of the great masters, is better in an engraving of longhi or morghen than in any ordinary copy, and would probably cost more in the market. a good engraving is an undoubted work of art, but this cannot be said of many pictures, which, like peter pindar's razors, seem made to sell. much that belongs to the painter belongs also to the engraver, who must have the same knowledge of contours, the same power of expression, the same sense of beauty, and the same ability in drawing with sureness of sight as if, according to michael angelo, he had "a pair of compasses in his eyes." these qualities in a high degree make the artist, whether painter or engraver, naturally excelling in portraits. but choice portraits are less numerous in engraving than in painting, for the reason, that painting does not always find a successful translator. [illustration: philip melancthon. (engraved by albert dürer from his own design.)] [sidenote: dürer.] the earliest engraved portraits which attract attention are by albert dürer, who engraved his own work, translating himself. his eminence as painter was continued as engraver. here he surpassed his predecessors, martin schoen in germany, and mantegna in italy, so that longhi does not hesitate to say that he was the first who carried the art from infancy in which he found it to a condition not far from flourishing adolescence. but, while recognizing his great place in the history of engraving, it is impossible not to see that he is often hard and constrained, if not unfinished. his portrait of erasmus is justly famous, and is conspicuous among the prints exhibited in the british museum. it is dated , two years before the death of dürer, and has helped to extend the fame of the universal scholar and approved man of letters, who in his own age filled a sphere not unlike that of voltaire in a later century. there is another portrait of erasmus by holbein, often repeated, so that two great artists have contributed to his renown. that by dürer is admired. the general fineness of touch, with the accessories of books and flowers, shows the care in its execution; but it wants expression, and the hands are far from graceful. another most interesting portrait by dürer, executed in the same year with the erasmus, is philip melancthon, the st. john of the reformation, sometimes called the teacher of germany. luther, while speaking of himself as rough, boisterous, stormy, and altogether warlike, says, "but master philippus comes along softly and gently, sowing and watering with joy according to the rich gifts which god has bestowed upon him." at the date of the print he was twenty-nine years of age, and the countenance shows the mild reformer. [sidenote: caracci.] agostino caracci, of the bolognese family, memorable in art, added to considerable success as painter undoubted triumphs as engraver. his prints are numerous, and many are regarded with favor; but out of the long list not one is so sure of that longevity allotted to art as his portrait of titian, which bears date , eleven years after the death of the latter. over it is the inscription, _titiani vicellii pictoris celeberrimi ac famosissimi vera effigies_, to which is added beneath, _cujus nomen orbis continere non valet_! although founded on originals by titian himself, it was probably designed by the remarkable engraver. it is very like, and yet unlike the familiar portrait of which we have a recent engraving by mandel, from a repetition in the gallery of berlin. looking at it, we are reminded of the terms by which vasari described the great painter, _guidicioso, bello e stupendo_. such a head, with such visible power, justifies these words, or at least makes us believe them entirely applicable. it is bold, broad, strong, and instinct with life. this print, like the erasmus of dürer, is among those selected for exhibition at the british museum, and it deserves the honor. though only paper with black lines, it is, by the genius of the artist, as good as a picture. in all engraving nothing is better. [sidenote: goltzius.] contemporary with caracci was hendrik goltzius, at harlem, excellent as painter, but, like the italian, pre-eminent as engraver. his prints show mastery of the art, making something like an epoch in its history. his unwearied skill in the use of the burin appears in a tradition gathered by longhi from wille, that, having commenced a line, he carried it to the end without once stopping, while the long and bright threads of copper turned up were brushed aside by his flowing beard, which at the end of a day's labor so shone in the light of a candle that his companions nicknamed him "the man with the golden beard." there are prints by him which shine more than his beard. among his masterpieces is the portrait of his instructor, theodore coernhert, engraver, poet, musician, and vindicator of his country, and author of the national air, "william of orange," whose passion for liberty did not prevent him from giving to the world translations of cicero's offices and seneca's treatise on beneficence. but that of the engraver himself, as large as life, is one of the most important in the art. among the numerous prints by goltzius, these two will always be conspicuous. [illustration: jan lutma. (etched by rembrandt from his own design.)] [sidenote: pontius.] [sidenote: rembrandt.] [sidenote: visscher.] in holland goltzius had eminent successors. among these were paul pontius, designer and engraver, whose portrait of rubens is of great life and beauty, and rembrandt, who was not less masterly in engraving than in painting, as appears sufficiently in his portraits of the burgomaster six, the two coppenols, the advocate tolling, the goldsmith lutma, all showing singular facility and originality. contemporary with rembrandt was cornelis visscher, also designer and engraver, whose portraits were unsurpassed in boldness and picturesque effect. at least one authority has accorded to this artist the palm of engraving, hailing him as corypheus of the art. among his successful portraits is that of a cat; but all yield to what are known as the great beards, being the portraits of william de ryck, an ophthalmist at amsterdam, and of gellius de bouma, the zutphen ecclesiastic. the latter is especially famous. in harmony with the beard is the heavy face, seventy-seven years old, showing the fulness of long-continued potation, and hands like the face, original and powerful, if not beautiful. [illustration: the sleeping cat. (engraved by cornelis visscher from his own design.)] [sidenote: vandyck.] in contrast with visscher was his companion vandyck, who painted portraits with constant beauty and carried into etching the same virgilian taste and skill. his aquafortis was not less gentle than his pencil. among his etched portraits i would select that of snyders, the animal painter, as extremely beautiful. m. renouvier, in his learned and elaborate work, _des types et des maniéres des maîtres graveurs_, though usually moderate in praise, speaks of these sketches as "possessing a boldness and delicacy which charm, being taken, at the height of his genius, by the painter who knew the best how to idealize the painting of portraits." such are illustrative instances from germany, italy, and holland. as yet, power rather than beauty presided, unless in the etchings of vandyck. but the reign of louis xiv. was beginning to assert a supremacy in engraving as in literature. the great school of french engravers which appeared at this time brought the art to a splendid perfection, which many think has not been equalled since, so that masson, nanteuil, edelinck, and drevet may claim fellowship in genius with their immortal contemporaries, corneille, racine, la fontaine, and molière. [illustration: the sudarium of st. veronica. (engraved by claude mellan from his own design.)] [sidenote: mellan.] the school was opened by claude mellan, more known as engraver than painter, and also author of most of the designs he engraved. his life, beginning with the sixteenth century, was protracted beyond ninety years, not without signal honor, for his name appears among the "illustrious men" of france, in the beautiful volumes of perrault, which is also a homage to the art he practiced. one of his works, for a long time much admired, was described by this author: "it is a christ's head, designed and shaded, with his crown of thorns and the blood that gushes forth from all parts, by one single stroke, which, beginning at the tip of the nose, and so still circling on, forms most exactly everything that is represented in this plate, only by the different thickness of the stroke, which, according as it is more or less swelling, makes the eyes, nose, mouth, cheeks, hair, blood, and thorns; the whole so well represented and with such expressions of pain and affliction, that nothing is more dolorous or touching."[ ] this print is known as the sudarium of st. veronica. longhi records that it was thought at the time "inimitable," and was praised "to the skies;" but people think differently now. at best it is a curiosity among portraits. a traveler reported some time ago that it was the sole print on the walls of the room occupied by the director of the imperial cabinet of engravings at st. petersburgh. [sidenote: morin.] morin was a contemporary of mellan, and less famous at the time. his style of engraving was peculiar, being a mixture of strokes and dots, but so harmonized as to produce a pleasing effect. one of the best engraved portraits in the history of the art is his cardinal bentivoglio; but here he translated vandyck, whose picture is among his best. a fine impression of this print is a choice possession. [illustration: cardinal bentivoglio. (painted by anthony van dyck, and engraved by jean morin.)] [sidenote: masson.] among french masters antoine masson is conspicuous for brilliant hardihood of style, which, though failing in taste, is powerful in effect. metal, armor, velvet, feather, seem as if painted. he is also most successful in the treatment of hair. his immense skill made him welcome difficulties, as if to show his ability in overcoming them. his print of henri de lorraine, comte d'harcourt, known as _cadet à la perle_, from the pearl in the ear, with the date , is often placed at the head of engraved portraits, although not particularly pleasing or interesting. the vigorous countenance is aided by the gleam and sheen of the various substances entering into the costume. less powerful, but having a charm of its own, is that of brisacier, known as the gray-haired man, executed in . the remarkable representation of hair in this print has been a model for artists, especially for longhi, who recounts that he copied it in his head of washington. somewhat similar is the head of charrier, the criminal judge at lyons. though inferior in hair, it surpasses the other in expression. [sidenote: nanteuil.] nanteuil was an artist of different character, being to masson as vandyck to visscher, with less of vigor than beauty. his original genius was refined by classical studies, and quickened by diligence. though dying at the age of forty-eight, he had executed as many as two hundred and eighty plates, nearly all portraits. the favor he enjoyed during life was not diminished with time. his works illustrate the reign of louis xiv., and are still admired. among these are portraits of the king, annie of austria, john baptiste van steenberghen, the advocate-general of holland, a heavy dutchman, franÇois de la motte le vayer, a fine and delicate work, turenne, colbert, lamoignon, the poet loret, maridat de serriÈre, louise-marie de gonzague, louis hesselin, christine of sweden--all masterpieces; but above these is the pompone de belliÈvre, foremost among his masterpieces, and a chief masterpiece of art, being, in the judgment of more than one connoisseur, the most beautiful engraved portrait that exists. that excellent authority, dr. thies, who knew engraving more thoroughly and sympathetically than any person i remember in our country, said in a letter to myself, as long ago as march, : "when i call nanteuil's pompone the handsomest engraved portrait, i express a conviction to which i came when i studied all the remarkable engraved portraits at the royal cabinet of engravings at dresden, and at the large and exquisite collection there of the late king of saxony, and in which i was confirmed or perhaps, to which i was led, by the director of the two establishments, the late professor frenzel." and after describing this head, the learned connoisseur proceeds:-- "there is an air of refinement, _vornehmheit_, round the mouth and nose as in no other engraving. color and life shine through the skin, and the lips appear red." it is bold, perhaps, thus to exalt a single portrait, giving to it the palm of venus; nor do i know that it is entirely proper to classify portraits according to beauty. in disputing about beauty, we are too often lost in the variety of individual tastes, and yet each person knows when he is touched. in proportion as multitudes are touched, there must be merit. as in music a simple heart-melody is often more effective than any triumph over difficulties, or bravura of manner, so in engraving the sense of the beautiful may prevail over all else, and this is the case with the pompone, although there are portraits by others showing higher art. no doubt there have been as handsome men, whose portraits were engraved, but not so well. i know not if pompone was what would be called a handsome man, although his air is noble and his countenance bright. but among portraits more boldly, delicately, or elaborately engraved, there are very few to contest the palm of beauty. [illustration: pompone de belliÈvre. (painted by charles le brun, and engraved by robert nanteuil.)] and who is this handsome man to whom the engraver has given a lease of fame? son, nephew, and grandson of eminent magistrates, high in the nobility of the robe, with two grandfathers chancellors of france, himself at the head of the magistry of france, first president of parliament according to inscription on the engraving, _senatus franciæ princeps_, ambassador to italy, holland, and england, charged in the latter country by cardinal mazarin with the impossible duty of making peace between the long parliament and charles the first, and at his death, great benefactor of the general hospital of paris, bestowing upon it riches and the very bed on which he died. such is the simple catalogue, and yet it is all forgotten. a funeral panegyric pronounced at his death, now before me in the original pamphlet of the time,[ ] testifies to more than family or office. in himself he was much, and not of those who, according to the saying of st. bernard, give out smoke rather than light. pure glory and innocent riches were his, which were more precious in the sight of good men, and he showed himself incorruptible, and not to be bought at any price. it were easy for him to have turned a deluge of wealth into his house; but he knew that gifts insensibly corrupt,--that the specious pretext of gratitude is the snare in which the greatest souls allow themselves to be caught,--that a man covered with favors has difficulty in setting himself against injustice in all its forms, and that a magistrate divided between a sense of obligations received and the care of the public interest, which he ought always to promote, is a paralytic magistrate, a magistrate deprived of a moiety of himself. so spoke the preacher, while he portrayed a charity tender and prompt for the wretched, a vehemence just and inflexible to the dishonest and wicked, with a sweetness noble and beneficent for all; dwelling also on his countenance, which had not that severe and sour austerity that renders justice to the good only with regret, and to the guilty only with anger; then on his pleasant and gracious address, his intellectual and charming conversation, his ready and judicious replies, his agreeable and intelligent silence, his refusals, which were well received and obliging; while, amidst all the pomp and splendor accompanying him, there shone in his eyes a certain air of humanity and majesty, which secured for him, and for justice itself, love as well as respect. his benefactions were constant. not content with giving only his own, he gave with a beautiful manner still more rare. he could not abide beauty of intelligence without goodness of soul, and he preferred always the poor, having for them not only compassion but a sort of reverence. he knew that the way to take the poison from riches was to make them tasted by those who had them not. the sentiment of christian charity for the poor, who were to him in the place of children, was his last thought, as witness especially the general hospital endowed by him, and presented by the preacher as the greatest and most illustrious work ever undertaken by charity the most heroic. thus lived and died the splendid pompone de bellièvre, with no other children than his works. celebrated at the time by a funeral panegyric now forgotten, and placed among the illustrious men of france in a work remembered only for its engraved portraits, his famous life shrinks, in the voluminous _biographie universelle_ of michaud, to the seventh part of a single page, and in the later _biographie généralle_ of didot disappears entirely. history forgets to mention him. but the lofty magistrate, ambassador, and benefactor, founder of a great hospital, cannot be entirely lost from sight so long as his portrait by nanteuil holds a place in art. [sidenote: edelinck.] younger than nanteuil by ten years, gérard edelinck excelled him in genuine mastery. born at antwerp, he became french by adoption, occupying apartments in the gobelins, and enjoying a pension from louis xiv. longhi says that he is the engraver whose works, not only according to his own judgment, but that of the most intelligent, deserve the first place among exemplars, and he attributes to him all perfections in highest degree, design, chiaro-oscuro, ærial perspective, local tints, softness, lightness, variety, in short everything which can enter into the most exact representation of the true and beautiful without the aid of color. others may have surpassed him in particular things, but, according to the italian teacher, he remains by common consent "the prince of engraving." another critic calls him "king." it requires no remarkable knowledge to recognize his great merits. evidently he is a master, exercising sway with absolute art, and without attempts to bribe the eye by special effects of light, as on metal or satin. among his conspicuous productions is the tent of darius, a large engraving on two sheets, after le brun, where the family of the persian monarch prostrate themselves before alexander, who approaches with hephæstion. there is also a holy family, after raffaelle, and the battle of the standard, after leonardo da vinci; but these are less interesting than his numerous portraits, among which that of philippe de champaigne is the chief masterpiece; but there are others of signal merit, including especially that of madame heliot, or _la belle religieuse_, a beautiful french coquette praying before a crucifix; martin van der bogaert, a sculptor; frederic lÉonard, printer to the king; mouton, the lute-player; martinus dilgerus, with a venerable beard white with age; jules hardouin mansart, the architect; also a portrait of pompone de belliÈvre which will be found among the prints of perrault's illustrious men. the philippe de champaigne is the head of that eminent french artist after a painting by himself, and it contests the palm with the pompone. mr. marsh, who is an authority, prefers it. dr. thies, who places the latter first in beauty, is constrained to allow that the other is "superior as a work of the graver," being executed with all the resources of the art in its chastest form. the enthusiasm of longhi finds expression in unusual praise: "the work which goes the most to my blood, and with regard to which edelinck, with good reason, congratulated himself, is the portrait of champaigne. i shall die before i cease to contemplate it with wonder always new. here is seen how he was equally great as designer and engraver."[ ] [illustration: martin van der bogaert. (painted by hyacinthe rigaud, and engraved by gérard edelinck.)] and he then dwells on various details; the skin, the flesh, the eyes living and seeing, the moistened lips, the chin covered with a beard unshaven for a few days, and the hair in all its forms. between the rival portraits by nanteuil and edelinck it is unnecessary to decide. each is beautiful. in looking at them we recognize anew the transient honors of public service. the present fame of champaigne surpasses that of pompone. the artist outlives the magistrate. but does not the poet tell us that "the artist never dies?" [sidenote: drevet.] as edelinck passed from the scene, the family of drevet appeared, especially the son, pierre imbert drevet, born in , who developed a rare excellence, improving even upon the technics of his predecessor, and gilding his refined gold. the son was born engraver, for at the age of thirteen he produced an engraving of exceeding merit. he manifested a singular skill in rendering different substances, like masson, by the effect of light, and at the same time gave to flesh a softness and transparency which remain unsurpassed. to these he added great richness in picturing costumes and drapery, especially in lace. he was eminently a portrait engraver, which i must insist is the highest form of the art, as the human face is the most important object for its exercise. less clear and simple than nanteuil, and less severe than edelinck, he gave to the face individuality of character, and made his works conspicuous in art. if there was excess in the accessories, it was before the age of sartor resartus, and he only followed the prevailing style in the popular paintings of hyacinthe rigaud. art in all its forms had become florid, if not meretricious, and drevet was a representative of his age. among his works are important masterpieces. i name only bossuet, the famed eagle of meaux; samuel bernard, the rich councillor of state; fÉnelon, the persuasive teacher and writer; cardinal dubois, the unprincipled minister, and the favorite of the regent of france; and adrienne le couvreur, the beautiful and unfortunate actress, linked in love with the marshal saxe. the portrait of bossuet has everything to attract and charm. there stands the powerful defender of the catholic church, master of french style, and most renowned pulpit orator of france, in episcopal robes, with abundant lace, which is the perpetual envy of the fair who look at this transcendent effort. the ermine of dubois is exquisite, but the general effect of this portrait does not compare with the bossuet, next to which, in fascination, i put the adrienne. at her death the actress could not be buried in consecrated ground; but through art she has the perpetual companionship of the greatest bishop of france. [illustration: jacques bÉnigne bossuet, bishop of meaux. (painted by hyacinthe rigaud, and engraved by pierre imbert drevet.)] [sidenote: balechou.] [sidenote: beauvarlet.] [sidenote: ficquet.] with the younger drevet closed the classical period of portraits in engraving, as just before had closed the augustan age of french literature. louis xiv. decreed engraving a fine art, and established an academy for its cultivation. pride and ostentation in the king and the great aristocracy created a demand which the genius of the age supplied. the heights that had been reached could not be maintained. there were eminent engravers still; but the zenith had been passed. balechou, who belonged to the reign of louis xv., and beauvarlet, whose life was protracted beyond the reign of terror, both produced portraits of merit. the former is noted for a certain clearness and brilliancy, but with a hardness, as of brass or marble, and without entire accuracy of design; the latter has much softness of manner. they were the best artists of france at the time; but none of their portraits are famous. to these may be added another contemporary artist, without predecessor or successor, stephen ficquet, unduly disparaged in one of the dictionaries as "a reputable french engraver," but undoubtedly remarkable for small portraits, not unlike miniatures, of exquisite finish. among these the rarest and most admired are la fontaine, madame de maintenon, rubens and vandyck. [sidenote: schmidt.] [sidenote: wille.] two other engravers belong to this intermediate period, though not french in origin: georg f. schmidt, born at berlin, , and johann georg wille, born in the small town of königsberg, in the grand duchy of hesse-darmstadt, , but attracted to paris, they became the greatest engravers of the time. their work is french, and they are the natural development of that classical school. [sidenote: schmidt.] schmidt was the son of a poor weaver, and lost six precious years as a soldier in the artillery at berlin. owing to the smallness of his size he was at length dismissed, when he surrendered to a natural talent for engraving. arriving at strasburg, on his way to paris, he fell in with wille, a wandering gunsmith, who joined him in his journey, and eventually, in his studies. the productions of schmidt show ability, originality, and variety, rather than taste. his numerous portraits are excellent, being free and life-like, while the accessories of embroidery and drapery are rendered with effect. as an etcher he ranks next after rembrandt. of his portraits executed with the graver, that of the empress elizabeth of russia is usually called the most important, perhaps on account of the imperial theme, and next those of count rassamowsky, count esterhazy, and de mounsey, which he engraved while in st. petersburgh, where he was called by the empress, founding there the academy of engraving. but his real masterpieces are unquestionably pierre mignard and latour, french painters, the latter represented laughing. [illustration: l'instruction paternelle, (the "satin gown.") (painted by gerard terburg, and engraved by johann georg wille.)] [sidenote: wille.] wille lived to old age, not dying till . during this long life he was active in the art to which he inclined naturally. his mastership of the graver was perfect, lending itself especially to the representation of satin and metal, although less happy with flesh. his satin gown, or _l'instruction paternelle_, after terburg, and _les musiciens ambulans_, after dietrich, are always admired. nothing of the kind in engraving is finer. his style was adapted to pictures of the dutch school, and to portraits with rich surroundings. of the latter the principal are comte de saint-florentin, poisson marquis de marigny, john de boullongne, and the cardinal de tencin. [sidenote: bervic.] [sidenote: toschi.] [sidenote: desnoyers.] [sidenote: müller.] [sidenote: vangelisti.] [sidenote: anderloni and jesi.] especially eminent was wille as a teacher. under his influence the art assumed a new life, so that he became father of the modern school. his scholars spread everywhere, and among them are acknowledged masters. he was teacher of bervic, whose portrait of louis xvi. in his coronation robes is of a high order, himself teacher of the italian toschi, who, after an eminent career, died as late as ; also teacher of tardieu, himself teacher of the brilliant desnoyers, whose portrait of the emperor napoleon in his coronation robes is the fit complement to that of louis xvi.; also teacher of the german, j. g. von müller, himself father and teacher of j. frederick von müller, engraver of the sistine madonna, in a plate whose great fame is not above its merit; also teacher of the italian vangelisti, himself teacher of the unsurpassed longhi, in whose school were anderloni and jesi. thus not only by his works, but by his famous scholars, did the humble gunsmith gain sway in art. [illustration: napoleon i. (painted by françois gérard, and engraved by auguste boucher desnoyers.)] among portraits by this school deserving especial mention is that of king jerome of westphalia, brother of napoleon, by the two müllers, where the genius of the artist is most conspicuous, although the subject contributes little. as in the case of the palace of the sun, described by ovid, _materiam superabat opus_. this work is a beautiful example of skill in representation of fur and lace, not yielding even to drevet. [sidenote: longhi.] longhi was a universal master, and his portraits are only parts of his work. that of washington, which is rare, is evidently founded on stuart's painting, but after a design of his own, which is now in the possession of the swiss consul at venice. the artist felicitated himself on the hair, which is modelled after the french masters.[ ] the portraits of michael angelo, and of dandolo, the venerable doge of venice, are admired; so also is the napoleon, as king of italy, with the iron crown and finest lace. but his chief portrait is that of eugene beauharnais, viceroy of italy, full length, remarkable for plume in the cap, which is finished with surpassing skill. [sidenote: morghen.] contemporary with longhi was another italian engraver of widely extended fame, who was not the product of the french school, raffaelle morghen, born at florence in . his works have enjoyed a popularity beyond those of other masters, partly from the interest of their subjects, and partly from their soft and captivating style, although they do not possess the graceful power of nanteuil and edelinck, and are without variety. he was scholar and son-in-law of volpato, of rome; himself scholar of wagner, of venice, whose homely round faces were not high models in art. the aurora, of guido, and the last supper, of leonardo da vinci, stand high in engraving, especially the latter, which occupied morghen three years. of his two hundred and one works, no less than seventy-three are portraits, among which are the italian poets dante, petrarch, ariosto, tasso, also boccaccio, and a head called raffaelle, but supposed to be that of bendo altoviti, the great painter's friend, and especially the duke of mencada on horseback, after vandyck, which has received warm praise. but none of his portraits is calculated to give greater pleasure than that of leonardo da vinci, which may vie in beauty even with the famous pompone. here is the beauty of years and of serene intelligence. looking at that tranquil countenance, it is easy to imagine the large and various capacities which made him not only painter, but sculptor, architect, musician, poet, discoverer, philosopher, even predecessor of galileo and bacon. such a character deserves the immortality of art. happily an old venetian engraving reproduced in our day,[ ] enables us to see this same countenance at an earlier period of life, with sparkle in the eye. [illustration: giovanni boccaccio firenze presso luigi bardi e c'borgo degli albizzi n^o ] raffaelle morghen left no scholars who have followed him in portraits; but his own works are still regarded, and a monument in santa croce, the westminster abbey of florence, places him among the mighty dead of italy. [sidenote: houbraken] thus far nothing has been said of english engravers. here, as in art generally, england seems removed from the rest of the world; _et penitus toto divisos orbe britannos_. but though beyond the sphere of continental art, the island of shakespeare was not inhospitable to some of its representatives. vandyck, rubens, sir peter lely, and sir godfrey kneller, all dutch artists, painted the portraits of englishmen, and engraving was first illustrated by foreigners. jacob houbraken, another dutch artist, born in , was employed to execute portraits for birch's "heads of illustrious persons of great britain," published at london in , and in these works may be seen the æsthetic taste inherited from his father, author of the biography of dutch artists, and improved by study of the french masters. although without great force or originality of manner, many of these have positive beauty. i would name especially the sir walter raleigh and john dryden. [illustration: mary queen of scots. (painted by federigo zuccaro, and engraved by francesco bartolozzi.)] [sidenote: bartolozzi.] different in style was bartolozzi, the italian, who made his home in england for forty years, ending in , when he removed to lisbon. the considerable genius which he possessed was spoilt by haste in execution, superseding that care which is an essential condition of art. hence sameness in his work and indifference to the picture he copied. longhi speaks of him as "most unfaithful to his archetypes," and, "whatever the originals, being always bartolozzi." among his portraits of especial interest are several old "wigs," as mansfield and thurlow; also the death of chatham, after the picture of copley in the vernon gallery. but his prettiest piece undoubtedly is mary queen of scots, with her little son james i., after what mrs. jameson calls "the lovely picture of zuccaro at chiswick." in the same style are his vignettes, which are of acknowledged beauty. [sidenote: strange.] meanwhile a scotchman honorable in art comes upon the scene--sir robert strange, born in the distant orkneys in , who abandoned the law for engraving. as a youthful jacobite he joined the pretender in , sharing the disaster of culloden, and owing his safety from pursuers to a young lady dressed in the ample costume of the period, whom he afterwards married in gratitude, and they were both happy. he has a style of his own, rich, soft, and especially charming in the tints of flesh, making him a natural translator of titian. his most celebrated engravings are doubtless the venus and the danaË after the great venetian colorist, but the cleopatra, though less famous, is not inferior in merit. his acknowledged masterpiece is the madonna of st. jerome called the day, after the picture by correggio, in the gallery of parma, but his portraits after vandyck are not less fine, while they are more interesting--as charles first, with a large hat, by the side of his horse, which the marquis of hamilton is holding, and that of the same monarch standing in his ermine robes; also the three royal children with two king charles spaniels at their feet, also henrietta maria, the queen of charles. that with the ermine robes is supposed to have been studied by raffaelle morghen, called sometimes an imitator of strange.[ ] to these i would add the rare autograph portrait of the engraver, being a small head after greuze, which is simple and beautiful. [illustration: john hunter (painted by sir joshua reynolds, and engraved by william sharp.)] [sidenote: sharp.] one other name will close this catalogue. it is that of william sharp, who was born at london in , and died there in . though last in order, this engraver may claim kindred with the best. his first essays were the embellishment of pewter pots, from which he ascended to the heights of art, showing a power rarely equalled. without any instance of peculiar beauty, his works are constant in character and expression, with every possible excellence of execution; face, form, drapery--all are as in nature. his splendid qualities appear in the doctors of the church, which has taken its place as the first of english engravings. it is after the picture of guido, once belonging to the houghton gallery, which in an evil hour for english taste was allowed to enrich the collection of the hermitage at st. petersburgh; and i remember well that this engraving by sharp was one of the few ornaments in the drawing-room of macaulay when i last saw him, shortly before his lamented death. next to the doctors of the church is his lear in the storm, after the picture by west, now in the boston athenæum, and his sortie from gibraltar, after the picture by trumbull, also in the boston athenæum. thus, through at least two of his masterpieces whose originals are among us, is our country associated with this great artist. it is of portraits especially that i write, and here sharp is truly eminent. all that he did was well done; but two were models; that of mr. boulton, a strong, well-developed country gentleman, admirably executed, and of john hunter, the eminent surgeon, after the painting by sir joshua reynolds, in the london college of surgeons, unquestionably the foremost portrait in english art, and the coequal companion of the great portraits in the past; but here the engraver united his rare gifts with those of the painter. [sidenote: mandel.] in closing these sketches i would have it observed that this is no attempt to treat of engraving generally, or of prints in their mass or types. the present subject is simply of portraits, and i stop now just as we arrive at contemporary examples, abroad and at home, with the gentle genius of mandel beginning to ascend the sky, and our own engravers appearing on the horizon. there is also a new and kindred art, infinite in value, where the sun himself becomes artist, with works which mark an epoch. charles sumner. washington, th dec., . [illustration] footnotes: [footnote : discourses before the royal academy, no. iv.] [footnote : de groote schonburgh der nederlantsche konctschilders en schilderessen.] [footnote : this rare volume is in the congressional library, among the books which belonged originally to hon. george p. marsh, our excellent and most scholarly minister in italy. i asked for it in vain at the paris cabinet of engravings, and also at the imperial library. never translated into french or english; there is a german translation of it by carl barth.] [footnote : les hommes illustres, par perrault, tome ii., p. . the excellent copy of this work in the congressional library belonged to mr. marsh. the prints are early impressions.] [footnote : panégyrique funébre de messire pompone de bellièvre, premier président au parlement, pronouncé á l'hostel-dieu de paris, le avril, , par un chanoine régulier de la congrégation de france. the dedication shows this to have been the work of f. lallemant of st. geneviève.] [footnote : _la calcografia_, p. .] [footnote : _la calcografia_, pp. , .] [footnote : les arts au moyen age et à l'epoque de la renaissance, par paul lacroix, p. .] [footnote : longhi, _la calcografia_, p. .] engraving for illustration reproduction by r. j. everett & sons' "ink-photo" process [illustration: frontispiece. engraving for illustration.] engraving for illustration _historical and practical notes_ by joseph kirkbride with two plates by ink photo process and six illustrations london scott, greenwood & co. ludgate hill, e.c. new york d. van nostrand co. murray street [_all rights remain with scott, greenwood & co._] contents page chapter i its inception. a theory of evolution--a distinct progress chapter ii wood engraving. rise and progress--block books--durer's influence--hans holbein--a renaissance--comparison and justification--the illustrator chapter iii metal engraving. the invention--early engravers--national characteristics--a progressive review chapter iv engraving in england. introduction of metal engraving--notable british engravers--summary chapter v etching. early records--descriptive--rembrandt's influence--wenceslaus hollar mezzotint. invention--description--artistic qualities--dilettanti art--a modern mezzo engraver chapter vi the engraver's task. inartistic work--constructive elements--outline--extraneous matter--composition--light and shade--expression--perspective--execution chapter vii photo "process" engraving. a progressive process--commercial and artistic features--"line" process--"half tone"--artistic restoration--tri-chromatography--photogravure chapter viii appreciative criticism. an educative principle--an analysis--realism in art retrospect index list of illustrations fig. plate i. _frontispiece_ . old wood engraving (erenburg castle) _facing p._ . modern wood engraving (the goose fountain, nuremburg) " . old wood engraving " . modern wood engraving " . cross section of cyanide furnace _page_ . process engraving _facing p._ plate ii. " preface a philosopher and writer has declared that "in our fine arts, not imitation, but creation, is the aim." it is to emphasise a distinction between an imitative and a creative art that the following chapters are offered. "engraving for illustration" is pre-eminently a creative art by which the work of the artist is _translated_, "in order to render the effect of his design in such a form as will admit of rapid and effective reproduction." it is, moreover, a popular art with a well-defined educative principle underlying the numerous phases of its manifestation; while, at the same time, its historical and general interest will commend this brief record of its progress and influence to many who are lovers of art for art's sake. j. k. london _june _. engraving for illustration chapter i _its inception_--a theory of evolution--a distinct progress "in proportion to his force the artist will find in his work an outlet for his proper character."--emerson. =its inception.=--it was the dawn of a new sense when primitive man first ornamented his weapons, utensils, and the walls of his cave dwellings with incised drawings,--pictorial representations which enabled him to record events or suggest and illustrate thoughts and ideas when his somewhat limited vocabulary failed him. it was a severely utilitarian epoch of the world's history, and the crude yet intensely realistic manifestations of man's artistic desires were the more remarkable that they were wholly dependent upon stern necessity for their realisation. childlike in their simplicity, yet both graphic and vigorous in expression, these ancient drawings bear testimony to the intense desire of primeval man for some suitable and satisfying form of pictorial expression. such incised drawings were undoubtedly the earliest forms, which the mind of man suggested and his skill attained, of conveying information and displaying pictorial or ornamental art. they were but crude conceptions of the untutored art of a savage race, yet, with a characteristic quaintness of expression, they abundantly prove the existence of an innate, imitative, and artistic faculty, inspired by an insatiable craving for illustrative delineation. =a theory of evolution.=--the antiquity of the engraver's art, then, is exceedingly remote, and its earliest records display frequent evidences of manipulative skill and artistic perception--evidences which are still more convincing when the environment and scanty resources of its exponents are fully appreciated. it was a most unique phase of that process of evolution whereby the social education of the human race was advanced, and through countless ages it has indicated the same onward roll of progressive intelligence. responsive to the ever-changing conditions of life, the necessities of mankind were constantly increasing. his higher intelligence also created a greater diversity of interests, and consequently demanded a fuller and more expressive vehicle of communication for his thoughts. no longer content with what was only needful for the maintenance of social or commercial intercourse, he sought to add to the archaic simplicity of his drawings, skilful arrangement, and a certain degree of artistic feeling and interpretation. it was as though some transitory flashes of artistic power in the minds of prehistoric artists were struggling with an inability to give adequate expression to their inceptions. their productions, some of them dating from the palæolithic and neolithic periods, were not pretentious works of art. their primary purpose being representative, their merit was, of course, decided by the success or failure of such representation, apart from any artistic qualities they might possess. =a distinct purpose.=--the evident care with which many of the ancient incised drawings or engravings were executed and preserved, together with the permanent character of the materials employed, seems to indicate that these simple yet graphic representations were produced with the distinct purpose of perpetuating a memory as well as for the amplification of a meagre language,--a purpose which considerably enhances their interest, and suggests that the primeval engraver appreciated some at least of the possibilities of his art. moreover, they frequently possess an intense veracity and directness of imitation which renders them of inestimable value as reliable historical records. had caprice alone directed the artist's efforts, they would not in so many instances have merited the interest and approval which they now receive. such, then, were the beginnings of an art that subsequently reached its maturity only by a slow growth of gradual development, and "which, in the modesty and seriousness of its earlier manifestations, is at least as interesting as in the audacity of its later and more impressionistic phases." engraving as a reproductive as well as an ornamental art was at different periods modified in accordance with ever-changing conditions produced by the exigencies of national and industrial policy. its frequent adaptation to the various circumstances with which it was indissolubly associated, and the fluctuations of an enthusiasm which was more or less dependent upon national as well as social prosperity, fully justifies the statement that "its history is the mirror of a nation's progress." the rude methods of ancient artists can be distinctly traced through egyptian, assyrian, and grecian history. hieroglyphic and symbolic figures, engraved on ancient egyptian monuments, bear testimony to a vast progress both in expressive and inventive power. assyrian antiquities disclose an art which is even more suggestive and picturesque, while the ancient greeks developed the highest qualities of pictorial power, and raised the art to a marvellous pitch of excellence. beyond this brief epitome of the early history of engraving we need not venture. the idea of taking impressions from any form of incised drawings was not suggested until many centuries later. chapter ii _wood engraving_--rise and progress--block books--durer's influence--hans holbein--a renaissance--comparison and justification--the illustrator "it is therefore beautiful because it is alive, moving, reproductive. it is therefore useful because it is symmetrical and fair."--emerson. =wood engraving.=--the most animating event in the whole history of engraving was the development of engraved wood blocks. wood engraving did not receive the impetus of a new discovery as did metal engraving at a later period. it was to some extent a purely commercial enterprise, the success of which was assured by an ever increasing interest in pictorial art. engraved wood blocks were used for purposes of reproduction several centuries before their introduction into europe. historians claim that it can be traced back to a.d. , when a form of playing card was known to the chinese, and printed by them from rough wood engravings. the commercial intercourse of the venetians with eastern nations would suggest a probability that their navigators brought home some of these playing cards, and described the method of their production to their countrymen. the further we pursue our investigations, the more remarkable does this tardy recognition of the utility of wood engraving appear to be. it is true that somewhere about the middle of the thirteenth century legal documents were stamped, and merchant marks made with engraved wood blocks, but no extensive use was made of this method of reproduction until a much later period. the low countries claim credit for the first employment of engraved wood blocks for commercial purposes. many dispute this claim, but the amount of credit at stake is so infinitesimal that it renders the contention of little value. until the time of that immense progress which wood engraving made in germany about the middle and towards the end of the fifteenth century, no work of any artistic merit whatever had been produced. the older prints may possess a certain historical or antiquarian value, but otherwise are both crude and uninteresting. =block books.=--the mediæval block books were the most important of the early pictorial reproductions from engraved wood blocks. they also may be traced to china, where, as early as the ninth century, they were used for decorative as well as illustrative purposes. they retained their primitive form for a long period after their first introduction to western civilisation, and it is interesting to note that the blocks, and not the prints, were supplied to the monks,--the scholars of the day,--the impressions being made by them as required. towards the end of the fourteenth century dutch merchants, like the venetians, paid frequent visits to chinese ports, when they too were impressed with the novelty and utility of pictorial reproduction as practised in the east. at any rate, pictorial sheets or cards, very similar in character to the chinese playing cards, were published in holland about that period. they bore pictures of the saints with the titles or legends engraved alongside. the production of such prints was evidently a recognised business during the early part of the fifteenth century, for there are numerous entries in the civic records of nuremberg concerning the wood engraver "formschneider" and cardmaker "kartenmacher." it has been ingenuously suggested that, for convenience, collections of these cards were pasted into books; and the books available being chiefly of a religious character, the idea of illustrating religious matter with such pictures was readily suggested. the next step was the application of block engraving and printing to the production of volumes of a more pretentious character, the most noteworthy of which were _the apocalypsio sue historia sancti johannis_, the _biblia pauperum_, and the _historia virginis ex cantico canticorum_. in another of these books, the _speculum humanæ salvationis_, the titles were not engraved on the plates, but were printed with movable types. this volume was published at haarlem, and was composed of fifty-eight plates--a very considerable production with the materials then at the disposal of the publishers. =durer's influence.=--in albert durer, who possessed a spirited imagination and deep enthusiasm for his work, marked out a distinct era of substantial progress, and impressed the art of wood engraving with that expressive power of delineation which his truly remarkable genius ever manifested. durer was an artist of somewhat variable characteristics, but the diversity and amplitude of his productions afford conclusive evidences of a remarkable industry and skill. like other artists of his time, and even of much later periods, he did not engrave his own drawings. he may, of course, have engraved a few blocks, but most, if not all of the wood engravings signed by durer, were executed by jerome rock. perhaps the most peculiar characteristic of durer's designs was the portrayal of scenes and figures of ancient history and myth in well-defined imitation of his own surroundings and the conditions of life then existing. apropos of this, it was said that he turned the new testament into the history of a flemish village. hans holbein was another of the early artists who prepared their drawings for the express purpose of reproduction by means of wood engraving. that he fully appreciated the resources of his art there can be no doubt, for he imbued his work with an expressive individual force which was distinctly progressive and influential. his best known production consists of forty-one engravings representing "death--the king of terrors," in association with nearly every phase of human life. each one of these designs is a picture parable of remarkable power and suggestiveness. the characteristic drawing and quaint expressiveness of holbein's illustrations merit unqualified admiration, and his graphic use of pure line for pictorial expression stands almost unrivalled. hans litzelburger engraved holbein's designs. towards the end of the fifteenth and during part of the sixteenth centuries wood engraving still received enthusiastic attention, and then, for sheer lack of interest, fell rapidly into decay. metal engraving was absorbing the attention of the artistic world, and for many years wood engraving was regarded as only fit for the reproduction of pictures which may be charitably described as inartistic, and too often perhaps discreditable. as far as our own country was concerned, it was not until the advent of thomas bewick that this decadence received any effective check. =a renaissance.=--the renaissance of wood engraving in england may be dated from , when bewick engraved a picture entitled "the hound," and received a prize offered by the royal society for the best engraving on wood. thomas bewick was born in , and fourteen years later he was apprenticed to a metal engraver. it was indeed a fortuitous circumstance which caused him to transfer his energies and his talents to wood engraving, in which he displayed a rare skill and inimitable directness of expression. he was probably the first wood engraver to adopt level tinting in place of complicated and laborious cross hatching which was then practised by his continental contemporaries. he usually preferred to develop his drawing rather than attempt the production of extraneous effects, and the subtle effectiveness of his pictures affords incontrovertible proofs of the advantage of such substitution. their humour and pathos, vigour and fidelity, remain to this day as memorials of the consummate, artistic skill and perceptive capacity of a truly remarkable man. bewick was a self-contained genius whose rugged emotions would admit of but one form of pictorial expression, and that peculiarly his own. his work was pregnant with masterly good sense, and ever manifested a charming simplicity of purpose. he had but a modest estimate of his ability as an engraver, and consequently rarely engraved any other than his own drawings. the exact measure of bewick's influence on the art of wood engraving for pictorial illustration and reproduction would be difficult to satisfactorily determine. this much is certain, however, that through it wood engraving was verified and popularised, and illustrated literature received a stimulus which subsequent developments combined to maintain and emphasise. [illustration: fig. .--old wood engraving (erenburg castle). "colour values and perspective can only be expressed by thick and thin lines at varying distances apart." _block supplied by the london electrotype agency ltd., from the "illustrated london news."_] =a comparison.=--there is a vast difference between the effects procurable in an impression from a wood engraving and the print from an engraved metal plate. in the former, colour values and perspective can only be expressed by thick and thin lines at varying distances apart, the ink on the prints being of the same density throughout, no matter how thick or thin the lines may be. in metal engraving intermediary values may be obtained by lines of the same thickness, if need be, but of varying depth. the result is a strong, intense effect produced by the greater body of pigment held by such portions of the lines as are cut deeply, and the comparatively grey appearance of the shallower parts. it is largely due to this that prints from engraved metal plates possess a peculiar richness and depth of tone. the commercial advantages generally claimed for engraved wood blocks are the ease and rapidity with which impressions can be made from them as compared with the metal plates, and also the fact that they can be printed with type, _i.e._ letterpress, without any unusual preparations. granting the validity of these claims, it must follow that, owing to the larger number of impressions made from wood engravings, their intrinsic worth will be correspondingly less than the limited number of prints made from engraved metal plates, and their commercial value will be estimated accordingly. =a justification.=--the somewhat sweeping assertion that wood engraving affords a medium of expression only for the blunter minds is not the whole truth. its strikingly bold conceptions and broad expressive effects certainly appeal to the untrained eye or untutored mind more than the artistic qualities of design and execution displayed in metal engraving; but there is yet in the art of the wood engraver a well-nigh inexhaustible store of artistic as well as pictorial effects. the forcible character and charm of its productions are chiefly due to the disposition and combination of the lines employed, and a variety of texture which is thereby introduced. it affords also an exceptional facility of execution, and an almost limitless power of realisation, which gives to it a deservedly high place among the pictorial and reproductive arts. the whole matter may be summed up in a statement once made by a well-known artist and illustrator: "there is no process in relief which has the same certainty, which gives the same colour and brightness, and by which gradations of touch can be more truly rendered. few of our great artists, however, can be prevailed upon to draw for wood engraving, and when they do undertake an illustration, say of a great poem, the drawing, which has to be multiplied , times, has less thought bestowed upon it than the painted portrait of a cotton king." what wonder, then, at the retrogression of this facile and graphic art of pictorial illustration. [illustration: fig. .--modern wood engraving (the goose fountain, nuremburg). "the forcible character of wood engraving chiefly due to the disposition and combination of the lines employed." _block supplied by the london electrotype agency ltd., from the "religious tract society."_] =the illustrator.=--the employment of wood engravings in conjunction with literature created a new phase of artistic work. the task of the illustrator or designer is peculiar. he sketches out his design on the wood block, and then passes it on to the engraver. his drawing is not intended as a permanent form of pictorial art, but as a suggestive sketch, which, while perfectly intelligible to the engraver, will be free from such intricacies in its composition as might interfere with its effective interpretation. the old wood engravers produced, line for line, an exact facsimile of the artist's design. his work, no doubt, required considerable skill and unremitting patience, but it was almost devoid of independent thought or artistic feeling. the engraver to-day must _translate_ the work of the illustrator so as to render the effect of his design in such a form as will admit of rapid and effective reproduction. the possibilities of the wood engraver's art, therefore, are manifold. the artist's sketch may give a suggestion of light and shade, and possibly some idea of its tone. the execution and elaboration of the drawing is left almost entirely in the hands of the engraver. whether it will gain or lose by its translation will, to some extent, depend upon his artistic perception as well as his manipulative skill. chapter iii _metal engraving_--the invention--early engravers--national characteristics--a progressive review "the influence of the graver is so great and extensive that its productions have constantly been the delight of all countries of the world and of all seasons of life." =metal engraving--the invention.=--the engraving of metal plates for pictorial reproduction was a direct development of ornamental engraving. the italian niello work of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries was chiefly applied to the embellishment of metal ornaments and utensils with elaborate engravings. to intensify their effect, the designs were filled in with a black pigment known as _niello_, l. _nigellus_--black. hence the name by which the process was generally known. niello work was practised chiefly by gold and silversmiths, and it is recorded that one of these, finiguerra by name, was filling up the lines of the engraving with black composition in the usual way when he accidentally spilled some hot wax over the plate. it rapidly cooled and hardened, and on scaling off bore a distinct black impression of the engraving. quick to perceive the importance of his discovery, finiguerra promoted a few experiments which ultimately led to a full realisation of his hopes. there is yet another account of the metamorphosis of metal engraving which, if true, reflects much more credit upon finiguerra than the accidental discovery already described. to obtain a _proof_ of their work, the florentine metal-workers covered the ornamentation with some fine plastic material. it was then a simple matter to convert the impression into a mould, which they filled with melted sulphur. the casts, when hard, formed exact replicas of the engravings, and afterwards, when the incised lines were filled with a black pigment, probably niello, they presented an effective record of the original work. it is not by any means improbable that finiguerra made his discovery when making such a cast. it is a noteworthy fact that the idea of producing impressions from engraved metal plates was not, as might readily be imagined, a development of wood engraving or of the then well-known method of printing from engraved wood blocks. it was a fortuitous discovery, and probably the direct result of an accident. the true importance of this transition, _i.e._ niello work to engraving as a reproductive art, is seldom fully appreciated. it was a momentous change, bristling with possibilities, which subsequent developments amply proved. the time was peculiarly propitious. the beneficent influence of the renaissance was at its flood, and a feverish spirit of progress swept over europe. the imitative instinct inherent in mankind reasserted itself with an irresistible intensity, and new forms of pictorial expression were eagerly sought after. the art of engraving provided a medium for the extension of the artist's fame and the popularising of his creations. it rapidly gained favour, and its ultimate development and expansion fully justified the interest it aroused. =early engravers.=--baccio baldine, another florentine goldsmith, quickly realised the value of finiguerra's discovery, and endeavoured to produce engraved plates for printing purposes. being a somewhat indifferent designer, his first efforts were not very successful. he was afterwards assisted by sandio botticelli, and this partnership was the first clear indication of progress in the art. these two engravers undertook the illustration of an edition of dante's works, in which the chief feature was to be an original headpiece for each canto. they accomplished some meritorious work in connection therewith, but never quite fulfilled their task. some impressions from engraved plates were exhibited in rome about this time, and attracted the attention of the painter andrea mantegna. he was so impressed with these examples of the new art that he determined to reproduce some of his own pictures in a like manner. mantegna's engravings were not in any way remarkable, yet they were received with considerable enthusiasm by his countrymen and by artists in various parts of europe. marc antonio raimondi was another famous italian engraver of this period. he first became notorious through copying some of a. durer's designs in the exact style affected by that great artist. he also added durer's signature to his piracies, and in other ways emphasised the imitation. it is doubtful whether he ever realised the gravity of the deception he was guilty of, for he took no pains to conceal the fact from his fellow artists. apart from this, however, raimondi was a fine engraver. he reproduced a number of raphael's pictures under that artist's direct supervision, all of which show distinct traces of the great master's influence. raimondi engraved between three and four hundred plates. it is a remarkable coincidence that the art of engraving in italy, and printing in germany, should each receive the stimulus of a new discovery about the same period. the art of printing was known to the ancient chinese, but movable types were first used by gutenberg about . =national characteristics.=--engraving is almost as old as the human race, yet its full value as a reproductive art was not discovered until , when finiguerra made his discovery. for at least half a century after this discovery engraving was held in the highest esteem in italy. from that country it passed to germany, and thence into france. in each of these countries it flourished for a time, until at last it claimed a place, and that a high one, amongst the fine arts of our own country. the leading characteristics of italian art, and particularly italian engraving, were beautiful outlines and excellent drawing. "nothing in any stage of italian art was carelessly or incompletely done. there is no rough suggestion of design, no inexact record of artistic invention." the lines, and especially the outlines, of the early italian engravings are indisputably exquisite in their expression of grace and beauty, though perhaps weak and unsuitable for the portrayal of vigour and strength. the german engravers reached another extreme. their drawings were frequently deficient, and even grotesque; but this was more than compensated for by a mingled force and freedom of delineation which, added to a rich imaginative symbolism, was in every respect remarkable. by means of flowing lines they indicated every fold of draperies, emphasised the varied contour of features, or produced an intricate and almost perplexing perspective in their pictures. they frequently sacrificed artistic power for a mere show of dexterous execution, and consequently the engravings of this period were rarely ever sublime in their conceptions. remarkable for their technique, they were yet productive of a bewildering confusion of ideas and mannerisms. it was undoubtedly this superiority of technique which attracted so much attention to the old german engravers. their portrait engravings display abundant insight into human character, and in this respect at least exhibit a rare power of pictorial expression. indefatigable enthusiasm, one of the racial characteristics of the french nation, was exemplified in the reception accorded by her artists to the art of metal engraving. french engraving was distinguished by a felicitous combination of good drawing, skilful execution, and "an aptitude to imitate easily any impression." outlines were frequently suggested rather than delineated, and although somewhat unconventional in style, french engravings of the seventeenth century displayed few traces of a perfunctory art. certain vagaries of style, due no doubt to a natural vivacity, indicated an artistic quality of design and execution which was their peculiar inheritance. of modern french engravers on metal, the audran family were by far the most notable. for four or five generations that remarkable family showed artistic talent of a high standard of excellence. gerard audran, who was born in , was the best known and most gifted member of this family. his productions were everywhere admired. his historical pictures especially were very fine. he was appointed engraver to louis xiv. died . =a progressive review.=--for a long period engraving was of the simplest possible character. about the beginning of the sixteenth century an effort was made to introduce perspective into the productions of both brush and graver, and until this important development obtained complete recognition, even the most skilful artists were guilty of faulty draughtsmanship. aërial perspective, or the suggestion of distance, quickly followed this adoption of linear perspective. it is claimed for lucas van leyden, a dutch engraver, that he was the first to thoroughly appreciate and give true value to foreground and distance; in other words, to fully recognise the artistic value of perspective. it has been frequently suggested that the fame of durer, van leyden, and others of the same school, was so widespread as to create an artistic bias, which other engravers, who were their equals in technical skill, if not in fertility of design, found it difficult to overcome. one of these engravers, henry goltzius, was determined to obtain recognition of his merits, and engraved five plates in as many different styles, copying the mannerisms and artifices of durer and others. they were at once accepted as productions of the great artists, and not until goltzius had heard the unqualified praise of art critics and patrons did he reveal his purpose. his countrymen generously forgave him this deception, and he certainly gained much credit thereby. these pictures are now known as goltzius' masterpieces. during the seventeenth century rembrandt's influence developed much of that technique which modern engravers have copied, and in some instances claimed to improve. he is also credited with the introduction of more expressive gradations of tone, for the production and emphatic suggestion of light and shade. the character of this, too, has been retained in present day engravings. rembrandt was more directly associated with etching than with line engraving, but his influence was far from exclusive. encouraged by the influence of his example, the line engraver endeavoured to add to the expressive power of his pictures by the introduction of more daring perspectives, more suggestive form, and infinitely greater diversity of texture. chapter iv _engraving in england_--introduction of metal engraving--notable british engravers--summary "when applied to objects of their proper destination, the arts are capable of extending our intellect, of supplying new ideas, and of presenting to us a view of times and places, whatever their interval or difference."--dallaway. engraving as a decorative art was well advanced in this country during the reign of alfred the great, when the anglo-saxon metal-workers were known to be skilful engravers. the art was still further developed under the norman rule, and during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. wood engravings were printed by william caxton in , but there is no proof that they were the work of english engravers. =introduction of metal engraving.=--the exact date of the introduction into england of metal engraving as a reproductive art is doubtful. there is a record of a book published in this country in , which was illustrated with copper engravings, cut by thomas gemeni. it was a work on anatomy by vesalius, and was at first printed in latin. in the preface to a translation of this work the following quaint note appears: "accepte, jentill reader, this tractise of anatomie, thankfully interpreting the labours of thomas gemeni the workman. he that with his great charge, watch and travayle, hath set out the figures in pourtrature will most willingly be amended, or better perfected of his own workmanship if admonished." it was probably not until queen elizabeth's reign was well advanced that metal engraving obtained any substantial recognition as a fine art which might be practised with some hope of commercial success. archbishop parker, a powerful prelate of this time, extended his patronage to the art, and for a time, at least, kept a private staff of engravers. a portrait of this archbishop was executed by remigus hogenberg, and is the first record of an engraved portrait produced and printed in england. for about a century the work of english engravers was uninteresting, and almost devoid of artistic feeling. their pictures possessed but little merit, either as works of art or as pictorial records of that eminently progressive period. during the seventeenth century engraving became intimately associated with literature, and then, as now, the combination was a felicitous one. another fortunate circumstance was the settling of the passe family in this country. they came from utrecht, and were engravers of considerable skill and repute. the elder passe was a friend and admirer of the famous painter reubens, whose style he, to some extent, copied. john payne--the first english artist to distinguish himself with the graver--was a pupil of passe. payne was an undoubted genius, and, but for his indolence and dissipated habits, might have accomplished a great work. his most noteworthy engraving was a picture of "the royal sovereign," made on two plates, which, when joined together, measured in. × in. vertue succeeded payne. his engravings were chiefly of historical value; as works of art they displayed no unusual merit. many were portraits of personages of high degree, in which vertue evidently copied the style of houbraken, a dutch artist, who some time previously engraved a similar series of portraits, the commission being given to him because "_no english engraver was capable of executing it_." vertue's writings on english art were profuse and thoughtful. they were afterwards collected and published by horace walpole. [illustration: fig. .--old wood engraving. "horace walpole, the historian of the graphic arts." _block supplied by the london electrotype agency ltd., from the "illustrated london news."_] hogarth, "the inimitable hogarth," "whose pictured morals charm the eye, and through the eye correct the heart," was a brilliant exponent of the expressive power of the engraver's art. possessing a profound knowledge of human nature, and a keen sense of all that is humanely interesting, he expressed in his pictures a wonderful creative fancy, and a well directed humour. he almost invariably represented character rather than scenes, and while displaying immense fertility of design, he retained sufficient realism in the composition of his pictures to render them valuable as records of the manners and customs of his times. they, moreover, describe their incidents in the most direct and piquant fashion. his somewhat defective drawing was redeemed by a wealth of suggestion and an endless variety of grotesque conceptions. he possessed the happy art of seizing a fleeting impression from which he would evolve a caricature full of peculiar and quaint humour. hogarth's place in the art annals of this country is undoubtedly assured, for it has been said that he _represented_ his characters with more force than most men could _see_ them. his career may be dated from , when he produced the illustrations for _hudibras_ and _la mortray's travels_. there is a most extraordinary story related in connection with hogarth's last engraving. while spending a merry evening with some friends he was heard to say: "my next undertaking will be _the end of all things_." "if that is so," remarked one of his companions, "there will soon be an end of the artist." "yes, there will be," hogarth replied, "and the sooner my task is finished the better." the engraving was executed under the impulse of an intense excitement. "finis," he exclaimed, as he finished that most remarkable design, "all is now over," and, strange to relate, this was actually his last work, for he died about a month later. robert strange, who was contemporary with hogarth, was a native of the orkney islands. he was an art student in edinburgh when prince charlie landed, and his jacobite sympathies led him to throw aside his work and join the young chevalier. when the remnant of the army of was flying before duke william after the battle of culloden, strange, closely pursued by a number of soldiers, sought shelter in the house of the lumsdales. miss lumsdale was sitting with her work by one of the windows, and at once offered to conceal the young soldier underneath the folds of her skirt. ladies' skirts of the crinoline period were of such proportions as to render the concealment easy, and miss lumsdale, to lull the suspicions of the pursuing soldiers, continued her sewing, and affected considerable surprise and indignation at their intrusion. they shamefacedly withdrew upon finding the lady alone, and strange afterwards made good his escape to france. gratitude to his deliverer, intensified by the romantic situation which saved his life, quickly ripened into love, and, it is needless to add, a good old-fashioned love match. strange settled in london about , when, by his zeal and skilful work, he added much to the fame of historical engraving in this country. he engraved over eighty plates during his lifetime, and displayed a literary talent of no mean order. he was not a brilliant draughtsman, but the tone and texture of his engravings are almost perfect. he was knighted in . there is yet one other engraver of this period whose career merits a share of attention and interest. james gilray was born in , and, like hogarth, commenced at the bottom rung of the ladder as a letter engraver. he also became a notable caricaturist, and some idea of his skill in this branch of pictorial art may be gleaned from the fact that over designs were the product of his inventive fancy. though not by any means indolent, his habits were dissipated, and unfortunately for him he, for many years, resided with his publisher, who gratified his passions so long as his art was sufficiently productive. gilray's designs were not all caricatures. a number of illustrations for goldsmith's _deserted village_ were designed and engraved by him. he also engraved a few of northcote's pictures. his style was free and spirited, and he was one of the first english engravers to prove the merits of stipple engraving. the stipple manner of engraving was a curious development of the art. it appeared as though line engraving could not keep pace with the ever-growing demand for pictures, and was therefore combined with stipple to facilitate production. in capable hands very fine results were obtained with this combination. english engraving was still in its infancy, however, and continental productions were favoured by the art patrons of this country, until a stimulus was given to native art by the painters reynolds, wilson, and west. profiting by this renewed interest, woollet entered upon a career of unqualified success, and eventually succeeded in obtaining full recognition for the merits of english engraving. as a boy woollet showed his artistic proclivities in a strange manner. his father, it is stated, won a £ prize in a lottery, and bought an inn, glorying in the name of "the turk's head," a title which the embryonic artist endeavoured to express pictorially on a pewter pot. the father, struck by some quality in the drawing, apprenticed young woollet to an obscure london engraver. from an artistic point of view this apprenticeship was of little value. woollet was a born artist, and although his early training may have intensified the natural bent of his genius, it did little to cultivate it. he possessed versatile talents. his historical pictures were, in every respect, equal to his landscapes, and these will long remain as lasting and convincing monuments of his skill. the boldness of contrast and accuracy of execution displayed by woollet in his landscape engravings far surpassed all previous efforts to express pictorial effects with the graver. raimbach was a miniature painter of some note, who, like many other artists, turned from creative to reproductive art, and became a successful engraver. in he became associated with david wilkie, and it is generally supposed that he was retained by that artist for the reproduction of his pictures. raimbach's translations of wilkie's works were in every sense artistic productions and faithful representations. he was said to be so careful and conscientious in his work that he employed no assistants, but this was not entirely true. careful and conscientious he undoubtedly was, but he frequently employed assistants to engrave the less important parts of his commissions. raimbach was born in , and died . f. c. lewis was a progressive engraver contemporary with raimbach. his most notable productions were after landseer and lawrence. he was appointed engraver first to george iv., then william iv., and afterwards to queen victoria. samuel cousins was another most influential engraver. a brief sketch of his artistic career is given in another chapter. c. g. lewis was both a line and mezzotint engraver. he was probably landseer's favourite engraver, and his name is best known in association with that artist's pictures. born ; died . when john pye engraved his first turner picture, "pope's villa," in , that famous artist expressed his unqualified approval when he said, "if i had known there was anyone in this country who could have done that, i would have had it done before," and on more than one occasion he mentioned pye's engravings as "the most satisfactory translations of my colour into black and white." an adequate interpretation of turner's pictures requires a masterly appreciation of the gradations and balance of tone which suggest both colour and space; and to merit such expressions of satisfaction from the great artist himself was proof of john pye's artistic power and skill. he began his career as an engraver about the year after a short apprenticeship with james heath, a clever and practical man, who was quick to perceive the ability of his apprentice. john pye was a recognised authority on the pictorial effect of colour, and it was said that during his long and eminently useful life "no engraver did more than he to spread a knowledge of the sound principles of landscape art." he was frequently consulted by his fellow artists, and without even a suggestion of professional jealousy, he was ever ready with his advice and, if need be, practical help. the following copy of a letter--now in the swansea art gallery--gives some idea of the esteem in which his opinion was held by contemporary artists:-- _monday._ _to j. pye, esq._ thursday night, at half-past five, if you please. i hope that day will be convenient to you. i should like, if possible, to see you here by daylight, as your opinion is always valuable to me, and i have some few things to show you.--your faithful servant, ed. landseer. pye was long known in art circles as the "father of landscape engraving," and he certainly succeeded, as no other engraver has done, in his translation of colour values and suggestion of aërial perspectives. turner's paintings were his favourite subjects, and his interpretations of them are brilliant in expression, and charged with the very essence of artistic feeling. his life and work indicated a progress as distinct as it was far reaching. "and still the work went on, and on, and on, and is not yet completed. the generation that succeeds our own perhaps may finish it." it has been through the efforts of these men and others who, though less influential, were not less skilful perhaps, or less earnest, that english engraving, in its daring innovations and substantial improvements, has far outstripped that of other countries. by them its reputation has been built up and enhanced, so that "its influence is conspicuously visible in the principles and history of art." chapter v _etching_--early records--descriptive--rembrandt's influence--wenceslaus hollar. _mezzotint_--invention--description--artistic qualities--dilettanti art--a modern mezzo engraver "by its very character of freedom, by the intimate and rapid connection which it establishes between the hands and the thoughts of the artists, etching becomes the frankest and most natural of interpreters."--lalanne. it has been asserted, and not without some show of reason, that of all the reproductive arts etching stands pre-eminent as a medium of pictorial expression wherein perfect freedom of drawing is retained. it has found considerable favour with artists, because it enables them to reproduce their own works with ease and rapidity, and without any perceptible loss of expressive power. =early records.=--the first account of the art of etching comes from dutch sources, but whether or not it had its birth in holland is a matter of pure conjecture. it was certainly cradled in the low countries, and finding the time and conditions of art congenial there, flourished abundantly. a book bearing the title, _a book of secrets_, was published in england in . it was a translation from the dutch, and described "a method of engraving with strong waters on steel or iron." the art of etching must have been known in holland some time previous to the date of this publication. it was an unfortunate tendency which led the early etchers, or at any rate etchers of the latter part of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, to practise a style of execution in direct imitation of the work of the graver. their productions were robbed of their peculiar character and charm, their directness and completeness of representation. =descriptive.=--the practical phase of the etcher's work claims a more than passing interest from the earnest reader. a carefully polished sheet of copper is covered with an acid resist in the form of a thin coating of wax or some similar composition. when this has been blackened by the smoke of a candle, or by any other suitable means, the drawing is made with steel points. the bright sheen of the copper exposed by each stroke of the point or etching needle will show the progress of the work very distinctly. the etching mordant is poured over the drawing thus made, when the exposed parts of the plate will be corroded or etched away until sufficient depth is obtained. these are, of course, but the bare outlines of the process, yet they will suffice to illustrate the facility and simplicity of its operations. because it is so admirably adapted for light and sketchy drawings, etching has been described as a kind of summary of pictorial expression, and in some respects such a description fits it perfectly; yet, for a just appreciation of its merits, it will be needful to put aside the idea that it is little more than a sketchy framework. it is true that some of the finest etchings have been executed with the fewest possible lines and without any pretence of elaboration, yet tone and texture may be fully expressed though not actually realised. hence the term sometimes so aptly applied to etching when it is referred to as "the stenography of artistic thought." it is upon this principle of limitation that the chief merits of the etcher's art rests,--a system of pictorial representation which does not always produce illogical and inartistic interpretation or the imperfect transcription of light and shade. it may be frequently characterised by a certain amount of caprice in its execution, but it is nevertheless capable of producing form and expression of a very high character. albert durer, who possessed a most remarkable artistic versatility, etched a number of plates; but they can scarcely be regarded as successful examples of his work, for, like other artists of his time, he endeavoured to imitate the productions of the graver with his etching needle. it was altogether a futile experiment, if indeed it can be regarded as an experiment, and durer's etchings show but little of that rare power and technical skill for which he was justly famous in other phases of graphic art. =rembrandt's influence.=--rembrandt, who was said to be "the greatest artistic individuality of the seventeenth century," manifested a deep and lasting enthusiasm for the art of etching,--an enthusiasm which was abundantly displayed in the marvellous diversity of form by which he reproduced the characteristic grace and delicate modelling of his pictures. his graver and etching needle possessed the same spirited touch as his brush, and when "with his own hand he presented his bold principles of light and shade," he almost invariably combined strength of expression with great facility of invention. there is one notable etcher whose chequered career may well be regarded with interest, for it reveals a depth of artistic enthusiasm almost unparalleled in the art annals of this or any other country. =hollar.=--wenceslaus hollar was a bohemian by birth, and came to england under the patronage of the duke of arundel in . during a lifetime of peculiar misfortunes and vicissitudes, he etched something like plates. as an ardent royalist, he was drawn into the civil war of - . he also passed through the great plague and the fire of london. difficulties and hardships ever beset his path, yet his industry and fond attachment to art never flagged. the very fact that ever-recurring misfortunes and privations never impaired his power as a most remarkable and ingenious illustrator is ample proof, if such be required, of his genius. hollar's etchings are distinguished by an intense fidelity. they abound in historical interest of a reliable and fascinating kind, and though never showy they possess a wealth of artistic beauty and artistic expression. it is difficult to understand how an artist with hollar's gigantic, productive energy should end his days in abject poverty. mezzotint engraving is the art of engraving on metal _in tones_. it dates back to about the middle of the seventeenth century. its history is interesting if only for the fact that it has been developed chiefly in this country, the high degree of perfection to which it attained being chiefly due to english artists. so much so, indeed, that it has frequently been referred to as _la manaire anglais_. =invention.=--the invention of mezzotint engraving was the result of an every-day circumstance which attracted the attention of a soldier more thoughtful than his fellows. ludwig von sigen was a lieutenant-colonel in the army of the landgrave of hesse cassel when he observed the corrosive action of moisture on the stock of a musket. the metal work had been ornamented with an engraved design, and the ground formed by corrosion in conjunction with the engraved lines suggested an idea from which von sigen subsequently developed the mezzotint process. this story of von sigen's discovery is regarded by some authorities with a suspicion of doubt, and a suggestion is made that his purpose was to invest this introduction of a new reproductive art with a romantic as well as an artistic interest. in any case, the gallant colonel's credit is maintained, and it is interesting to note that the principle of his invention remains still unchanged. the chief purpose of later developments was to facilitate the production of a perfectly even ground. on the presentation of his first print to the landgrave of hesse, von sigen declared, "there is not a single engraver, or a single artist, who knows how this work is done." about twelve years afterwards the inventor divulged his secret to prince rupert, by whom it was brought to england. it is generally supposed that prince rupert carefully preserved the secret of this new process for some time, and then in a generous mood he imparted it to vallerant valliant, who fortunately for english art made his knowledge widespread. when mezzotint engraving was first introduced into england, the famous artists, reynolds and gainsborough, had reached the summit of their fame. the time was indeed auspicious. line engraving failed to give a faithful reproduction of the peculiar style of painting then so much admired, while mezzotint engraving, with its soft gradations and attractive qualities of expression, translated with a vivacity and facility that could not fail to please and satisfy. then, again, a somewhat abrupt change manifested itself in the pictorial art of this period. representations of incidents and portraits of famous personages, which were in themselves interesting, took the place of the severely artistic productions of the past. the natural result was an intense interest, which embraced the art and the process by which it was popularised. =description.=--the mezzotint process of engraving may be described in a very few sentences. the plate of metal is first covered with a ground or _tone_. to accomplish this, a tool with a serrated edge is passed over the surface in various directions. the myriads of microscopic indentations thus produced constitute a _tooth_ or roughness similar to the grain of a coarse sandstone. this grain holds a certain proportion of printing ink, and gives a rich, velvety black impression. on such a ground the engraver works up his design, and, by the skilful use of scraper and burnisher, obtains a series of tones or almost imperceptible gradations. he removes just so much of the grain as may be required for the lighter tones, and by burnishing or polishing, after the scraper has been used, secures the high lights. in one respect, at least, this form of reproductive art is peculiar, and unlike any other types of engraving. the artist works from black to white, and produces, on the plate, the lights instead of the shadows. =artistic qualities.=--although capable of most charming effects, the mezzotint process never became a really serious menace to line engraving, with its firm and expressive outlines and peculiarly lustrous textures. yet it is not at all surprising that a process, offering the artistic qualities of reproduction which mezzotint possesses, should prove successful in the interpretation of such light and shade as, for example, turner painted into his pictures. turner was engaged upon the series of pictures for his _liber studiorum_ when he suddenly realised the value of mezzotint engraving. he consulted with charles turner, an eminent engraver, who afterwards executed twenty-three of the _liber studiorum_ plates, and eventually decided to adopt a combination of etching with mezzotint for the reproduction of that famous series of pictures. the leading or essential lines of each picture were etched, probably by turner himself, and the mezzotint added by other engravers. it is perhaps to some extent true that prints from mezzo plates lack somewhat in dignity of effect and fidelity of representation. they are suggestive rather than representative; yet, when the character of the work is suitable, this lack of dignity is more than compensated for by the soft and harmonious effects of light and shade already referred to. the peculiar beauty and brilliancy of these effects, when artistically rendered, impart to the prints an alluring charm, which appeals to the inartistic as well as the accredited artistic eye. the fact that sir joshua reynolds, west, romney, and other famous artists allowed their paintings to be reproduced by the mezzotint process, is sufficient proof of their appreciation of its power. it was, as already stated, to english engravers that mezzo engraving owed its development and fame as a reproductive art, and for very many years after its invention it was practised chiefly in england and holland. it is a remarkable fact that germany, the birthplace of this art, had but a slight connection with its subsequent history; and equally remarkable that french engravers, who excelled in line engraving when mezzotint was at the zenith of its fame, should almost entirely neglect to appreciate its possibilities. another curious fact concerning mezzotint engraving is that it has ever been the art of the dilettanti. it was first of all invented by von sigen, who followed the fine arts for pleasure rather than with any serious purpose. prince rupert brought it over to england with an enthusiastic, but certainly not a professional, interest, and at several periods of its history it has received encouragement and substantial help from like sources. one of the earliest and most ardent mezzo engravers in this country was francis place, a well-known yorkshire country squire. h. lutterel was another such exponent of the art. he was the first engraver to make any decided improvement in laying the ground. he evidently realised the importance of a good ground, and constructed a tool to ensure its evenness and regularity. another irishman, captain baillie, a retired cavalry officer, adopted a style of engraving similar to rembrandt's, and copied some of that great artist's productions. he was one of the most enlightened art critics of his time. =a modern mezzo engraver.=--a brief outline sketch of the life of samuel cousins, one of the most successful of modern mezzotint engravers, will form a fitting conclusion to this chapter. samuel cousins was born in . the story of his precociousness in artistic matters is certainly extraordinary. sir thomas ackland, an enthusiastic patron of the fine arts, saw the boy cousins standing before a picture dealer's window, and sketching with all the eagerness and verve of a born artist. even while yet a child of eleven years his exceptional ability manifested itself, for he won the silver palette, presented by the society of arts, and again the silver medal when twelve years. his rapid progress, both as an artist and engraver, was undoubtedly due to the influence and encouragement of his patron and friend, sir thomas ackland. he engraved about two hundred plates, including pictures by reynolds, lawrence, landseer, and millais. cousins died in , after a most brilliant and purposeful career. chapter vi _the engraver's task_--inartistic work--constructive elements--outline--extraneous matter--composition--light and shade--expression--perspective--execution "the highest art is undoubtedly that which is simplest and most perfect, which gives the experience of a lifetime by a few lines and touches." =the engraver's task.=--engraving, by whatever process it may be accomplished, is not by any means a secondary art. even when it descends to mere copying, which its commercial associations unfortunately encourage, it requires for its effective execution exceptional skill, unremitting patience, and a more than average degree of artistic feeling. it is almost impossible to appreciate the true value of the engraver's work without some consideration of the labour it entails. each one of the multitudinous lines of an engraving is cut with a definite purpose and deliberate care, and may be operated upon again and again to increase the depth or width in various places. even the dots of a stipple are not made in that aimless fashion which their appearance might at first suggest. a mechanical effect is sedulously avoided, consequently each dot must be cut with scrupulous care, and may require two or three touches with the graver to produce the desired effect. the proportionate reduction of pictures for engraving also demands exquisite skill and accurate draughtsmanship in which the eye and hand of the artist may be distinctly traced. thus, by a laborious yet picturesque and harmonious interpretation of the artist's creations, the engraver renders their reproduction possible, widens the sphere of their interest and influence, and in many instances procures for them a world-wide reputation. such an art may be both erudite and comprehensive in its information, for it is executed with a purposeful patience which omits nothing, forgets nothing, and maintains a convincing directness of expression. outline, light and shade, variety of style and representation of surfaces, are all within the engraver's control, and a vast diversity of expression will be requisite for their realisation. it is quite within his power also to interpret the artist's thoughts as well as imitate his style, and this involves not only a judicious balancing of tone and texture, but a knowledge of the principles of art embodied in the picture--his copy. =inartistic work.=--owing to an insatiable craving for pictorial illustration, there is an ever-growing tendency on the part of the artist engraver to seek after sensational or entertaining effects which are not artistic productions. intensely interesting and attractive they may be, and yet signally deficient in the true elements of fine art. it is quite possible to make any art popular, however crude its conception and manifestation may be, so long as its expression is sufficiently striking or pleasing. such products of the graver or brush may be elaborate compositions and effective forms of pictorial expression, inasmuch as they provide interesting information concerning past or current events. they may even possess a certain value as historical records, and yet not manifest that subtle power of suggestive beauty and intensity of thought which are _primá facie_ evidences of masterly genius and artistic power. when the energy and skill of the artist are thus devoted to expressive delineation in place of artistic completeness, he becomes satisfied with an inferior degree of excellence, provided only that it pleases; and the result will almost assuredly be an incomplete, if not vitiated, production. in these days of invention and advancement, when the resources of mankind are almost limitless, conditions of life favourable, and opportunities for the acquirement of knowledge and skill always abounding, there can surely be no valid excuse for this dead level mediocrity in the engraver's art,--a result which might possibly arise from the insiduous fever of display, of notoriety, and of commercialism which is ever seeking fresh victims in this as in every other phase of human life and effort. =constructive elements.=--an engraving may be an imitative or representative interpretation of a picture or drawing in _black_ and _white_. in such an interpretation, whatever its character may be, integrity of form is of paramount importance, and essential to the attainment of any degree of excellence in engraving. it imparts to the work a distinctive character, and endows it with that delicacy and precision of execution for which engraving is so justly famous. =outline.=--in the early engravings the constructive element consisted almost entirely of pure outline, which was rarely monotonous, but frequently suggestive of form and character. is it not almost marvellous, this suggestive power of outline, for is it not in reality but an imaginary boundary? an actual outline is a thing unknown in nature, and the very fact that it has its existence only in the imagination of the artist makes our reconciliation to it and our admiration of it the more wonderful. the astonishing elasticity of the human imagination makes it quite easy to fill in the details of a picture if only the outline be sufficiently suggestive. the primary function of the outline is, of course, to represent; but its secondary or suggestive purpose is scarcely of less importance, and can only be fully realised when the imagination is so stimulated as to perceive more than is actually exhibited. the completeness and truthfulness of the outline must be an engraver's first point. an art critic once stated that "he had finished the picture who had finished the outline." to some extent such a statement may be perfectly true; but just as in elocution, or even in ordinary conversation, emphasis is requisite, so in pictorial art the emphasis of concise expression, modulation, and delicate or vigorous accentuation are equally necessary and effective. =extraneous matter.=--in other words, an artist's ideas may be decisively portrayed in outline, yet for lack of suitable extraneous matter appear both crude and impoverished. the amount of characteristic form expressed by constructive elements in the drawing, other than the outlines, is strikingly illustrated in old german portrait engravings. they are simply overflowing with details of the most minute description. nor can such details be regarded as altogether superfluous, for they each help to _build up_ the character of the picture. in portrait engraving a mere likeness may easily be portrayed by a simple outline. not so, however, with character. considerable amplification will be necessary to show that; and this, perhaps, is the most difficult task of the engraver--to introduce a satisfactory amount of essential detail without detracting in any way from a pleasing general effect in the picture. =composition.=--in its broadest sense composition in graphic art refers to the putting together or combination of the various details into a pleasing and effective picture. it may comprise--( ) the choice of a subject; ( ) the most effective moment of its representation; ( ) the choice of such circumstantial matter as will best intensify the interest of the picture, and enhance its artistic value. nor is one part much less important than another, for interest in the subject must necessarily be influenced by effective grouping, and the choice of harmonious surrounding for both. it is in this that the _finesse_ of the artist becomes available, and, by clever contrasts and agreeable combinations, enables him to emphasise the expressive power of his pictorial art. =light and shade.=--the importance of light and shade in the composition of a picture is a fact too well established to require much further recognition here. if skilfully arranged and distributed it may in some measure compensate for any lack of cohesion in the design, and thus become a redeeming feature in what would otherwise prove to be an ineffective composition. it is chiefly by a dexterous arrangement of light and shade that the artist engraver can produce a faithful and intelligible translation of his subject. it adds considerably to the force and vigour of pictures, and produces effects which please the eye and successfully appeal to the imagination. there are, of course, other qualities and conditions which materially affect the engraver and his work, and these will now be briefly indicated. =expression.=--"expression is the representation of an object agreeably to its nature and character, and the use or office it is intended to have in the work." it is, in fact, the very essence of a picture. without it there can be no character, no emotion, and therefore no faithful delineation. =perspective.=--linear perspective in engraving represents the position or magnitude of the lines or contour of objects portrayed, and suggests their diminution in proportion to their distance from the eye. aërial perspective, on the other hand, represents the diminution of colour value of each object as it recedes from the eye. it is, in reality, a degradation of tone, suggesting the relative distances of objects. either may be the direct product of light and shade as well as of accurate drawing. =execution.=--the execution of an engraving admits of almost any degree of variety--the display of individual skill, and knowledge of technique. execution, as the term implies, is the direct result of individual dexterity; the ability to interpret colour, tone, and texture of a picture by an arrangement of lines of varying depth and fineness; the ability also to imitate, or even create, pictorial expression. the work of the engraver, like many other phases of reproductive art, is a fruitful source of mannerisms; yet even these will produce excellent results if they create innovations which will be afterwards approved and recognised as healthy, independent, and entirely original methods. [illustration: fig. .--modern wood engraving. "an interpretation of tone and texture by an arrangement of lines." _block supplied by the london electrotype agency ltd., from the "religious tract society."_] chapter vii _photo "process" engraving_--a progressive process--commercial and artistic features--"line" process--"half tone"--artistic restoration--tri-chromatography--photogravure "it is not knowledge itself which is power, but the ability to use and apply knowledge." =a progressive process.=--photo process engraving is a method of graphic reproduction which comes into direct contact with art in its most popular phases. it is a distinctly progressive process which possesses immense advantages and represents an effective and by no means inartistic aspect of the graphic arts. the lavish, and in many instances extravagant, employment of process engraving for purposes of pictorial illustration is a substantial proof of its popularity and illustrative value. it may not always reach a high standard of artistic realisation, but it is almost invariably realistic and attractive in its varied forms of representation. the idea of pictorial illustration, whether as the translation of an artistic conception or an actual representation of current events, has ever been a fascinating one; and its evolution, from a photo-mechanical standpoint, has been one unbroken record of remarkable progress. to enter upon a detailed exposition of any of the many photo-mechanical processes is somewhat beyond the purpose of this short treatise, and to attempt anything but a full and comprehensive description on such lines would be both unwise and valueless. let it suffice, then, to indicate their more salient points, their illustrative and artistic value, and the manner in which they may be most successfully applied. =commercial and artistic features.=--the commercial advantages of photo-engraving may be summed up in a very few words:-- . the plates can be produced quickly and economically. . the impressions can be made at a high rate of speed, and in some of the processes without perceptible deterioration. . the prints will be more or less facsimiles of the original. from an artistic point of view, photo-engraving possesses equally important features. it translates the artist's work with extraordinary facility and accuracy, retaining a satisfactory proportion of its expressive feeling, and reproducing subtleties of drawing and texture which it would be difficult, if not quite impossible, to obtain by any other process. of the many photo-mechanical engraving processes, all of which are more or less associated with pictorial illustration, three at least merit further consideration. [illustration: fig. .--cross section of cyanide furnace. the "line process."] (_a_) =the "line" process.=--the "line" process is applicable only to the reproduction of line drawings or prints, in which the design is represented in simple black and white, with only such gradations of tone as may be suggested by lines or dots. for the reproduction of pen-and-ink drawings, it has found considerable favour with illustrators, and many even of the more conservative artists are compelled to appreciate its merits and acknowledge its value. an interesting account of the compulsory acceptance of process engraving by the famous illustrator "du maurier" is suggestive of at least one valuable peculiarity of this method of reproduction. owing to failing sight, du maurier found it increasingly difficult to introduce into his drawings on the wood block that amount of detail which he considered necessary for the adequate expression of his ideas. eventually he was compelled to make pen-and-ink drawings on a much larger scale than was his wont, and to have them reproduced as photo-line-blocks, the reduction being made as required. (_b_) =half tone.=--"half tone" process engraving, as distinguished from the "line" process, is the reproduction of a design or copy which has in its composition gradations of tone in the form of flat tints. wash drawings and photographs present characteristic examples of such copies. [illustration: fig. .--process engraving. _block by the arc engraving co. ltd., london._] the true relative value of these medium or half tones can only be retained in the half tone engraving by breaking up the picture into most minute sections, and thereby producing a grain or series of dots of varying size and contiguity according to the requirements of the drawing. this grain or "screen" effect is produced by the interposition of a network of finely ruled lines in the form of a screen between the lens and the sensitive plate when photographing. the optical principle involved is beyond the sphere of this work, but the effect produced is a matter of vital importance, and requires careful consideration. the coarser the ruling of a screen, consistent of course with the class of work for which it is required, the more vigorous and consequently more effective the reproduction will appear. the variety of tones will be greater, and the textures will appear richer. small prints are naturally subjected to a close inspection; the screen effect, therefore, should be less obtrusive than in larger ones. it may also be useful to know that a finely ruled screen will reproduce the minute details of a copy. =artistic restoration.=--it is somewhat doubtful if the half tone engraving, pure and simple, would ever have any real artistic value for pictorial illustration but for some method of restoring those qualities which are so considerably reduced when copying a picture through the line screen. the pure half tone consists of a grain of varying gradations over the whole design. there are, therefore, no pure whites even in the highest lights. the use of the roulette and graver for accentuating light and shade is therefore not only permissible but decidedly advantageous, for the monotony of a mechanical grain is thereby relieved, and the print produced will be an effective and accurate translation of the artistic sketch. "a true half tone will be best obtained by not relying entirely on the mechanical means, but assisting them with some hand work, either in the shape of re-etching or engraving, or both." the application of hand engraving to photo-mechanical work has been chiefly due to american process workers, who applied the technique of the wood engraver's art to the amplification of their half tone blocks. =tri-chromatography.=--the "three colour process" is more or less an application of half tone engraving to chromo-typography. the colours, each in their relative value, are produced by purely photo-mechanical methods--the colours of the original copy being dissected by means of specially prepared colour screens. half tone blocks are made from each of the three negatives, and superimposed in accurate register in the subsequent printing, when, of course, the primary colours, red, blue, and yellow, are used. the process possesses brilliant and effective illustrative power, offers ample scope for the ingenuity and manipulative skill of artist, engraver, and printer, and promises well-nigh unlimited possibilities as a medium of pictorial expression. (_c_) =photogravure.=--photogravure may be very briefly described. it is a photo-mechanical process, in which rich, soft tones of surpassing delicacy and undeniably artistic effect are striking peculiarities. unlike "line" and "half tone" engraving, it is an intaglio process, in which the printer as well as the etcher must possess a profound artistic perception. [illustration: reproduction by r. j. everett & sons' "ink-photo" process. plate engraving for illustration within a mile of edinburgh town.] a polished copper plate is grained by dusting resin or asphalt powder on its surface, and afterwards fixing it by the application of heat. a _tissue_ negative print is made, squeezed on to the grained plate, and developed in the usual way. the plate is etched through the tissue. the action of the etching mordant--perchloride of iron--being in exact proportion to the light and shade of the developed print. the printing is a necessarily slow, and therefore costly, item. this limitation to their production, however, enhances the value of photogravure prints. =ink photo.=--what is known as the ink photo process of reproduction is interesting chiefly on account of the remarkable fidelity with which engravings of the finest and most intricate texture can be reproduced by its agency. it is essentially a photo-mechanical process, but differs from others of a similar character, inasmuch as the vigour and expressive power of the original is to a considerable extent preserved. colour values also, as far as they can be expressed by the engraver's art (see p. ), are reproduced by ink photo methods with surprising accuracy, and the intensity of impression, that peculiar feature of prints from engraved plates, is almost invariably well sustained. a careful criticism of the appended illustration and frontispiece done, this process will reveal many other interesting points of practical value. chapter viii _appreciative criticism_--an educative principle--an analysis--realism in art--a retrospect "yet when we have said all our fine things about the arts, we must end in a frank confession that the arts, as we know them, are but initial. he has conceived meanly of the resources of man who believes that the best age of production is past." =appreciative criticism.=--the art of engraving, and particularly wood engraving, has fully justified its existence, and the eminently popular position which it has long held amongst the fine arts of the world. through the medium of the pictorial press it has diffused a knowledge of the noblest principles of art, and has ever exerted a refining influence even over inartistic minds. for this reason the lack of knowledge concerning some of the essential qualities of engraving as a pictorial art is somewhat remarkable. even more so when it is considered that never before in the history of the world has such a wealth of illustrative art been produced and brought well within the reach of its humblest patrons. it is perhaps too much to expect, nor is it at all desirable, that individual preference should be moulded to one common and fixed standard. to some minds the picturesque, though perhaps undignified paintings of the old dutch masters, would appeal with greater success than the wondrous light and shade of turner's pictures. or, again, the astonishing technicalities and intricacies of german wood engraving may stir up a deeper interest and enthusiasm than the simple yet expressive productions of thomas bewick. yet such a difference of opinion may exist only in individual appreciation or taste. the appreciative faculties in mankind are in the main identical. =an educative principle.=--there is in human life an omnipotent and omniscient educative principle which may, to some extent at least, be rendered subservient to the human will, but which in other respects is as certain in its results and impulses as the course of the planets. those who surround themselves with the beautiful in nature and in art, whose minds are constantly in communion with the grand and noble purposes they suggest, are infinitely more sensible to their manifold beauties than those of their fellows who persistently disregard, and even repel, artistic influences. their appreciation of the full significance of any artistic production is deeper, more sincere, and more equable than is that of those who neglect the aspirations of the finer fibres of their beings, and thus allow their higher faculties to become blunted, and their judgments warped. "verily unto him that hath shall be given," etc. the most independent and most penetrative imagination is not by any means a free agent. environment, mental culture, and natural temperament are each controlling influences of variable power; yet there is much truth in the philosophy which declares that "it is as easy to excite the intellectual faculties as the limbs to useful action." =the artist's purpose.=--a misconception of the artist's aim almost invariably leads to a condemnation of his work. first of all discover his purpose, and then decide upon the success or non-success of his conceptions. the _style_ of their execution, _i.e._ the manner in which various surfaces and textures are reproduced, is but a means to an end. it is infinitely easier to assimilate a style once its objective has been clearly comprehended. =an analysis.=--for obvious reasons, then, an analysis of the merits and demerits of the engraver's art is not always a simple matter. his work may be an acceptable pictorial record, though not in any sense a picture from an artistic point of view. on the other hand, it may possess artistic qualities in abundance, and yet be far from a truthful record of an incident or scene. =realism in art.=--it is frequently claimed for graphic art that when it cannot faithfully imitate it is permissible for it to interpret. quite so; and it is in just such a light that engraving is or ought to be regarded. a picture, whether illustrating a story or recording an artistic impression, is never so great as when it enchants the imagination with an ideal presence. absolute realism is not always desirable either in pictorial art or pictorial expression. no matter how realistic it may be, it is a doubtful gain to introduce into the composition of a picture a mass of detail which might only prove disconcerting, and distract attention from the main issues of the subject. the partial or complete isolation of a central idea often adds to the vigour and general effectiveness of the whole. rarely, indeed, does it render it less picturesque. after all, it is not nature so much as nature's expression which should be represented. its infinity of secondary effects, its superabundance of detail, may, often with advantage, be left out. =a retrospect.=--while in this critical mood, it may be worth while noting that the sincere and painstaking work of the old-time engravers is deserving of some praise and an ever tolerant criticism. it manifests incongruities and exaggerated metaphors which are at times painfully unconventional or grotesque, yet they have a directness of representation which admits of no doubt as to their meaning, and bear few traces of a perfunctory art. "our arts are happy hits. we are like the musician on the lake whose melody is sweeter than he knows, or like a traveller surprised by a mountain echo whose trivial word returns to him in romantic thunders."--emerson. index ackland, sir thomas, . analysis, . ancient drawings, . antiquity of engraving, . _apocalypsio sue historia_, . art representative, . artistic purpose, . artistic restoration, . arundel, duke of, . assyrian antiquities, . audran family, . baillie, captain, . baldine, baccio, . bewick, thomas, , . _biblia pauperum_, . block books, . botticelli, sandio, . cave dwellings, . caxton, william, . character, building up of, . chinese playing cards, . clever contrasts, . colour dissection, . commercial advantages, . comparisons, , . composition, , . concise expression, . constructive elements, . controlling influences, . cousins, samuel, . criticism, appreciative, . dallaway, . dante, . degradation of tone, . details, combination of, . du maurier, . durer, albert, , , , . dutch masters, . educative principle, . egyptian monuments, . emerson, , , . engravers, early, . engravers, interpretation, . engravers, task, . engraving, english, . etching, . etching, dutch records, , . etching, a summary, . etching, description, . etching, a stenography, . etching, pictorial and artistic value, . etching, light and shade in, . etchings, hollar's, . evolution theory, . execution, . expression, . extraneous matter, . finiguerra, , , . formschneider, . french engravers, . french engraving, . gainsborough, . gemeni, thomas, , . german wood engraving, , . german engravers, . german portraits, . gilray, james, . goldsmith's _deserted village_, . goltzius, henry, . greek art, . gutenberg, . half tone process engraving, , , . heath, james, . hieroglyphic figures, . _historia virginis_, . historical records, , . hogarth, , , . hogenberg, remigus, . holbein, hans, . houbraken, . hound, the, . hudibras, . illustrator, the, . imaginary boundary, an, . imaginative instinct, . imaginative symbolism, . inartistic work, . inception of engraving, . incised drawings, , . intermediary values, . ink photo, . ink photo, expressive power, . ink photo, intensity of, . italian art, . italian engraving, . italian niello, . jacobite sympathies, . justification, a, . kartenmacher, . king of terrors, the, . lalanne, . landscape engraving, . landseer, , , . lawrence, , . lewis, f. c., . leyden, lucas van, . light and shade, . line process engraving, , . litzelburger, hans, . louis xiv., . ludwig, von sigen, . lutterell, . mannerisms, , . mantegna, andrea, . merchant marks, . metal engraving, . metal engraving, invention of, . metal engraving, another account, . mezzotint engraving, invention, , . mezzotint engraving, qualities, , . mezzotint engraving, popularised, , . mezzotint engraving, described, . movable types, . national characteristics, . nation's progress, mirror of, . nature's expression, . neolithic period, . new testament, . northcote's pictures, . nuremberg records, . outline, , - . ornamental engraving, . palæolithic period, . parker, archbishop, . passe family, . payne, john, . perspective, . perspective, aërial, . perspective, linear, . photo process, . photogravure, artistic features, . photogravure, description, . photogravure, pictorial cards, . place, francis, . pope's villa, . prehistoric artistic power, . prehistoric art, purpose of, . primeval engraver, . primeval man, . prince rupert, , . process engraving, amplification of, . process engraving, artistic, . process engraving, commercial features, . process engraving, value of, , . progressive review, . progressive process, , . pye, john, . queen elizabeth, . raimbach, , . raimondi, marc antonio, . raphael, . realism, , . religious illustrations, . rembrandt, . rembrandt's influence, . renaissance, . retrospect, . reynolds, , . rock, jerome, . romney, . royal sovereign, . screen effect, , . society of arts, . _speculum humanæ salvationis_, . stipple engraving, . strange, robert, , . style, . symbolic figures, . technique, , . thirteenth century documents, . three colour process, . tone and texture, . translation, . tri-chromatography, . turk's head, . turner, , , , , . untutored art, . vallerant valliant, . venetian navigators, . vertue, . vesalius, . walpole, horace, , . west, , . wilkie, david, . wilson, . wood blocks, . wood engraving, . wood engraving, combination of lines, . wood engraving, justification of, . wood engraving, power of realisation, . wood engraving, pictorial and artistic effects, . wood engraving, renaissance, . wood engraving, variety of texture, . * * * * * _printed by_ morrison & gibb limited, _edinburgh_ by alois senefelder translated from the original german by j. w. muller the invention of lithography cloth to $ . postpaid the fuchs & lang manufacturing co. new york the invention of lithography [illustration: senefelder] the invention of lithography by alois senefelder translated from the original german by j. w. muller [illustration] new york: the fuchs & lang manufacturing company copyright, , by the fuchs & lang manufacturing company new york and london _entered at stationers' hall, london_ translator's preface alois senefelder, not only the inventor, but the father and perfecter of lithography, wrote this story of his life and his invention in . the translator has followed his style closely, because he felt that the readers would prefer to have this english edition represent senefelder's original german faithfully. when senefelder wrote, he had to invent many names for the processes, manipulation-methods, and tools. these terms have been translated literally even where modern practice has adopted other names. the original german edition carried the following title-page:-- "complete | text-book of stone-printing | containing | a correct and lucid instruction | for all | various manipulations in all its branches and methods | and also a | full history of this art | from its origin to the present day. | written and published | by the inventor of lithography and chemical printing, | alois senefelder. | with a preface by the general-secretary of the royal academy of sciences in | munich, the director | friederich von schlichtegroll | munich, | obtainable from the author and from e. a. fleischmann" | the book was dedicated by senefelder to maximilian joseph, then king of bavaria. _july, ._ j. w. m. preface a book like this requires no preface; it makes its own way, supported by its contents. but the famous author deems that his acquaintance with me gave him the direct impulse for producing this work, which has been desired so long and from all sides; and he wishes that i shall say something about the history of its production. i seize the opportunity gladly to prove the esteem and the friendship that the talent of this honorable contemporary and fellow countryman, a talent combined with the utmost ambition and with childlike good nature and unselfishness, have inspired in me. one may not declare that his contemporaries showed indifference to the invention of lithography to which his fortunate star led herr alois senefelder, and to the improvements that he sought with thousands of experiments and restless labor. on the contrary, the invention has spread itself with surprising speed through europe and beyond, and has been received with admiration everywhere. but the lack of proper instruction, due to the many who had learned it only partially and introduced it only for the sake of a small, passing profit, has hampered its perfect success. therefore the inventor, who, happily, still lives among us, has been urged from near and far to tell the story of his important, many-sided discovery, and to give instructions for its use, that is, to produce such a work as is before us now. but the artistic genius, full of his subject, would far rather work, experiment, strive, than write! many times herr senefelder decided to set down how he happened on this art, how the successive steps of its development were reached, and at what point of development its various processes now stand; but always his ceaselessly striving spirit showed him something new that might be achieved, and forced him back again into his element,--experimentation. thus the "pattern book," begun in , remained unfinished and without text; and the other work, announced two years ago by herr andre, in offenbach, as being undertaken by him with herr alois senefelder, hardly would have seen the light. a forceful impetus from without was needed to compel herr senefelder to fulfill the general request of the public. it came as follows. many statements in print attracted my attention. they credited the invention of lithography to paris, to london; and in munich there were various contradictory legends, some alleging that herr alois senefelder had made the very first experiments and others crediting them to herr schmidt in miesbach, at that time professor in munich. i considered it my duty to clear away this uncertainty and to prepare a critical history of this invention while it still was possible. the weekly _anzeiger für kunst und gewerbfleiss_ in the kingdom of bavaria, which has appeared since , exists for the purpose of producing annals of the art and industrial history of bavaria. therefore, toward the end of and early in , i inserted some letters about the invention of lithography and called on all friends of native art history to point out any inaccuracies and send proofs to the contrary, that the truth might thus be ascertained about a subject of great literary value for this generation and for posterity. more than all, i urged herr alois senefelder, then absent, "to produce a detailed history of his invention as soon as possible, with a text-book embellished by specimen plates, in which the full use of the art might be truly and clearly explained." i sent this printed letter to herr senefelder in vienna. the first object of my request has been without much result. hardly a single voice has been raised to uncover the correct and the incorrect in the various stories with strictly historical accuracy, and thus to bring the truth to light, that lithography may not experience what our klopstock sings: "too oft in eternal night is cloaked the inventor's great name!" i have been more fortunate in my second object. herr alois senefelder recognized my good intention and my pure pleasure in this important art that will give our bavaria unending fame and spreading celebrity. since his return to munich, it has been the subject of many conversations between us, and i have endeavored to enliven the courage and self-confidence of this remarkable man, who often was depressed by the failure of many an enterprise. my three endeavors--to win the gracious attention of our most high royal family for the latest improvements in chemical printing attained through herr senefelder's work; to impel the venerable national institution to which i belong to investigate the art scientifically; and the publication of the text-book and the history of the inventor--these have been not without result. his majesty, our most gracious king, this all-honored father of his nation and his people, and long a gracious promoter of lithography, has taken gracious cognizance of the newest, amazing experiments in metallography and papyrography with which herr senefelder busied himself last winter, has encouraged him magnanimously to publish the present work, and has permitted that it shall be dedicated to his noble name. her majesty, our supremely honored queen, herself a connoisseur in the creative arts, also has honored these experiments with her gracious attention, and thus has enlivened the courage and the energy of the artist. the most celebrated technicians in the royal academy have examined these processes and also the various small presses lately invented by herr senefelder in order to make stone-printing, and also metal and paper printing available for private use and business, and have given him the most flattering testimonials. the polytechnic association of bavaria also has aided, through its before-mentioned weekly publication, in making herr senefelder and his art, and especially his most recent achievements, known in a wider field than might otherwise be possible, and to bring him to the attention of his fellow citizens and interested travelers. at last, herr alois senefelder has used the hours that he could spare from his continuous experiments and investigations to write down the history of his labors out of his faithful memory; and also to give a full description of all methods invented by him to this time, accompanied by highly instructive specimen pages, partly made by himself and partly by artistic friends, but all printed either with his own hand or under his direct supervision. thus with the past winter there developed a new, still more busy life of this rare, useful man; and thus there originated the present work that i do not hesitate to declare as belonging among the most noteworthy productions of the present leipsic book fair. the book is in two parts: ( ) the history of the invention and of the various applications of the new art: ( ) the description of the methods for writing, drawing, engraving, transferring, etching, and printing, stated with all the clearness possible, and accompanied with object-lessons in the form of wonderfully successful and instructive specimen plates. with the great candor inherent in the character of the author he tells faithfully how he came to make his first experiments, what mistakes he made, with what inner and outer difficulties he contended, how one idea led to another, what combinations he tried, what plans, successful and unsuccessful, he made, and under what unrest and embarrassments he lived for many years. the minute detail of the history and the interpolation of the personal relations of the author and his acquaintances may surprise many readers at first sight; but many of these are intimately connected with the development of stone-printing, and in the cases of others, the author did not have time to re-write what really had been written as only the first draft, because his original intention of re-writing would have prevented the appearance of the book in the present easter book fair. in the history of an important invention, minuteness hardly can be called a fault. how gladly would we read all the family circumstances of johann gutenberg and johann fust, if there were such a history of the beginnings of typography as now is before us about lithography! thus there has been fulfilled the desire that herr alois senefelder tell openly and plainly how he came to discover stone-printing. now that his testimony and claims lie open to all eyes, it is possible to compare it with the other stories that are told, and to bring the necessary accuracy into the investigation by sharply defining those things that properly may be called stone-print. it is time to urge contemporaries once more to declare anything known to them that is in contradiction of this history, so that a critical history of stone-printing may be produced, with a chronicle of what was done in the early years of the art, how and by whom, so that we may learn if several minds had the idea simultaneously, and thus to do justice to all. it is to be desired that a writer equipped for the purpose with total non-partisanship, utter truthfulness, and clearness of perception and judgment may do this not unimportant service to literature very soon! as to the text-book, forming the second part of this publication, it has been demanded even more than the history. stone-printing has spread so much in recent years that a few certain lithographers could no doubt give satisfactory instruction. but there is only one voice among those who are acquainted with the matter thoroughly, and that is, that herr alois senefelder made not only the earliest but the most numerous and various experiments, and therefore is the foremost man to give instruction. he is of an upright spirit, and i can assert with full conviction that in this text-book his aim was not only to tell everything fully, but also with the utmost accuracy. already he has instructed many in the art, trained many others, and thus has learned what are the circumstances that ordinarily hinder the efforts of a beginner. even recently, according to his statement and that of professor mitterer, whom i consider the best expert in lithography next to senefelder, there still have been phenomena that surprised lithographers most unpleasantly in the midst of a piece of work, and ruined results as if by witchcraft,--cases wherein, in two apparently perfectly similar manipulations, there would not succeed to-day that which had succeeded yesterday, nay, even an hour before. the text-book gives all explanations and remedies for such cases that the wide experiences of senefelder have made known to him. therefore, if an artist proceeds exactly according to the instructions given here, and yet meets obstacles, he need merely look for the reason in some small, unnoticed detail or in the quality of his materials. he need not become discouraged, for if he has faith in his faithful and candid teacher, he will attain the goal. besides the branches and methods already known and practiced with success outside of munich, as in karlsruhe, stuttgart, berlin, london, paris, etc., this text-book teaches several methods that had not been made public by the inventor till now; and the fundamental principles of those methods already known are stated here solidly. he gives information also of his most recent attempts to use metal plates as well as the stone paper recently invented by him. although the procedure in these two latter methods resembles stone-printing largely, it differs so much in some points from real lithography that herr senefelder proposes to publish a work about these processes especially, which may then serve as a supplement to this one. so may this work go forth in the world under good auspices, to increase the fame of its author, secure for him the respect of all friends of art in and outside of germany, and become an encouragement for him to dedicate his life further to his greatly promising art and its fullest development! honor in rich measure has come to him already through his art. a worldly wise man in his place would have become a wealthy one. that he is not; but our magnanimous king has made him secure against want during his remaining life, and my knowledge of his character assures me that he will utilize this, and any other advantage that may accrue to him in time to come through this work or his art, for perfecting it, and then to train his only son, now five years old, to the art, so that he may practice it in future with honor to his father's name. friedrich von schlichtegroll. munich, easter day, . section i history of stone-printing part i from to as my father, peter senefelder of königshofen in franken, was court actor in munich, i had ample opportunity in early youth to see and read many theatrical pieces. thus i developed such a love for this branch of literature and for the theatre that i would have become an actor myself had i been permitted to obey my inclination. but my father, who was determined not to permit any of his children to choose the stage, compelled me to study law. i could satisfy my longings only occasionally by playing a few times in private theatricals and by venturing on a few dramatic writings in my hours of recreation. in my eighteenth year ( ) the question arose, at a gathering of youngsters, as to how we should entertain ourselves in the approaching carnival time. we decided to give a little private play. many pieces were proposed, but none seemed suitable, because each one wished to play a good and suitable part, and, besides, we could not fill most of the parts, as we lacked women. we were almost giving up hope when herr kuerzinger, now court actor, proposed to me to write a play, as i had begun one shortly before that happened to suit each of my friends. i finished the little piece, _die mädchen kenner_, in a short time. it was ready for production, when through accident we were disappointed about securing the private theatre on which we had counted. we were emboldened to request leave to produce it in the kurfürst's court theatre and succeeded, thanks to my father's aid. the over-kind praise which it won encouraged me to have the play printed. although i was pretty generous with free copies among my friends, i received so much from lentner, the book-dealer in munich, that a net profit of fifty gulden remained to me. i had not worked eight days on the little thing, and had made all this money, without counting the pleasure of the work. no wonder that now i feared no longer for my future! my love for the theatre became overpowering, and as my father died soon afterward ( ), and i found no further assistance toward completing my studies in ingolstadt, i resolved to become a dramatic author and actor. i found no place for me in the court theatre. its leaders were opposed to my family, because my mother with her large family received a larger pension, through the favor of the kurfürst, than she could have expected in ordinary course. in a few strolling theatres, such as regensburg, nürnberg, erlangen, and augsburg, where i endured privation and misfortune enough, my enthusiasm was well dampened in the course of two years. i decided, as i could see no other prospects for the moment despite my not inconsiderable attainments, to support myself in future as author. i had written several dramatic pieces already that had won sufficient applause. therefore i decided to have some of these printed in order to meet my immediate expenses. i gave one of them to the printing establishment of herr hübschmann, in munich, and when the first folio was finished, i made the proposition to herr lentner to take some or all of the copies. he told me that i would have done better to let him have the manuscript; but since it had been begun, he told me to make sure that it be finished before the beginning of the leipsic easter fair, in which case he promised to obtain for me one hundred gulden net, after deducting all costs. i begged herr hübschmann to finish the printing, but, as he assured me that it was impossible, i took the remaining folios to another printer. despite this the play was not printed till two weeks after the fair, and i received from herr lentner barely enough to pay the printing cost. my hope of profit was lost. i had, however, seen the entire procedure of printing, because i had spent many a day in the establishments. i found that it would not be hard for me to learn, and could not withstand the desire to own a small printing establishment myself. "thus," thought i, "i can print my productions myself, and so alternate healthfully between mental and physical activities." i could earn a decent living, too, and thus become an independent man. this idea controlled me so that i studied all sorts of ways to realize it. if i had possessed the necessary money, i would have bought types, a press and paper, and printing on stone probably would not have been invented so soon. the lack of funds, however, forced me to other expedients. at first i thought of etching letters in steel. these matrices i planned then to impress on pear wood, in which the letters would show in relief, somewhat like the cast type of the book printers, and they could have been printed like a wood-cut. a few experiments showed me the possibility of this, and i could easily have invented a machine with which the moulding could have been done more quickly than a printer could set his type. i reserve the right to use this possibly fruitful idea in future with improvements. at the time, however, i had to give up the whole thing through lack of implements and sufficient skill in engraving. then it struck me that if i had only enough types to set one column or folio, i could press this into a soft material, transfer the impression to a board covered with soft sealing-wax, and reproduce the relief plate thus obtained in stereotype form. the attempt succeeded perfectly. i made a sort of dough of clay, fine sand, flour, and coal-dust, which, being firmly kneaded, took the impression very well, and was so dry in a quarter of an hour that i could print warmed sealing-wax thoroughly well with a small press. i inked these letters of sealing-wax relief with printing-ink laid on with a leather roller stuffed with horse-hair and obtained a result as clean as any obtained from ordinary types. by mixing finely powdered gypsum with the sealing-wax i made the latter harder than the ordinary type composition. thus there was nothing in the way of my making stereotype plates (which i did not know by this name at that time), except a few minor appliances and a small stock of types. but even this exceeded my financial power and i gave up the plan, especially as i had conceived a new one during my experiments. this was to learn to write out ordinary type letters exactly, but reversed. i planned that as soon as i attained the skill, i would write them with an elastic steel pen on a copper plate covered in ordinary manner with etching surface, etch, and let the copper-plate printers print them. in a few days i had such skill in reverse writing that i attacked the etching on copper bravely. here, to be sure, i met greater difficulties. writing on copper over the etching surface was far more difficult than writing on paper. then the preparation of the plate, the etching, etc., demanded some practice; but all this i hoped to conquer in time. the one thing that troubled me was that i could not correct the errors made during writing. the accessories of copper-plate engravers, especially the so-called cover varnish, were quite unknown to me. i knew no remedy except to paint the faulty places over with molten wax, but the covering generally became so thick that i could not work through it properly and had to leave the corrections for the graving stilus, which, however, i could not handle at the time. as, however, the proofs were thoroughly satisfactory to me, i labored desperately to overcome the difficulty. during my student years i had attained much chemical knowledge, and i knew that most of the resinous products which withstand acid, as well as the fats, wax, tallow, and so forth, can be dissolved and diluted partly in etheric oils and spirits of wine, and partly in alkalies. my problem was to obtain a thin mass which would permit itself to be spread very thinly in cold condition over the copper etching surface, dry quickly, become sufficiently firm after drying without getting tough, and, above all, be something that would not attack the etching surface. a few trials with spirits of wine and various resinous forms gave no satisfaction. the one experiment that i made with oil of turpentine and wax also failed, presumably because i diluted the mixture more than necessary, which caused it to flow too much and dissolve the etching surface, at which time several well-done parts of the engraving were ruined. besides, this mixture dried only slowly to the degree necessary for working. fortunately i made no further experiments with this material, because then i should not have invented stone-printing, as i know now how to make a cover varnish that is quite satisfactory. i turned, instead, to an experiment with wax and soap, which succeeded beyond all expectations. a mixture of three parts of wax with one part of common tallow soap, melted over the fire, mixed with some fine lampblack, and then dissolved in rainwater, gave me a sort of black ink with which i could correct faulty spots most easily. now i needed only practice in order to carry out my project of etching my literary productions in copper. this presented a new difficulty. after i had written on my single little copper plate, etched it, and pulled proofs at the house of a friend who possessed a copper-plate press, i had to spend some hours again laboriously grinding and polishing the plate, a process which also wore away the copper fast. this led me to practice on zinc, which was easier to scrape and polish. an old zinc plate of my mother's was requisitioned at once, but the results were very unsatisfactory, because the zinc probably was mixed with lead, and i had used only aqua fortis instead of more powerful acid. i did not continue trials with zinc, because just then i obtained a handsome piece of kellheimer stone for the purpose of rubbing down my colors on it; and it occurred to me that if i painted this stone plate with my wax ink, it would serve as well for practicing as copper or zinc, with very little labor in grinding and polishing. the experiments succeeded, and though i had not thought originally that the stone itself might be used for printing (the samples i had seen hitherto of this kellheim limestone were too thin to withstand the pressure exerted in printing), i soon began to believe that it was possible. it was much easier to do good work on the stone than on the copper. i observed also that i needed weaker and much diluted aqua fortis. a stone mason told me that he could provide me with this sort of limestone in plates from one inch to eight inches thick. thus i needed not to fear cracking of the stone; and the only thing that i needed to invent, in order to use the stone just like copper, was either a way to give the stone a better polish, or else a tint which would be easier to rub away than the ordinary copper-plate printing-ink. the stone will not take the polish that is demanded with ordinary printer's ink,--and perhaps this is the reason why the stone has not been used long before my time as substitute for copper, for i imagine that such attempts must have been made. i tried all possible kinds of polishing and grinding without attaining my purpose completely. the result was best when i poured a mixture of one part of concentrated oil of vitriol and four or five parts of water over the stone after polishing it. this mixture, which is very sharp, has the property of boiling immediately when poured over the stone, but ceasing instantly, so that one is tempted to believe that the vitriol has sated itself and lost its power. this is not so, however; for the same fluid, placed on an untouched part of the stone, boils again at once. the reason is that a firm skin of gypsum forms at once on the stone, and this remains impervious to the fluid. if now the etching fluid is poured off and the stone is rubbed lightly with a rag, it attains a shining polish. unfortunately this is so thin and weak that one can make barely fifty impressions without repeating the process, which involves some loss to the drawing. but if one desires to print in the present chemical style, that is, wet, and the stone is polished before the drawing, one can make several thousand imprints, which will be described in the proper place. all experiments to find a color easy to wipe away showed me that on a stone prepared with oil of vitriol none was better than a light oil varnish with fine frankfurter black and some tartar. this mixture could be washed off with a weak solution in spring water of potash and common salt. however, it happened often that slight carelessness in washing destroyed designed parts which took color again afterward only after much trouble. recollection of this occurrence, which i could not understand clearly at the time, led me some years later to the invention of the chemical stone-printing of to-day. i have told all these things fully in order to prove to the reader that i did not invent stone-printing through lucky accident, but that i arrived at it by a way pointed out by industrious thought. it will be seen that i knew the ink, before i thought of its use on stone. the stone i used at first only to practice writing. the ease of writing on stone lured me then to try to make it available for direct printing. to do this, i had to discover a way to rub away the black as completely from all unetched parts of the stone as the copper-plate printer can do it from his surface, in comparison with which the stone was but slightly smooth. at this time my further experiments with this etched form of stone-printing were entirely checked by a new, accidental discovery. until now i had invented little that was new, but simply had applied the copper-plate etching method to stone. but this new discovery founded an entirely new form of printing, which basically became the foundation of all succeeding methods. had the stone merely proved available as substitute for copper, i would have returned to copper as soon as i could afford it, despite several advantages of stone, and for the following reasons: first, the necessary weight and thickness of the stones; second, because the printing process was slower than with copper; third, because probably i never would have become sufficiently skilled in the difficult manipulation of washing off; but chiefly, because the necessary spur, the originality of the discovery, would have been lacking, since i remembered that as a child of five or six i had seen a music-printery in frankfurt or mainz where the notes were etched in black slate-stone. i had played often with the broken stones, which lay in a heap near our house. enough, i was not the first discoverer of stone-etching, nor of stone-printing; and only after i made this new discovery which i will describe now, which led me from the engraved to the relief process, with my new ink, might i call myself the inventor of an art. at that time i could not guess that i was to invent a form of printing different even from this new and original form, a method which was to be based not on mechanical but purely chemical properties. even this method, new in , still was purely mechanical in its purpose, whereas the present printing method, which i began in , may be called purely chemical. i had just ground a stone plate smooth in order to treat it with etching fluid and to pursue on it my practice in reverse writing, when my mother asked me to write a laundry list for her. the laundress was waiting, but we could find no paper. my own supply had been used up by pulling proofs. even the writing-ink was dried up. without bothering to look for writing materials, i wrote the list hastily on the clean stone, with my prepared stone ink of wax, soap, and lampblack, intending to copy it as soon as paper was supplied. as i was preparing afterward to wash the writing from the stone, i became curious to see what would happen with writing made thus of prepared ink, if the stone were now etched with aqua fortis. i thought that possibly the letters would be left in relief and admit of being inked and printed like book-types or wood-cuts. my experience in etching, which had showed me that the fluid acted in all directions, did not encourage me to hope that the writing would be left in much relief. but the work was coarse, and therefore not so likely to be under-cut as ordinary work, so i made the trial. i poured a mixture of one part aqua fortis and ten parts of water over the plate and let it stand two inches deep for about five minutes. then i examined the result and found the writing about one tenth of a line or the thickness of a playing-card in relief. a few finer strokes had been injured slightly, but the others had hardly lost breadth noticeably and not at all in depth, so that i had good reason to hope that a well-written plate, particularly in type letter, would be susceptible of much better relief. eagerly i began inking in. i used a fine leather ball, stuffed with horsehair, and inked it very gently with thick linseed oil varnish and lampblack. i patted the inscription many times with this ball. the letters all took the color well, but it also went into all spaces greater than half a line. that this was due to the over-great elasticity of the ball was clear to me. so i cleansed my plate with soap and water, made the leather tense, and used less color. now i found color only in such spaces as were two or more lines apart. i saw that i could attain my purpose better with a dauber of stiffer material. i tried at once with a piece of glass from a broken mirror, and as this succeeded fairly well, i tried elastic metal plates. finally i made an entirely satisfactory appliance out of a thin board, very smoothly planed and covered with a fine cloth. my further experiments with this relief plate succeeded far better than my previous ones with etched letters. the inking in was much easier, and hardly one quarter of the force was necessary for making impressions. thus the stones were not so liable to crack, and, what was the most important for me, this method of printing was entirely new, and i might hope to obtain a franchise and even financial aid. this hope grew when i learned that riegel of munich, who had invented a new sort of frankfurter black, had received ten thousand gulden to erect a factory, although no human being could use it as a sufficient substitute, as i proved by many trials. i saw the great field for my stone-printing art and did not doubt that i would obtain assistance, even should it be only a twentieth part of what herr riegel had received for his entirely worthless process. the new art was invented, and soon was sufficiently practiced; but again came the need for a little capital, to buy a press, some stones, paper, tools, and so forth. if i did not wish to give up my hopes again, i must seek some way to obtain the necessary means. all my endeavors were fruitless. only one way showed itself. an acquaintance, who served in the artillery, had offered to pay two hundred gulden for a substitute. in my helplessness i offered myself. i thought: "once you are in the artillery and have mastered the exercises, you can get furlough and the permission to do your printing. you can pay others to do your sentry goes, and thus there will be only a few weeks a year in which the regiment will demand your presence. as soon as you have earned a few hundred gulden you can get a substitute yourself, or, at worst--how soon six years will pass! perhaps you can make your fortune in the artillery, too! you will display zeal, and your knowledge is such that probably few in the corps will be superior to you. mathematics, and especially mechanics and geography, were ever your favorite studies; you were one of the first of the munich lyceum in these branches; therefore it is certain that you will be noticed and promoted"--and other such chimerical hopes. on the third day i went with a transport of recruits to ingolstadt, which then was the quarters of the bavarian artillery. i entered that city with feelings different from those with which i had left it as academician. but the thought of my invention elevated my spirit to a certain dignity and comforted me with the prophecy of a better future. i was presented to the chief of company and slept a night in the barracks, where unpleasant remarks and the conduct of a vulgar corporal cast heavy shadows over the coming soldiering. next morning, when i was to be enrolled and named prague as my birth-place, i was informed that a recent royal order shut out all foreigners from the bavarian service. so i started on my return, poorer by a hope, but not in entire despair. as i looked down from the danube bridge into the majestic stream, where as a student i was nearly drowned once, i could not quite prevent the thought that my rescue at that time had not been fortunate, since a too unkind fate seemed to deny me even the one means of support, open to the most helpless, that of the army. still, though cheated by hope a thousand times, i ever followed her lures again, and a new plan instantly formed itself to replace the one that had just gone to wreck. i decided to give up my literary work for the time being and work as a printer for wages. some very badly printed music that i bought in ingolstadt awakened the idea that with my new printing process i could furnish much better work. i decided to go at once to herr falter, the music-dealer of munich, to interest him in my invention and obtain a small advance of money. had i done this, my art might have been more thoroughly perfected long ago; but, again, it might never have been developed as it has been, for it was amply sufficient already for music-printing. my shyness, however, prevented me from addressing herr falter. twice i was at his door, and each time i retreated. the second time i met a good acquaintance, a musician named schrott. in reply to my inquiry if he knew herr falter, he said "no," but he told me that the court musician, gleissner, had paid recently to have several masses printed and intended to publish some more church music soon. who was happier than i over this news! herr gleissner was a good friend of old. while i was in the theatre i had engaged him to compose several songs, and had found him a humane and righteous man. within half an hour i was in his house and explaining my invention to his wife, he being absent. i aroused her interest so much that she seemed thoroughly eager to have me hurry back with a little press model, in order to show them both the working of the process. the entire behavior of the woman was so open and artless that i dismissed my first thought, "i might be cheated out of my invention," and hurried to herr gleissner in the afternoon with my simple apparatus. my printing succeeded absolutely. gleissner marveled at the swiftness and beauty of the impressions, and, knowing my penniless condition, he offered of his own free will to pay for a small printery. my mother had given me a press already. it was the ordinary copper-plate press with two cylinders. true, it was very roughly made, being a house carpenter's work, but it had cost only six gulden. however, one could make very pretty impressions from stone with it. to spare herr gleissner's treasury, i contented myself with it for the time. i bought a small stock of stones, paper, and other necessary articles. herr gleissner composed twelve songs with clavier accompaniment. i wrote them rapidly on stone and made one hundred and twenty impressions with the aid of a day laborer. everything, composition, writing on stone and printing, was finished in fourteen days. from herr falter, who bought one hundred copies, herr gleissner received the sum of one hundred gulden. stones, which could be used over and over again, paper, color, and wages had cost barely thirty gulden; thus we had a clear profit of seventy gulden, earned in fourteen days, and i gained so much happy hope that i thought myself richer than croesus. we were gay and merry. through his patron, count von törring, then president of the royal chamber, herr gleissner had presented an impression of our first work to the kurfürst karl theodor, and had received one hundred gulden out of the cabinet treasury, with the promise of a franchise. a succeeding little piece of work, "duets for two flutes, by gleissner," brought forty gulden more into our chest, and finally our finances, as well as a bright success for our institution, seemed assured by a contract closed with the countess von herting to print a cantata on the death of mozart by cannabich, the musical director, which promised us a profit of one hundred and fifty gulden for two or three weeks' work. during this time i had presented specimens of work to the royal academy of sciences, with a description of the advantages of the art, in which i named particularly the cheapness, and said that the impression had been made on a press costing not more than six gulden. to my amazement, instead of the expected honorable mention, i received a sum of twelve gulden from the vice-president of the academy, herr von vachiery, with the information that the members had voted favorably for my invention, and that, as my expenses amounted to only six gulden, according to my own statement, i would, no doubt, be satisfied with a sum double this. i had expected an entirely different appreciation from the sentinels of the arts and sciences, whose office was to test the value of this new discovery and call the government's attention to it if favorable. a mere monetary reward, therefore, especially so small a one, could not possibly give me much pleasure. promising as our beginning was ( ), there came a sad period soon enough for the art, for me, and also for herr gleissner. we had ordered a new press as soon as our income permitted. i expected to produce a masterpiece with the first impression. instead of that, there appeared the very opposite, a dirty and smeared imprint. we suspected that we had made some mistake in method. the second attempt, however, was worse than the first, if possible. to be brief, of twenty trials, made with the greatest industry and toil, we obtained only two or three that were even average. as long as i live i shall be unable to understand how we could have been so blind at that time. we sought the cause of failure in everything except the true thing,--an alteration that made the new press different from the old one, which unfortunately had been already destroyed. later, after i had invented the so-called lever or gallows press, the thing was clear to me at once. but by that time it had cost me and herr gleissner two years full of toil, worry, and sorrow. in the contract with the countess von herting the date of completion of the work had been stipulated, because she wished to surprise herr cannabich with it on his birthday. we had barely four weeks left and not a single sheet had been finished. with press alterations, trial impressions, and so forth, we had wasted money and time, and paper by the ream. our loss amounted to more than one hundred and fifty gulden, and still there was no prospect of final success. pressed for results by the countess, our entire reputation and the honor of my invention were at stake. added to this came many other annoyances, especially the complaints of frau gleissner, who charged that i had destroyed the original, perfectly satisfactory press against her will. these tested my courage sadly. the cause of all this trouble was so petty that i really must have been half-stupefied by the fear of not keeping our pledges, otherwise i must have perceived it at once. to make my first imperfect press i had bought a piece of wood from a wheelwright in order to have it turned into two cylinders. hardly had the two been in the house a day before each one split so that a longitudinal crack of two inches width appeared. as the upper cylinder was thick enough to make an impression of a whole folio of sheet music without revolving so far as to let the crack reach the stone, i contented myself with it temporarily. now, in order not to spoil the impressions, i had to begin each revolution of the cylinder at the crack, for otherwise the crack might have come at the middle or end of the impression and given no imprint of that part. therefore, as the stone was pushed under the cylinder at the crack, it was already gripped before the impression began, and was drawn through at once. with the new press, however, the upper cylinder had to draw the stone between both cylinders in order to bring it under its pressure. but in doing this, the new press first pulled the linen stretched over the printing-frame till it would yield no more and forced the stone powerfully under the cylinder, during which of course the paper under the linen was pulled over the inked stone and smeared. several attempts to rectify this trouble were unsuccessful. probably i would have discovered the remedy finally,--either that the upper cylinder must not first be pressed on the stone, which must be under it before each impression began, or that i need only use tightly stretched leather instead of linen. but i decided, instead, in order to complete our work if possible, to have a press made in all haste by a carpenter, of a style like the book-printers' press, wherein the force is applied instantly from above. as everything was very rough, the new press was ready in eight days. the first experiment, with a small stone, seemed to succeed. but the larger stones would not give thorough impressions, probably because of the uneven surface of the press, which was merely of wood. i increased the power enormously. a stone of three hundredweight was elevated with pulleys and released suddenly to fall ten feet. it forced a lever down on the press with a pressure of more than ten thousand pounds. the plates gave fair impressions by this means, but generally they were cracked after the first, second, or third impression. to determine how much downward force was needed to print a sheet of music, i took a well-ground stone a square inch in area, laid moistened paper on an inked printing-stone, over this a sixfold layer of paper, then a double layer of fine cloth, finally the square inch of stone, and then weights ranging from one to three hundredweight. this experience taught me that the square inch of surface demanded three hundredweights of force to make a good impression in a few seconds, and almost less than half that weight when i allowed it to act for a whole minute. according to this calculation the entire sheet, which contained about one hundred square inches, would have demanded thirty thousand pounds; and the stone could have withstood this without cracking, had i been able to apply the pressure evenly. but the imperfections of the press made it necessary to apply a pressure three times as great, and this the stones could not bear. to correct the defects of this press was more than i cared about, after i was nearly killed by the three hundredweights, which fell accidentally, and, as i stood immediately under it, would have beaten out my brains had not a miracle caused the load to catch and hold. the thought that a similar accident might cause the death of one of my men made me hate the whole press, all the more so as i had conceived what seemed to me at the time an exceedingly happy idea for a very simple and not costly printing-machine. before i possessed a press of my own, i used to pull proofs of my work in the following manner, in order to avoid the constant trips to a printer. i laid the dampened paper on the inked stone. over it i laid some heavy paper, and then a sheet of stiff, carefully smoothed dry paper. then i took a piece of polished wood and rubbed this over the upper sheet of paper, holding the latter firmly to prevent slipping. i continued the rubbing, using more or less power according to whether i wanted the impressions deep or pale. thus i obtained impressions very often that could not have been better. i wondered why this could not be done on a large scale, and proceeded to try at once. i stretched a piece of linen firmly over a wooden frame two feet long and wide. on this linen i pasted a sheet of strong paper, polished on the upper side with wax. then with two bands the frame was fastened to an ordinary wooden table. then the stone was fastened on the table under the frame. inside of the printing-frame was a smaller frame with cords, to hold the paper, which had a layer of gray blotting-paper under it. with a piece of polished wood, or a piece of glass such as is used by polishers, i rubbed the upper waxed paper thoroughly, making sure that every spot was touched. the first proof, and several succeeding ones, which i made myself, turned out so excellent that probably few better impressions ever have been made since. two more presses were made at once, and six printers hired. the work might still be finished in the stipulated time. new hopes thrilled us. hastily i inscribed the stones and the printing began. but--oh, human weakness! does it seem credible that of my six helpers not one could master the extremely simple method of manipulation, the mere matter of rubbing evenly and thoroughly? of six impressions hardly one ever reached perfection. there were blank spaces here and there. yes, even when, accidentally, they produced three sections of a sheet correctly, the fourth invariably was a flat failure, and thus ruined the entire sheet. we would have been glad enough had we lost even one half the paper, if only we could have saved our credit by completing the work, regardless of our money loss. but of three reams of paper only thirty-three impressions were won in the end. i will merely touch on the painful scenes that ensued. the stipulated time had almost expired and no prospect of results. the manuscript and the paper remaining in stock were taken away from us and given to herr falter, while we had to suffer severe censure from the countess, and in her name from others. herr gleissner had to pay for new paper, which made a monthly deduction from his salary necessary. the grant of our privilege was endangered, for the kurfürst had obtained a poor opinion of our process. indeed, so long as the kurfürst karl theodor lived, all our efforts to obtain a privilege were fruitless. we could not even succeed in having it proposed, although the referee, herr von stubenrauch, made us promises from month to month. all the money we had earned was lost; debts burdened us; and a monthly deduction of pay, with the mocking laughter of those who had been made envious by our first successes, was the entire reward for our endeavors to make a new art. as it was only the lack of a good press that had caused our failure, i went to herr falter, with whom i had become acquainted through herr gleissner, and told him the reasons for not finishing the cantata in time. i told him that if he were willing to have a proper press built, i was willing to print his works for him, in his own residence, which was his stipulation, provided i could prepare the stones at home. we agreed, and i ordered a great cylinder press made at his expense. to avoid the old trouble i had both cylinders fitted with cogs, which gave satisfactory results if both printers who handled the press were careful to begin turning the cylinders at the same moment. the double friction of the two rollers made them both pull on the printing-frame and the stone, where, before, the lower cylinder had done just the opposite. the greater periphery of the upper cylinder, which was almost fifteen inches thick, helped also. and to this day i consider this form of press the best for all methods, especially if the stones are thick enough, if one has not to consider the very greatest speed; for in speed this press is decidedly inferior to the lever press and other styles. on the other hand, the pressure is much more gentle, more perpendicular, and less liable to pull the paper out of place than is possible with even the best so-called friction presses. only there should be added to the cogs an appliance by which the upper cylinder has a screw adjusted over its centre, so that it can be forced down for each impression after the stone is under it. figure , plate i, is the picture of such a cylinder press, made for stone-printing. as soon as the press was ready and erected, i began to inscribe on stone the music of _die zauberflöte_, arranged for quartette by herr danzy, and with herr gleissner we began the printing. but herr gleissner became dangerously ill. i trained two soldiers to do the printing, left the entire printing process to herr falter, and limited myself to the work of delivering the stones to him. the workers ruined so much paper that herr falter could not make it pay, and returned to etching on copper. during this time herr schmidt, professor at the military academy, had begun to etch on stone. as i discovered long afterwards, he was a good acquaintance of herr gleissner, who visited him often. within the last year there is a strenuous attempt to make this herr schmidt appear to be the inventor of printing from stone, though probably he never desired this. there have been publications about it already. i shall not notice what has been said, and will let the matter speak for itself. from the foregoing the reader will have seen the natural but laborious way in which fate led me to this invention. if herr schmidt made a similar discovery at that time, he was much more fortunate than i. according to his own letter, printed in the _anzeiger für kunst und gewerbfleiss_, the course of his invention was as follows. he saw a gravestone in the frauen-kirche, in munich, on which letters and pictures were in relief. "that must have been done with acid; it would be possible to print from it!" thought he, and the invention was completed. if it is so easy to gain the honor of an invention, then, indeed, i was unlucky to have undergone so much toil. but according to my opinion, there was nothing new in the whole discovery. the thought that "this was etched" assumed the invention and the use of etching beforehand. that such coarse, thick, and highly relieved inscriptions as those on gravestones could be inked and used for printing would strike anybody who knew even a little of printing. if, however, herr schmidt added to his idea the second, that fine and, therefore, only slightly elevated inscriptions and illustrations could be inked and printed with the aid of appliances to be invented for the purpose,--if he did this and executed it before me, or, at least, before he had knowledge of my work, then indeed the honor belongs to him of having invented mechanical printing from stone, either before me or simultaneously. but as a matter of fact, neither he nor i can claim to be the first who thought of using stones for printing. only the "how?" is the new thing in the case. at that time ( ) i had not invented stone-printing, but, firstly, an ink available for writing on stone and resistant to acid, which ink i invented out of my brains and not, like herr schmidt, out of an old nürnberg book: secondly, i invented a practical tool for inking the slightly elevated letters: and thirdly, the so-called gallows or lever press, of which i shall speak later. as i do not know what were the circumstances surrounding herr schmidt at the time, and i cannot, therefore, make any inquiries, i am willing to take his word if he will declare as an honest man that he printed from stone before july, . that his method of printing was different from mine, and that he had absolutely not the slightest knowledge of chemical printing from stone, which i invented in , i know from indubitable evidence. he made many attempts with his pupils to produce drawings on stones, but presumably his impressions were not successful, for those stones that i saw afterward at herr schulrath steiner's had been etched first and the spaces then engraved away very deeply with all sorts of steel instruments, after the manner of wood-cuts, so that they might properly be called stone-cuts in relief. he had these stones printed in the schul-fond's book-printery, and i hear that the impressions were very good. i saw none myself. however, professor schmidt's experiments were the means of making me acquainted with herr schulrath steiner, who encouraged me so much that i conceived many ideas in order to fulfill his wishes, so that at last the art of printing from stone achieved its present honorable position. herr schulrath steiner, an intimate friend of professor schmidt, was director of the schul-fond's printery. as such he was concerned with many prints. herr schmidt's idea of publishing stone-etched pictures of poisonous plants for school use was approved by him; and as the attempts did not satisfy him, he decided to turn to me. at that time the schul-fond was to print some church songs. this gave him the opportunity of visiting me. he asked me if the musical notes could not be so etched or cut in relief in stone that they could be made up with ordinary book-types and thus printed in the ordinary book-presses. i promised to try it. however, the necessary deep engraving of the spaces was too laborious, so that it would have been easier to do it in wood. as an expedient we printed the text first with ordinary types in the book-press and then printed in the music with stones in the stone-press. meantime i tried to attain our purpose in other ways, connected with some of my early experiments. my best success was with the following method. on a stone polished with sand i painted a layer, equal to two or three card-thicknesses, of burned, finely powdered gypsum, butter, and alum, mixed with a proper amount of water. as soon as it was dry i inscribed the music with steel needles of various sizes on the surface of the stone, which was of a somewhat dark, almost gray color, so that i could see it more easily through the soft, white mass. having finished the drawing i took warm sealing-wax smeared on wood, and applied it to the stone while it was warm with a hand-press. after cooling, the white mass was fast to the sealing-wax and quite loose from the stone, and it was scrubbed away clean with water and a brush, after which the drawing appeared on the wood in elevated wax extremely clear and clean, like a wood-cut. the spaces were so deep that the plate could be printed in regular book-printing manner. later i made trial of a composition of lead, zinc, and bismuth, and this succeeds thoroughly with proper care. so here we would have still another printing process, which has the advantage over all others that the inscription need not be made reversed, as the impression on the wax or lead reverses it automatically. if the white mass is laid on more thickly, one can make the handsomest patterns for calico much more quickly than has been possible heretofore with wood-cuts. a little more care is necessary, because no stroke must be made entirely through the mass, when it is laid on thick. my experiments in that direction all exceeded expectations, and it is to be regretted that i had no opportunity thereafter to perfect this invention more, or use it practically. the experiments had no value even for herr schulrath steiner, for whom i made them, as he never had use for the process afterward. indeed, i would have forgotten the matter almost entirely, if it had not been brought back to mind by this work of writing my story. in the second part of this book, in describing stone-printing itself, i will show various methods of making patterns for work on cotton, such as i conceived later in vienna where i busied myself very much with cotton-printing. i happened to print for herr lentner a little song about the great fire of neuötting in bavaria and used a little vignette showing a burning house. this induced herr steiner to let me etch a few small pictures for a catechism. so far as execution of drawing goes, they were very ordinary; but he continued to encourage me to try if the new printing process would not be available for art work. with the exception of herr andre of offenbach, he was the only one who reasoned thus: "these strokes and points, of such great fineness and again of such great strength, can evidently be made on the stone, therefore it is possible to make drawings similar to copper-plate etchings. that this cannot be done yet is due not to a fault in the art of stone-printing, but to the insufficient skill of the artists." even at that time he did not say: "the art is still in its infancy," as many a would-be wise man does to-day, thus exposing his lack of knowledge of the entire matter. even at that time he was convinced, more so even than i, that the art of stone-printing had reached its climax when i gave him the first specimens of stone-printing improved by the chemical process. artists might cultivate and perfect themselves, manipulation be simplified and processes be increased in number and variety, but the art itself could not be improved greatly. to be sure, when i glance hurriedly over the manifold results of the last twenty years, all that i have done myself for perfection, the brilliant achievements of which this book will furnish proof, i am tempted to think for a moment that the now and the then cannot be compared. but considered correctly, i had invented and discovered the entire art at that time. everything that i and others have done since then are only improvements. everything rests still on the same principle: ink of wax, soap, etc., then gum, aqua fortis or another acid of which none has an advantage over the others, further oil varnish and lampblack,--these are, ever and in the same manner, the chief elements of stone-printing as they were then. not the slightest thing has been changed, improved, or invented in the fundamental principle. no illustration has been published by any lithographer containing cleaner, stronger, or blacker lines and points than my first proofs had in part. therefore, those people are wrong who seek to excuse the lack of assistance that i received in the beginning, by alleging that at the time no one knew if the process could be used to any great extent. they declare many productions of the present day to be far better, simply because the illustrator is more skillful, though in truth the printing is not so good as many of the first ones made by me. it has even happened that the assertion has found its way into print that i had invented only the rough part of the art, and never had been able to use it for more than music-printing, whereas this one or that one are the true artists, having succeeded in producing pictures. these gentlemen, who are so quick with verdicts, should inform themselves a little. they would discover that aside from me (with the exception of professor mitterer's invention of the cylinder press), nobody has made a noteworthy improvement in the branches of lithography without having received it primarily or indirectly through me. further they would have learned that these illustrators either made their first attempts under my personal direction, or else owe their skill to persons whom i taught; and lastly, that none of my critics can boast of having penetrated into the very inmost spirit of the art like only herr rapp of munich, the venerable author of the work published by cotta, _the secret of lithography_. if they learned all this, they might feel a little ashamed. but then, they would have much to do. had my skill in writing and drawing on stone been greater at that time, herr steiner would have given me opportunity enough and manifold. he permitted me to do a small book, _rules for girls_, in german script, which, on the whole, turned out of only average quality, as i had not practiced this style sufficiently. then he wanted me to draw biblical pictures on stone or to let others draw them. at that time he was having herr schön in augsburg etch the seven holy sacraments after poussin. as the etching was expensive, the impressions could not be sold for less than four kreuzer each. herr steiner wished to circulate these pictures so generally that they could serve as gifts from the country preachers to their little christian pupils. he wished, also, to ornament various school-books with pictures of this kind, and thus, gradually, to replace the miserably drawn species of saints that generally fill the prayer-books of the pious households. only the utmost cheapness could make this possible, and this naturally suggested the stone process to him. even if the pictures were not so fine as those etched on copper, they would serve amply if they were correctly drawn, noble in design, and handsomely printed. it was necessary either to draw myself and practice faithfully, or to train a skilled artist to draw with fatty ink on stone. we preferred the latter method and trained several young men, who produced various works, sometimes good, sometimes inferior. through all this i ran more and more danger of losing my secret. indeed, it was lost already except perhaps so far as concerned the exact composition of the ink. but i hoped still to obtain the privilege for bavaria, toward which end the schulrath promised me his best aid, and so i let the matter proceed, and trained the men. but among all these young men there was not one who did not desire a substantial reward for his very first attempts, and when they found that they were expected first to learn, they stayed away, one by one. herr steiner was hurt. i, however, was indifferent, for i was just beginning to plan to use a new and important discovery in such a manner that my stone-printing would be greatly improved and we could hope to carry out our idea of illustrations without the aid of artists. i had been assigned to write a prayer-book on stone for the schul-fond. it was mostly in a style of writing in which i was least expert. when i wrote music notes, our method, proved best by experience, had been to write the entire sheet in reverse on the stone with lead pencil to serve as pattern. this was mostly herr gleissner's work, and being a musician he had achieved great perfection. for me this preparatory work was far less agreeable than the final execution with the stone-ink. therefore, as ever in my life, when a difficulty or a burden was before me, i studied for some way to make it easier for me. previously i had found that if one wrote on paper with good english lead pencils, then moistened the paper, laid it on a polished stone and passed it through a powerful press, a good impression was the result. i had used the method on various occasions. i wished that i possessed an ink that could be used the same way. trials showed that fine red chalk needed merely to be rubbed down gently in a solution of gum, and that even the ordinary writing-ink of nut gall and vitriol of iron would serve when mixed with a little sugar. but this did not satisfy my ambition, which always demanded the best and most perfect. the gum in one and the vitriol in the other did not agree well with the stone-ink. in addition, the impression often squashed. therefore i tried a mixture in water of linseed oil, soap, and lampblack which met my demands better. i had a music-writer write notes correctly on note-paper with this ink, printed it on the stone, and thus had an accurate pattern, which was at the same time reversed, as was necessary. i now planned to do this with the book. but why could i not invent an ink that would serve on the stone without making it necessary to trace over it with the stone-ink? why not make an ink that would leave the paper under pressure and transfer itself to the stone entirely? could one give the paper itself some property so that it would let go of the ink under given conditions? so reflected i, and it seemed to me not impossible. at once i began to experiment. i had observed that the stone-ink at once began to congeal and stiffen when it came into contact with ordinary writing-ink, because of the action of the vitriol of iron, which devoured the alkali that the stone-ink needed to keep it in solution. therefore i wrote with ordinary ink, into which i put still more vitriol of iron. after it was dry, i dipped the sheet into a weak solution in water of my stone-ink. after a few seconds i withdrew it and washed it very gently in rainwater. i found that the ink had fastened itself on the written places, and pretty thickly, too. i allowed the paper to dry slightly and transferred the writing to the stone. the impression was fair, but not sufficiently complete. i tried it repeatedly but could obtain no transfers that were sharp and uniform enough to represent a handsome script. so i tried another way. i painted the paper with gum solution in which vitriol of iron was dissolved. after it dried i wrote on it with my ordinary stone-ink and dried it again. then i dampened the paper and let it lie a while to soften, after which i transferred it to the stone, which had been treated with strong oil varnish diluted in oil of turpentine, laid on so lightly that it was only like the blurring from a breath. these attempts were far more successful, but it was impossible to write as delicately on this paper as i desired. therefore i made new experiments. i changed the mixture of my ink. i tried to make it more adhesive with mixtures of resin, oil varnish, gum elastic, turpentine, mastic, and similar substances. in short, i do not exaggerate when i declare that this matter cost me several thousands of experiments. i was rewarded sufficiently by succeeding. and at the same time through these investigations i discovered the chemical printing on stone of to-day. as the transfer from paper to stone depended mainly on the greater or lesser powers of adhesion between one material and another, it was natural that in my many experiments with such various ingredients i should observe that a mucous fluid, as, for instance, the gum solution, resisted the adhesion of the greasy ink. nearer still to the new invention did the following experiment bring me: i noticed that if there happened to be a few drops of oil in the water into which i dipped paper inscribed with my greasy stone-ink, the oil would distribute itself evenly over all parts of the writing, whereas the rest of the paper would take no oil, and especially so if it had been treated with gum solution or very thin starch paste. this fact led me to investigate the behavior of paper printed with common printing-ink. a sheet of an old book was drawn through thin gum solution, then laid on a stone and touched carefully everywhere with a sponge that had been dipped into a thin oil color. the printed letters took the color well everywhere and the paper itself remained white. now i laid another clean white sheet on this, put both through the press, and obtained a very good transfer, in reverse, of course. in this manner, if i used great care, i found i could make fifty and more transfers from the same sheet. if i allowed such a transfer to dry thoroughly and then treated it like the original sheet, why should it not produce transfers that are like the original, not reversed? so thought i, and the result showed that i had not been wrong! only for the first transfer i needed to use a somewhat stiffer color that had been dried more with litharge of silver, and then to let the transfer dry for at least four or six days. so i came to find that i could print without a stone, from the paper alone; and this process, depending solely on chemical action, was totally, fundamentally different from all other processes of printing. old books could be republished in this manner easily and without great cost. new ones also. i needed only to invent a fatty ink, similar to the printing-ink and drying thoroughly, and i could use every sheet of printed paper instead of type. i invented this ink soon. resin, finely pulverized litharge of silver, lampblack, thick oil varnish, and potash properly diluted with water gave me a good ink for the purpose. the only obstacle that prevented me from using this process at once on a large scale was the fragility of the paper, which tore into pieces under the slightest carelessness in handling. the natural and simple thought that was bound to come to me under the circumstances was this, could not a stronger material, perhaps the stone plate itself, be so prepared that it would take ink or color only on the parts covered with fatty ink, while the wet parts of the stone resisted it? i feared that the stone might not absorb the grease sufficiently, and this really is the case with many stones, such as slate, pebble, grindstone, glass, porcelain, etc.; but experiments showed that exactly the opposite is true in the case of the solenhofer limestone. this stone has a great affinity for fat, which often is absorbed so deeply that in many cases even extensive grinding will not remove it. i took a cleanly polished stone, inscribed it with a piece of soap, poured thin gum solution over it and passed over all with a sponge dipped in oil color. all the places marked with the fat became black at once, the rest remained white. i could make as many impressions as i pleased; simply wetting the stone after each impression and treating it again with the sponge produced the same result each time. the impressions became somewhat pale, because the color on the sponge was too thin; but i obtained perfectly black and handsome impressions as soon as i used an ink roller of leather stuffed with horse-hair. i hurried to write a sheet of note music at once to print it in the new way; but the ink flowed too much on the polished stone. previously i had corrected this by rubbing the stone with linseed oil or soap-water, which checked the trouble entirely. but i knew that i could not do that in this new method, because then the stone would have a coating of grease all over, and would take color on the entire surface. however, i was able to take this coating away after writing, by etching with aqua fortis, though etching would not have been necessary otherwise in this chemical form of printing. however, it was easy to see that a drawing etched into relief would be easier to print from than one not etched at all. it did not require much etching, and i saved a great deal of acid, while the stone, also, remained useful for new work for a much longer period. therefore, without making further experiments, i adhered to my old method, first washing the stone lightly with soap-water, drying it well, writing on it with wax ink, and then etching with acid before i finished it for printing by pouring gum solution over it. at first i imagined that i might do without the gum entirely; but i found soon that it really formed a sort of chemical union with the stone, making its pores more receptive to the grease and closing them more effectively against water. i found also that neither aqua fortis nor gum was so valuable alone as when both were used in the process. i needed to make only a few more experiments to obtain the proper consistency of ink, and the new process would be practically perfect so far as the fundamental principle was concerned. and, in fact, i made such handsome, clean, and strong impressions after three days of trial that few better ones have been made since. now it was necessary merely to train skillful workmen and artists as quickly as possible for this new art, that was susceptible of innumerable valuable uses, as i could see at once. it made no difference now whether the design was worked in relief or intaglio, as good impressions could be obtained even when the drawing was perfectly level with the surface of the stone. but all three methods could be combined on one stone, if desired. if i reversed the method, by rubbing oil over the stone instead of water, while for printing i used an ink prepared with gum solution (of which i will describe the best composition afterward), then the greasy places would resist color while the wet ones took it, and thus i could print with all water colors, and this is necessary sometimes with colored pictures because of the greater height of the colors. the inscription with dry soap gave me the logical idea toward crayon work, which i used afterward. my previous experiments with etching, that recurred to my memory, now assumed entirely different aspects and i could understand many things that had puzzled me then. it was a simple step now to the etched method, in which the stone is prepared first with aqua fortis and gum, after which the design is engraved in intaglio without first being treated with aqua fortis. indeed, this method was used for the first work that i undertook. a piece of music by herr gleissner (which afterward was greatly praised in the musical paper) had been completed before i invented the new process. only the title-page remained to do. as i wished to make this as handsome as possible, since herr gleissner intended to dedicate the work to count von törring, i chose this new intaglio style, because i hoped to do my best work in it. any one who still possesses a copy of this symphony can see by slight examination that the printing was done from an etched engraving. therefore herr rapp in stuttgart is mistaken when he assumes that he is the first who treated the stone in this manner. as early as the year i deposited in the archives of the patent office in london a full description of this and several other methods, some of which have not been used yet generally, and in i had to submit my descriptions to the austrian government when they gave me a franchise. a year before this, i had invented the lever press, with which i could make several thousand of the handsomest impressions during a day. this, combined with the new treatment of the stone, enabled me to enlarge my operations greatly. i took in two of my brothers, theobald and george, who had been in the theatre hitherto, and taught them to write and etch on stone. also i took in two boy apprentices, sons of poor parents, to train them properly. herr schulrath steiner and herr falter, with several others, gave me various orders, and a pretty good outlook began to appear for me and herr gleissner. until now we had been forced to suffer much grief, disappointment, deprivation, and poverty. herr gleissner's salary was only three hundred gulden a year. a yearly deduction of one hundred gulden was being made from this by the government to pay debts. then there were new expenses to repair the printery and keep it in some sort of order. my support and that of the family gleissner,--which consisted of five persons,--then a larger residence, on account of the room needed for stones and for printing, also had to be paid for. my own yearly earnings were barely a few hundred gulden, as most of my time was used for experiments. it is no wonder, then, that during this sad period of two years, we spent almost all that could be spent of herr gleissner's estate, and still made new debts, despite all imaginable economies. i can say for the honor of this man, and especially his wife, that, despite all their losses and despite the warnings and inciting of their friends and relatives, they remained unshaken, and by making all kinds of sacrifices they enabled me to win at last. on my part they saw faithful and eager will, and a restless endeavor that went so far that i hardly took any time for eating or sleeping, but thought only of improving my art. now, however, our condition was changed at once. many days we earned as much as ten to twelve gulden; and at the same time we received an exclusive franchise for fifteen years through the favor of king maximilian joseph, who began his glorious reign then. this privilege gave us the right to print and sell exclusively in all of bavaria, while infringers were liable to a fine of one hundred gulden and confiscation of all stock and apparatus. we were determined to do our utmost, to work day and night, to establish an honorable reputation for our printery at last, though we foresaw many obstacles, owing to the entire lack of assistance. already i had half-determined to contract with the schul-fond, permitting it to establish a lithographic press for its own use, when an accidental circumstance gave our whole undertaking a new direction. depending on the protection given to us by our franchise, we were making no further secret of any part of our process. we were quite content with having the monopoly in bavaria, and cared little that other printeries might arise in other countries. indeed, this expectation flattered my vanity as inventor, and i thought that in time i might make commercial connections with such establishments. for this reason i was very hospitable toward every stranger who came to visit us. i hoped that perhaps i might induce some such visitor to participate in our undertaking, and therefore i exhibited all the advantages of the process and permitted them to see the manipulations with their own eyes. just then herr andre of offenbach visited munich on business. he read about the grant of our franchise and asked his friend falter about the process. that gentleman showed him some sheets of music printed by us and offered to introduce him to our printery, where, as technical expert, he could decide for himself as to the value or worthlessness of the new art. herr andre, who possessed an extensive musical publishing institution and owned a large zinc-plate printing-plant, was delighted with the beauty of our print, and was especially impressed by the fact that the color did not off-set when rubbed with the hand, as was the case with zinc printing. he accepted herr falter's offer at once and was introduced as a merchant. the attention with which he noted even the slightest operations led me to conclude at once that this man had some especial interest in printing. i took particular pains to display the whole process to the best advantage. several plates that were already inscribed were etched and printed with beautiful results. the speed (seventy-five sheets in a quarter-hour, two being printed simultaneously each time), the quickness of drying, the economy in color, were things that increased his interest to a high pitch. he told who he was and proposed to me that i teach him the entire art for an adequate remuneration. i accepted at once and agreed to go to offenbach within a few months, erect a press, and train men in all branches of the process. for this he promised me the sum of two thousand gulden, of which he paid down three hundred gulden on the spot. this change from poverty to comfort made me happy mainly on herr gleissner's account. we could furnish our printery properly now and pay our old debts. we were assured, also, of enough work to permit enlargement of the establishment in future. what was there left to wish? in the very beginning, however, the behavior of my own family gave me great displeasure. my mother demanded that i share my profit with my brothers, as they had a better right than herr gleissner and his family. i could not quite see this; therefore my mother ordered a press for my brothers and bought the necessary stones. they went to herr falter and asked him for his work, representing that i had made my fortune through herr andre, whereas they were unprovided for. they offered at the same time to furnish each plate for thirty kreuzer less than i charged. herr falter permitted himself to be convinced, and when madame gleissner discovered it she was intensely angry, and did not rest till the government ordered my brothers to refrain from utilizing the process in bavaria for their own account. my brothers went to augsburg to erect a stone-press for herr gombart. they must have been unequal to the attempt or there must have been other difficulties: in brief, i know only that, after herr gombart had incurred many useless expenses, he discarded printing from stone. during the three months before my journey to offenbach i practiced my art busily, and especially studied to attain thoroughness in one branch that was of importance to herr schulrath steiner. i have spoken already of his idea for pictures for children. as soon as i had invented the new chemical printing, i thought of inking an etched copper plate with a composition of tallow, soap, lampblack, and oil varnish, making an impression, laying this on stone, and putting it through the press. the picture transferred itself to the stone as i had expected. then i poured the water and gum solution over it and inked it with the ink roller. the design took the color well; and thus, if the stone was very clean in the beginning and the proof from the copper had been made very carefully indeed, i could print several thousands of copies which resembled the original so closely that only a slightly greater degree of sharpness, clearness, and strength gave the copper etching an advantage over the stone impressions. at last i succeeded in perfecting the process so that actually my best impressions from the stone were better than those that had been made with less care from the original copper plate. the main requisite in this process was that the ink be firm enough not to spread in printing, and still so greasy and tender that the very finest lines would come out. the copper plate had to be washed with extraordinary care, for the least bit of grease that should off-set on the white paper would, of course, transfer itself to the stone and make that part take color. this latter circumstance was intensely difficult to overcome. it occurred to me to treat the copper plate chemically, like the stone, so that its surface would resist the ink. i succeeded, as, in future, i succeeded with other metals. the fundamental principle in each case remained the same. only in the choice of materials for each metal was there a difference. i discovered soon that there are two kinds of preparations, one acid and one alkaline, for all solid bodies which have the property of taking and absorbing oil colors. the alkalines seemed to be best for use on copper plate, and i obtained such clean impressions that the stone did not take on even a vestige of ink in any spot except the design. at the same time i found that chemical printing does not limit itself to stone, but can be done on wood and metal, as well as on paper, as stated already. yes, though apparently it is incredible--even fats, such as wax, shellac, resin, etc., can acquire the attribute, under certain circumstances, of resisting color, and, therefore, are available for chemical printing. this fact gave me hopes of discovering a sort of artificial stone some day, which might be less costly, less massive, and less fragile; and, as a matter of fact, i succeeded in inventing an artificial stone-paper in , a stony mass that is smeared on paper or linen and looks somewhat like parchment. since the illustrations on etched copper plates were so readily transferable to the stone, herr schulrath steiner could now let the best masters etch his pictures. the sales of the original impressions as works of art always covered the costs. he paid me five gulden for each transfer that i made from the copper to stone. for this extremely small sum he obtained a stone plate from which there could be made countless impressions, which, although not so fine as those from the copper, answered his purpose of circulating good pictures by making them extremely cheap. lively prosecution of this process was prevented only by the delays of copper etchers, so that we were able to utilize it only five times on a large scale before i had to leave munich. herr gleissner, who wished to visit a friend in frankfurt, accompanied me on my way to offenbach. i started at once on the new work and within fourteen days i pulled the first proof on herr andre's own press. he was so well satisfied, and, besides, had so thoroughly considered the advantages of stone-printing, that he proposed to me to leave munich entirely and, with him as associate, extend the art in the best possible way. he had three brothers, none of whom was engaged in a fixed occupation. he intended to bring these into the partnership. two were in london, the youngest and the eldest. the latter was to return soon. one brother had lived long in paris, and was well acquainted with that city as well as with french affairs. so he laid out the following plan. we would try to obtain exclusive franchises in paris, london, berlin, and vienna. then a stone-printery and art publication house was to be opened in each city. his brothers should manage affairs, one each in london, paris, and berlin, while i was to take the management in vienna. offenbach and frankfurt would remain under herr andre's management and be the centre of control and union. the plan seemed to be easy to realize, as there was no lack of means. i could look for one fifth of the profits which would be earned by the combined, very considerable capital of the andre family. in addition, herr andre possessed all the requisite knowledge and owned a great business already. therefore i agreed gladly, after making the condition that herr gleissner was to remain a partner of mine and receive a decent remuneration till the business was in working order. herr andre was well content, for herr gleissner could be used as compositor, corrector, and writer in the business, which was to consist largely of music publication in the beginning. herr gleissner and i returned to munich to arrange our affairs there. he intended to ask for three years' leave of absence. i planned, in order to save herr steiner any embarrassment, and also to maintain our privilege in bavaria, since one could not tell how the andre undertaking might turn out, to so arrange that our work could be printed properly during our absence, whether done by the schul-fond, the government, or private persons. it gratified me also to have an opportunity to satisfy my mother's wishes in regard to my brothers; and i gave my brothers, theobald and george, my press, my stones, and everything else that was on hand, also the two trained apprentices, and only stipulated for myself that i should have one fourth of the net profits, leaving the accounting entirely to their sense of honor. they promised to keep accurate books and work steadily and economically, and they received from me minute instructions about transferring from the copper for herr steiner. i taught them also how to handle the crayon process, which promised an early harvest. as soon as all was done i went to offenbach with the whole gleissner family. a good quantity of stones had arrived there, and a few men, previously trained, had been practicing in transcribing music. we were able to begin on a large scale at once. herr andre had ten copper- and zinc-plate presses at work. he stopped five and used the workmen for stone-printing. he went to london, partly for business, partly to get his youngest brother and to inform himself thoroughly about the procedure necessary to obtain english patents. one of our chief speculations in england was to be the application of stone-printing to cotton. once, when herr steiner conceived the idea of illuminating pictures with stencils in the way used by card-makers, i had made many experiments in that line. i cut out the parts to be colored in oil-soaked paper, laid this on the picture, and passed a roller over it with the desired color. the color was more even than with a brush, but not everything could be cut out, because the stencils had to have the necessary connection. therefore i needed two stencils for every color shade. again, these thin stencils easily slipped out of place, a defect that displeased me. now, it happened that at times when i was a little careless, the whole stencil would roll itself up on the ink-roller. i found that it was possible to work even more surely when this happened, provided one found the exact beginning of the stencil and applied it minutely. but it was not possible to make more than twelve impressions. then the stencil had to be taken from the roller that the latter might be inked again. in this work the stencil paper often tore. to overcome this there was only one remedy, which was to make the roller hollow and feed it with color from inside. i did not have the time to try this and worked out another plan. i cut out the places to be colored in felt or leather, applied paste to their obverse sides, laid them face down on the exact parts of the picture which were to be colored, rolled a perfectly round roller over them, and the pieces adhered to the roller in their right places. then the roller was inked with the required color, and of course took it only in the elevated parts. at both ends the roller had a strip of leather of the same thickness as the cut-outs, thus making it certain that it would not touch the ink except in the proper places. in this way pictures could be illuminated very quickly, and several shades of color could be obtained if the pieces were of different qualities of leather, or of leather, cloth, and cotton, according to the shades desired. a very moderate pressure sufficed for good and even work. what could be more natural than that i should deduce that this sort of printing might be utilized for cotton? once inked, the roller was good for ten to twelve impressions, if the operator merely used a little more pressure as he proceeded. i saw also that the roller could easily be colored by attaching another to revolve with it and convey the ink. that would give us a form of cotton-printing that would proceed automatically. the idea was too important to be left untried. i took a little roller, two inches in diameter and six inches long. i glued a piece of calfskin completely around it and then cut a design into it. then this roller was so adjusted with relation to another of exactly the same dimensions that both touched perfectly. on this second one, which was to convey the color to the other, there rested a little box without a bottom, so that the roller itself represented the bottom as soon as the box was pressed on it, which was most easily done with two screws. the color was poured into this box. now when the lower roller was passed over linen or cotton which was stretched on an evenly planed board with an under layer of cloth, a continuous print was obtained, without off-set, and with such celerity that it could be reckoned easily that with this process several thousand yards a day could be produced. when i invented the chemical printing afterward, i held that a stone roller could be used for this work as well as a wooden one. i had too little knowledge of the industry at that time and believed that cotton print was done with oil-colors; for i thought that water-colors would wash out. i was a complete stranger to this work. therefore, i drew a pretty cotton pattern on a stone plate and printed from it with oil varnish and finely pulverized indigo. the impressions turned out very handsome, so that i considered the matter settled and made no further experiments. i imparted this idea to herr andre, who saw its importance at once and determined to obtain a patent for it specially. however, we had much to learn. as soon as he arrived in england he discovered that rollers with the design on them were in general use in england. so i had imagined mistakenly that my invention was new. however, printing from stone was in itself valuable for a patent, but herr andre unfortunately received the incorrect information that the inventor himself must appear in england, and he decided to send me there. i did not care to go; firstly, because i was vexed at the failure of my hopes in regard to cotton-printing; and secondly, because i wished to go to vienna. however, i yielded to his representations, and within a few weeks journeyed to london with one of his brothers who spoke english. we went through hamburg to cuxhafen and thence in an english packet-boat to yarmouth, where we landed after a six days' stormy passage. my sojourn in london did not achieve its purpose, which was to establish printing from stone. the exaggerated caution and precision of herr philip andre, who had been named as the man who was to manage the london negotiations, caused a waste of seven months, during which nothing was done to reach our object. we lived with herr philip and he kept me at home most of the time, for fear that i might betray our purpose, in which case some speculative spirit might take out a patent before us and then compel us to buy him off for some heavy sum. he did not reflect that a mere declaration is not sufficient in england, but that an exact description of a process must be deposited with the patent office. as he could have rendered all these fears unnecessary by simply taking out the patent, i could not understand why he delayed from month to month, and at last i voiced my suspicion that he was not honest with me and had some unknown designs. i declared that nothing would keep me longer in england, which had become wearisome to me owing to my constant seclusion; and my suspicions were increased by the entire lack of all news from the gleissners and from my family. when herr philip andre realized that i could be held back no longer, he went to work at last, and in twelve days we had the patent in our hands. as i had trained herr philip already in the art of stone-work, there was nothing to keep me longer, and i began my homeward voyage at once with my former companion, herr friedrich andre. my seven months' sojourn in london had the following results for myself and for lithography:-- first, i had decided in offenbach to use my spare time entirely for the study of chemistry. particularly did i want to learn everything that was known about color, that i might use stone for cotton-printing. i bought the best books and worked steadily, testing the teachings by experiment. second, i made many experiments with stone-ink, to find the very best composition. the ingredients which i utilized in course of the time were about as follows:-- soap--_a_, common tallow soaps; _b_, venetian soap. b, wax. c, tallow, butter, and other animal fats. d, spermaceti. e, shellac. f, resins and venetian turpentine. g, gum elastic. h, linseed oil. i, the fat contained in chocolate. l, various resinous products, such as mastic, copal, dragon's blood, gum elemi, quajac pensoe, etc. then i used various solvents besides the soap, such as-- m, vegetable alkalies, among them tartaric acid. n, similar mineral alkalies. o, animal lyes, spirits of sal ammoniac, and sal volatile with spirits of ammonia. p, borax. q, various metallic solutions. it is evident that with these substances an endless number of experiments can be made, not to count the variety of proportions. certainly it is not exaggeration when i say that during that time and later i made many thousands of experiments, only to confirm my experience that accidentally i had discovered the best compositions during the first twenty or thirty investigations, and that my time after that had been wasted, unless i counted the knowledge i had gained of chemistry. thirdly, i made my first attempts at that time in the aqua-tint style, and also practiced printing with several plates, which i had begun previously under suggestion of herr steiner. the son of the swiss idyllic poet, gessner, was in london at that time and was a good friend of herr philip. he made some neat sketches for us in the crayon process, which i had invented in munich immediately after my invention of chemical printing. i had exhibited the process to professor mitterer at that time, and he thought that it might become valuable for art. thus my residence in london was not unimportant for lithography. the complete lack of disturbance, the adequacy of all needed material, enabled me to discover more than i might have learned in offenbach. i left england with a certain satisfaction, gained from the certainty that i had raised my art to a high degree of perfection. i am satisfied even to this day that the world would have many masterpieces as the result, had i come into contact at that time with an enterprising art publisher who would have engaged the needed artists and undertaken interesting works. as it was, however, and as i shall show, circumstances forced me into untoward positions, so that little or no opportunity was left me to use my knowledge practically and in an important way. immediately on my arrival in offenbach, i received the displeasing news that herr andre had sent madame gleissner to vienna to claim the exclusive franchise for the new printing process, and to enter lawsuit against my mother, who had gone to vienna with the same purpose. the reason for this was as follows: my two brothers, theobald and george, who could not earn enough in munich, had been engaged as lithographers by herr andre in offenbach on my request. in a confidential mood i told them that i hoped to go to vienna and open a great printing establishment and art publication house with assistance of herr andre, and that this establishment should make my fortune as well as that of my family. probably they did not believe my promise, or they did not care to depend on my fraternal feeling for something which they believed they could get for themselves: enough, they wrote to my mother that it was unfair to let herr andre become exclusive proprietor of the new process everywhere, and as i was well established in london anyway, she would better travel to vienna and ask for a franchise. they sent her several good proofs from the andre press. would to heaven this plan of theirs had succeeded! i should have been spared many a succeeding sorrow, and i would have been glad for their sakes. the world was large enough for me, and certainly it was not thoroughly fair that they, the nearest relatives of the inventor, should be shut out by the far-reaching plans of herr andre to obtain exclusive franchises everywhere. to be sure, i had told them that i would give them the bavarian franchise; but as they had enjoyed it for several months with little profit, this did not seem to them a tempting equivalent. the news of my mother's journey to vienna had been brought to madame gleissner quite accidentally, and it made her almost frantic. when she used to charge me with depending so completely on herr andre's promises, without possessing anything in writing, i used to comfort her by pointing out his righteous character, and also by reminding her that it was all agreed that i and herr gleissner should undertake the printery in vienna as part of the general enterprise, and that we were to obtain the necessary advance funds as soon as i returned from england. the repeated complaints that she made, many of them in the presence of my brothers, possibly helped to give them the idea of trying themselves for a franchise in austria. they may have thought, "if our brother is careless enough to depend on empty words, we will be wise enough to obtain a certainty. it remains open to us always to share our fortune with the inventor." madame gleissner had entertained great hopes about living in splendid vienna and having means enough to take part in its brilliant life. this made the news about my mother's errand all the more irritating. she did not consider that an imperial franchise is not easily obtained by women who are not even well informed on the case at issue. she succeeded in imparting her fears to herr andre, and as he himself was prevented from going, he entered into her fool's counsel to send her to vienna at once. she had strong hopes of success, because as a matter of fact the bavarian franchise had been obtained entirely through her efforts, and she also calculated that the austrian government would pay more heed to the inventor himself than to his brothers, who could not equal his attainments. herr andre had kept it all, even to the journey of madame gleissner, a secret from me, presumably because he wanted to save me annoyance and also to prevent my hasty return from england. unfortunately i had conceived some suspicions in england, and these were increased when i received this unexpected news on my arrival in offenbach. what was worse, herr gleissner gave me a letter from his wife, in which she adjured me to hurry to vienna with all speed, as andre was planning to deceive me and set me aside as a mere tool as soon as i had founded his own fortune. this letter, which contained no evidence but only lamentations, was accompanied by another from her landlord in vienna, a very reputable merchant. it seemed to bear her out, for he warned me in it to be cautious in my relations with andre and to hurry to vienna if i wished to obtain the franchise, which could not escape me as a most influential man had come to our support and it depended merely on the evidence to be furnished by me. greatly as my suspicions were increased by this, i hoped that everything was due merely to misunderstanding, and i proposed to herr andre to let me go to vienna, where i would inform myself thoroughly and make strong efforts to obtain the franchise. he denied my request, saying that there was nothing more to do in vienna, as the government had turned both women away, and the whole plan was spoiled as the whole art and copper-etching trade had become apprehensive and was united in opposition to the new process. he said that i should rather go quickly to work to transfer his music from zinc plates to the stone, because he had an excellent opportunity to sell his entire stock of zincs, which would give us a new capital of forty thousand gulden for the greater enterprises. i realized the good sense of this, but would not admit that a delay of three or four weeks could interfere with it, as the entire transfers could not be completed in less than a year, and the slight delay, therefore, could be made up by additional work or by engaging a few more assistants. i insisted on my demand, all the more as i had spent seven months in england on his account. in the heat of the succeeding dispute he reminded me of the helpless position in which he had found me, and said that as partner in his business, i owed him all my present fortune. conscious as i was of my honest intention to help him to the best of my ability, and also of the unbounded trustfulness with which i had imparted to him far more than was called for in our contract, i was so deeply hurt that i forgot myself and tore up our agreement, which had been signed only the day before and which assured for me one fifth of all profits of the andre business. i threw the pieces down with the exclamation that i did not wish to make my fortune through his means. this was one of the most important moments in my life, and in the process of lithography. it gave my work an entirely new direction, hurled me into a mass of troubles, and brought it about that herr andre himself did not gain anything like the expected profits from the new art. indeed, he lost heavily in london and france, whereas, had we remained together, lithography might now be highly perfected in both these countries and produce no small wealth for its users. when andre saw that i was determined to go to vienna, he yielded, but assured me that i would go in vain and achieve no result. the lawsuit between madame gleissner and my mother, which herr andre considered the greatest obstacle in his way, still continued; and in order to get it out of the way once and for all, i took my brothers, george and theobald, who had been dismissed by herr andre, to vienna with me to combine with me. andre told me afterward, after our relations had reached final rupture, that this act had annoyed him most, and that it was the main reason for giving up all dealings with me, because it was inconceivable to him how any one, without the utmost weakness of character, could forgive such treachery as theirs. he did not reflect that i, who knew selfishness only by name, had not felt their affront so keenly, and that my brotherly affection excused it and made me trust that it never had been their intention to shut me out entirely from any gains they might make. part ii from to it was in august, , that i went to vienna with my brothers. in regensburg we met my mother, who had come to visit one of her daughters because the decision of the imperial austrian government had been delayed too long for her patience. she assured me that when she petitioned for the privilege she had named not only my brothers but me, too, and had asked it for us three. this assurance gave me great joy, and i determined absolutely to urge madame gleissner to accept my brothers as partners. i thought that if we three worked industriously and unitedly, we would succeed much better and more quickly. i entered vienna with excellent hopes, based mostly on a letter from madame gleissner, saying that the influential man who was interested in our cause had promised to advance us six thousand gulden. but these fine things retired into dark shadows when i learned, in my first conversation with her, that all these promises were made dependent on conditions. the whole understanding rested on the following: madame gleissner lodged with a prominent family. andre himself had told her that she was to live well and exhibit no lack of money, because she was much more likely to obtain the franchise if the government were led to expect that it would bring wealthy people into the country. therefore madame gleissner considered it necessary to take part in all amusements and fashions of her hosts. her monthly expenditures were beyond the sum considered necessary by herr andre's friend in vienna, who had been authorized to pay her an allowance. friendly solicitude caused him to write to offenbach that madame gleissner knew nothing of economy, and that it was to be feared if the franchise were not granted in herr andre's name, he would have too little power to check her extravagance in the future. he added that judging from her utterances and her present behavior, with the franchise still in question, it was only too likely that she intended to spend herr andre's money for show and society instead of for the business. therefore, he advised that, unless andre was sure that senefelder had enough character to oppose her with the necessary firmness, we be treated solely as subordinates and thus be prevented from using his credit to his loss. well meant as this counsel was, it simply furnishes an addition to the thousands of cases where exaggerated timidity, coupled with secrecy, does more harm than good. andre knew my intense gratitude to herr gleissner and his family, and he suspected that i would always live in a certain dependence on them and would pay little attention to their financial doings. the gleissners had awakened a fear of their extravagance in him before this time. he knew, for instance, that i had kept little of the money he had paid me for the secret of our process, but had turned almost all over to them. again, he had granted us the sum of one thousand six hundred gulden for our support in offenbach until the business should be in operation. of this herr gleissner was to draw six hundred gulden and i one thousand gulden. i was a bachelor and did not need so much as a family. therefore i reversed this, and gave herr gleissner one thousand gulden, keeping six hundred for myself. but the latter also went into the gleissner treasury, because herr andre, who had come to like me very much, made me live in his house and eat with him. he even kept a horse for me, that i might have the exercise necessary for my health, and if he bought himself a new article of dress i was sure to get one like it; and i had to take part in all the amusements of his home, though many times i would rather have worked. thus i had absolutely no needs and did not require money. all the more did madame gleissner require. she strained everything to be very elegant and could not get along with the money she received, but asked for further, quite considerable advances while i was in london, and herr andre granted these willingly through friendship for me. therefore andre's suspicions seemed well founded; and as in his heart he was firmly determined to treat me as a brother, he believed that a mere outward formality and my hitherto quite unknown name would make no real difference, but rather that the vienna undertaking would benefit if it had his own well-known name and excellent credit at its head in the very beginning. so he wrote to his friend in vienna that he agreed with him, and he gave authority to him to act as he thought best for the mutual good. this gentleman told madame gleissner at once that herr andre had decided to ask for the franchise in his own name to give value to the undertaking, and that she was to appear before court and declare that she withdrew her petition and turned it over to him. she suspected a trick and refused. a dispute followed, and there came rebukes for her heavy expenditures. the climax was reached with the threat that, if she insisted on her refusal, herr andre would cease from that moment to let her have any money and would let her support herself. this last, which madame gleissner wrote me in a very bitter letter, outraged me; for i held it cruel to send a woman to a strange city where she had no relatives or friends, and then to tell her: "now do my will, or i will leave it to bitter necessity and your own helplessness to tame you." to be sure, it was only a threat, and surely it never lay in herr andre's mind. his friend never ceased to give her money. but the harm had been done. madame gleissner appeared at her host's table with signs of tears that aroused the sympathy of her host, herr von bogner, a most worthy and reputable merchant. she told him everything, complained bitterly about my gullibility, and generally painted everything in such colors that herr bogner could not well help thinking that herr andre did not consider promises any too sincerely. it was only then that he learned madame gleissner's business and was told that the new art promised a great profit. herr andre's far-reaching plans for foreign exploitation seemed to him to confirm what she said. herr bogner thought that herr andre would not invest so much money if stone-print were not a valuable invention, and he asked madame gleissner, point-blank: "why do you need herr andre at all? try to obtain the austrian franchise for yourself, and then, if you choose, you can take him into the company. then he will be obligated to you and will have to meet your wishes, whereas now the reverse is the case." madame gleissner interposed that herr andre had the capital necessary for establishing the process on a large scale, to which herr bogner responded that it was better to begin modestly. "a good thing," said he, "grows of itself. and you must not imagine that we here in austria have no appreciation of useful inventions and undertakings. there are many who will assist the arts and industries. there is even a special fund from which as much as one thousand gulden may be advanced to develop an invention that has proved itself to be of merit. i myself might not be disinclined to become a partner after i have examined the matter properly; also i can recommend a very enterprising, active man, who has much weight with the ministers and even with his majesty the emperor, and who has obtained exclusive franchises for others. he is named von hartl, is imperial court agent, and is a very sensible and honorable man, who will surely tell you at once whether or not anything can be done here with the process." herr von bogner kept his promise, and introduced madame gleissner the very next day to herr von hartl. she explained our relations with andre and described the new invention, wherein, to be sure, she did not fail to boast of its advantages and beauties. among other specimens she produced a piece of cotton which i had printed in offenbach. this was very pretty, the print being so sharp and clear that it seemed to exceed the best english work. it happened that just then a great company with a capital of one and one half million gulden had been formed by herr von hartl to introduce english machine-spinning in austria. they had secured a very skillful english mechanic named thornton, who had been under contract to erect similar machines for a hamburg merchant. they had paid a great sum to have him released from this contract, had bought his machines, and had done enough sample work so that it had been resolved to push the enterprise through even if several more millions were needed. the chief objection that was urged at that time was that an adequate sale of the products was doubtful because of the widespread business that the english controlled. the reply was that they must seek to work up a great part of their product themselves,--that is, combine with their spinnery the industries of weaving, dyeing, and cotton-printing. as soon as herr von hartl heard that the new invention promised great advantages for cotton-printing, he pledged himself to lay the matter before his majesty at once, and he promised that if i would come to vienna and produce the necessary proofs he would surely get the exclusive franchise for me. furthermore, when madame gleissner told him, in reply to a question, that we would need about six thousand gulden in the beginning, he announced his readiness to furnish that sum himself if i could convince him that a real benefit was to be produced by the new art. madame gleissner wrote to me, but withheld the condition of herr von hartl that i must convince him. i would have taken care not to give such greedy heed to her, for i knew from experience how difficult it is to convince most people. but, i was determined to show my friend andre that i and my art were by no means at a loss without him. besides, i always had the royal bavarian franchise to fall back on. his secrecy had shaken my confidence, and i was determined to find out everything for myself. many years later, when i reviewed everything calmly, i was sufficiently convinced that herr andre always had meant honestly by me; and i count myself fortunate to have him still as my friend. but at that time various misunderstandings brought it about that he did not give me full knowledge of everything, before he took steps contrary to our agreement and without my cognizance that could not fail to impress me as strange, since i was ignorant of the circumstances. besides, he defended himself against my accusations in a manner that affronted my vanity deeply, for he gave me to understand plainly that my past weakness in the matter of the gleissners' extravagance proved that i should always have to dance to their tune. it angered me that he should turn against me, as weakness, my recognition of the patient faithfulness of the gleissners through the many sorrows that had overwhelmed us since the beginning of the process; and the more so as i was giving them merely that which i did not require and which was my own undisputed property. according to that, i would have earned the reputation of being a firm, strong man had i used my superfluous earnings to buy a few watches, a ring, or some garments, rather than to use it to pay a debt of gratitude! besides, whatever herr andre had advanced to them was something that had been done without my knowledge; therefore i accounted all his charges as being only empty words, used to cover a proposed piece of trickery. after my first conversation with madame gleissner, but more especially with herr andre's representative in vienna, i realized that the latter could not be censured for his measures of prudence, and i repented that i had so easily given way to my quick sensitiveness. the _franchise_ evidently was very uncertain. the only hope for it lay in the assistance of herr von hartl, and, therefore, depended on my ability to convince him. i had spent my money traveling, and instead of finding madame gleissner in funds, as i had assumed from her letter, i found her ill with only a few guldens, and in addition i had two brothers on my hands who also were penniless and looked to me for their support. madame gleissner assured me that herr von hartl would assist us and that i could reckon also on help from her host, who had counseled her to part from herr andre and seek the privilege for herself. i mustered up sufficient courage to explain our situation to the latter gentleman and to ask him if we could count on his help for the beginning. this request must have been unexpected by herr von bogner, as madame gleissner's manner of living had indicated anything rather than lack of wealth. however, he liked my frankness, and promised active aid. he gave me a handsome room, and i and madame gleissner ate at his own table. he paid, also, for the lodging of my brothers in another house. two days after our arrival, i and my brothers visited herr von hartl in his country residence in dornbach. we were received most kindly, and he promised me his aid if i could give satisfactory proofs. so far as the franchise was concerned, however, he showed me that it could be taken out only in my name, and this, he explained, would be difficult enough, as all the art dealers were against it. to ask for it in the name of three brothers was out of the question. neither, said he, would it be necessary, as i could make a separate contract with them through which they could be partners with me. herr von hartl, who, as court agent, naturally knew all that was to be done, would not have said this without good reason. my brothers, however, were highly incensed, and declared that they would not be dependent on me, but would be their own masters. had they possessed the money necessary to travel they would, no doubt, have carried out this resolve at once, for they had been angered already by the fact that herr von bogner kept only me as his guest. my representations were without effect. they told me that they would return to munich and practice the bavarian privilege in my name if herr von hartl would give them the journey money; otherwise they would be forced to listen to the proposition of several viennese art dealers and sell them the secret of the stone-printing art. as this would have destroyed all chance for getting an exclusive privilege, herr von hartl gave them the money, and theobald and george senefelder returned to munich, after making a contract with me which permitted them to establish a printing business and, if possible, an art business, my share in which was to be one third of the net profit after deducting the cost of their own support. this contract was necessary to authorize them to practice under my privilege. meantime i had a small hand-press made and produced several pieces of work for herr von hartl, which gave him a clearer idea of the new art, and convinced him finally that it was worth while to risk something on it. he made a full contract with me, in which he bound himself to furnish money and everything necessary, and use all his influence to further the business, while i was to give all my time and knowledge. the profits were to be divided into two equal parts, one of which was to be his, while the other was to be divided between myself and herr gleissner. he allotted a proper sum for my support, told me to rent a comfortable residence, and authorized me to buy some large presses. he told me frankly that the use of stone for cotton-printing had the most interest for him, and that he cared about the other forms of printing only as paying for our expenditures. when the big spinning-shops were ready, said he, he would give me so great an opportunity that i could let herr gleissner have all the art- and music-printing to himself. what glorious prospects opened themselves to me! what could i think except that it would require merely industry to become a famous, happy man in a short period? here i must interpolate the account of a happening that brought about a total rupture with andre. until now our relations had not been wholly severed. his last word was that i would, no doubt, go to vienna in vain, and in that case i should return to him, as he would receive me with open arms. when i saw his correspondent in vienna and learned from him that he had orders to let me have money if i wanted it; when i perceived further that madame gleissner had been too hasty, and that all the tangle was caused by misunderstandings, i dismissed all anger and wrote to my friend andre at once, telling him that i had found things not nearly so bad in vienna as he imagined. it was true, i said, that the two women had failed to obtain the franchise, but mostly because they could give no demonstrations. it was quite different, now that the inventor himself was petitioning for it, especially as herr von hartl had promised absolutely to take our part. if, therefore, andre were willing to spend at most one thousand gulden for a press and to pay for our support and necessary working expenses for six months, there would be absolutely no doubt of fortunate outcome. had i had the happy thought to ask herr von hartl to add a few lines, my letter might have had the intended result. but i considered my word sufficient, and unluckily my letter reached offenbach when andre was absent, and was answered by his brother in about the following fashion: his brother, he said, was absent; but as he knew his opinion exactly, he would not keep me waiting. i must not be offended, but he believed that my ready trustfulness, caused by my good-heartedness, had played me a prank again. he was completely convinced from the advices of their vienna friends that the privilege would be granted only if his brother removed bag and baggage to vienna and had himself naturalized there, something which his affairs did not permit. i would discover, soon enough, that the lovely promises made me were nothing but air. then he went on to say that even if the sum of one thousand gulden really were only a trifle, it would not produce the desired result. madame gleissner, said he, had incurred debts of one hundred and fifty gulden since she had broken with his brother, and as she had used this sum not for his good but rather for his harm, it was only fair that she pay it herself. i, probably, would be in debt nearly one hundred gulden, now that i had been in vienna some weeks with my brothers. if i wanted to build a press in vienna where wood is dear, it would cost easily one hundred and fifty gulden. then there would be one hundred gulden for stones, etc. i would need a dwelling, for which i would have to pay at least one hundred gulden in advance. this would leave only four hundred gulden. the winter was at hand, neither my brothers nor madame gleissner had the necessary clothing, everything would be needed. in brief, he assured me, before many weeks the one thousand gulden would be spent and in the end there would be no press, no stones, and no specimen work. therefore, he concluded, i should not feel affronted if he told me his heartfelt thoughts. the aspect of the vienna matter would, probably, be different if my over-great good-heartedness did not put fetters upon me that must prevent anybody from placing full confidence in my advice. i would better, therefore, dismiss the plans, and be sure that nobody meant it more sincerely with me than, etc. it may be supposed that this letter gave me little pleasure; and i made up my mind to show herr andre that he had made a mistake and had thrown away a great profit idly. i made the contract with herr von hartl, and we went to work actively at once. i had a large lever press built and asked the austrian government to appoint a commission to examine the process. this was done, and besides the mayor, there appeared the factory inspector, herr von jaquin, who was a professor of chemistry, and the director of the academy of copper-plate engravers, herr schmutzer. i showed them the various methods of printing from stone on paper, cotton, and calico, and explained the difference of my process from all others. my demonstrations were applauded, and the commission certified most heartily in favor of my petition for the exclusive privilege. in addition, herr von hartl went with me to a meeting of the imperial councilors, then to the imperial counsel of state, von gruber, to count lazansky, and, finally, to his majesty, the emperor himself. everywhere i had to make demonstrations with my little hand-press, at which time herr von hartl, to my great joy, always acted as cicerone and eagerly described the manifold advantage which the new art had for so many branches of the arts and sciences. everywhere we received praise and were promised the speedy issuance of the privilege. as, however, the matter had to take a regular course, and it was evident that some time must elapse, we petitioned meantime for a mere license to work, which we received within a few weeks, so that i was able to begin printing without further delay. herr von hartl became more friendly each day, and opened for me the most beautiful outlook on the future. my easily moved imagination interpreted his speeches as brightly as possible, and i imagined that i saw fortune and position close at hand. i worked all the harder, therefore, to fulfill his expectations; and as his chief object was printing on cotton i threw myself zealously into the study of color, as absolute permanence was needed besides beauty of printing. during this time herr gleissner had left offenbach and had returned to munich with his children. as i was in partnership with him, and he could make himself useful in the printing of music, herr von hartl decided to have him come to vienna, and his wife took it on herself to get him and arrange for an extension of his leave of absence. she found him in the saddest of circumstances. in his ignorance of such things, he had sold all the furniture in offenbach for a mere joke of a sum. most of this money had been used to defray his traveling expenses, and she found the family stripped of even necessaries. what was to be done? her husband and children needed clothing that they might not make a bad impression in vienna, her husband's debts had to be paid, and then came the traveling expenses. the money advanced by herr von hartl was not nearly enough for all this. she wrote to me to ask him for an additional sum of three or four hundred gulden. this was exceedingly unpleasant for me. i should have to tell him the truth, and thus place herr gleissner in a bad light right in the beginning. furthermore, he had received no too favorable a report about the domestic management of the two, either from herr andre's friend in vienna or perhaps from herr andre himself. it was torture for me to ask him for money, especially if it was to be used for something not absolutely necessary for the business in hand, as i knew his opinions in that respect. willingly as herr von hartl gave money when it was needed to achieve a useful object, so reluctant was he if he deemed that it was to be wasted. in my embarrassment i dropped a hint as to the situation to our hostess, madame von tannenberg. she counseled me at once not to ask, as the family would lose the respect of herr von hartl entirely, and offered voluntarily to advance madame gleissner four hundred gulden herself, if i would guarantee the payment of it in half a year. nothing seemed more certain to me than that i could save such a sum in that time. i accepted her offer and sent the money to munich on the same day. i would not mention this apparently trivial matter, if it were not for the fact that in the end it was the cause of the ruin of all my hopes in vienna. the dealers had spared no pains to oppose my franchise in the beginning, before they knew of my connection with herr von hartl, and while they still considered me an unimportant foreigner, who had neither friends nor influence. when they discovered the truth, their noise became clamorous, for they had to fear in earnest now that their trade would suffer, since so eminent and rich a man was associated with the new art. the more important art dealers feared it less than the smaller ones, among whom herr sauer and the new industrie-komptoir were my most active enemies. despite this, there opened a way suddenly by which i could make peace with the art dealers and even draw considerable profit from them. through herr von hartl, i became acquainted with a skillful clavier-player, teuber, who was also a composer, and at once showed great interest in my invention. he spoke to his acquaintances, herr sonnleithner and herr ricci. through their intervention the art dealers asked me if i would abstain from establishing a music-printery of my own, providing they guaranteed me a sufficient amount of work. i calculated that i could print six thousand sheets of music a day with the three presses that i had planned. this, at the low price of twenty-five kreuzer per hundred impressions, would amount in all to a sum of twenty-five gulden. also if i accepted, say, work that would average three hundred impressions, there would be needed ten stones, counting two sheets to each stone. thus there would be a further engraving profit of ten gulden, because i received fifty kreuzer for each sheet, but paid my note-writer only twenty kreuzer. for house, color, acids, polisher's wages, etc., there must be reckoned four gulden a day. the six printers to operate the three presses would cost four gulden a day also. now if i reckoned two gulden a day for possible accidental errors, etc., there would still remain twenty-five gulden a day profit. this meant seven thousand and five hundred gulden clear profit in the three hundred working days of a year, without the least risk. as i considered this a satisfactory profit for one single branch of my art, i told herr sonnleithner that i would attempt to induce herr von hartl to give up the idea of establishing his own publishing house, provided that the united art dealers would guarantee me that amount of work and agree also to reimburse me if the presses were not kept busy, excepting through my own fault. herr sonnleithner welcomed the proposal, not doubting that the dealers would need all the work stipulated, and, indeed, declaring that the art and industrie-komptoir alone might give me twice that much. i knew that herr von hartl had entertained little regard for this branch of work. therefore i thought it would delight him to find that he could not only relieve himself from further expense in this line, but gain several thousand gulden. i was mistaken. he deduced that music-printing was not so unimportant as he had imagined; and he told me to inform the dealers that i would take as much work as they offered at low prices, but that we could not make ourselves dependent on them. as the dealers refused decidedly to give me the means with their own hands of building up a great establishment, the project fell entirely. however, herr von hartl now had declared himself in favor of establishing a music-printery; and a few days later there came a highly favorable opportunity to start one at once under happy auspices, together with a complete art publishing establishment. an acquaintance of my landlady, to whom i had showed my printery, sent for me to tell me that herr eder, an art dealer, wished to give up his business because of illness and was willing to sell reasonably. this friend enlarged on the luck it would be to obtain this well-situated shop, which earned several thousand gulden by printing birthday and new year's cards alone, at the very easy terms which herr eder had suggested provisionally. he desired me to see him at once, under the pledge of secrecy, which pledge herr von hartl was to give also, as herr eder did not wish to injure his credit by offering his establishment openly for sale. herr eder did, indeed, offer most favorable terms, according to my opinion. he showed me that on the average the net profit of his business had been ten thousand gulden annually during the last ten years. (at that time the gulden notes stood at par.) furthermore he estimated the value of all his printed stock only at the cost of manufacture, and the great stock of copper plates, many newly etched, at merely their value as copper. the large stock of different papers, with the many writing and drawing materials, were estimated at cost value, also. for his trading rights, and for his excellent rental contract which had many years to run, he did not ask anything. the sum that he asked for everything was forty thousand gulden, of which only ten thousand gulden were to be paid at once, the rest being paid in annual installments during the following ten years. if herr von hartl had accepted this, there would have been four thousand gulden net profit a year in it. and by combining with it the advantages of the new process, the profit was certain to be greater. to begin a new publishing house without mercantile knowledge, without knowing what the public wanted, would be far more difficult than to continue one that already was in operation, especially so as herr eder had offered to remain for a year as associate to teach me the business. i cannot yet understand why herr von hartl discarded this proposition. perhaps he feared that he would be overreached in some way. he might have been more receptive had he been able to foresee that his new establishment would cost him a sum of twenty thousand gulden within a very few years without advancing toward being even the ghost of a business. perhaps i did not possess the gift of convincing others. at any rate, both projects failed to meet with approval. that herr von hartl could be convinced, however, even to his plain injury, i will prove later. for lithography the failure of this plan was a great loss, because it would have given me opportunity to get into the art line ten years earlier than i did, and make useful application of my inventions. the family gleissner now arrived in vienna and brought one of my former apprentices, mathias grünewald. meantime some presses had been completed, and we could begin to print. gleissner's symphonies recently had been much praised in a musical paper of leipsic, and he proposed to us to begin with a few of his works. of course it would have been wiser to begin with a good work by a famous man, whose name was sufficiently popular in vienna. i did visit herr doctor haydn, but received the reply that he could not compose any more and would only review old works thenceforth. immediately at the commencement a stock of stones was needed. as we could foresee that we should need some thousands of stones in the course of time, herr von hartl decided to make a trip with me, by way of munich and augsburg, to the quarries of solenhofen that we might inform ourselves on the spot about the best way to get stones. a further inducement to make this journey was that he wished to examine the estate of niedau, which had been described as being very favorably situated for the erection of manufactories. herr von hartl already had a large spinnery in operation. this, and perhaps the printery, he planned to establish in niedau, because there both workers and property were cheaper. he intended to leave only the business offices in vienna. the establishment of this spinnery had so important an effect on my fate as well as on the future of lithography that i must describe it here. when i arrived in vienna, count von saurau had just gone to petersburg as austrian ambassador. being a patron of home industries, he had advanced ten thousand gulden some time before to an expert spinner named mistelbauer, to erect looms for manufacturing fine english and french stuffs in austria, a work for which mistelbauer was perfectly qualified. when the count departed, herr von hartl took charge of several of his interests, among them the mistelbauer spinnery. thus at the next vienna messe (market-fair), mistelbauer visited herr von hartl to make an accounting. the goods that mistelbauer had brought convinced herr von hartl of his skill and technical capacity. the details of his processes, and his ingenuity in operating so many looms with so little capital, indicated to herr von hartl that increased capital would bring enormously increased results. as the spinnery company had as good as decided that a good part of their own products should be further worked by themselves, herr von hartl considered it a lucky circumstance to meet a particularly good weaver and also a cotton-printer, who alleged that he could print the home-made cottons exactly as well as the english printers and possibly at smaller cost. he wrote to count von saurau that he was willing to assist mistelbauer with more money. count saurau agreed, and herr von hartl advanced money to mistelbauer till it reached a sum of forty thousand gulden. he appeared only as a creditor, however, and held a mortgage on the entire spinnery, with all its present and future stock, in order to be covered should the operations fail. now mistelbauer was a man who had little or no mercantile talent. he did not understand book-keeping, and though he had managed the original small establishment pretty well, he was not equal to the bigger one. a factor should have been appointed to manage the commercial end and the accounts. another trouble was that herr von hartl, in order to satisfy himself, continually demanded new sample work from him, which, on the other hand, pleased mistelbauer, as it enabled him to show his skill. thus, instead of working steadily along the original sound lines, he kept going into new things. among others he erected looms to make color, and print manchester fabrics. regardless of the fact that i (as he well knew) was working at cotton-printing, and that herr von hartl intended to work my inventions, he managed to induce that gentleman to let him erect a cotton-printery, a matter which he did not understand in the least. mistelbauer had been a poor peasant boy of helmannsöd by linz. he had gone into foreign lands in his youth, but when he obtained the ten thousand gulden from count saurau, he selected his native place for the works. even at that time his improved condition aroused the envy of the village; but he lived in a poor hut and differed in nothing from the other inhabitants. when herr von hartl assisted him, he succeeded soon in convincing him that they needed more room, and obtained his consent for building. instead of erecting a factory, he erected a considerable dwelling, the cost of which was far beyond the original estimates. on account of all the other work undertaken at the same time, nothing could be finished in time, and mistelbauer was continually too late for the markets with his product. as a result, instead of being punctual with all his payments as he had been heretofore, he could not even pay his interest, and herr von hartl had to make new advances all the time. naturally herr von hartl began to feel apprehensive, and he decided to visit mistelbauer on the occasion of our journey to solenhofen. when we reached helmannsöd, herr von hartl shook his head dubiously, especially when he found the accounts in the greatest disorder. but the great stock of goods, though most of them were only half finished, and the thought that everything could be made to go smoothly again with better management, encouraged him, and he instructed mistelbauer, showing him how to establish order in his works as well as in the accounts. then we continued our journey. in munich, where we remained three days, i visited my mother and my brothers, who all lived together and were operating a press that worked mostly for herr falter. according to their assurances, their income had hardly sufficed to support them. in augsburg, herr von hartl contracted with a paper dealer for the paper necessary for music-printing, and in solenhofen he bought several hundred stones for this work and made arrangements for future supplies. then we returned through regensburg and passau. this whole journey was one of the greatest pleasures of my life. the weather was excellent, and herr von hartl was so kind to me that i was more than ever convinced of his sincere desire for my success. we engaged two writers of music immediately on our return to vienna. one was j. held, a young man recently married, who earned his living by teaching and copying. the second was his brother-in-law. they comprehended the process quickly and soon were so skillful that each earned twelve gulden and more a week, despite the fact that we rarely paid them more than twenty and twenty-four kreuzer for each sheet. the new smaller works of herr gleissner were finished very soon, and it became necessary to find more work to keep my etchers and four printers busy. i asked herr von hartl to buy some compositions from vienna's best musicians, such as krommer, beethoven, etc. he was willing, but desired to wait for a proper opportunity to speak to herr krommer. thus some weeks passed, and in order to keep the force busy, herr gleissner composed continually and printed his work. nearly a whole year passed that way, and still herr von hartl had found no opportunity (owing to his many affairs) to arrange with herr krommer or other composers. so it happened that, with the exception of a few overtures, our whole stock of paper and a whole year's work were used solely to print herr gleissner's compositions. i myself had hardly anything to do with this printing, which was managed entirely by herr gleissner; for i devoted all my time to the study of color and to the necessary thousands of experiments. here i had made the unpleasant discovery that most of what was in the books was incorrect, or so incompletely stated that, before one could understand the instructions, one needed to know the entire process of cotton-making and printing. i cannot understand now why it never struck herr von hartl or me that i did not need this knowledge at all, and that all that was necessary in order to apply my method to cotton-printing was for me to demonstrate how the printing could be done well and quickly. to get color results it was necessary merely to engage a good color expert, who could analyze colors and decide if they were available for my process. that would have saved us a year and a considerable sum of money which my experiments had cost. i confess that i had a mistaken ambition on this point, wishing to understand everything myself. then the study of chemistry was most attractive to me, because i found myself discovering new things of importance for my art all the time. when at last i was completely informed in the matter of color, i went with herr von hartl to the great machine-spinnery in pottendorf. here i became acquainted with herr thornton and his remarkably complete installation. with his assistance we made a stone-press for cotton, to print the cotton from large plates. but the correct register of each impression made so much trouble for us that i foresaw the need for many further experiments and inventions. besides, herr thornton was too partial to the english process of cylinder-printing to feel particularly favorable to the stone-process; and in the end it was considered best to order a great piece of stone from solenhofen from which we might make an eight-inch cylinder. it was six months before we obtained the requisite stone. during this period it struck me that perhaps the cylinder did not need to be stone, but that we might use copper cylinders, as in england. herr thornton objected that copper cylinders must be engraved with the graving tool, and that patterns for cotton should not be etched, since, if etching were practical, the english, who understand etching perfectly, no doubt would etch the cylinders. to be sure, i could not answer this argument, but i was convinced that a deep-etched stone would print as perfectly and handsomely as the best copper plate. why, then, could it not be done with copper, since copper permitted itself to be etched so well? i made a little experiment at once, and it succeeded perfectly. herr thornton proposed to make completely sure. he had a small model press from england, the cylinder of which had been engraved by the best cotton copper engraver of england. though it was only six inches long and three inches thick it had cost twenty pounds to engrave. he proposed to have an exactly similar cylinder made, which i was to etch in the same design, so that competitive impressions could be made with both cylinders. the proposition was accepted. to save money, it was decided to make a cylinder from zinc instead of from copper. after a few days it was ready and i drove with herr von hartl to pottendorf, where we arrived at half-past ten o'clock in the morning. i started eagerly to do the drawing. as i perceived immediately, it consisted purely of circular lines, and therefore i succeeded in preparing the cylinder, drawing the design, and etching it before two o'clock, at which time we were to have luncheon. mr. thornton, who had expected that i would need at least eight days, was astonished by my speed. to all appearances, the etched cylinder was as good as the engraved one, and now it was merely a question of the printing. he made the first impression with the copper cylinder, which, of course, produced a very pretty piece of work. but when mine was adjusted and the first impression came out, the astonishment of all present reached its maximum, for the impressions were exactly as clear, but at least twice as strong and therefore more beautiful. the reason for this was that the engraving became narrower at the bottom, and therefore held hardly half as much color as the etched lines. the practicability of my etching process was settled; and herr von hartl waited only to lay the matter before the society at the next general meeting before proceeding to its exploitation on a large scale. truly it was high time for him to get some returns for his many expenses. the stone-printery had cost him at least six thousand gulden to this date. in return for this investment he had a good quantity of stones, several presses, and a great stock of gleissner's music, which represented an income of twenty thousand gulden, if it could be sold. at last we obtained the long-sought franchise (in ), and herr von hartl decided to begin the business. i proposed to him to rent a shop and engage an experienced man to manage it. but he replied that i was merely suggesting another burden of nearly two thousand gulden a year, with no certain prospect of a penny's income. rather, said he, i was to give the finished work to the dealers and let them sell them on a percentage, so that we could see how the public liked stone-printing. herr von hartl was trying at this time to rid himself of all expenses that were not absolutely necessary. he was growing more and more dissatisfied with mistelbauer, his health was poor, and irritating business troubles were anything but good for him. he expressed his regret many times because he had undertaken so many things. his many enterprises, which up to this time had proved anything but profitable, took so much of his time that he had to give up his far more advantageous interests as imperial court agent, and thus lost heavily in that direction also. the stock of spun wool kept piling up in the company's magazines, and this, too, seemed to promise no greatly satisfactory results. however, i could see that i could expect only small sales in vienna if i depended on the dealers, who were my opponents and would hardly be very eager to aid my success. therefore, i conceived the thought, equally unpractical, as it turned out, of putting our work into the hands of a book publisher; and as i had just observed much empty space in the shop of peter rehm's widow, i agreed with her to turn over our stock to her at twenty-five per cent discount. it was arranged that there be an accounting each month, and i looked forward to the end of the first month with great impatience, because i hoped for a considerable income. it was highly necessary, to help me pay off the debt that i had loaded on myself to defray herr gleissner's traveling expenses,--a debt that now had stood for two years, and that the skillful manipulations of my dear landlady and her faithful legal adviser had increased from four hundred gulden to two thousand. many times during the month i inquired as to the sales and received the answer that they were good. i was satisfied, and did not require further statements, as i did not wish to anticipate the pleasant surprise that i expected when the month's accounting was made. but alas! how i was shocked at the end of the month when the sum of ten gulden and forty-eight kreuzer turned out to be all! i did not know how i could appear before herr von hartl with the news. my walk to his house was one of the bitterest of my life. i was not received as badly as i had expected. on the contrary, herr von hartl comforted me and advised me to have patience, that all beginnings were slow, etc. in short, i enjoyed the most pleasant anticipations again. unhappily, at the end of the second month the accounting gave us one gulden, thirty-six kreuzer. now the patience of herr von hartl reached its end. he had just lost heavily again in the mistelbauer affair. it worried him seriously, and as his health continued poor, he inclined to listen to the advice of his wife, who represented to him that he did not need to burden himself thus, and that he would better pocket his losses and retire from all the matters that worried him. therefore, when his secretary, steiner, advised him to send a certain grasnitzky to helmannsöd, he accepted the suggestion, and grasnitzky went there with unlimited power to do what he thought best. now of course it was vital that grasnitzky be absolutely honest, as otherwise it was certain that he would make the worst possible report in order to get everything into his own hands. hardly had he made a superficial inspection before he reported that herr von hartl was being cheated by mistelbauer. as soon as he had driven the man and his family out of the house and had gained possession of the finished stock that was on hand, he took away everything that was in the hands of the local weavers, and transported it to linz to be finished and sold. hardly had herr von hartl received the alarming news that only the highest degree of commercial talent could save the capital that he had invested in this business, before worse news came. while grasnitzky was in linz, fire started in helmannsöd and spread to mistelbauer's house, which grasnitzky had locked up. the peasants saved their own houses and were not at all displeased to let the handsome new building, with all its machinery and stock, burn down. the hard blows were too much for poor mistelbauer, who was now reduced to total beggary. he became ill and died soon afterward in great misery. nothing was left now except for grasnitzky to finish the goods he had saved, and to sell them as well as possible. naturally the loss was considerable, despite all efforts; and of course it was an unfavorable circumstance for me that this affair should be contemporary with my failure to sell the sheet-music. herr von hartl lost all hope of success with stone-printing, and probably would have given it up entirely, had his secretary, steiner, not advised him to continue. he pointed out that the small sales were due not to the printing, but to the unwise selection of work, which was almost wholly the composition of a composer quite unknown in vienna. he said that they needed a man as manager who had the necessary knowledge and who also had a good shop for making sales, and that thus stone-printing would become a veritable gold mine. he proposed the antiquarian grund, who had a shop in the same street as herr von hartl's house. herr von hartl agreed. i was informed that hereafter i was to communicate only with herr grund about work, and that he would make all payments in herr von hartl's name, select the works to be published, and make quarterly accountings, at which he would deduct thirty per cent for himself. i was glad, because it relieved me of many cares and i foresaw success once more. new life came into the work. we hired two more writers, and printed bravely. grund succeeded in inducing herr von hartl to increase his investment during the first year so that the original capital of six thousand gulden that was already sunk in the work had grown to twenty thousand gulden. but when at last the fourth quarter passed without an accounting from grund, and still there was no dividend, he lost patience again, and no doubt steiner had to bear some censure because of his unfortunate suggestion. to soothe his master he proposed to take everything out of grund's hands and establish a publishing house. as this would demand more capital, herr von hartl declined, being quite sated. then steiner came out with the project: he would seek to induce grasnitzky, who had done so much already, to undertake this business also; he added that he himself was disposed to put in some capital and take a personal part in the business, for a third part of the profits. just then i was in fatal embarrassment. the legal adviser of our landlady pressed harshly for payment. he even went to herr von hartl. that gentleman sent for me immediately and declared that he would try steiner's plan, and that it would be his last attempt, and that i could see myself that there was nothing else to do. since he promised to pay my debt, and i hoped for good results anyway from herr steiner's coöperation, i agreed willingly. now passed another year, during which a number of pieces of music were printed under grasnitzky's and steiner's directions, and some experiments made in art work. an artist, karl müller, learned to draw nicely on stone partly with the pen, partly with the brush. among many, often very excellent efforts, one of his most successful was a copy of preissler's drawing-lessons. the first number was printed under my direction and came out very well. the other numbers, which were printed when i was in munich again, were reported as not having been so good. the reason probably was that they were printed with a new press ordered by herr grasnitzky, which did not have the power necessary for printing from stone, thus making necessary a softer color not satisfactory for pen-drawing. in the end herr steiner is credited with having improved this press very much. i shall describe it in its most complete form in my description of presses which will follow. judging from the amount of printing done, steiner and grasnitzky appeared to understand their business. in a short time they actually printed a second impression of some of the gleissner compositions, which met with good sales, especially in poland. i was delighted with this activity, especially as i hoped for a part of the profit for myself at the end of the year; but herr steiner, instead of accounting to me, assured me that i could entertain no hopes for ten years, as herr von hartl's investment of twenty thousand gulden would have to be repaid before there could be any question of dividing profits. i realized what this meant; and to avoid bringing a lawsuit, for which i lacked the means anyway, i decided to sell herr steiner my interests. he offered me six hundred gulden, and when, at last, i accepted it, he paid me fifty gulden because he had a claim on herr gleissner for five hundred and fifty gulden, something of which i had been in ignorance. the loss of this business pained me, but herr von hartl comforted me with the example of other inventors, who had received no better returns. now the cotton-printery was my only hope. a third of the pottendorf company had declared itself in favor of erecting a factory, and in fact one thousand two hundred gulden had been appropriated to make a trial on a large scale. i went to pottendorf and ordered a machine in which the cylinders were of cast-iron instead of copper, because herr thornton had two very handsome iron cylinders, two yards long and eight inches in diameter, which had been intended for another purpose but were sufficient for my trials. as soon as the printing-machine was ready, herr thornton had it connected with the water-wheel of the cotton-spinnery, so that one needed only to pull a cord to set the cylinders in motion and see the printing of the cotton proceed without human help, as if of itself. nothing was needed now except to etch the design in the upper cylinder. the design consisted of a simple little flower, many times repeated, and it seemed to me to be anything except difficult. but after i had covered the cylinder with the etching surface and started to work with the graver, i saw, after a very few strokes, why it had not been possible before this to produce cotton patterns by etching and why engraving had been necessary. it was not possible for me to draw even three of the little flowers into the etching surface with the free hand so firmly and evenly as this sort of printing demanded if it was to appear thoroughly accurate to the eye. this was in spite of the fact that i had first drawn the design carefully in measured squares on stone and transferred it in red to the black cylinder. my strokes were too trembling and uneven, so that i nearly gave up the hope of ever doing anything excellent in this way, unless i were to expend as much or more time than would be needed for the regular process of engraving. the failure of this attempt, and the disgrace that would come to me as a result, spurred me on to invent some method to overcome the difficulty of drawing. i succeeded so unexpectedly that the very failure became the means to greater perfection. to cover the entire surface of the cylinder it would be necessary to draw thirty thousand flowers. had i not experienced the slightest difficulty, i still would have needed half a minute for each flower, and thus i would scarcely have been able to finish an entire cylinder inside of a month. but i invented a drawing-machine with which, though i was not a skillful draftsman, i could draw the entire design within two days, and with an accuracy that hardly could be attained by the engraving-tool. with this instrument i drew the design on the black etching surface of the cylinder, etched it and made a sample printing which, when it was repeated afterward in presence of fürst von esterhazy and other members of the company, earned universal praise. herr von hartl planned to obtain an exclusive franchise for this cylinder cotton-printing, sell it to the company, and have me appointed as director, something like herr thornton, who drew not only a decent salary but also a fourth part of the profit from the entire spinnery. as i could see readily that a company with such enormous resources could soon bring a cotton-print establishment to a great stage, it did not seem impossible to me that the annual income might rise to a million, as in the ebreichsdorfer factory. if the net profits were only five per cent, there still would be more than twelve thousand gulden annually for me, and i was sure to be a rich man in a short time. so i thanked herr von hartl heartily and continued to perfect my process in every tiny detail. the fear had arisen that iron cylinders might affect the handsome reds and other fine colors. herr thornton, who had become my friend, promised to make for me cast copper cylinders with iron cores: and his preparations for this work were almost completed when again fate ruined all my hopes. napoleon had just completed the continental blockade; and the english cotton stuffs were not to be had anywhere. this forced all the weavers and manufacturers of the inland to buy from the pottendorfer works, and the sale of their output became so great that the formerly overcrowded storehouses were emptied in a short time. "why should we erect a new, different factory? rather let us enlarge the present one." this was the general and entirely sensible decision of the company. herr von hartl would not interest himself further in the process, because our hope of an exclusive franchise had been ruined through the treachery of a foreman in the spinnery, who had made drawings of our machine and sold them to various cotton-making establishments, who were already imitating the process. so there was nothing left for me except to seek my fortune elsewhere. in my pain over my oft-ruined hopes i complained to a good friend, herr madlener, a tinner in pottendorf, and this noble man was ready at once to seek another opportunity for me. the very next day he told me that a cotton-printer in vienna, herr blumauer, would pay me five hundred gulden for a small model press for cylinder printing on cotton. this turned out true. fourteen days later he made me acquainted with the brothers faber, who had a cotton-works in st. polten, and who, on madlener's recommendation, made an extremely satisfactory contract with me for the erection of a complete cylinder printery. i thought myself happy to come into relations with this firm at whose head were two of the noblest of men, and was just ready to go to st. polten, when my destinies received a new direction through a strange chain of circumstances, that opened for me an excellent prospect again of making great advances in improving my lithographic invention. my brothers had written to me several times while i was in vienna, complaining about scarcity of work and their resultant poverty. therefore it is not to be wondered at that i did not exactly long to return to munich, despite the fact that my hopes in vienna had become steadily less. probably i should have returned again to herr andre in offenbach, as gleissner and his family were pretty well placed with steiner and grasnitzky, had not madame gleissner conceived the idea of making personal inquiries about the conditions in munich. shortly before, a bavarian court musician had visited vienna and had visited his friend gleissner. from him we learned that my brothers were doing very well. they had good positions with the feyertag school and had sold their franchise for stone-printing to the royal government. it was even reported that they had formed a company with herr von hazzi to establish a press and publishing house, and that they expected to get a comfortable building from the government. madame gleissner went to munich at once and ascertained that the report was true. she also met our old apprentice, grünewald, who had left vienna in with one of our note-writers, held, to erect a stone-printing establishment for breitkopf and härtl in leipsic. he had just returned to munich, and he induced madame gleissner to join him in erecting a small printing-house, which she did all the more willingly, since she hoped that it would earn her expenses for her in munich. this occasion led to her acquaintance with abt vogler, who gave her several pieces of music to print. stone-printing pleased abt vogler so much that he proposed to freiherr christoph von aretin, royal court and central library director, to establish a printery and take into partnership the inventor as well as herr gleissner. freiherr von aretin was willing, and they made a provisional contract with madame gleissner, under which i and her husband were to go to munich and establish a stone-press, for which freiherr von aretin and abt vogler would furnish the money. i was pleasantly surprised when madame gleissner returned to vienna with this news. freiherr von aretin was one of my old schoolmates in the munich gymnasium; and as he always used to gain the first prize in everything from the lowest class to the highest, i had entertained the greatest respect for him since youth. i would have thought myself fortunate even then to make his nearer acquaintance, because i ever have had a decided admiration for remarkable persons. in later days it happened once that my mother dwelled in his house and could not pay her rent, owing to certain misfortunes, and when she asked him to excuse the delay he made her a present of the entire sum. this proof of a noble soul was not calculated to lessen my regard for him. therefore i snatched at the proposal with joy. she had been urged earnestly to hurry matters, as abt vogler had various works which he wished to have printed as soon as possible. unfortunately my contract with the brothers faber, which i had signed the day before, would have delayed me for many months. i tried, therefore, if i could induce them to permit me to spend a few months in munich before i started their work in st. polten. the excellent men agreed gladly, and even advanced money to me that i might have various copper cylinders made in munich, so that i would be able to go ahead without delay later in st. polten. part iii from to i left vienna with herr gleissner and his family in october, . first we traveled to cloister atl near wasserburg in bavaria, which freiherr von aretin had bought recently, and where abt vogler awaited us. he proposed to erect the printery in the cloister; but when he saw that i was not at all pleased with the idea, he started with us for munich. hardly had we arrived there before abt vogler suggested several plans which all contemplated only his own profit, and which would have redounded to freiherr von aretin's disadvantage. when he realized at last that we would not agree to his demands, and when freiherr von aretin insisted that herr vogler pay his share of the capital at once and in cash, instead of paying it by furnishing music whose value he set very high, he severed his connection with our company. there was also the added reason that the royal academy of sciences did not reëlect him as a member, a fact which made him wish to leave munich as soon as possible. at this time a former workman of my younger brother karl, a man named strohhofer, commenced a printery. madame gleissner stopped this unlawful violation of our rights with the aid of the royal police, and this impelled strohhofer to seek abt vogler, probably in order to gain his intercession with freiherr von aretin. vogler thought that he had made an important discovery, as the man knew how to speak very impressively of his knowledge and skill. he imagined that he could publish his works without our aid, perhaps even without cost. therefore he promised to assist strohhofer, made an appointment with him for a future day, and suggested to him how he could support himself meantime by selling the secret of the art. stuttgart was one of the towns suggested to him. strohhofer circulated a pompous proclamation there, boasting of his talents and offering his services to anybody and everybody. thus he came into communication with herr cotta. the inferiority and incompleteness of his knowledge were perceived very soon; but as even the imperfect results hinted at the importance of the new printing process, the result was that finally, through the assistance of an art-lover, herr rapp, the book, _the secret of stone-printing_, was published by herr cotta. it was the first publication that showed true appreciation publicly of the art. immediately in the beginning of our establishment in munich, our enterprise gained brilliant aspects through freiherr von aretin's activity. several presses were operated, for music, for governmental work, and even for art. then came the publication of albrecht dürer's _prayer-book_, which gave us an honorable reputation. this work was acclaimed by all art-lovers, and the conviction gained ground everywhere that the new process which hitherto had possessed few friends, was not so unimportant as had been believed generally. the professor of the feyertag school, herr mitterer, had done important preparatory work in munich to gain a favorable decision. my brothers had imparted to him the entire process. he had found that the so-called crayon process, of which i had shown proofs as early as , was best adapted for his purpose of reproducing elementary drawing-lessons, and he had succeeded in inducing the government to establish a lithographic institute under his direction, in which my brothers were employed as lithographers. to be sure, this was a violation of my franchise; but the reason was that the authorities supposed my brothers to be the owners of the franchise, both on account of the name and because they had conducted the munich printery for some years in my name. freiherr von aretin counted on the sole use of the franchise, which he had believed to be unassailable when he formed our company and advanced the necessary money; but when in time he complained because the royal government as well as private persons established printeries, he received the reply that the art had long ceased to be a secret,--as if a condition of the franchise had been that a useful process must be kept secret. in that case i could not have employed any man either for drawing or printing, as that would have involved the loss of secrecy and thus the loss of the franchise. my connection with freiherr von aretin lasted four years. during this time i turned out a great amount of government work, such as circulars, statistical tables, charts, etc., besides many specimens in various forms of art. at that time the idea was first conceived for the present text-book of lithography, and, indeed, we published the first installment of the sample plates. still, our enterprise was far less successful than freiherr von aretin and i had hoped. it was very difficult to obtain skillful workmen, especially writers and artists. even strixner and pilotti, whom we had engaged and who worked at producing facsimiles of the royal manual drawing cabinet, were very slow to gain the necessary perfection and speed. and again we lacked the manager, namely, a man who understood business and knew what to produce and how to sell it. i myself was heavily burdened, as i had not only to exercise continual supervision of the five presses, but also was practically the only one who could prepare the plates for those presses. added to this was the fact that the printers were almost all uneducated men, some of whom could not even read, and they spoiled many plates that i had to reproduce. this caused so much loss of time that already was insufficient, that it is no wonder that several presses came to a standstill frequently. luckily there were government jobs at times that demanded fifteen thousand and more impressions. this enabled me to prepare new material while the presses were busy. on the whole, however, this work had the disadvantage of demanding such speed that usually all the five presses had to work at it, so that, when it was done, they were all at a standstill together, sometimes for weeks; and then the wages, etc., consumed the previous profit, so that in the end little or nothing was left. thus it was natural that herr von aretin, who was being annoyed at this time by other affairs, began to lose his enthusiasm for lithography. therefore, when he had to go to neuburg as governmental-director, and could not participate personally any more, and when, at the same time, herr gleissner and i obtained situations with the royal tax service, he sold the establishment to herr von manlich, the director of the royal gallery, and to herr zeller, a merchant. although our connection was broken in this manner, and despite the fact that we had not won the expected results, still stone-printing had attained respect and support through freiherr von aretin's patronage. we had to thank him for the fact that our institution was praised by the most celebrated native and foreign statesmen, and even by their royal highnesses, the crown prince of bavaria and his most noble sister charlotte, present empress of austria. our beloved crown prince wrote on paper with the so-called chemical or stone-ink, "lithography is one of the most important inventions of the century." and his noble sister wrote the short but eloquent words, "i honor the bavarians!" these lines were printed on the stone in their presence. his royal highness the crown prince exhibited so much interest in this bavarian invention that he condescended to order the sculptor, kirchmeier, of munich, to model my bust in plaster, so that in the future, when lithography should have attained an honorable place in the whole public estimation, it could be carved in stone and erected among the most celebrated artists of bavaria. in general my connection with freiherr von aretin had given me several well-founded prospects for an active and honorable future. he promised that, when his circumstances permitted, he would put me into position to use my entire time only for making useful inventions, for which purpose i should have all the material and workers that i might need. we would then investigate all branches of art and industry, to discover possibilities of improvement. he possessed the true viewpoint, appreciating how i could best be useful to the fatherland, and perhaps to all humanity. i shall ever consider it as my greatest misfortune that circumstances made it impossible to carry out this plan, and thus to justify the great confidence that he reposed in my inventiveness and ability. a second beautiful hope arose in france, where i was encouraged by freiherr von aretin to expect the management of an imperial lithographic institute, with a great financial allowance, herr von manlich, and the french artist, herr denon, who was in high favor with napoleon, having made strong efforts to that end. this hope also met disappointment owing to the circumstances of the times. a third hope of no less importance was to erect a cotton-printery in munich or augsburg in association with his excellency count von arco, court chamberlain of her royal highness the widowed kurfürstin of bavaria. this was ruined by the clumsiness of a munich wood-turner, who made such uneven cylinders that we could not produce any satisfactory specimens. although i made arrangements at once for a large english machine, like those used by mr. thornton, its manufacture was so slow that two years elapsed, and during this time our entire lithographic establishment was dissolved. the idea of a cotton-printery was an unfortunate one, which not only cost much time and a great sum of money, but also had the unpleasant result that i could not fulfill my contract with the faber brothers and thus, in addition to the resultant personal financial loss, had the pain of appearing before these most noble men in a poor light. all this trouble was caused as follows. on invitation of count von arco, his brother-in-law, count von montgelas, royal minister of state, visited our institution and examined our work. at the request of freiherr von aretin i made an experimental printing with the little model cotton-printing press that i had brought from vienna. it won his approval. freiherr von aretin intended to ask for a franchise for this process in bavaria, where it had not yet been introduced. the minister promised this and also held out the hope of a considerable financial assistance from the government. then i was foolish enough to try to increase his interest by telling him of the value that foreign lands set on this process, and thus i informed him of my contract with the fabers. but this had an unexpected result. his excellency heard the information most ungraciously, and said that i must not hope for the least assistance in bavaria if i permitted myself to be used for the advantage of another state. he even declared that there was a royal rescript forbidding bavarian subjects from using an art in foreign lands if its exclusive use were of importance for bavaria. this rescript, said he, fitted my case exactly, and it was forbidden to me, under pain of highest disfavor, to proceed farther with the austrians. this embarrassed me mightily. freiherr von aretin and count von arco promised to urge the minister to permit me to go to vienna, on the ground that this method of printing cotton was no invention of mine, having been used long ago in england and for some time in austria. but freiherr von aretin was not very desirous that i should absent myself for several months in the very beginning of our enterprise, and thus time passed without the hoped-for permission. as the fabers pressed me earnestly to fulfill my agreement, i devised a subterfuge that might permit me to keep my promise and still not lay myself open to too great a responsibility. i wrote to them advising them to have their correspondent in munich demand through the court that i be forced to fulfill the contract. i considered that the city courts in munich would have no particular knowledge of the royal rescript or, at least, that they would not immediately remember it, and that, when i admitted the existence of the contract, they would command me to keep it at once. then i would obey immediately, and afterward could justify myself with the bavarian government by pointing to the court's decree. it would surely have succeeded had not the correspondent of the fabers failed in business after bringing suit, owing to which the matter got into another lawyer's hands. this man immediately adopted a new strange course. instead of demanding a fulfillment of the contract, he sued for twelve thousand gulden damages for their loss of time. of course i had to fight for my skin now; and as he refused to content himself with my agreement to fulfill the contract, i was forced at last to defend myself by falling back on the royal rescript. thus i escaped by merely repaying the money already advanced; but i lost the considerable sum that would have been assured to me had i been permitted to spend only two months in st. polten. thus none of the good prospects that opened themselves through my connection with freiherr von aretin proved so good as i had been justified in hoping: nay, it seemed as if i had only labored day and night to give others the benefits accruing from my painful labors, while i barely supported existence. freiherr von aretin wished that the management of the business be in the hands of a man who possessed his own fullest confidence, but whom i did not consider at all suitable, as he was a royal official and as such could not do business in a public shop. consequently the trade was carried on in his own residence, which was known to only few people and where nobody looked for the manifold things that we could have produced to good profit. this at last lowered our establishment to a mere job printery, which finally could not maintain itself, because more and more similar establishments were started in munich, and the prices for work became lower and lower through their hungry competition. it may not be uninteresting to tell briefly how so many printeries happened to be undertaken. the first was established by gleissner and myself, and was continued afterward in my name by my brothers theobald and george, until . they sold the secret to the feyertag school, where an excellent art institute developed gradually under herr mitterer. strohhofer learned the elements of the process from my brother karl, and associated himself, in , with herr sidler, royal court musician, who had studied first with my brothers, then with madame gleissner, and then in the aretin printery. when strohhofer left munich, sidler erected a stone-printery for the government, and after he had obtained an official permit before the expiration of my franchise, he established his own institution, producing very good work. during this time madame gleissner had petitioned the government frequently for sufficient work to assist her, and had obtained the promise through his excellency the minister of state, von montgelas. then it happened that the chief of a newly organized bureau, freiherr von hartmann, having a great deal of writing to do in beginning his new work, decided to introduce lithography for the purpose of saving labor. his intention was to have it all done in our institution. no doubt he had communicated this plan to von montgelas; for as he met madame gleissner about this time, and she asked again for work, he said that he had given senefelder enough work to keep ten presses busy, and if he had not yet received it, he would get it soon through freiherr von hartmann. there evidently was a misunderstanding here on account of the name. when freiherr von hartmann sent one of his subordinates to call senefelder to him, he brought my brother theobald, who immediately got orders to establish a lithographic office, and shortly afterward was appointed inspector of lithography. beside a considerable salary, he received the following other incomes, first, excellent pay for all work that was turned in; second, an agreement that if his ten presses could not be sufficiently employed by the bureau, he might work for other governmental bureaus and for private persons. thus he received a great deal of work, among other jobs the printing of passports for the ministry of foreign affairs, which earned large sums for him in a short time and placed him in very good circumstances. he could not conceal his good luck, and so it came that many people imagined that stone-printing was a means for getting rich quickly, which resulted in a disproportionate growth of new shops. out of his own there sprang two, namely, those of helmle and roth, who erected their own printeries under the permit of the police. at the same time a lithographic institution was erected in the royal asylum for the poor on the anger; and a herr dietrich, of a government bureau, also established one. my own prospects became worse and worse toward the year . though i may flatter myself that i perfected myself very greatly through unceasing practice and thousands of experiments, still, without a fortunate accident, it might well have happened that i would have been forced to think it lucky if i could obtain work under one of my former apprentices. i even suffered the insult of having the papers declare that though i had invented the art roughly, i had kept it secret for a long time through selfishness, and had never understood how to use it for anything except merely printing music. the falsity and humiliating character of this statement were bound to pain me the more bitterly, since all other stone-artists and stone-printers had learned only from me, and not one (not even herr mitterer, the most expert and, perhaps because of that, the most modest) possessed the art as a whole, in all its parts, as perfectly as i did. i hope that my text-book will prove this. so far as the secret was concerned, the statement was an evident falsehood. since the moment when i received the exclusive franchise in bavaria, in the year , i had made no secret of any part of my process toward any living being. i showed the whole manipulation to my workmen as well as to all strangers. those who knew me more intimately and realized, therefore, that i could not resist the desire for communicating anything that i discovered to benefit mankind, often censured me severely for my frankness, saying that i could have been a millionaire had i kept my art a secret. but this was equally erroneous. i never could have succeeded to any degree with my own means. the false belief that i desired exclusive enjoyment of the results of stone-printing, is in direct contradiction of the fact that the lack of secrecy was held to invalidate my exclusive franchise. the idea may have arisen, at least partly, through the circumstance that several of my former workmen, or others who learned something of the art, made a wonderful secret of it, in order to be considered more important. this was carried to such an extent that some traveled from place to place and sold their knowledge to many people for large sums under the seal of confidence. i pity those who thus received in exchange for their money something of little or no use, when they could have learned from me for practically nothing, as it always was my greatest delight to converse with intelligent men about those subjects that interested me so deeply as inventor. after making this little excursion, which was needed for my justification, i return to my story. there were, then, in , six public printeries in munich besides mine, without reckoning those which several artists had made for their own use. the foremost among the latter was herr mettenleithner, royal copper plate engraver. he was one of the first to whom i had shown specimens, as early as , of the new process, but he had paid little attention to it. partly through various very excellent specimens from herr mitterer's print, and partly through the work of strixner and pilotti, he was induced to make experiments. a son of herr von dall' armi, who was taking lessons just then in drawing and copper etching for his own pleasure, interested himself in the process. as a result, the latter established a lithographic institution in rome, which, so far as i know, never achieved any decided success. soon afterward herr mettenleithner, in association with one of the best of the aretin printers, a man named weishaupt, laid the foundation for the stone-printery of the royal tax commission (königliche unmittelbare steuer-kataster-kommission), which is now the most important of all the lithographic institutions of munich. a little later a similar institution was founded for reproduction purposes by the royal privy council, through herr mettenleithner's son-in-law, herr winter. herr mettenleithner was appointed director of the great establishment, which employed some thirty engravers, to etch the plans of the steuer-kataster, which received fifteen to twenty thousand impressions each. at this time the kingdom of bavaria was being charted in great detail for tax-regulation purposes, under the management of privy councilor von utzschneider, the man who has done so much for bavaria's home industries. there were required at least two exact copies of each map, and close calculation proved that it would be possible to etch the charts on stone and make several hundred impressions for the money that these two copies would cost if done by hand. in addition, each of these impressions was good enough to serve as an original. the lithographic institution of the royal steuer-kataster had been in operation for some time when a trivial occurrence had the most important effect on my fate. it became necessary to print a sheet of such great size that there happened to be no stone in munich large enough. weishaupt remembered that he had seen stones in my possession which i had purchased partly for map-work and partly for printing cotton and tapestries. he sent a printer to me with a letter from royal tax councilor von badhauser, requesting that i sell the government a stone of the necessary dimensions. herr von badhauser was a friend of my father, and i myself always had entertained the highest respect for him. he was also a friend of herr gleissner, and had done many things to oblige him. i embraced the opportunity of doing him a favor with joy, and the matter probably would have had no further consequences, had not madame gleissner arrived just as the stone was being taken away. she suspected that the stone might be desired for a purpose other than the one stated, and sought herr von badhauser to ascertain the truth. on this occasion she complained to him that the government, not content with infringing our franchise by erecting its own printeries, also took away our workmen after i had trained them with much labor and expense. herr von badhauser was surprised. he said that privy councilor von utzschneider had wished to turn work over to me, but that my reply to his proposal, which had been laid before me by a designer named schiesl, had been that it was against my arrangements to collaborate with any other establishment, and that, on the contrary, it was my intention, with the assistance of freiherr von aretin, to press our suit against the government for infringement. this herr schiesl, a pupil of herr methleithner, had worked for us occasionally, and, indeed, was one of the first to use the new process for drawings, especially pen-drawings. as he was rather adept and showed great interest, i gave him full instructions in everything, and he knew all my circumstances exactly. thus he understood thoroughly that my future depended on the turn that freiherr von aretin's affairs might take, and that our situation was precarious, owing to the competition of so many establishments. therefore, i cannot understand how he came to utter a statement so contrary to the truth. madame gleissner hurried to herr von utzschneider and explained my real intentions to him. he promised to consider the matter earnestly. herr professor schiegg, an excellent geometrician and astronomer, was member of the steuer-kataster-kommission, and had the supervision over the entire institution. he was not well satisfied. too many costly proof-prints were being made, and the impressions did not please him. accidentally he saw my receipt for payment for the stone which i had furnished, and he observed that i did not ask more for it than the commission had to pay for stones only half as large. also i charged only twenty-four kreuzer for polishing, whereas the commission had been paying one gulden for stones of four square feet. he took occasion to represent to the commission that it might be well to give me the management of the establishment. herr von utzschneider sent for me and asked for a proposition. after discussion with freiherr von aretin i proposed that the commission let me print their etched plates for two kreuzer per impression, in return for which i would pay the workmen, defray the cost of all printing material, and also keep the presses in repair, pull necessary proofs without charge, and bear the cost of all imperfect work. this plan seemed very fair to me, as the royal commission would save two thirds of the expenses it had defrayed hitherto; but it met with such opposition that herr von utzschneider advised me to make another proposition, preferably one that involved a good salary for myself and herr gleissner, which, probably, would be received with more favor. he added the flattering statement that the royal commission would be proud to have me, the inventor of the art, in its employ, and thus to reward my struggles in the name of the fatherland. the excellent man fulfilled the expectations thus raised, and became my greatest benefactor and founder of my fortune; for through him i won the prospect of an unvexed old age, and was placed in a position where i did not need any longer to consider my art merely as a livelihood. everything useful that i have invented since then, and i hope it is not inconsiderable, is due to the serene and happy position in which i was placed through his goodness. at the time i thought also that, if we were both employed by the royal steuer-kataster-kommission, it would save freiherr von aretin the burden of supporting us, without causing him damage, as according to the preliminary promise of the commission we should have time enough left to manage his institution. so i agreed to assume supervision over the commission's printery, to give it my best knowledge, and give the workmen complete instructions and training, for which there was to be a salary for life of one thousand five hundred gulden for me and one thousand gulden for my friend gleissner, with the rank of royal inspector of lithography, and with the right to maintain and conduct our own printery. my terms were graciously accepted, and in october, , we received our appointment. only in the beginning were my personal services especially necessary. later, as the workmen grew equal to their tasks, i found more and more leisure for dedicating myself to inventing improvements. i was rather fortunate in this endeavor, and the various processes invented since would now be generally known through the publication of many interesting works, had freiherr von aretin not been forced to leave munich to assume his new duties in the royal service. this left my art without his assistance, and our partnership reached its end just as it was beginning to attain fruit. my own circumstances did not permit me to continue the establishment on its former scale; therefore, freiherr von aretin turned over part of it, especially the art-branches, to von manlich, the director of the royal gallery, and another part to herr zeller. the latter soon gave up the printing business as incompatible with his other interests, but he did a great deal for domestic art and industry later by opening a warehouse for its products, also by publishing a paper and issuing many lithographic art productions. i kept one or two presses for myself, and as i married the daughter of the royal chief auditor versch in january, , i hoped to teach my wife to manage a small business. in the very beginning i obtained a large order for passports from the royal commission of the isar, which kept the presses busy for a month. at the same time i contracted with the royal war economy council to furnish all their printing. besides this, i had many orders from another royal commission and from herr falter, so that my little establishment was very busy. unfortunately it happened that i was not paid at once by the royal commission of the isar, but only after four years. added to this, after some months i had to support my workmen in idleness for several weeks, because there happened to be no work for them. this gave my wife so ill an idea of the business that she kept at me till i promised her to give up the whole thing. madame gleissner was not so timid. she offered to take over my men if i would turn over to her the government work that i had. at first she did very well, because just then orders came from many directions. she might have made a great success, had her husband not been stricken with paralysis, which rendered him so miserable that at last he lost his mind. then came the ever-growing competition and at last the government bureau installed its own plant. her daughter lost her eyesight almost wholly at this time, so that the family fell into a woeful condition, which would be still worse now if they were not sustained by faith in the mercy and grace of our best of kings, who will surely reward their efforts for lithography, which art, according to the belief of all experts, will ever remain a beautiful flower in the shining wreath of the noble maximilian. as soon as i did not need any longer to give up my time to earning a mere livelihood, i began seriously to plan publication of my lithographic text-book, the first number of which had appeared previously and been well received. but the skill of the various lithographers made noticeable advances every day, so that i was not content with the specimen pages that had seemed so satisfactory a year earlier. at last i fell under the delusion that it was absolutely vital to my honor that everything that might appear in my text-book must represent the _non plus ultra_ of the process. therefore i decided to suppress the first number entirely, because there were sample pages in it that represented a style which had been done much better since then. however, many obstacles opposed me. for instance, good artists are very costly, especially if they must learn new methods and practice them. i felt, also, that many of my inventions still demanded many improvements before i could intrust them to the hands of any artists. still, i hoped finally to accomplish my plan for publishing a splendid work which should be unique, because i invented improvements and perfections daily. when my dear friend andre came to munich in , i laid my project before him and he was so taken with it that he offered his cordial coöperation. we agreed that the work was to be done by frankfurter artists and printed there. but when i journeyed to offenbach some months later, i discovered that the right kind of artists were not so easy to find as andre had led me to hope. some, who might have been competent, demanded such exorbitant terms that the work would necessarily have been published only at a huge loss. "copper-etching," said they, "we understand. stone-etching we must learn. the latter seems to us, who are unpracticed in it, three times as difficult. therefore it is but fair that we shall be paid three times as much." this sort of reasoning led me to return to munich to print the work there. now two years passed with many experiments. many a plate was made, printed, and discarded because meantime i had found something better. then i lost my beloved wife in child-bed, and in my anguish over this loss, irredeemable as i thought at the time, i forgot all my projects till my second wife, a niece of our worthy choir-master ritter von winter, reconciled me with providence, notably through her truly motherly behavior toward the son left behind by my first wife. i considered it my duty now to publish my work, that in case of my death their claims to honor should be established. without this incentive, it would have been much more indifferent to me what men might think of my art or its inventor. in , herr andre came to munich again, and i imparted to him many of my recent inventions in regard to lithography. on this occasion we decided ultimately which of our plates should be put into the work and which should be discarded. i promised to get seriously to work and we looked forward so confidently to the completion of the entire publication that herr andre circulated a preliminary notice of it in the easter-messe at leipsic, whither he went after leaving munich. despite this, there came many delays, the chief one being caused by my meeting herr gerold, book-dealer and printer of vienna, who invited me to establish a printery for him. as my presence in vienna would be needed for only three months, i believed that this would cause no delay in the publication of the text-book, because the plates ordered from the munich artists could be completed during that time, while i could furnish the text as well in vienna as in munich. but i had the misfortune of becoming seriously ill soon after reaching vienna. a great weakness remained as result, and this made it impossible for me to undertake the return voyage in the bad weather that marked the winter of - . lithography did not progress particularly with herr gerold during my stay, because he could not obtain the franchise, though he had petitioned for it a year ago. the greatest blame for this was due to herr steiner's opposition. this man, who had done but little for the art in the entire time during which he enjoyed the exclusive austrian franchise that i had turned over to him, did this from pure ill-will, because he had suffered similar ill-luck, as he said. so gerold could not establish so complete a printery as i wished, without going into expenses based on an uncertainty. however, various drawings were made that served to show art-lovers what could be done with lithography. it would be easy to perfect this art immensely in vienna, because there is no lack of excellent artists. among those who interested themselves at the very beginning in herr gerold's undertaking were herr colonel von aurach, herr captain kohl, and herr kunike, the drawing-master for the family of prince von schwarzenberg. they convinced themselves with many experiments that lithography was eminently suitable for the easy reproduction of many styles of drawing, and recommended the method to all their acquaintances. through the experiments of herr kunike i gained the conviction that one could print true originals by using a method of touching up the impressions. the crayon method in combination with one or two tint plates is the method that is easiest for the artist to handle. now this method is very difficult to print, demanding great practice if good, strong, and clear impressions are to be produced. since there are as yet no complete printeries where an artist can have his own plates printed without danger of damage, there is nothing left except to print them himself, which causes many imperfect impressions that must be destroyed for the credit of the artist. herr kunike had this experience; but he took his imperfect impressions, when they were not entirely spoiled, and worked them over with black crayon. it developed that twelve impressions could be so well touched up by hand that they would fittingly pass as originals, in the time which would be required to copy a single picture properly. as this treatment of illustrations produces their value only by merit of the final finishing, they may be considered as being the same as copies that are made by an artist of his own work, wherein it happens often that the copy turns out better than the original. just as i was preparing to leave vienna i received several numbers of the _anzeiger für kunst und gewerbfleiss_, in which herr direktor von schlichtegroll, general secretary of the royal bavarian academy of sciences, had inserted several letters suggesting an inquiry into the invention of lithography. he had used the information obtained from my brothers and from other inhabitants of munich. on my arrival there i visited him at once to thank him for his patriotic endeavors, and to make some corrections of the story told by him. i had the fortune to win him as a steady friend, who became continually interested in giving my work a greater field. the completion of this text-book is due to his steadfast encouragement. he furnished me with the opportunity to meet many worthy men and also to demonstrate my many improvements before the royal academy of sciences, the polytechnical union, and at last even before their majesties, our most gracious king and his most highly venerated spouse, that illustrious connoisseur and protectress of the arts. never to be forgotten by me will be the moment when the gracious applause of the royal pair rewarded me for all the exertions of my life. oh! if only human life were not so limited, if it were granted to me to execute only one tenth part of my designs, i would make myself worthy of this great honor by making many another useful invention! but the time passes swiftly during our helpless wishing and striving; and when twenty or thirty years have been lived, there remains for us only amazement at beholding how little has been done of all that which glowing imagination and fiery energy painted as being so easy to carry out. when i saw before me the first successful impressions from a stone, and conceived the plan of making the invention useful for myself, i did not think that it would demand the greatest part of my life. rather, because it seemed to be a cheap process, i considered it merely a first step toward putting me into a position where i would be able to make inventions far more useful and important. i must, however, count myself fortunate among thousands, because my invention received such thorough recognition during my lifetime, and because i myself was able to bring it to a degree of perfection such as other inventions generally attained only after many years and long after the inventor himself was dead. herr von manlich, the director of the royal gallery, has had his skilled pupils, strixner and pilotti, copy many collections in the royal drawing cabinet (königliche zeichnungs kabinett), and many of these sheets are so good that competent critics have declared them to be perfect facsimiles. but on the whole the publication of the royal gallery of paintings is still more excellent and has aroused general attention, which would be even greater if the printers had been as expert as the artists were. many of these pages would leave nothing to be desired if the pictures appeared on the paper in perfection equal to the perfection of the drawings on the stone. the method used for these illustrations is the crayon method, with one or more tint plates. it is the easiest method for the artists because it demands little previous experience. to give it its correct emphasis, however, one must know especially how to get the best effect out of the tint plates. if this is done just right, and if, of course, the drawing bears the impress of a masterly hand, and if the printer understands his art, the impression will be perfectly like an original drawing, so that the most skilled etcher in copper hardly can attain the same effect. therefore this method, which has the further advantage of being a quick one, is excellently well adapted for copying paintings. hereby i wish to express my deepest gratitude publicly to the worthy herr direktor von manlich and his industrious pupils for the service they have done for the fame of lithography by utilizing my inventions. to their labors, as well as to those of herr professor mitterer, is due the ever-growing sympathy and interest of the public. herr mitterer now has attained such perfection, especially in the simple crayon method, that many of his productions probably will remain the _non plus ultra_ of this method. lithography also owes to his unresting energy the triumph of having been become the mother of many useful works of instruction, which are so cheap that they only require the active work of a good art-dealer or book-dealer to become widely circulated. besides this, herr mitterer is the inventor of the so-called cylinder or pilot-wheel press, which he has improved so much lately that it does almost everything that one can demand from a perfect press in point of power, speed, and ease of operation. since , i have dedicated myself almost uninterruptedly to improvements, and to the work of reducing all manipulation and processes in all branches to their simple elementary principles. thus some of my earlier inventions--such as transfers from paper which has been inscribed with fatty inks, and the transfers from new and old books and copper-plate impressions--have been brought to a high degree of excellence through my manifold experiments, so that one can make lithographic stereotypes in the easiest manner. furthermore i have made such progress in color printing that, besides pictures illuminated with colors, i can also produce pictures quite similar to oil paintings, so that nobody can discover that they have been printed, because they possess all the distinguishing points of paintings. at the same time i have invented a new method for printing pictures, wall tapestry, playing-cards, and even cotton, which enables two men to make two thousand impressions of the size of a sheet of letter-paper daily, even though the picture may contain a hundred or more colors. incredible as this may seem, i surely shall produce extraordinary and amazing proofs of this in a few years if i remain alive and well. among the other methods that i have invented since this time the most excellent are some aqua tint processes, the spatter-work method, the intaglio crayon method, the conversion of the relief method into intaglio and vice versa, and the machine-written text for editions de luxe. among other things i also sought to remedy the difficulty which arises from the great dependence on the skill and industry of the printers. therefore i planned a printing-machine wherein the dampening and inking of the stones should be done not by hands but by the mechanism of the press itself, which, in addition, could be operated by water and thus work almost without human intervention. with this invention i believed that i had set my art on the pinnacle of completion; and when in i exhibited a model of this press (which also was adapted by me for utilizing the principles of stone or chemical printing on metal plates) before the royal academy of sciences in munich, i was so fortunate as to receive its golden medal in sign of universal approval. but the most important of all my inventions since my employment in the service of the royal government was, without question, the invention of a sufficient substitute for the natural limestone plates, which often incurred well-founded censure because of their unevenness, weight, and fragility, and have the further fault of demanding a great deal of storage room. before the royal academy of sciences, and also before the polytechnical society of bavaria, i demonstrated that chemical printing could be utilized with advantage on metal plates; but that still more useful was a composition of artificial stone which could be painted on metal, wood, stone, and even on plain paper or linen, and used in all processes exactly like the natural solenhofen stone. the countless experiments that i have made in the past four years with this substitute (or, as some call it, stone-paper), in order to prove its usefulness under all circumstances, have filled me with the absolute conviction that it replaces the natural stone completely without having the many faults that in the nature of the case are inseparable from the use of the latter. in many respects it is far superior. the fragility of the solenhofen stone requires the use of thick slabs for printing. if the impression is to be letter-sheet size, the stone must be at least one and one half inches thick if it is not to crack under pressure. if the stone is to be used for more than one job, the thickness must be two to three inches. to be sure, it can be ground and used over again some hundreds of times, a valuable consideration in view of the capital invested in a stone. but such a stone weighs from sixty to eighty pounds, sometimes more, and occupies considerable space. add the investment necessary for laying in any great number of stones, and it becomes a difficult matter financially to undertake work that requires that the stones be held for a number of years, to be used for new impressions according to the sales of the work. therefore it is necessary, generally, to print a maximum quantity at once, so that the stones may be ground and used for new work. if the stones are of thickness correctly proportioned to their area, the danger of cracking under the press is fairly remote; still, it does happen occasionally that a stone incurs damage through clumsiness of workmen. it can occur also through careless warming, or through sharp frost. in such cases even a strong stone will crack, especially if the workmen apply undue pressure. besides, the necessary stones are not to be found in all places, so that the cost of transportation prevents the establishment of lithographic shops in many regions. all these objections are overcome by the invention of stone-paper. the material advantages of it are as follows: ( ) the cost is much smaller than that of a stone of equal size. ( ) the weight is inconsiderable; a plate of letter-sheet size weighs scarcely four ounces. ( ) hundreds of such plates piled on each other require scarcely as much space as a single stone, and can, therefore, be stored or shipped easily. ( ) they resist the most powerful press better than do stone, copper, and even iron plates. their inner elasticity supports the most extreme pressure without alteration if only they are handled properly. ( ) the application of fatty inks, and also engraving with the steel graver is easier. indeed, because of the great toughness of the stone-paper, the engraving process approaches copper engraving more closely. ( ) inking and printing are easier, and demand no such powerful pressure, because the artificial stone receives and imparts color more readily, than does the natural stone. ( ) finally, they are so excellent for all methods of printing that it is possible to reproduce the original plates at will merely by transferring a fresh imprint to another plate. and this can be done with such accuracy that none of these plates can be distinguished from the original, so that the stone-paper surely must become of enormous importance for stereotyping in the book-printing trade. these advantages, and others to be described on suitable occasion, elevate this invention unquestionably to the highest importance in the art of chemical printing, despite all that may have been said recently by a certain writer whose lack of knowledge forbade correct judgment. the matter already has attained a degree of perfection that makes every further improvement unnecessary, nay, almost impossible. my many employments, mostly caused by the publication of this text-book, thus far have prevented the erection of my own manufactory for making these artificial stone-plates or stone-paper. i hope to do it soon, and then everybody can convince himself of the truth of my assertions, if he will use the material according to my instructions. this invention will facilitate the introduction of lithography in all places, because one can make the stones himself. however, lithography has expanded very considerably in its present form, and has been brought into use in the foremost cities of europe. for instance, it was introduced into france and england, first by herr andre, in latter days by the count von lasterie in paris and herr ackermann in london, being utilized for many kinds of printed work. in berlin, herr major von reiche has erected a great institution. in petersburg the art has existed for some years, and is being especially well cultivated now by freiherr von schilling. the art has entered even philadelphia, and, more extraordinarily, astrakan, and, so far as i can learn, has been welcomed heartily. i desire that soon it shall be spread over the whole world, bringing much good to humanity through many excellent productions, and that it may work toward man's greater culture, but never be misused for evil purposes. this grant the almighty! then may the hour be blessed in which i invented it! section ii text-book of printing from the stone contents introduction explanation of the principles and the peculiarities of stone-printing and of chemical-printing in general part i general objects and principles governing-- ( ) the stone. ( ) the ink, crayon, etching surface and color. ( ) the acids and other preparing materials. ( ) the necessary tools. ( ) the paper. ( ) the presses. part ii enumeration and description of the various processes and particular objects in manipulating them, such as:-- relief process-- to which belong-- ( ) pen and brush designs. ( ) crayon drawing, simple and with several plates. ( ) transfer and tracing. ( ) woodcut style. ( ) two kinds of touche drawing, one of which is similar to the scraped style, while the other is done in the usual way with the brush. ( ) spatter-work. ( ) touche drawing. ( ) color printing with several plates. ( ) gold and silver print. intaglio process-- ( ) carved or engraved. ( ) etched. ( ) drawn with prepared ink; with spattered aquatint. ( ) aquatint in copper engraved style, and with etching ground. ( ) aquatint through crayon ground. ( ) intaglio crayon through tracing. ( ) touche drawing with etching color and citric acid. mixed method: relief and intaglio united-- ( ) pen drawing combined with engraving. ( ) intaglio drawing with relief tint. ( ) intaglio and relief with several plates. ( ) transformation of relief into intaglio, and vice versa. appendix ( ) printing simultaneously with water colors and oil colors. ( ) simultaneous chemical and mechanical printing. ( ) application of the stone for cotton-printing through wiping--a unique printing method. ( ) color print through wiping. ( ) oil painting print through transfers. ( ) stone-paper. ( ) applying the chemical printing process to metal plates, etc. introduction printing from stone is a branch of a new process, different in fundamental principle from all others, namely, the chemical process. heretofore there have been two leading printing processes for manifolding writings and drawings, one working with characters in relief, the other with sunken characters. of the first kind is the ordinary book-printing, in which the characters are made of metal or wood in such form that only those lines and points are elevated that are to take color, everything else being depressed. the wooden forms for cotton-printing are made thus also. of the second kind are all copper and zinc plates, and the cotton-print process with copper plates or cylinders. in this method the lines and points to be printed are depressed, being either engraved, etched, or stamped. as is well known, the first method of printing is as follows: the letters, which are all at the same elevation and, therefore, furnish a plane surface, are inked with a leather ball, stuffed with horsehair. as the ball is so firm and elastic that it can touch only the elevated parts, these alone can take the color, which adheres because of its sticky nature. the same is true of the carved wood used in cotton-printing, with only the difference that, instead of rubbing with a leather ball, the wooden plate itself is laid on a cushion covered with the color, and then, being placed face down on the cloth, is hammered gently to produce the imprint. in copper and zinc printing the method is reversed. in order to force the color into the depressed parts, which alone are to be printed, the entire plate is coated with color, and then the elevated surface is cleansed again carefully. the cleaning rag cannot reach the depressed grooves, so that more or less color adheres to these according to their various depths. under the powerful press, which forces the paper into all the engraved parts, this color transfers itself and thus gives the desired impression. it is evident that both methods rest on purely mechanical principles: book-printing being based on the fact that the color adheres only on those places that it can reach, and copper-plate printing depending on the fact that the color remains only in those places from which it cannot be removed by cleansing. it is different with the chemical print. this does not depend on either elevation or depression of the design. it depends on the fact that the design is coated with a preparation of such nature that afterward the printing color, which is made from a related substance, adheres because of its chemical similarity; and furthermore, because all parts of the plate that are to remain white, have been so treated that they repel the color. these two purely chemical objects are attained fully with the new process. daily experience proves that all fatty bodies, such as oil, butter, tallow, fish oils, etc., and all such as easily dissolve in oil, like wax, resin, etc., refuse to unite with any watery substance without the aid of some third body that will bring about such union. the chief solvent for this purpose is alkali, which, under proper manipulation, always produces a sort of soap that then is soluble in water. sometimes, to be sure, an apparent union can be produced by violent shaking or mixing, without the use of the alkali, but at the first opportunity the fatty substances separate themselves again from the watery ones. it is on this fact that the entire method of the new process is based. it is termed chemical printing with perfect propriety, as the reason why a fatty color, say, linseed oil varnish, will adhere only on the designed parts of the plate and is repelled by the rest of the surface, is due to the chemical properties of the materials. it might be maintained that in the other forms of printing, color adheres from the same reason. this is true, to be sure; for it is a general law that water and oil will adhere to all bodies that are dry. but it is not the case with these fluids mutually; and in this fact lies the unique difference between the older and the new processes. a dry plate would take color over its entire surface. if, however, it is dampened, it will take oil color only on those places that are in a condition opposite to dampness. therefore, the repelling of the color from those parts that are to remain white is the novelty. it must not be imagined, however, that to print chemically it suffices to dampen certain parts of the plate and to coat others with fatty substance. with most of the materials available for printing, mere water does not suffice to produce a sufficiently repelling obstacle between the plate and the color. with flinty and clayey bodies,--for example, glass, porcelain, slate, etc.,--one can manage with mere water; but then the slight adherence of the fatty color to the plate produces an opposite difficulty, by preventing any large number of impressions. still, by using very firm and readily drying fatty substances, such as linseed oil varnish dried with litharge of silver it is possible, in case of need, to succeed fairly well. but with such bodies as attract the color powerfully, such as all metals, wood, limestone, artificial stone-paper, etc., it is necessary so to treat all the parts of the plate that are to remain white that they attain an especial resistance to color, and thus change their natures, so to speak. that this is possible under certain circumstances and with the proper means, with all bodies belonging to this class, i have proved by many experiments, and i shall describe the methods in this book. thus the new process is not to be used only on limestone, but is applicable to metal, etc.; and stone-printing or lithography is to be considered only as a branch of general chemical printing. however, as this book is to teach mainly lithography, i will occupy myself chiefly with it. among the bodies available for chemical printing, limestone maintains an eminent place. not only has it an especial property of uniting with fats,--sucking them in and holding them,--but it has, also, the same propensity for taking all fluids that repel fats. indeed, its surface unites so thoroughly with many of the latter that it forms a chemical union with them, becoming practically impenetrable for oil colors and remaining constant thereafter in repelling them so that they cannot adhere perfectly. therefore when a plate thus prepared is dry and covered entirely with oil color, it still remains an easy matter to wash it completely, using merely water for the purpose. this good property, combined with the low cost and the ease of obtaining the stone in bavaria; then the advantage that it is easily polished and prepared; the further advantage that a stone of medium thickness can be ground as often as a hundred times and utilized for new work--all these properties combined made me willing to overlook a few faults, such as their weight, great volume, frequent unevenness of quality, and lastly the occasional danger of cracking. thus i came to use these stones as the principal means for making my countless experiments, whose happy result has been to elevate stone-printing to an art by itself. having stated the process and the character of this form of printing, it remains only to say a few words about its value. with every new invention there arises the question if it is useful, and if so, in how far, for science, arts, and industry. therefore all who have no sufficient knowledge of lithography, will ask justly: what is its value? what advantages does it give that are not to be found in any other forms of printing? to answer this, let me say the following merely in advance till later descriptions of the various processes will convince in themselves. it is the nature of earthly being and of human imperfection that rarely is anything found that combines in itself everything to be wished for and required. so it may be said of stone-printing that it makes neither book-printing nor copper-plate printing entirely superfluous. it is possible that in the future, by perfecting the presses, lithography may equal book-printing in point of speed, as it does not now; but the convenience of the latter, enabling the printer, by merely setting cast characters side by side, to do with speed, accuracy, and symmetry what the writer can hardly do with all his skill and industry, gives book-printing its own eminent value. when, however, we come to many things produced hitherto by book-printing, such as statistical tables, letters, circulars, letters of exchange, bills of lading, visiting-cards and addresses, and other similar work, we find that these can be produced more conveniently, more readily, more cheaply, and faster and handsomer with lithography. as to copper-printing: in the future, as lithography extends, there probably will remain an advantage with the copper in the case of only two styles, the engraving done with the engraving needle, and the etching, the latter being worked up with the graver and the cold needle. in this respect, however, the skill of the artist must be taken into account, for a good man can produce better work on stone, even in those two styles, than a less skillful man can produce on copper. we can declare the same of the stipple style in copper, when done in the style of herr bartolozzi, or even like the very foremost of the copper engravers in this style, herr john of vienna. all other methods (and even these three if done with less care or skill on copper) must yield place to a good design on stone; especially if one takes into account the ease of execution, the lesser need for skill, the greater speed of printing, and the almost countless impressions that are possible. for instance, printing music from the stone has a decided advantage over zinc plates, both because of smaller cost and greater beauty. it is easier to produce all kinds of script on stone, both with fatty inks and with the engraving needle. therefore lithography serves excellently for charts and similar work, which can be done at least three times faster on stone than on copper. if copper-printing is to reach a high degree of perfection, the printing itself must be done by very excellent workmen. indeed, some persons allege that the very best german copper-plate printers do not yet equal the parisians. printing from stone is not so difficult, and only a few particular methods demand especial care or unusual knowledge. because of the greater ease of inking, the speed of stone-printing may be assumed to be at least five times as great, often ten times, and especially so when large plates are to be printed. besides, it is much easier to make corrections on stone than on copper and zinc. from all this it appears that lithography makes it much easier to write and design and then to print swiftly and produce any desired number of impressions, of all those works that heretofore could be produced only on copper or zinc, providing they do not demand the very greatest degree of delicacy, strength, and sharpness obtainable with copper; in a word, so long as it is not vital to attain the utmost possible artistic beauty. further, most of these works done on stone, by only average artists and printers, usually are more beautiful than if they had been done by the same men in copper or zinc. this property alone gives lithography a preëminent value, the more so as no great expense is incurred in establishing a plant. but in addition to this, there are several art methods peculiar to it, which cannot be imitated by book-printing or copper-print, and which make it possible for almost every writer or artist to manifold his works without any especial skill. i will mention now only the crayon process, which enables every artist or painter to make several thousand impressions of his original drawings; also the transfer method, by means of which all that is written or drawn with fatty ink on ordinary paper can be transferred to the stone, giving countless faithful impressions. this latter process is particularly useful for government bureaus, and is being used already with great profit. all this i believe that i can claim for lithography with fullest confidence, and i hope that everybody who becomes sufficiently conversant with it will share my belief. thus, besides the properties of the art, we have stated its uses, and i proceed to the real instructions, through which i hope to make good artists and printers on stone. part i general provisions chapter i of the stones i the stone that has been used exclusively hitherto in munich for printing is a stratified limestone, found in the territory from dietfurt to pappenheim, and along the danube down to kellheim; hence the name kellheimer plates, presumably because in past times the stone was quarried there first, or else found in its best quality. now the kellheimer quarry is exhausted, and the trade in the stones has transferred itself to solenhofen, a village in the judicial district of mannheim, three hours distant from neuberg-on-the-danube. all the inhabitants of solenhofen are quarrymen, and the entire surrounding country seems to have a surplus of the stone, so that even with the greatest demand no scarcity is to be feared for centuries. when the upper layer of earth is removed to the depth of six to ten feet in solenhofen, the stones are found in strata lying horizontally on each other. first come strata of brittle stone, which often are composed of hundreds of plates as thin as paper. with proper care, each plate can be loosened and lifted whole. these layers are useless, being too brittle, and yet being too firm and not white enough to permit their possible use as chalk. the solenhofen stone consists chemically mostly of lime earth and carbonate. it is almost wholly soluble in nitric and other acids, the carbonate being liberated in gaseous form and disappearing. since the various kinds of marble have almost the same component parts, one might suppose that marble should be available for lithography. but the many dark, uneven colors of marble and chiefly the many cracks and veins make considerable difficulty. however, i have found many evenly colored greenish, gray, bluish, and brownish bavarian and tyrolean marbles very useful for some methods, especially because of their superior hardness. still, the solenhofen stone will retain the advantage because of its light color and its greater cheapness. the white parian or carrara marble is still lighter in color, to be sure, and really is rather useful for pen and crayon work. but though in part it is harder, on the whole it is much more porous and not so finely grained as the solenhofen stone, and therefore not at all available for the intaglio method. since lithography began to arouse general interest, there have been attempts to find a stone similar to the solenhofen, and there has been some fair success in france, italy, england, and lately in the kingdom of prussia. with the enormous masses of limestone which cover the surface of the earth, it is not unlikely that this stone will be found in many places, either in layers of plates one, two, or more inches thick, or in great blocks which can be cut into plates. in the solenhofen stones one layer is not as good as another, and even in the same layer there may be a decided difference. therefore, if one would produce perfectly beautiful work, it is necessary to obtain selected and perfect stones. this should be stipulated beforehand with the quarrymen, who now know pretty well how the best stones should be constituted. a good stone must have the following properties:-- ( ) _the proper thickness._ thickness must be proportionate to the size. smaller plates will resist the pressure of printing even if they are not so thick as the larger ones must be. but it is best to buy no stone less than one and one half or more than three and one half inches thick, because the thinner ones will not bear frequent grinding and the thicker ones are too heavy and inconvenient, besides taking up too much room. the best thickness of a stone is two to two and one half inches. ( ) _good mass._ there are soft and hard stones. sometimes the same stone is hard above and soft underneath, or the reverse. often, also, a stone may consist of several thin and unequal layers. in the latter case, if the union is good and the layers are not easily separated, it will make no difference, so long as the stone is good in other respects. on the whole, however, it may be assumed that the harder stones are the best for all methods, so long as their mass is entirely uniform and they are not marred, as is the case with many, with white dots and patches. then, to be sure, they are not worth much for any process, and at best can be used only for pen designs or for such of the intaglio processes where the lines need no particular sharpness. such stones, generally gray, very hard, with softer, somewhat lighter patches or specks, are very hard to grind evenly because the softer parts are most powerfully attacked by the grinding material and become depressed. this produces the following defects:-- (_a_) in pen work, the pen will catch often, whenever it comes to such a place. this, however, is not so important: but (_b_) in the crayon method there will be defects and lights in the shadings on the softer places, which are very hard to correct. (_c_) in the etched or engraved methods, the needle will sink in much deeper when it passes over such softer spots, making a deeper and broader line which injures the clearness of the drawing. in etching, also, the softer places are more affected by the acid; and it is better, therefore, to use a soft stone whose entire surface is uniform, than to have a stone that is hard but uneven. a very soft stone cracks easily in the press, unless it consists of several layers, the lower of which are hard. but it is easier to engrave, and as a rule gives blacker impressions, because it sucks more color in, and holds it because of its greater porosity. printing, however, is somewhat more difficult, because these stones take dirt readily; nor is it possible to get so many impressions. they are not useful for crayon work because the finest shadings are too easily etched away; and pen work is difficult on them, because the steel pen easily cuts into the stone, fills its point with fine dust, and thus gives no ink flow. this softest stone in solenhofen generally looks yellow, or is marbled with red and white or has many yellow veins. even those stones whose uniformity, thickness, and hardness make them best for all methods, often have defects, such as so-called glass spots or tiny, sometimes invisible holes, broad veins and cracks. all these must be avoided when selecting stone. very small deep veins, which often are fine as hairs, yellowish and grayish spots, impressions of fossil plants and fishes, etc., are not harmful. it is rare to find a stone as large as a sheet of note-paper that is entirely free from these little defects. ( ) the form of the stones also is to be considered, and must be selected according to need. to be sure, a small design can be drawn on a large stone; but apart from the inconvenience, the construction of the press demands that the stone be not much larger than the drawing. however, at the end where the impression begins and stops, there must be at least an inch margin to give sufficient room for the roller to take hold, as will be explained more particularly later. when one has to print small things like visiting-cards, etc., it will not be profitable to use large stones, especially if they are to be saved for future use. small stones of the size of an octavo sheet are better. therefore it will be wise to have stones cut to various sizes in the beginning. it would be well also that one of the printers, or the polisher, strive to attain skill in cutting stones to size. sometimes polishing discloses defects in a stone, making it useless for a design of any size. but it is possible to cut it up into many small ones that are perfect. sometimes a stone cracks under the press or breaks through accident. skill in cutting will enable one to make small and good stones out of the pieces. it is essential for good work in the press that the stones be cut very true. the stones that are used for flooring in churches, etc., usually are cut so that the upper face is larger than the lower. this is done to make them set better in the mortar and to enable the stone-cutters to fit them closely together on the top. but this must not be done with stones for printing, because such stones could not be tightened properly in the press and would lift during the printing. printing-stones must be cut absolutely true vertically. indeed, in work where several plates are to be used to make one complete impression, and where steel guide-points in the frame are used instead of laying the paper on the plate, it is beneficial to cut the stones conically, so that the base is one fourth inch greater than the top. the plate can be tightened better and is less likely to be moved from its place during the impressions. despite their hardness the stones are brittle, and a single light but sudden blow with any hard body, such as a steel tool, may cause a crack in the thickest stone. it is necessary to exercise great care to avoid all shocks. this property of the stone is used in solenhofen to cut the stones according to desire. a small hammer of hard steel, weighing scarcely two ounces, is used. its end is somewhat like a stone-chisel, but not nearly so sharp. with this hammer, which is set on a thin handle two or three feet long, the workman strikes light but very swift blows along the line of desired cleavage, each tap being about an inch from the preceding one. the stone is so laid that its greater part is free, resting on nothing. this light operation is sufficient to cleave the largest stones. the cleavage is not always uniform and true. therefore the stone usually is finished with a sharp stone-chisel. it is possible also to divide a stone as desired by supporting it at both ends so that there is nothing under the part to be split, and then cutting along the line with a chisel of hardened steel, not too sharp, which is tapped lightly with a light hammer. the varying sound tells at once when the stone cracks, and then a few light taps with the hammer on the other side suffice to separate it. before one attains the necessary skill, however, he will smash many a stone. therefore it is not advisable to try this on a stone that has a design on it, for a single incorrect or over-heavy blow often will split the stone in the wrong direction. blows that are too light, on the other hand, often make it almost impossible in the end to cause a cleavage along the desired lines. ii polishing the stone plates that come from solenhofen, even if polished according to stipulations, rarely are available for printing, but must be specially polished by one who understands the work thoroughly. the first requisite for this is a straightedge of iron or brass, as true as possible. this ruler must be laid on the stone in various directions, and the lithographer must note all parts where there is space between the straightedge and the stone. the greater the space, the greater the unevenness of the stone; and those that show especial unevenness should be set aside from those that have little. when this has been done, the very uneven stones must be ground with a coarse sandstone and plenty of water applied to the elevated places till the straightedge can be applied in all directions without showing any material interstices. then these ground stones may be placed with the others that were fairly even in the beginning. now we take one of these stones, and lay it on a strong, firm table, the best being one to be described later. finely grained sand is sprinkled over its surface. in the absence of sand, a substitute can be made by powdering a common sandstone of the kind used for coarse grindstones. a spoonful of water is poured over this. a little soap may be mixed with the sand. it facilitates the grinding and makes the sand take hold of the stone better. now another stone is laid on the first one, and is moved back and forth continually in all directions. the sand and water must be renewed often. thus both stones, the upper and lower, will be ground simultaneously, and very evenly and true, if the work is done right. one must take care never to draw the upper stone far beyond the lower one, because that would throw the centre of gravity of the upper plate too near its ends, as a result of which the upper plate would become concave and the lower plate convex. to avoid this defect, the upper plate should be moved around only in small circles. it is good also to change the plates around frequently, so that the upper shall be the lower. another good plan is not to use two stones of equal size, but to take for the upper stone one only half as large as the lower. it is necessary also that the straightedge be applied frequently. the stone must always be cleansed thoroughly before this test. once one has the proper experience, it is possible to tell by mere touch if the plates have been sufficiently ground. so long as they still have uneven spots, a certain resistance is noticeable, so strongly sometimes that it is impossible to move the upper plate further without lifting it and sprinkling new sand. sometimes this friction is so great that manual strength does not suffice to separate the stones, especially if they happen to dry. if tools are used to separate them, it happens often that pieces are torn from the stones, because they adhere so mightily. in this case a very simple and convenient remedy is the best. an ordinary table-knife is inserted gently and then tapped very lightly, when the stones will separate at once. whenever sand is applied, water must be applied also, but not too much, as in that case it would only wash away the sand. here, too, practice must teach the exact proportions. from the stone-cutter's work, as well as from the primary grinding with sandstone, the plates will have visible furrows and scratches made by the coarser grains of sand. under the polishing all these disappear bit by bit, and there appears a fine grain, consisting entirely of fine dots; and this is the finer in proportion as the sand is crushed by the process of polishing and also according as less fresh sand has been used. when the marks of the sand have vanished completely, it is fairly certain that the stones are polished sufficiently. to make sure, the straightedge can be applied again. it must not be imagined, however, that it is necessary or possible to polish a plate so perfectly that there will be absolutely no spaces between any part of its surface and the straightedge. a perfect and mathematically level plane surface is hardly likely ever to be produced. if the stone is almost level, and the unevennesses do not exceed the thickness of letter-paper, it is quite sufficient. although this sort of polishing, with two plates at once, is not used in all lithographies, some preferring to polish with small pieces of sandstone, i give it here as the best, because it demands little skill and is quicker, so that one can grind off four stones in the time required for one under other methods. in this matter of smoothness of the stone it is impossible to be too careful. the beauty of the imprint depends upon it. errors in the polishing cause great trouble afterward. therefore the manager of a lithography must pay close attention to this work. in the lithographic institute in berlin the rule has been adopted that no engraver shall accept a plate that he has not found thoroughly good, under penalty of reimbursing the printers for all extra trouble and work. this first polishing, however, is only the general preparation of the stone. afterward they must be polished and prepared especially for each particular method, as will be explained in the proper place. iii sorting and storing when the plates have been polished, they are cleansed with water and sorted for their various uses. now it is easier to see just what quality the stones have, their defects, and consequently, what work they are best for. those not uniform are best for coarse pen work. those of uneven coloring, but hard and thick mass, can be used for the finer pen drawings, for etching and engraving, or for transfer work. for crayon work the clearest and most evenly colored stones of extreme hardness are to be selected. they can be stored anywhere that is not too damp and not too much exposed to winter cold. dry cold does not hurt them; but if they are wet through and through and then freeze, they will crack. in constant dampness, too, saltpetre and other salts enter them and they crumble. in clean water they do not undergo any changes. i will describe the storage of etched and designed stones later. if the stones are to be used after being stored in any damp place, they should be kept for several days in a temperate and dry place till they have dried thoroughly, as otherwise they are not easy to work in any style. this is not necessary if their place of storage has been perfectly dry. chapter ii of ink, crayon, etching, and color i chemical ink the first and most necessary material in a stone printery is the so-called chemical ink, which would better be named fatty or alkaline ink, since it is a mixture of fatty and resinous materials with alkali. it is used partly to write or draw directly on the stone, partly to cover the stone as with an etching surface, and partly to transfer to the stone from paper. the purpose of this ink is, first, to cause a mass of oily, fatty substances to soak into the pores of the stone and also make certain portions of its surface fatty; and secondly, to resist acids according to requirement in such degree that the stone shall remain fat where needed, that thus the design, applied with this ink, shall be left untouched by acid. i have remarked before that countless different mixtures can be made, most of which fulfill the purpose. but there enters the consideration that it must be an ink easy to use, that handsome work may be done by the artists with perfect ease. various mixtures answer this purpose very well, and i have found sometimes that men could work better with mixtures made by themselves than they could with those that i used for my own work. perhaps this was a matter of imagination, or the real reason lay in the pen-cutting, it being well known that one man can use a pen that is absolutely worthless for another. i myself have tested the values of some mixtures so thoroughly that i can declare almost positively that it will not be easy to find better ones for any purposes. i will describe these fully. first of all, stone-ink is divided into two great classes. one is thicker, being used for drawing on stone. the other is more fluid, being used for transfers. the following mixtures of the first kind are the best:-- ( ) white wax parts soap parts lampblack part this ink does not really serve for writing or drawing on the stone, but is used mostly for coating those places that are to be protected from the etching fluid. if this ink is needed in a thickened form, the wax should be heated in an iron pan till it burns and the combustion should continue till one half of it is consumed. the longer it burns, the harder will be the remnant. ( ) white wax parts tallow (ox fats) parts soap parts lampblack part ( ) wax parts shellac parts soap parts lampblack part ( ) tallow parts shellac parts soap parts lampblack part ( ) wax parts shellac parts mastic parts soap parts lampblack part ( ) wax parts tallow parts shellac parts soap parts lampblack part ( ) wax and gum quajak parts tallow parts soap parts lampbblack part the wax and gum are melted in equal proportions, the undissolved portion is discarded and of the mixture twelve parts is used as above. ( ) wax parts shellac parts tallow parts mastic parts venetian turpentine part soap parts lampblack part there is no important difference between the inks in the seven last formulas. those that contain shellac remain fluid a little longer but are harder to prepare. it is not necessary to be painfully minute about the proportions of the various materials, providing the proportions of soap and lampblack be correct. the soap is about one fifth and the lampblack about one twentieth part of the whole. if too much soap is used, the ink will dissolve more readily, but the solution will become slimy more quickly. too much lampblack would make the ink run. making the chemical ink in making any of the inks mentioned, first divide the required quantity of soap into two equal parts. put one part into an iron pan with the other substances, and heat till the mass begins to burn. let it burn till almost one half is consumed. then cover the pan with an iron lid, or place it very carefully into a basin of water to extinguish and cool the mixture. one part of the soap is mixed in at once, that the combustion may make it mix well with the other substances. but it loses some of its strength and sates itself with carbonic acid, so that it is not quite so powerful as before to attack the fats. therefore a second part is added after the combustion. then the complete mixture is heated again, but only to a degree sufficient to melt the soap. now take up a bit of the mass with a clean knife and see if it is easily soluble in river or rain water. if the soap was good (something not always the case), the quantity named in the formulas always suffices. if it does not contain enough alkali, little pieces of soap must be added till the mass is soluble. then the lampblack is added while the mass is being stirred without cessation. the lampblack must be of the finest sort, and should be roasted and burned in a closed vessel until it ceases to give off any yellow smoke. when everything has been stirred till the mass is nearly cold, it is kneaded into any desired shape, sticks being the best, and so saved for use. the following remarks are to be noted especially:-- ( ) the soap is to be the ordinary soap made from ox fat and lye. in the formulas its weight is calculated in fresh form, which, of course, includes considerable water. if the soap is very dry, less must be used. venetian or vegetable oil soap is not so good because the ink easily becomes slimy afterward when dissolved in water. it does not resist acids so well, either. if, however, the other kind is not to be had, or to be had only in poor quality, the venetian soap will do. it will be necessary merely to make frequent fresh solutions in water of the ink. ( ) lampblack is not the only substance available for giving color to the ink. vermilion, red chalk, indigo, blue lake of logwood, and several other colors can be used, so long as they do not consist of acids or other salts, and thus have properties that could alter the nature of the soap. the finer kinds of ordinary lampblack can be used without burning, but then a part of the soap always is rendered inactive, because the lampblack usually contains a considerable quantity of inflammable wood acid which unites with the alkali, neutralizes it, and thus destroys its effectiveness against fats. therefore, if it is not roasted beforehand, it may be necessary to mix more soap with the ink after it is made, and this does not completely remedy the trouble. lampblack can be purified by rubbing down with strong lye and then boiling in sufficient water till no trace of alkali remains, if roasting and burning be undesirable for any reason. better even than this purified lampblack is one that one makes for himself from ox or other animal fat, from wax, or better still, from a mixture of ox fat and resin. the fat is melted and poured into an earthen lamp similar to those used for city lighting, with a cotton wick. the lamp is lit and placed under a plate of iron or brass, so that the smoke must settle on it. the plate must be close to the flame. the soot is scraped off from time to time and dropped into a glass, which is kept covered. this process continues, the lamp being refilled till one has the desired quantity. this soot is very fine and bland, and so good that one can do more with an ounce of it than with three ounces of the ordinary kind. the ink made from it is extraordinarily fine and good. it is to be noted in conclusion that the more soot is used, the blacker will be the ink, but the coarser will be the work, because the ink will have the tendency to spread. the less soot is used, the finer will be the work; but it is not easy then to see what one is doing or to judge if the design is strong enough. the quantities given in the formulas appear to me to be the best, especially if the self-manufactured soot is used. ( ) to dissolve the ink, rain water or pure soft river water is best. the rain water must not be very old or stale, otherwise the solution will get slimy. ( ) the severe combustion is not vital for making the ink, but helps very much in making it easy to use. ( ) when shellac is part of the mixture, it is vital to burn the mass well, as only thus will shellac dissolve properly. shellac, which is made in china and east india from an insect belonging to the bee family, will melt under moderate heat, but will not dissolve in any animal fat or oil unless it has previously lost its inherent acid, which occurs only under combustion. if shellac is melted with oil or fat, it covers the bottom of the vessel in the beginning. with heat increased till it causes combustion, it begins to swell, rises to the surface, and at last covers the surface in the form of a spongy mass. if the heat still increases, it begins to dissolve into foam. then it is time to remove the mass from the fire and to cover it with a tight lid, that the flame may be extinguished. if shellac has been once melted and has hardened, it dissolves only slowly even under severe combustion. it is better, therefore, to bring the other substances to combustion first, and then to mix the shellac in small portions, which will dissolve much more readily because they will be attacked by the great heat in the moment of melting and will not have time to swell first and get hard. as soon as the mass has cooled a little, the second part of soap is added, and the whole heated, without burning, merely enough to melt the soap. ( ) none of these mixtures can be kept well any length of time in fluid form, that is, dissolved in water, because it becomes slimy after a very few days, sometimes sooner. it can be liquefied again by mixing with water, but not without affecting its durability. therefore the ink must be stored dry, in which form it lasts for years without change. when required, a small quantity, about the size of two peas, is rubbed down in a very clean small earthen or porcelain vessel, such as a saucer. those mixtures that contain tallow rub the easiest. the others, containing harder substances, require more pressure. the ink should be spread evenly over the bottom of the vessel. then a coffee-spoonful of rain or other soft water is poured in, and the mixture is rubbed with the finger till the solution is perfect. then it is put into a small, very clean pot of glass or porcelain and is ready for use. ( ) a great deal depends on the proper quantity of water. a good ink must be completely dissolved, with no solid particles left. it should be about as fluid as a good, fat milk or vegetable oil. if it is too thick, it makes the work difficult. if it is too thin, it will not withstand the etching fluid. a few experiments will teach the proper proportions. even a good ink will make poor lines if it is laid on too thinly and not firmly enough. this, however, is due to the artist's lack of skill or to defective pens, of which i will treat hereafter. with this quantity of ink it is possible to work for a whole day. thus each day fresh ink can be mixed; and it is to be noted that the vessels must be cleansed scrupulously that no trace of the previous day's ink be left in them. the ink will dry during the work, and as soon as this begins to interfere with its use, one or two drops of water will thin it again sufficiently. this is about all that need be said about the chemical fatty or alkaline stone-ink in general. particular remarks will be found in the description of its use for particular methods. ii hard borax ink besides the inks described, it is well to make the following and keep it in stock for uses whose great value will be explained later. shellac parts borax part water parts borax and shellac must be put into a clean pot filled two thirds with water and boiled for an hour. as the water boils away it must be replaced. when the shellac has been mostly dissolved, the mass is removed from the fire, cooled, and filtered through a clean cloth to separate the undissolved portions of the shellac. this solution can be kept for years in a tightly closed glass. to color it, a portion is to be cooked in a copper or iron ladle till it is thick as honey. fine lampblack or vermilion is stirred in till the mass is thoroughly united. then water is added, and the composition boiled again till it is a perfect solution. this black or red ink is first-class and can be kept well in tightly closed glass. iii fluid ink herr andre, in offenbach, uses an ink which has the useful property of remaining good for years in fluid form. i do not find it so good for the very finest work as those i have described, but for music and script it is excellent. it consists of:-- parts shellac parts mastic part pure ox-fat soap part purified crystallized soda part lampblack this is mixed with water and boiled in a clean vessel, being constantly stirred till it is dissolved. then the boiling is continued till the water has disappeared almost entirely. fresh water is added and the boiling continued till everything has dissolved anew. then the mixture is filtered through a cloth and kept in a vessel where it is secure against dust. if it is seen on cooling that it is too thick it can be thinned easily with water. also, when it dries during use it can be liquefied by adding water, unless dust has entered it. iv transfer ink all the above-named inks are intended for use directly on stone. if it is desired to write on paper and transfer this writing to the stone, those inks mostly prove too hard, unless one would use warmed stones, as described later. this, however, makes added work: therefore, i give here the recipe for an ink excellent for cold transfers. shellac parts wax part tallow parts mastic parts soap parts lampblack part the mode of preparation is exactly like that of the rest. the mass can be kept only in dried form, not mixed with water. the evidence that this ink is good for transfer work is that, after it has stood for some days, it still manifests stickiness when touched with the finger. if the ink does not transfer well to the stone under moderate pressure, it is too hard, and can be improved by mixing in a little butter or vegetable oil, but it is necessary to dissolve the whole mass again over the fire. if the design squashes under pressure, the ink is too soft. it is necessary to consider the temperature of the place where it is kept, and even the time of year, in order to produce the proper consistency of ink for the best transfer work. v hard etching ground certain methods of stone-printing demand, besides the ink, a fatty, acid-resisting mass to coat the plates. it is either the same as the material used by copper-plate etchers, or, at least, is very similar to it. etching ground for stone is as follows:-- wax parts mastic parts asphalt parts resin parts tallow part this is melted in an iron pan over a fire hot enough to melt the asphalt perfectly. combustion is allowed to ensue till a third of the mixture has been consumed. when thoroughly cooled, it may be shaped in any desired form and saved for use. a good surface is made also by common wax, boiled and burned till almost five parts of it have been consumed. vi soft etching ground for some processes there is needed an etching ground which has the property of not coating the entire surface, permitting the etching fluid to penetrate at many spots uniformly, or, if it resists the etching fluid, still so easily affected by manipulation that it will admit the acid according to such manipulation. there are two ways to make it. ( ) thick linseed oil varnish part tallow parts ( ) wax part tallow parts linseed oil varnish parts the application will be described in the instructions about aquatints, etc. vii acid proof ink so i name a color which has the property of resisting acid when the stone is inked with it. it is useful in many cases, and even necessary. it is well, therefore, to make a supply of it. parts thick linseed oil varnish parts tallow part venetian turpentine part wax all must be well melted, mixed with four parts lampblack, well rubbed down and kept in a closed tin vessel. viii crayon chemical or fatty crayon is a composition intended to be used on the stone plate in dry form like spanish or parisian chalk. the inks described previously have the property of soaking into the stone and making it greasy where applied. the same happens if they are applied dry, the degree of their penetration and adherence merely being less. the mixtures that may be used to make crayons are countless. wax and soaps, however, are better than resinous materials. therefore it is likely that the compositions here named will be pretty nearly the best. ( ) wax parts soap parts lampblack parts, roasted, or better still, made as explained before. the wax and soap are melted together. the lampblack is added then. all is rubbed down fine on a hot plate, and then placed on the fire again till it is fluid once more. then it is poured on a stone plate coated with a little oil, so that it forms a cake of about one eighth inch thickness. when this has cooled a little, it is cut into thin pieces and put away till needed. ( ) wax parts soap parts lampblack parts burn the wax till one half is consumed, then melt the soap with it, and treat the mixture as before. ( ) wax parts spermaceti parts soap parts lampblack parts the first three materials are melted together, the lampblack is added, and then the whole is treated as before. ( ) wax parts spermaceti parts soap parts lampblack parts the wax is to be half burned away, then the spermaceti and soap are to be melted into it, and the whole treated as the other formulas. ( ) shellac parts wax parts soap parts lampblack parts the shellac is to be completely dissolved with the wax by means of combustion after which the rest of the treatment is the same as before. ( ) shellac parts wax parts tallow parts soap parts lampblack parts the same treatment, except that the tallow is to be mixed in after the shellac has dissolved. this crayon is a little softer than the others. the same is true of the following two. ( ) wax parts tallow parts soap parts lampblack parts wax, tallow, and soap are melted together and burned till one third of the mass has been consumed. then the lampblack is added and the rest of the process is as before. ( ) wax parts tallow parts mennig parts lampblack parts wax, mennig, and lampblack are heated and constantly stirred till the mennig dissolves in froth and changes from red to brown. then the lampblack is rubbed in thoroughly, the whole warmed again properly and shaped into sticks. these are the best compositions, thoroughly tested by me, and it is very good to make a stock of all or most of them. in the case of the recipes for chemical ink, the differences are not great, and it is largely a matter of taste as to which kind one may use. but in the case of the crayons, each of them produces a different grain which creates a particular effect; so that by using various kinds of crayon one will gain greater perfection of work, or, at least, find execution easier than with only one crayon. also, they are in proportion to the greater or lesser roughness of the stones; and the darker shadings are easier to produce with soft crayons than with hard ones, while the hard ones are best for fine shading and outlines. the lampblack used for crayons must be burned out first, else it will develop blisters, which is the case also if the composition is poured on the plates too hot. crayon that contains much shellac is likely to soften in damp air; therefore it should be kept in tightly closed vessels. ix concerning color for printing the manufacture of printing-ink or color is very difficult and dangerous on a large scale. i counsel all to take lessons from a book printer when he makes it. the varnish must be prepared in the open, far from buildings, because of its combustibility. the best utensils and skilled workmen are required, because otherwise terrible accidents may occur, and even life be lost through explosion of the copper receptacle. whoever does not require as much as one or more hundredweight of varnish in a year, would better buy it from printers or make only a small quantity, one or two pounds, and in an open vessel. for this purpose i will describe the process. one, or at most two pounds of good old but not rancid linseed oil are poured into a clean iron pan which has a long, strong handle and is so large that the oil takes up only one half or, better, one third of the space. this is heated over a good fire till it burns, which is facilitated by applying flame to it. oil that is too new has much water and other impurities that make it froth and run over. in that case the oil must be poured into the pan only in small quantities, when one must take great care to avoid spattering. as soon as the oil burns, the pan is removed from the fire and placed in a safe spot. if it is hot enough, it will continue to burn. it must now be stirred from time to time with an iron rod. usually the flame increases under this stirring, but sinks again immediately at its cessation. so long as it does this, there is no danger that the flame cannot be easily extinguished if need be. but when it begins to continue burning with a great flame after the stirring stops, and at the same time to bubble and froth, it is high time to cover the pan with a close lid and leave it covered till the oil no longer takes fire when exposed again to the air. then a dry knife is introduced and as much oil removed as will adhere to its point. if it does not permit itself to be pulled into long threads when cool, but is too thin, it must be heated again until it gets the required consistency. a good varnish dries very readily of itself, and it is not only unnecessary but inadvisable to mix a drier with it, as varnish so treated is too likely to off-set on the stone. several strengths of printing-varnish are needed for the various methods of lithography. therefore a stock of thin, medium, and thick varnish is needed. in making the thin, the oil has been reduced to about two thirds through combustion. it is somewhat like fluid honey and does not pull into threads. only a little more than half the oil is left in the case of medium varnish. it is thick as old honey and can be pulled into threads a foot long. in the thick varnish the mass is not much less, but it can be pulled into threads of a yard in length; and further boiling makes it thick and tough like gum elastic. in the latter case it can be used with advantage when rubbed down with oil and properly thinned. but as soon as it has obtained the last-mentioned degree of thickness and toughness, it must be cooled quickly, for then it is not far from hardening completely and becoming worthless. in the beginning it requires a long while for the oil to reach the first degree of thickness, an hour or more for a pound. but after that period the thickening progresses rapidly, so that a quarter of the time will bring it to the point of total toughness. to make printing color of the varnish, the proper amount of lampblack must be mixed in. the roasted or burned-out is best in this also, because the ordinary lampblack delays the drying and turns yellow with time. the more lampblack is mixed in, and the more thoroughly they are combined by rubbing down, the better will be the color. but lampblack must not be added in such quantities that the color becomes dough-like. in describing the various styles of printing i will describe the best printing-inks also. i will merely make the general note here that designs on stone take the ink best when it is thin and fluid, but that there is less danger of off-set on the parts of the stone that are to remain white, if the ink is tougher or contains more lampblack. too much lampblack and too tough a varnish endanger the finer strokes and dots, however, so that they will not take ink, being, as lithographers say, rubbed out. the rubbing or grinding effect of too tough an ink is like that of pumice or other grinding material. with tougher varnish, clearer imprints can be made and they do not become yellow easily. but the inking is more difficult and demands greater skill, as well as heavier pressure in the press. the varnish can be mixed not only with lampblack but with many other colors, which will be described when i reach color printing in this essay. sometimes black lacquer is used with advantage instead of lampblack; and frankfurter black is successful in the intaglio and aquatint methods. x rubbing-up ink it happens often that weak parts of a design cannot withstand the etching fluid and are cut away; also, that fine lines are rubbed away through unskilled treatment during printing. then frequently a very simple remedy is to ink the plate with the so-called rubbing-up ink. this color consists of a thin varnish in which a portion of litharge of silver or mennig or white lead has been dissolved thoroughly over the fire, and a proper amount of lampblack added. often it is good to add some finely powdered sand or powdered pumice stone. to prepare this, a portion of the thinnest varnish is heated in a pan till it burns. then about an ounce of finely powdered mennig (or another lead oxide) is stirred in to each sixteen ounces of varnish till all is thoroughly mixed. a rubbing-up ink can be made also by mixing common printer's ink with vegetable oil, tallow, and a very little soap. each of these colors adheres to all those places that have a trace of fat and thus gradually makes faint places in a design receptive again. later i will describe how to use care in applying this color, so that the entire stone shall not be smutted and spoiled. chapter iii concerning acids and other materials i general properties of acids probably most lithographers still believe, as i did once, that the etching with acids prepares the stone, and that the succeeding application of gum merely increases this preparation. countless experiments have taught me that the exact reverse is true. gum arabic and a few other similar bodies are the true factors in preparation, and the acids simply make the stone more receptive for them. only sulphuric acid, which changes the surface of the stone into gypsum, prepares it without gum; but this is available only for a few intaglio methods. the stone used for lithography consists mostly of limestone sated with carbonic acid. most acids, and even the salts, possess more affinity for limestone than the carbonic acid, which latter is freed and escapes in gaseous form as soon as another acid touches the stone. if aquafortis, muriatic acid, vinegar, etc., is poured on the stone, there rise a number of air blisters, which are nothing except the escaping carbonic acid, and the applied fluid seems to boil, in degree according to its strength. the boiling and bubbling last till the fluid has sated itself with lime, after which it becomes still, and is impotent for further etching. the direct effect is the solution and destruction of parts of the surface of the stone. if it has been coated in parts with a fatty substance that resists the etching fluid, the places so coated are left untouched, so that, when the stone is cleaned, all the fat-coated lines and dots are in relief. if the stone is coated with fatty matter, but not so thickly that the acid is entirely resisted, it will pierce the covering and eat away more or less of the stone. if the etching is continued or if the acid is strong, the fatty coat will be destroyed entirely, the surface of the stone will be clean, and ready for the ensuing preparation. the preparation of the stone for pen drawings with oil or soap-water and several aquatint methods, is based on this principle, that a very thin coating of grease can be etched away partly or wholly, at will. after eating away the surface of the stone the acids have the property of giving it a fine polish. therefore if the stone has been covered with a design, and then etched with an acid, it could be inked and printed many times, as long as it is kept properly dampened and not too much pressure is used in applying the ink. however, this could be done also with a thoroughly clean stone, using only water, though the polish obtained from etching makes it much easier. but this apparent preparation is not by any means sufficient to print with certainty; and it becomes perfect only if the stone is coated with a solution of gum arabic in water after being etched. if a plate that has been merely etched and not treated with gum becomes dry during printing, or even if too much pressure be used in applying ink or in cleaning with the more or less smutty cleaning rags, it generally takes color and smut which are extremely hard to remove. we may assume, therefore, that the acids have the following effects on the stone:-- ( ) they will not attack the parts coated with grease. ( ) they will penetrate more or less if the fatty coating is only thin. ( ) where they touch the stone they dissolve it and eat it away. ( ) they give it a polish that facilitates printing. this polish disappears after a time on account of the cleaning with sponge or rag, but is replaced by a new polish produced by this very means. ( ) they do not prevent the adherence of fatty material later, as soon as the stone is dry, for which reason the parts prepared in the beginning with acid and gum arabic must be prepared again by renewed etching, to take the ink. ( ) finally the acids have the property of giving to prepared stones that have been used for impressions, a rough surface instead of a polish when they are applied again, because they attack some parts more than others, producing little pores with sharp edges which catch the ink. this fact, as i will show more clearly later, makes necessary extraordinary care if one wishes to clean prepared plates or correct defects with new etching, because unskilled handling will often make them worse. ii the acids specifically nitric acid or aquafortis, muriatic acid, vinegar, tartaric acid, and acid of wood sorrel, all have nearly similar effects, but aquafortis and muriatic acid are used because of their greater cheapness. oil of vitriol or sulphuric acid, very much diluted with water, is available for light but not for extensive etching, because it transforms the surface of the stone into gypsum and deposits it again, so that after that the acid cannot penetrate at all, or only partially. if a part of vitriol, say diluted with twelve parts of water, is poured on a cleanly ground stone, there ensues a violent action which, however, is only brief. it might be supposed that the acid is sated with lime when it ceases to act, but if it is moved to another part of the stone it etches anew. if the acid is washed from the stone and a woolen rag be used to rub it after it is dry, it takes on a mirror-like polish. in this dry condition it can be cleansed of color as easily as a copper plate, and if a stone thus polished is engraved with a steel tool, it is possible to make several impressions from it just as from copper. the polish is not lasting, however, because the skin of gypsum is very thin. but it is a useful method if it is desired to engrave the stone and ink it frequently to see the effect. all the acids named have the property, previously mentioned, of etching the stone rough if it has been prepared before or used for impressions. it seems that the gum unites more strongly with some parts of the stone than with others, admitting the acid in these latter places. possibly, also, the bubbles caused by etching may help to produce this roughness by hindering the uniform action of the acid. this seems to be confirmed by the fact that an etched stone, prepared with gum, does not get nearly so rough when etched again with very weak acid as it does when stronger fluid is used. in still greater degree does this appear when using citric acid or a solution of alum in water. take a finely ground stone, pour diluted aquafortis over it, prepare it with the gum solution, and then dry it thoroughly with a clean rag. now pour a little citric acid or alum solution on parts of it and let it dry. then paint the parts so treated with a fat or printing-ink. if the color is rubbed off with a wet rag, it will be seen that the stone has become white again in all places except those where the citric acid or alum are. those parts will have taken the color exactly as if they had been painted with chemical ink. the same occurs when applying other acids, but in a lesser degree. this effect will be mentioned in future for many methods. here i will remark only:-- it happens often that the stone takes color on places where it should remain clean. this is caused by clumsy handling, unclean rags, etc., and occurs particularly at the ends, because they dry first and are more exposed to careless manipulation. these smutted places usually can be cleansed with a clean woolen rag and gum solution or even with a wetted clean finger. but sometimes the defect will not yield so easily, especially if the printing-color is soft. then the only remedy is to prepare the stone over again, and that is the time when one must have regard to the roughening that ensues, if the stone is not to be rendered worse instead of better. therefore it is best in such cases to polish the ends of the stone with pumice stone till all dirt is gone, and then to etch with diluted acid and prepare anew with gum arabic. to be sure, it is possible to dip a clean woolen rag in strong, even pure acid, and thus etch dirt away from the ends; but great care is necessary that no drop may touch the design, as the ink that adheres to the latter is not strong enough to resist the acid. in thus cleansing the plate, the roughening is etched away by the violent action, and a new polish is obtained. still, in either method of cleaning dirty places, great care must be taken not to touch roughly, press, or rub with dirty fatty rags or with dirty, fatty fingers before the gum arabic is on it. the acid eats away all the previous material used in preparation, and leaves the plate practically in its clean, natural state. consequently it will take on grease readily, and the application of gum is essential. it is feasible to mix the gum directly with the acid solution, but this mixture must be made fresh again each day, as otherwise it loses much of its value. the following points are important:-- _first_: if the grease remain long on a stone that, though prepared, has lost its coating of gum, it will penetrate the surface, and according to its amount and fluidity, will sink more or less into the stone, which will retain its polish on the surface but become more inclined to take dirt. it is better, therefore, to leave a small amount of gum coating on the stone in such cases. _second_: as only the extreme outer surface of the stone is prepared by the gum, and this is rubbed away gradually by wiping during the printing, so in the same proportion of wear and tear the original preparation would become lost, if it were not renewed from time to time, that is, if the stone were not again coated with gum. twice a day, however, is enough. _third_: because of this susceptibility of the surface to injury, a prepared stone must not be rubbed strongly with fatty material, because this damages the surface and the stone would readily soak up the fat. _fourth_: if a prepared plate is totally denuded of gum, and has been dry for a time, especially if it has already lost a part of the preparation through printing, it will incline very much to take color and smut. therefore, when it is necessary to stop printing, it is well to coat the plate at once with gum, but only with a very thin coat. if this has not been done, and it is desired to use the plate again, great care must be taken to wet it with the very purest water, or, better still, with diluted etching fluid, for instance one part aquafortis to five hundred parts of water; and then to coat it with gum. to neglect this precaution may cause the total ruin of the plate. for safe-keeping of the plates, if they are to be used again for printing, the coating with gum is, therefore, absolutely necessary. _fifth_: gum can prepare only a thoroughly clean stone or one properly etched. therefore, if the surface of the stone has even the least trace of grease, it will take color, no matter how thickly it may be coated with gum. on this fact is based the method of transferring copper-plate impressions and other printed subjects, as will be described later. _sixth_: if the stone has had fat on its surface, and this fat has been etched away again, the power of the gum asserts itself, and the stone will be thoroughly prepared even if the fat has soaked considerably into the body of the stone. _seventh_: mere grinding of the stone is not sufficient to attain a complete preparation through gum alone. therefore, if an otherwise clean stone has some places after grinding where the fat has soaked in deeply, and one coats it with gum, the stone will take color after a time on these fatty places, as soon as the inked rag has been rubbed over the stone many times. however, this taking-on of color is only slight if the gum solution is thick, and long-continued cleaning will transform it into complete preparation. _eighth_: from both preceding observations we learn:-- printing forces the color to sink considerably into the stone. if such a stone is required for new designs, it is not practicable to grind it so much that all the fatty places can be ground away. therefore it is ground only till it is thoroughly even again. then it must be well etched; otherwise it may happen that in printing the surface will rub away and the entire previous writing or design will appear again, a trouble hardly to be remedied. if the stone is dirty in the middle, it can be cleaned in many cases by pouring on a few drops of oil of turpentine and the same quantity of gum solution, and rubbing it clean with a woolen rag. then it must be washed with a wet sponge, after which it is inked. if it has not lost the smut, the only remedy is new preparation. as this must be done differently for each different lithographic style, it will be described in its place. if fat has soaked well into the stone in places where it is not desired, it is always very difficult to remove it without injuring adjoining parts. correction of crayon work, if it has been etched and used for printing, is especially difficult. it is true that the defective parts can be cut out easily with a sharp instrument, but then these places must be prepared again. if weak etching fluid is used, it will not suffice. if strong fluid is used, the fine parts are easily attacked, and at the same time the surface will become roughened so that the stone often blackens entirely in the corrected parts. to avoid this trouble, and to facilitate corrections, i made many experiments to discover an acid composition that should prepare a stone anew and perfectly and yet not roughen the surface. i found the best material in phosphoric acid, especially when mixed with finely crushed nutgall. water in which phosphorus has been kept a long time becomes acid and etches the stone. the acid can be obtained more quickly by burning the phosphorus and catching the smoke. this method is somewhat expensive, but one does not need much, as it is used only for correcting defects. if a few drops of aquafortis or other acid are poured on a clean ground stone, it will be etched. now wipe the etching fluid off clean and coat the plate with soap-water or chemical ink. as soon as it is dry, clean it of the fatty coating with a few drops of oil of turpentine. if it is dampened then with water and inked, it will take color everywhere, even at the etched places. if gum is mixed with the acid, the same result occurs, though the stone has been thoroughly prepared where this mixture touched it. from this it appears that soap-water (and the alkalis in general) can destroy the preparation given to the stone and make it receptive again to fats. it is different if phosphoric acid is used. this makes a preparation that can be destroyed only by very frequent coating of soapy water. still more durable and resistant to soap is the preparation if fine nutgall is mixed with the phosphoric acid and water solution. nutgall gives even the other acids the property of resisting soap more than ordinarily. the study of this effect led me to invent the method of transforming a relief design into intaglio. also, it is only by the use of phosphoric acid that one can do thoroughly that style of lithographic work which resembles the scraped style in copper, or the so-called black art. iii gum as the real preparation if a cleanly polished plate is sprinkled with a few drops of gum arabic dissolved in water, the sprinkled places will take no color so long as they are wet. when they dry, color will adhere, but can be washed away easily with a wet sponge. this shows that the gum alone will prepare the stone. the preparation will become more durable, however, if the stone is etched first. in both cases, however, the preparation extends only over the outermost surface of the stone, penetrating only slightly, so that the least injury will make it take color as soon as it is dry. on this fact is founded the intaglio style of lithography. therefore, if a clean ground stone is etched, then prepared with gum and dried clean, it can be coated with printing-ink or other fat substance (excepting soap and all alkaline compositions), and there will be no danger that it will lose its preparation. the thicker the gum coating, the less can the fat penetrate. in printing, during which the stone must be kept wet, only the original coating of gum is necessary; but as the surface thus prepared soon diminishes under the frequent wiping, it is necessary in some forms of work to mix gum with the printing-color or with the water used to dampen the stone. more of this will be explained in the proper place. here i will add only that the domestic gum of cherry and plum trees is good for preparing stones some years and worthless in others, when it cannot be dissolved in water. in possessing the properties for preparing stone, the juice of many plants and fruits, sugar, and most mucous materials of the vegetable and animal kingdom, such as white of egg, approach gum arabic more or less. the latter, however, is to be preferred because of its reliability. iv concerning partial preparation here i impart my experiences in regard to an astonishing phenomenon that occurs often in lithography and gives much trouble, especially to beginners. it is the so-called imperfect or semi-preparation, wherein the stone betrays a strong inclination to take color, and still will not do it or will do it only partially. (_a_) if a cleanly ground stone is marked with chemical ink, etched, and prepared, the marked places will take the printing-color and produce impressions. if, after the stone is inked, one rubs strongly with the wetted finger, the color can be wiped from the design, especially if it has not been on the stone long and has been standing in a damp place. a place whence the color thus has been removed does not take it readily when the inking-roller is applied again; and the reluctance is the greater in proportion to the length and violence of the rubbing and the toughness of the printing-color. the stone shows clearly the traces of the penetrating fat; indeed, if the stone is rubbed with a wet linen rag that is inky from previous use, the design will reappear in black. but as soon as the roller is used, instead of inking these places, it takes the color off; and whatever means may be tried to make the defective places receptive again to color, it remains difficult, often impossible. what has happened is that the wet rubbing has cleansed the surface of the stone of all its fat and at the same time has polished it and made it slippery. it is a sort of preparation; and though the fat of the ink has penetrated into the interior of the stone, the accidental preparation still offers an obstacle which prevents the printing-ink from adhering to the fat in those places. as i will show, these places can be prepared again thoroughly. (_b_) another case is when the design is too weak, and has been attacked by the etching-fluid too powerfully, though without being destroyed. here the printing-color usually is removed by the ink-roller, even though it adheres pretty well when being wiped. (_c_) a third kind of imperfect preparation is when a stone inclines to take color or smut on prepared places. this happens sometimes in part, sometimes over the whole surface, which latter effect is described by saying that the stone has acquired a tone. the cause of this phenomenon may be one of many. it is either due to the appearance of a fat that has been in the stone, or to the fact that unskilled manipulation has destroyed the preparation partially. thence follow several observations again:-- ( ) mere wiping with clean water will give the stone a sort of preparation if the material used for wiping is suitable. this preparation is incomplete, but can be transformed very easily into a complete one. this incomplete preparation is according to the strength with which the rubbing material affects the stone. linen and cotton stuffs have the least effect. more potent are animal wools and hair, silk or wet leather. the printing-color itself has a preparing property if it is made of very tough varnish or contains much lampblack. this effect is increased if frankfurter black or powdered charcoal is mixed with the color, and the stone is kept very wet. ( ) the partial preparation is produced more quickly and made more durable if the water contains gum or gummy stuffs. ( ) the operation is still quicker if a weak etching fluid is used. a stronger fluid would make the preparation a complete one, but would also injure the good spots. then again one must remember that the second etching produces the roughness discussed already. ( ) grinding with sand, pumice, and other grinding materials also produces partial preparation, which is transformed easily into complete preparation by applying gum. here, however, the circumstance is noteworthy that a plate that has been blemished by rubbing can be made to do the reverse, namely, to take color, by means of light grinding with water. assume, for instance, that a plate designed and prepared in relief style has been spoiled by handling so that the design refuses to take color. it is necessary merely to rub it all over with water and fine sand or to clean it with oil of turpentine so that all printing-color is removed from the surface. then place it in a receptacle containing a great deal of very clean water. if it is ground delicately then with a very clean pumice stone, without destroying the traces of the fatty material that has soaked in, it can be brought to take color again as well as ever. take a little of the before-mentioned acid-proof ink, smear it on the color-stone, and apply a clean linen or cotton rag. wipe the stone that is lying in the water very gently with this rag, and the color will fix itself bit by bit on all parts of the design, even if the entire relief produced by the etching should have been ground away. it is necessary only that the fat shall have soaked in sufficiently; and this usually is produced soon enough by the printing. after the plate has accepted color completely, it is to be completely prepared by light etching and with gum, and then it will take the color properly from the ink-roller. if this experiment is to succeed, it is to be noted that in grinding there must be no trace of fat on the stone or the pumice, because the rubbing during grinding might transfer this greasiness to those parts of the stone that are to remain white. care must be taken, also, not to press too hard in applying the etching color, because the places that have been cleansed of all gum by the water, and thus are inclined to accept color, will smut easily. finally, the stone must not be permitted to dry before it is fully prepared again by etching and gum coating, for it might easily become entirely smutted and useless. this experiment leads to the conclusion, which has been proved correct in many ways, that a soft rubbing in clean water with printing-color, especially if it contains tallow, is very well adapted for transforming the incomplete preparation into a condition of accepting fat perfectly, and of giving injured places new potency. also, that the contrary effect can be produced by violent rubbing, especially with wool, leather, or tough colors, because this prepares the wet stone and makes it useless for accepting fat. the first method may be used with advantage, therefore, for reëstablishing a vanished design. the second method is good for getting rid of smut. if the smut has occurred in previously clean and thoroughly prepared places, it can be destroyed entirely. but if it is only that the deeper fat has lost its superficial polish, and has appeared again, the stone will be only partially prepared by this last method and must be newly prepared on the desired places with weak etching-fluid and gum, for durability's sake. it is easy to see how important this circumstance is. with the one and the same process in various degrees of manipulation, opposite results can be produced; and i may declare that only he is to be termed a perfect lithographer who has exact knowledge of this especial matter. ( ) it has been mentioned already that every sort of preparation can be destroyed by a renewed etching, and particularly with alum and citric acid. the same is caused by soap and alkaline compositions; therefore also by chemical ink if it contains a sufficient amount of alkali. ( ) simply letting the stone plate rest produces important, often contradictory, phenomena. if smeared parts refuse color, clean water poured over these places runs from them as quickly as it does from the fatty parts. this is the surest sign that they still have fat, though it is not sufficient to attract the color. if such a stone is permitted to lie idle a few days, even if coated with gum, it will often take the color thereafter. on the contrary, if a stone plate has taken on color at the well-prepared places (usually readily removable by wiping with oil of turpentine and gum solution, but generally reappearing), it need merely be inked after such cleansing, coated with gum and left idle, and in a few days it loses the readiness to take dirt. the cause of both phenomena is that in the first case the fats that lie deep gradually work upward into the partly prepared surface and practically reëstablish their interrupted communication with the printing-color. in the second case, the small quantity of fat that has adhered merely to the surface has penetrated into the stone, so that it loses its effectiveness. added to this, in the latter case, is the fact that the linseed oil, and the varnish prepared from it, acquire the property of losing their fats when they are dried in the air, and thus will take color poorly or not at all. this observation led to the invention of an artificial stone or stone-paper. ( ) in contrast with preparation by wet wiping there is the wiping with dry and fatty bodies, which produces full acceptance of color on the partially prepared plate, while in the case of the fully prepared plate there occurs at least partial color acceptance or semi-preparation. as every property of the stone can be used for good impressions just as well as it serves in unskilled hands to ruin a design, so in this case; the lost parts can be restored through proper use of rubbing with a dry, fatty substance, and the clean, prepared portions of the plate can be smutted. there will be more about this. v short review of the preceding as the entire art of stone-printing depends on proper preparation, it will not be out of place to express my views as to the nature of the process. this will serve also as recapitulation. ( ) limestone has countless little pores. these can soak up fatty as well as watery substances. ( ) these can adhere easily to the limestone particles, but are easily separated again, as long as the nature of the stone is not altered. this alteration is produced most readily by sulphuric acid, tartaric acid and phosphoric acid. ( ) water evaporates from the pores as the stone dries. gum and other slimy substances do not. ( ) fats soak into the stone more and more. there is no means of destroying them except to remove the limestone itself by grinding or etching. ( ) printing-color cannot adhere to the stone so long as a proper amount of moisture forms a wall between it and the stone. under any circumstances it adheres only poorly to the lime particles, and assumes great power of adherence only when the pores of the stone are filled with fat, which are pinched in them, so to speak, and with which the printing-color strives to unite because of mutual affinity. ( ) this stronger adherence (or complete color reception) thus happens only when the outer color can reach and touch the inner fat. if the latter is deep in the stone, so that the communication is broken, it becomes difficult and the communication must be restored. ( ) this interruption occurs either if the color is rubbed away by force and with help of moisture, or if a substance that closes the pores unites with the stone. ( ) the rougher, sharper, and more angular the pores are, the more readily does the color find adhering points. it adheres at first to the surface by virtue of merely mechanical conditions. but when the moisture which hinders a complete union and greater penetration has dried, the color begins to penetrate deeper into the stone and to fill its pores. the most color will always adhere to rough spots. therefore, it happens often, in some styles of work, that a stone too highly polished will seem perfectly black when inked, and still fail to yield a strong impression. for the same reason the impressions from soft stones usually are the stronger, especially if the mode of printing demands the use of thin printing-color. ( ) the effect of the etching fluid is in part a greater polishing of the surface, in part a filling of pores. both make the stone reluctant to take color. ( ) if the stone has been prepared and polished already, it can be made rough again and receptive to color by being reëtched. at the same time the prepared surface can be destroyed by etching, and a communication established with the fat lying in the interior. the result is according to the manipulation. so much in general. in describing the various styles i will make everything clearer. chapter iv the necessary tools and appliances in lithography there is use for many various tools and utensils. i will mention here merely those that are made primarily and exclusively for the art. i concerning steel pens one of the most necessary tools of lithography is the steel pen for writing and drawing on the stone. simple as its manufacture is in principle, it demands much care and skill. the beauty of the work depends largely on a good and well-cut pen. the best artist, using the best chemical ink on a perfectly prepared plate, cannot do good work unless the pen is good and cut to suit his hand. therefore it is necessary to learn how to make these pens, because, apart from their costliness, it is difficult to get a suitable one from a worker in steel. the ordinary steel pens that can be bought ready-made from stationers are fairly available for coarser writing and drawing; but for better work one must have much finer pens. following is the way to make them:-- take the spring of a pocket watch, not too small nor too broad; one and a half to two lines in breadth is best. clean off all fat by polishing with sand or chalk. lay it in a glass or porcelain vessel, and cover it with a solution of aquafortis and water in equal parts. let the acid etch the steel till it has lost about three fourths of its thickness, and has become as pliable as a similar strip of letter-paper. from time to time the steel must be removed from the fluid and dried with tissue paper. this produces uniformity of etching. the steel rarely is quite uniform, and it has happened to me often that it is attacked unequally and that holes are eaten into it before it has been etched away sufficiently. that this, however, is due mainly to the quality of the acid, i learned because i found that the same steel would be attacked clean and uniformly as soon as i obtained aquafortis from some other source. a pen is poorly etched if it has many elevated points or pits and holes. the former appears to result from insufficient cleansing, the latter is due to the quality of the acid. oil of vitriol diluted with water, or nitric acid can be used. those who have a very light touch may etch their pens to great thinness, and will be enabled to do very delicate work. for a heavy touch they must be firmer, otherwise fine strokes will look shaky. when the steel is thin enough, it is removed and cleansed with fine sand that it may not become rusty in future. then it is cut into pieces two inches long with good english shears. now these must be shaped half-round. to do this, lay them on a flat stone and beat them lengthwise till they bend, using a small watchmaker's hammer, whose faces are pretty thin but well rounded. two or three sheets of paper laid under the steel facilitate the work. another way to give it the half-round form is to file a groove into a stone, giving it the exact shape the pen is to have. into this groove lay the piece of steel, put in a drop of vegetable oil, and polish with a steel instrument whose end resembles a broken but well-rounded nail. use sufficient pressure, and the steel will gradually assume the desired shape. either of these methods may be used, according to preference. it is to be noted that the degree of roundness depends on the artist's need, one finding a well-rounded pen better, another preferring one not so well-rounded. the less the pen is rounded, the more it will resemble a brush when used, but the points will not spread so well without considerable pressure. the more they are hollowed, the stiffer are the pens and the more easily will the points spread when pressed. after the pen is curved, it must be cut. with small, well-sharpened scissors cut a slit about one line in length into one end. then cut away from the two sides as much as necessary till the point is sufficiently fine. do not cut away too much at once, as the pen bends easily and then must be straightened out again, which demands especial skill. it is well to do the cutting from the point toward the sides. a good pen must have both points very uniform, so that they touch perfectly and lie on the stone evenly in the position given them by the hand when working. the cutting alone will do this, but a small, very fine whetstone may be used to aid. a newly cut pen is somewhat rough at times and cuts into the stone, thus gathering powder that hinders the work. this defect generally cures itself after a few strokes on the stone. beginners generally spoil their pens by bending them every few moments. then they must be straightened out, which demands practice and judgment. it cannot be described, because the bending may assume a thousand shapes. it may be mentioned, however, that the points must always touch, but must under no circumstances interfere, one being forced behind the other. it is good, sometimes, if one can see through the slit when looking backward from the point. some even cut a tiny bit out of the middle for this purpose, but that demands great skill and extremely good scissors, as otherwise the opening will be too large, which will spoil the pen entirely. the ordinary drawing-pens, which can be loosened or tightened with screws, can be used very readily for drawing lines, if their points are made from very good steel that can be ground very fine and thin. however, for much line-work, for instance the background of a picture which consists of lines hatched crosswise, it is better to use the other pens. the ordinary drawing-pens are too likely to catch a little dust or dirt between their points, and then will spoil the lines. of all work of the pen style in lithography, the most difficult is to draw very fine and even lines with a ruler. i have succeeded best by using a pen previously so cut or ground that both points touched in the position in which i was accustomed to hold the pen when guiding it with the ruler. it is evident that the pen must be held to the ruler on its side, so that the groove that contains the ink does not point in the direction of the ruler, but away from it. it is well if there is a tiny space in the slit, as it helps the free supply of ink. ii concerning brushes brushes are used for various purposes, as to prepare the plates, cleanse, etch, etc. here, however, we speak chiefly of the small brushes required for writing and designing. for this are used the very smallest and best miniature brushes, and they must be especially treated. if it is desired that the brush make thicker strokes under pressure, the ordinary condition of it, in which all the bristles come to a point, is quite sufficient. but it is very difficult to lay on strokes of uniform thickness with them. press the brush on the table, spread the bristles fanwise with a knife and cut away from each side about a half-line deep. turn the pencil to the other side, stroke it again to spread it, and cut the same amount as before from each side. continue this till there remain only ten or twelve bristles of the original length in the brush. then cut these even at the ends. these should not be altogether the middle ones if the pencil is to be first-class. neither should they be too far apart. they should hang together well when the brush is dipped into the ink, but not so closely that they will not let the ink pass well. with a brush successfully trimmed thus, the handsomest drawings, resembling copper plate, can be done with ease. for coarser strokes, coarser brushes are needed. more bristles are permitted to remain in them. iii concerning engraving needles these serve for the intaglio process, to draw into the stone, and must be of the best and hardest steel. in munich there are also used the little five-angled watchmakers' borers, which are glued between two pieces of wood planed round in form of a pencil and so cut at the end that only a bit of the tool is visible. in using very thin needles one has the advantage that they are ground and sharpened easily. for coarser strokes, coarser needles are needed. for fine strokes, especially if they are to go in all directions, the needles are best ground perfectly round. iv concerning the drawing-machine to transfer drawings very accurately and reversed on the stone, which is necessary especially in the case of charts and plans, a pantograph is used in munich, which is so arranged that the stone is upside down and elevated. the inscribing-needle is just opposite the one that is managed by the hand, and when one follows the lines of the original exactly, there results a perfect but reversed copy on the stone. such drawing-machines can be obtained from herr liebherr and company in munich. this skilled mechanician also makes a sort of pantograph of his own invention, with which drawings can be transferred to stone, reversed or otherwise, and in any desired proportion. pictures of such machines may be obtained from him. v concerning other appliances these are: a grinding-table, an etching-trough, some rulers, a writing-table, some music-writing pens and rastrums for those who wish to print music, small brush for spatter-work, a wiping-machine for the wiping method, several rollers and balls for inking, and some presses for wetting and pressing the paper. any firm table may be used for grinding, but it is better to have one made heavy enough to resist the strain of the powerful friction, and so made that the stones can be fastened on it readily. if this work is done in a room, it must have a depression in the middle and a hole, that the water may run off into a receptacle. along the sides should be a low rim, that the sand and dust may not drip all over the floor. the etching-trough is a square, well-pitched box whose bottom is depressed toward the middle, that the etching fluid may gather there and run through a hole into a receptacle, so that it can be poured over the stone again. the trough must be large enough to accommodate the stones easily. these must not, however, touch the bottom, but must rest on little pieces of wood or cross-pieces. besides the ordinary rulers, a large, broad one is required, about three to four feet long, five inches wide, and so shaped that on one side it is one-half inch thick, on the other only two lines thick. on this latter side a strip of pear wood must be glued and very truly planed off. thus it can be used for drawing lines, although the real purpose of this ruler is only for supporting the hands when working on stone, that they may not touch the prepared surface. if the work-table is made with high pieces at the ends so that the ruler can rest on them without touching the stone, no ruler supports are required. otherwise one must have these two pieces, a little higher than the stone, so that the ruler may rest on them. a specially made work-table has another advantage. in the middle there can be a turntable on which the stone rests, so that it can be moved easily into any position, something that is very difficult with large stones without this arrangement. music-writing pens are brass or silver tubes which have the shape of musical notes underneath, and which take up such a quantity of chemical ink that one can make about twenty notes without re-dipping. that they shall not take up too much ink, a fine wire is fastened in the centre. these instruments must be very exactly ground and their use demands some skill if the notes are to be uniform. instead of this instrument a piece of wood may be used, but this must be inked anew for each note. to avoid dipping too deep, it is best to spread some ink on a little stone and ink the instrument from this. it must be wetted in the beginning, that the ink may be sucked up about three lines high. after that the ink on the stone need merely be touched with it, and this makes the work very uniform. beginners find this easy to use. but one works more swiftly with the other. of the rastrums, there is nothing to say except that they are of steel and very even at the ends so that they touch the stone in all places. they serve to draw the five lines for music. for making the broad strokes for notes, one can use coarse drawing-pens, or coarsely cut steel pens; but the best are those adjustable drawing-pens that are made from three blades. the brush for spatter-work, the wiping-machine, and the dauber will be described in the description of the styles of work for which they are used. ink-rollers and balls are for laying on the printing-color. the latter are made from soft leather, stuffed with horsehair, like the ordinary book-printer's balls. the former are wooden cylinders with thin handles, of any requisite length and about four to five inches thick. they are wound with two or three thicknesses of woolen cloth and then covered very firmly and evenly with leather. usually there is used sheep's leather from which the grease has not been entirely removed. calfskin, worked white, is good and more durable. dogskin is considered best. some printers use soft red calfskin, turning the inner side out. the leather must not be stitched with linen but with silk thread, because linen does not take the ink as well as leather and silk do. the leather must be dampened when being drawn over the cylinder. a fair stock of these rollers is required, because they are liable to become water-soaked during use, when they lose much elasticity and fail to give good service, so that dry ones must be on hand. it is not well to have movable handles on the rollers, because then they are likely to roll over the stone too lightly and it is not within one's power to lay on the ink thoroughly. to prevent blistering the hands, thick leather covers may be used. then it is possible to use any desired pressure. paper presses are needed both to obtain a uniform dampening of the paper as also to restore the proper flatness to the printed paper. models are to be seen at the shops of all book-printers and binders. chapter v concerning paper three kinds of paper are used mainly in lithography. they are:-- (_a_) the transparent, oiled or varnished paper; (_b_) underlay or waste paper; and (_c_) the printing-paper. i transparent paper, and the transfer of outlines to the stone oiled paper is used for tracing a drawing accurately and then transferring it to the stone either by transferring or by re-tracing it on the stone. it must have the following properties:-- ( ) it must not smut the original drawing on which it is laid. consequently it must be absolutely dry. ( ) it must be very transparent, like glass, so that the underlying drawing or painting can be seen perfectly. ( ) the ink or lead crayon used for copying must lie on it easily and plainly. it is at its best if it is easy to work on it with a fine brush, using chinese ink, or, (if the drawing is to be transferred directly to the stone), with the soft chemical ink described under the caption "transfer ink." generally this can be done without further preparation in the case of most papers made transparent by oiling. varnished paper, however, which is far more transparent, generally must be well washed with milk and dried again beforehand, that it may take the ink well and permit work with the finest strokes. ( ) finally, a good tracing-paper must be very fine, pliable, tender and yet not in the least brittle. there is some very transparent varnished paper, but it breaks at the first attempt to bend it, so that it is hard to trace the drawing afterward on stone with the tracing-needle, because nearly every stroke tears the paper and the lines and outlines become coarse. very good transparent paper may be made as follows:-- take the finest writing or vellum paper and soak it with nut or poppy oil, mixed with a little sugar of lead to make it dry more readily. when well soaked with oil, dry it a bit between waste paper and hang it up. usually it is available in a few days. this paper is cheaper than the paper sold by stationers under the names of straw paper, etc., and about equally transparent. still more transparent will it be if instead of the oil a varnish cooked from the oils is used. in this also the sugar of lead is an excellent drier. to make the varnish easier to manipulate and more readily penetrative for the paper, it may be thinned down with oil of turpentine. if it is desired to manufacture a greater quantity of this paper, one sheet is laid on another and painted with varnish. then the whole mass is left for some time covered with a stone plate or a board, that the varnish may soak properly and evenly into all the sheets. afterward the sheets are hung up singly to dry. the more varnish they have, the more transparent will they be; but too much is not good. care must be taken that no drops of varnish adhere. it is best to brush the varnish evenly over each sheet before hanging it up. silk paper, such as is used in copper-printing to lay between impressions to prevent off-set, is still better for varnishing because it is finer. only it must be very even and have no holes. the very greatest fineness of paper is desirable, for the reason that then the strokes made by the needle on the stone are fine and not coarse. instead of varnish made by boiling down nut or poppy oil, one can use venetian turpentine, which merely has been thinned down with one half as much oil of turpentine. such paper generally is dry enough after twenty-four hours. too large a quantity must not be made at one time, because it becomes tough and brittle after a while. even with the most transparent paper it occurs that certain delicate drawings, and especially color pictures, will not show through sufficiently. then the drawing must be fastened to a window pane to obtain added illumination. this manner of work is very uncomfortable, however, and the arms hurt one soon, so that it is necessary to stop. it is better to have a tracing-board made with a strong, clear pane of glass in the centre. under it is a mirror so adjusted that it reflects light upward through the drawing. it is understood, of course, that in tracing only the outlines are copied and not every stroke of shading, etc. although the final work is greatly facilitated by the observation of the utmost care in tracing, the tracing of every little detail will merely make the work involved and perplexing. practice must show the proper degree of exactness. a very good and skillful artist often needs only a few main outlines, to reproduce the original picture with the greatest accuracy. once the drawing has been traced sufficiently, the transfer paper must be coated very lightly and evenly with red chalk. then it is fastened to the stone with wax and all the lines are traced under moderate pressure with a well-polished needle whose point is not sharp but rounded. where the needle presses the tracing-paper, the color that is on the other side will take hold of the stone and thus transfer the drawing to it. if the needle is too sharp, it will injure the paper, and often the stone and the etching surface. the color on the paper must be rubbed off very carefully with a soft rag. if it is too thick, it will transfer itself coarsely to the stone. the red chalk may be put on the side of the paper that has the drawing on it, or on the reverse. this is decided according as the picture is to be on the stone in the same position as the original or reversed. if the impression is to be like the original, the drawing on the stone must be reversed; therefore in that case the tracing-paper is coated on the same side as the drawing. this side is laid on the stone, and the picture, which shows through, is traced. in some cases it is good to transfer the drawing from the tracing immediately to the stone without tracing it with the needle. in this case, the paper is not coated with red chalk. the paper is merely laid on the prepared stone, drawing face down, and put through the press. if the drawing has been made with the chemical transfer ink, blackened with lampblack or colored with vermilion according to need, it will transfer itself to the stone. this will occur also in the case of a clean stone prepared for pen drawing if the drawing is made with lead pencil or with red chalk, wet or dry. even the ordinary ink made from nutgall and vitriol of iron will transfer if it contains a little sugar or gum, but the paper must be well dampened and good pressure must be applied to the press. in the pen-drawing process, the stone must be cleansed of possible surplus of color after the transfer. this is done by light rubbing with sand. it is not necessary in other processes. any surplus of color that may have fixed itself to the stone is removed by gentle dusting with a soft brush. ii waste paper this is used partly for cleansing plates, partly and chiefly as underlay in printing. if sheets are to be printed on both sides, usually a little of the first impression off-sets on the underlay paper, and if it were used again at once, it would off-set on the next impression. therefore a fresh underlay paper must be used for each impression of the second side. this must not be coarse, for fear of causing unevenness or holes in the leather in the printing-frame or in the so-called scraper-wood that makes the impression. a good quantity of this must be on hand, that fresh paper may always be available while the used paper is drying again. each sheet that has been used should be hung up at once, and not more than three or four sheets should be hung over each other, to facilitate the drying. a special appliance is needed for this as well as for drying the impressions. a number of slats are fastened to the ceiling, leaving a space under it of about two feet, and about one foot distant from each other; and the sheets are hung on these with a pole made for the purpose, such as may be seen in any printery. iii printing-paper not all kinds of paper are equally good for lithography. on the whole, however, it may be assumed that this form of printing is very similar to copper-printing and book-printing, and that the paper that is good for these branches is suitable also for the stone, if only it does not contain too many impurities, grains of sand and other substances that make any considerable roughnesses. such roughnesses, if considerable, have an ill effect not only on the impression, but chiefly on the leather in the printing frame. if the scraper is of wood, the leather will suffer less, but there will be caused grooves in the scraper that must be planed out again, because otherwise each following impression will show a more or less plain streak. if the scraper is of metal, the leather may tear or the stone itself may be injured if the foreign substance in the paper is very hard. therefore it is well to hold the paper to the light before dampening or printing and to remove any apparent defect of magnitude with a little knife. usually the paper considered most excellent for copper-plate work is thick, tender, uniform paper, half-sized or not sized at all. it may be the same for lithography. however, it must not be supposed that good impressions cannot be obtained with sized paper. i have seen some that were as good as, and even better than, impressions made at the same time on unsized paper. much depends on the dampening of the paper, on its make, and chiefly on the manner of sizing it. on the best sized english vellum paper, i have made blacker impressions than i could make on the best swiss copper-plate printing-paper, so that i had to use fifty per cent less printing-color. on the contrary, in using an indubitably genuine english vellum paper with a bluish tinge, which had been sized only too well, i could not get good impressions despite all efforts. it was very hard to dampen also. every sheet must be dampened singly, turned frequently and manipulated to smooth out the thousand irregularities that are caused by the moisture. equally difficult to use were some sorts of genuine holland paper, because they took color reluctantly. if, however, the correct degree of moisture is attained, if the paper takes it well, and, finally, if the color is right for it, it can be used with thorough success. i must mention a circumstance that may defeat all efforts of a beginner should he try to use a certain kind of paper which is very handsome, durable, very white, well sized, but a little rough and possessing an odor somewhat resembling honey as well as urine. sometimes it is called _kühnel_, and comes from a french factory. this paper has the property of depriving the stone of its preparation, and consequently to smut it. this paper can be used only for dry printing, where it does not require any dampening at all. it is said that this property of smutting the stone is due to the chemical bleaching. others ascribe it to a peculiar kind of size. perhaps it is both. the same defect is found in many sorts of colored papers if there is much alum in the coloring-matter, or if the tints are made from alkaline colors or those that contain soapy matter, or if it has been smoothed with soap. this, however, is readily understood after my explanation of the chemistry of the stone. iv dampening the paper dry paper may be used for printing. in certain work it is necessary, in order not to spoil the paper. as a rule, however, paper is moistened in lithography as well as in other forms of printing, to make it softer and more receptive to the printing-color. after what i have said of chemical printing, it would seem that, as dampness is antagonistic to the reception of color, the moisture of the paper would hinder, rather than aid, printing. but experience proves the opposite. a damp paper takes color better than a dry one. but this is not because damp paper is an exception to the rule. on close study, we see that here, too, it only proves all that i said about the stone. perfectly clean, and especially unsized paper, refuses color like the prepared stone, when it has been wetted thoroughly so that it is saturated. but here, too, mere water is not a complete preparation. under strong pressure it is forced away readily from the paper, the printed places are dried and the color adheres. if the pressure is not sufficient to force all the water away, the impression will be imperfect. the tougher the printing-color is, the more will it resist the dampness and the greater must be the pressure. experience has taught me the following:-- ( ) every paper not spoiled with fat will permit itself to be prepared, like the stone, with water so that it will take no color. in the case of entirely clean, unsized paper, water alone is sufficient. mucous, gummy, and acid substances increase its power. unsized printed paper need merely be dipped in water, laid on a stone, and coated with oily color, and the printed parts will all take the color while the rest of the paper remains white. ( ) any great pressure will remove this preparation and the whole paper will take color. ( ) the oil color must be very thin and fluid, because a tougher one will take hold of the fibres of the paper and tear them off. the foregoing experiences applied to the theory of the print itself lead to the following conclusions:-- (_a_) the paper to be used for printing must never be too wet, because the most powerful pressure could not remove the water sufficiently. (_b_) paper that is too wet is prone to adhere to the stone with its printed parts, which are likely then to tear away easily, thus damaging or ruining the work. this happens the more readily if the pressure be not sufficient. if the scraper or the stone is not uniform and even, it is very prone indeed to tear at the places subjected to the least pressure, because there, where the water has not been sufficiently squeezed away, the paper remains soft and fragile, while the pressure still is great enough to grip the fibres of the paper. (_c_) therefore the paper must be only slightly dampened if the color is very tough, partly to prevent tearing, partly to oppose no undue obstacle to the reception of the color. (_d_) paper dampened too much stretches in printing and produces uneven and dirty impressions. (_e_) the quality of the water is not important so long as it is not dirty or putrid, in which latter case it may infect the paper and rot it. (_f_) just how much the paper must be dampened can be learned only from experience, because papers vary very much and in the case of sized papers it depends chiefly on the kind of sizing. on the average, we may calculate one wet sheet to eight dry ones in sized papers and one wet one to ten or twelve dry ones in unsized papers. the following is the best way to dampen paper: lay two or three dry sheets on a straight board. then dip a sheet into water. let the water drip off a little and lay the damp sheet carefully on the others. now lay eight or ten dry sheets on top of this. then put on another wet one and then eight or ten dry ones and so on till all the sheets destined for printing have been so piled up. put over all a board weighted with a medium heavy stone plate. after half an hour increase the weight to several hundredweight or squeeze the paper in a press. leave it thus at least twelve hours. then it is generally ready for print. in aquatint it must be dampened more, about six dry sheets coming to one wet one. very thoroughly sized paper is easier to moisten if each sheet, or at least each second one, is wetted with a sponge. sometimes it is necessary to turn the dampened paper in order to remove the creases. separate the sheets into two piles and lay a few sheets from one to the other so that the altered positions will press the sheets flat again. with many papers, especially the unsized, it is possible to use the method of book-printers, who immerse a whole book in water and then lay the sheets in two equal parts. this would be best studied at a printer's. it requires much practice. if dampened paper is permitted to lie some hours without being weighted down, the margins will become too dry, and then there will be creases during printing, which can be remedied only by a second dampening. the reason is that dry paper is not so large as wet paper, so that the dry margins form a kind of frame which is too small for the inner wet portion. in printing-processes that require many plates, and especially if the sheets are large, only dry paper can be used, as otherwise the register will be imperfect. to be sure, it can be done by using great care, but too much practice and attentiveness is needed. with the exception of the aquatint processes, good printing can be done with dry but unsized paper. but the press must have twice or thrice the pressure. this makes the printing more difficult and endangers the stone if it is not thick. chapter vi presses an exact description of all presses used hitherto for lithography would demand a book that would nearly equal the present one in magnitude. many drawings would be necessary, which would increase the cost of this text-book without adequate benefit, as i have learned that one rarely can find a mechanician skillful enough to make a machine even when he has the very best description and a perfect illustration before him. i advise all who intend to enter lithography to send for a model to munich or some other place where the art is being practiced with success. i myself am willing to furnish exact models for the price of one louis d'or, which must be remitted with the order. there is no press as yet that is so perfect for lithography that it leaves nothing to be desired. the press whose plan i laid before the royal academy of sciences in bavaria, which does its own inking-in and which can be worked by water-power, has not yet been built on a large scale, so that its value cannot be stated exactly. i am only too well aware, however, of a grave defect in lithography, which is that the beauty and even the number of impressions depend mainly on the skill and the industry of the printers. a good press is necessary, to be sure; but even with the best a poor workman will produce nothing but trash, because in this respect lithography is far more difficult than any other printing-process. i shall not admit that lithography has made a great step toward the utmost perfection until the erring work of the human hand has been dispensed with as much as possible and the printing is done almost entirely by machinery. therefore i am determined to realize the ideas i have in this direction and i shall inform the friends of the art of my success at once. i properties of a good press it has been observed that inscriptions, and particularly drawings, look better on the stone than on the impression afterward made from the stone. partly this may be due to the color of the stone which softens the picture, because an impression made on yellow paper resembling the stone color looks very much like the drawing on the stone. but the great cause of the difference is that the color does not transfer itself to the paper with the degree of strength and clearness that it possesses on the stone. that this perfect degree can be attained, none the less, there are many successful impressions to prove. if the plate is well designed and well prepared, it will take the color well and clearly, but the printer may apply too much or too little, the color may be too hard or too soft, or, even if the stone is properly inked, the paper may accept color poorly or be too damp or dry. chiefly, however, it is the press, according to my experience, that most affects the quality of an impression. in most lithographic presses the printing is done by the so-called scraper. this is a thin slat of hard wood, mostly maple, pear, or boxwood. it is one line thick on the side intended to do the printing, and the mechanism of the press forces it on the paper, which is on the stone and covered with an overlay of waste paper and tensely stretched leather. this pressure forces the color against the paper along the whole length of the slat, and only one line broad. the scraper is forced bit by bit over the entire plate, or it remains motionless and the plate is drawn underneath it. it will be observed that this kind of press does not produce the entire impression vertically and at once as in book-printing, but that it is successive, as in copper-plate printing, with the difference that the copper-plate press uses a roller instead of a scraper. as the scraper must be pressed down with great force (often as much as sixty and more hundredweight) and must pass over the leather with this immense pressure, there is a tremendous friction, and despite the fact that the leather is tensely stretched and lubricated with fat, it is considerably pulled and strained by the scraper. this pulling and straining communicates itself to the paper under the leather. thus all the lines of the design become a little bit squashed in the direction described by the scraper. if, however, the leather is very good and very tensely stretched in the frame, if it is well lubricated, and if the printing-paper with its underlay is not too wet, the pulling is inconsiderable so that scripts and drawings in broad effects are not affected noticeably. drawings in detail, however, and crayon work wherein there is hardly a perceptible space between the dots, are so affected by the slightest displacement that they produce a smeared, sooty impression. the scraper has a second fault. if the paper has impurities, it injures the scraper readily. a groove scratched into the scraper will prevent any further good impression if the injury is considerable, because it will leave a streak. the only remedy is to take the scraper off and plane it, fashioning it accurately to the surface of the stone. i have tried to remedy this by making a scraper of metal. as this causes even more friction than wood, i laid a strip of strong paper over the scraper, which generally was good for three hundred impressions before it was worn out. then i merely needed to move it forward a bit; so that a strip of paper as long as the scraper and six inches wide was available for some thousands of impressions. the pressure attained with a metal scraper is greater than with wood; but it has the disadvantage that it is hard to print a stone whose surface is not absolutely level, whereas a wooden scraper can be planed to suit any irregularity in the stone. the foregoing shows that a good lithographic press must have these two properties:-- ( ) it must not pull or shift the paper in the least. ( ) it must produce a uniform impression without weak spots or streaks. the other properties it needs in common with other presses, such as:-- ( ) it must be powerful enough to produce the necessary pressure. ( ) it must combine the greatest possible speed with this power. ( ) it must be easily operated, to save the workman. all these qualities combined are not to be found in any press hitherto applied to lithography. ii application of book- and copper-plate presses to lithography if we consider the peculiarities of book and copper print, we find a decided difference between them that affects printing importantly. the letters of book-type are raised, the engraving in copper is depressed. it is evident that the former requires no such power for making impressions as the latter. therefore the presses are so different that copper plates cannot be printed on a book-press and vice versa. now, as the stone combines both the elevated and the depressed principles, the natural idea would be to combine the fundamental principles of both presses as nearly as possible for stone-printing. in book-print, only the types are exposed to the pressure, and in the average printed sheet these are only one fourth part of the entire surface. the remaining white space is not affected at all by the press. in the stone, however, the elevation of any part of a design is so slight that the entire surface is affected, and consequently a stone plate offers four times as much resistance. a book-press therefore would print a stone only if it were arranged for a pressure four times greater. now, for a stone of the size of a letter-sheet the power required to print with one vertical pressure would be five or six hundred hundredweight, a pressure that could be supported only by a thick stone laid very exactly on a perfect foundation. an ordinary copper-plate press increases the pulling of the paper so much in the case of a stone plate that the impression would be worthless. this pulling is not caused, as in the case of the scraper, during the impression itself, as already described, but it is caused before the impression through the endeavor of the cylinder to force the plate along under it. once the stone is under the cylinder, the paper is not pulled noticeably, because the cylinder glides over the leather much more gently and with much less friction than the scraper. this defect might be corrected:-- (_a_) by supporting the cylinder so that it would come down on the stone only at the point where the print is to begin. but as the stone must be drawn pretty well forward for convenience in inking, this would demand that the cylinder be revolved forward and backward again as far as is needed for the impression, which means a great demand on the strength of the printers, not to count the loss of time. (_b_) a second way would be to plane off a piece two inches wide from the cylinder at the point where the impression is to begin. the stone could be forced under this space readily, and when the cylinder revolves, it presses forcibly at once without pulling the paper very much. (_c_) the press might be fitted with iron wheels with cog teeth to engage similar cogs on the cylinder. this would prevent pulling, but the mechanical work would need to be very accurate. (_d_) the best arrangement will be the following: set the upper cylinder so high that the stone can be brought under it without touching. then bring it down with a screw, or better still, with a lever that can be operated by the foot. the first figure in the plate showing presses represents about how a copper-plate press is to be fitted for this work. on the whole, this is an ordinary copper-plate press, but the upper roller is set with its two axles or spindles in two iron levers, each of which is fastened to a piece of wood with iron screws one inch thick. each of these pieces of wood is covered with strong sheet iron and can be adjusted higher or lower with two screws or with underlay of pasteboard. this is necessary that the press may be adjusted to varying pressures. the two other ends of the two levers, in which the cylinder sits, can be raised or lowered, so that the cylinder also can rise or sink. now two springs or two weights are so adjusted that the cylinder with the levers always remains elevated. to force it down on the stone, an iron beam enters both sides of the press with two pegs so adjusted that when the beam is turned ninety degrees the levers are depressed at least two inches. as the cylinder is about in the middle of the two levers, it will thus be depressed one inch, which suffices to permit the stone to pass under it freely while it is elevated and gives the greatest pressure when it is depressed. however, the upper cylinder must not be one inch distant from the stone, but at the most only one fourth inch, for the remaining space of three fourths inch is required to provide margin for the elasticity of the various materials, and also to give margin for increased pressure whenever demanded. on one end of the iron beam with the two pegs is an arm or lever which is joined to a thin stick with a treadle. this tread is so arranged that it remains elevated of itself. if the pressure is to reach sixty or more hundredweight, it must not be fastened directly to the treadle, but a second lever is required which is affixed to the side of the press. without going into tedious detail i cannot further describe this press. mechanicians will understand me readily and perhaps be able to add many improvements. my belief is that a copper press so arranged would diminish all danger of squashing and pulling the impression, furnish powerful pressure, permit overlays of felt or fine cloth, and make possible considerable facility and celerity, which is a great advantage, because impressions always are better if too much time is not lost between inking and printing. to safeguard the stone against cracking in such a press, the following points are to be noted:-- ( ) the stone must be ground very true on the under side as well as the upper. ( ) both cylinders must be perfectly true, and care is to be taken particularly that one cylinder is not thin toward the middle and the other thick, as this would easily crack the stone lengthwise. the board on which the stone rests must be equally true and uniformly thick. at the same time it must be very thin, only one half inch thick at most. it will get very heavily squeezed during the printing, and the more the impression approaches the centre, the more concave will it become. the parts farthest from the point of pressure then resist unduly if the board is thick, and thus become the chief cause of cracking the stone. if the rollers are very true and the stone is very uniform, it is almost impossible to crack it if it is passed between the two rollers without a board underneath. if the board is thin, it is as if it were not there. i believe that competent mechanicians can improve the present presses greatly. iii lithographic presses used hitherto most owners of lithographic printeries have tried their hands at inventing presses, but in the end it has always been something based on the scraper or the cylinder principle. i myself have made more than twenty designs. some were very useful and had advantages either in power or convenience, but generally were handicapped by some defect, so that i cannot even say with certainty which was the best of them all. so much depends on the mechanic's execution of one's plans, and a perfect design can be so spoiled by a workman that it is worthless. i will, however, recount the best that has been done so far for lithography. in munich two kinds of stone presses are mostly used. they are:-- ( ) the lever press, or, as the workmen generally call it because of its form, the gallows press. ( ) the cylinder or so-called star press, the latter term being used because a star-shaped lever is commonly used instead of a crank to turn the rollers. i have tried and found good the following:-- ( ) a press with double levers. ( ) a gyrating or sliding press. i know also-- ( ) the roller press used by herr andre. ( ) and the press of herr steiner in vienna. herr müller in karlsruhe and herr ackermann in london have a press with paper cylinders the construction of which is unknown to me. iv the lever press this was the first press that i used with advantage, and it is used still in munich in all important establishments for work that demands speed particularly. it would be an excellent printing-machine in all respects if it did not have the defect that its power cannot be increased much more than six hundredweight without forcing the workmen to undue exertions. therefore it is no longer available for large plates or for works that require immense power. it is very good for pen designs not larger than a letter-sheet, and two workmen, one to ink-in and the other to print, can produce twelve hundred impressions in a day without hardship. the pressure is produced by a lever six to twelve feet long, fastened to the scraper below and to a spring (an elastic board) above. it is connected with a tread, and when forced down, presses with the desired force on the scraper and so on the plate. the board holding the lever overhead must be partially movable like a spring because the lever describes a part of a circle on the plate below. hence the pressure at the beginning and end of the impression is not so great as in the middle, and great care in choice of wood and manufacture is demanded to give the spring board the necessary elasticity and power combined. i have found a board of young dried pine the best, the dimensions being six feet long, eight inches wide, and two inches thick, provided that the fibres all ran lengthwise. it is not always possible to find a good board at once. often i have found that the difference between two boards made a great difference in the effectiveness of two presses otherwise exactly the same. the scraper arm consists of two parts, of which the shorter one, to which the scraper is fastened with a screw, is only one and one quarter feet long. the other part is as long as the height of the press permits. the higher a lever press is, the better is it, because then the circular motion described by the scraper wood approaches a straight line more and more, so that the press exercises a more uniform pressure during all stages of the impression and is easier to handle. the second illustration shows this kind of press in the moment when the impression has been finished, the printing-frame opened, and the scraper arm swung back again. the printing-frame is much like a book-printing frame, and is furnished inside with a second small frame which holds the paper, being furnished with small springs or strings. when the frame has been turned over the stone, the paper must be at least half an inch from the stone to avoid smutting, which will occur if it touches. the paper must not touch the stone till pressure is applied, and then only on the spot pressed downward by the scraper. as soon as both parts of the scraper arm are in a straight line, so that they form practically one piece, the scraper wood is pulled down and the printer draws it toward himself over the printing-frame and the stone plate. at this time the following is to be observed:-- ( ) both parts of the arm must be so fastened to each other that they may be bent like a knee, but once they are straight in line, they must stay in that position. it is well, therefore, so to adjust the parts that they will not be directly over each other, but rather exceed a straight line under pressure, and bend a little inward. the position of the scraper must be considered also. on the whole the following rule holds good: the point where both parts are united with a nail or a screw must not be in a perfectly straight line between the point where the scraper rests and the point where the arm is fastened above, but should be at least two and a half inches forward of that point. otherwise the arm may spring outwards toward the workman and injure him severely. the third illustration shows the construction of the scraper arm and the scraper. ( ) the arm must be grasped as low as possible when being drawn toward one's self, in order to diminish the danger of springing outward. ( ) the workman must press his body tightly to the table of the press to get proper leverage. standing free, a man of moderate strength could not move the scraper at all when the pressure is on, but a man standing in correct position can do it without difficulty. ( ) under very heavy pressure the inker-in, who stands on the other side of the press, can help by pushing. the scraper is a piece of pear wood as long as the size of the plate demands. its height is about four inches, its thickness one inch. the end that rests on the leather is trimmed down so that it has a thickness of only one line. this end must be especially true and planed to fit the stone, also neatly rounded off. it should be so fastened to the arm that it may be adjusted to the position of the stone. the stone does not always lie truly horizontal in the press, sometimes because it is not uniformly thick, sometimes because the underlay is not quite even, and sometimes because the press itself has been a little strained. if the scraper has been made properly, it will adjust itself to the stone, even if the scraper arm is not quite plumb on the stone, a condition that often occurs with small work, such as titles and other things that are at the end of a stone. ( ) for every press a number of scrapers of different dimensions must be in stock. generally a lever press is so made that the printing-frame can be raised or lowered according to the thickness of the stone. then the scraper must be changed accordingly. ( ) the connection of the upper board with the tread is made by a thin stick that is fastened to a lever below, by means of a small iron piece which contains several holes that serve to adjust the height of the tread according to need. ( ) the leather in the printing-frame is strong calfskin. it must be stretched very evenly and tensely and must be smeared from time to time very thoroughly with tallow. ( ) on the outer side of the frame there are four wooden strips that can be adjusted as desired. one serves to show the point where the impression is to begin. another shows where it is to end. both must be so strong that they can resist the scraper. the other two are adjusted at the sides and guide the scraper. v the cylinder presses when herr professor mitterer installed a lithographic institution for the feyertags-schule, the lever press appeared to him to demand too much labor, especially when powerful pressures were desired. he invented the so-called cylinder or star press, which has its place in most establishments, especially those in other countries. it has had minor changes made in it by many persons, but on the whole, nobody has succeeded in improving it notably, except for a considerable improvement made by herr mitterer himself. my description will include this improvement. the cylinder press might almost be called a reversed lever press. herr mitterer borrowed from it the idea of effecting the impression with a scraper, but he did not let it move over the plate, as in the lever press. he gave the scraper a fixed, immovable position while the stone was drawn through underneath, thus making his press resemble a copper-plate printing-press somewhat. illustration number shows this machine in the moment when the impression has been made. in the middle of the machine is a cylinder ten to twelve inches thick and as long as the breadth of the press. it has strong iron spindles that revolve in well-lubricated brass bearings. above the cylinder is a board on which is fastened the stone with the printing-frame. the scraper is on a strong lever that is held up by a counterpoise. when everything is ready for printing, the scraper is forced down. by means of a strong iron hook it engages the treadle and thus can be pulled down with the utmost tension. then the cylinder is turned by means of two levers affixed to the crank, and this draws the stone and printing-frame through under the scraper. one workman alone can do this under ordinary pressure, but an appliance at the other end of the press enables a second workman to help. vi gyrating scraper and double lever presses i have already mentioned the gyrating scraper press. i have improved it considerably. it has the form of the ordinary lever press, but all the parts can be much lighter. for instance, the lever is only one and a half inches thick. the spring (the elastic board) is very elastic and need exert a pressure of only one hundred pounds. the little scraper is only an inch long and presses on the plate with a force of fifty pounds. the press is useful for very thin stones that might crack under greater pressure. the pressure, nevertheless, is great, because it is all exerted on such a small area. the press has two defects. it is easy to miss many parts of the design with the small scraper, and the paper is likely to stick to the leather, producing poor register. i have obviated these faults with the following invention: a large scraper is fastened to the lever to press on the plate with a force of one hundred pounds. a small one is fastened to this in such a manner that it can be moved to and fro easily. while one workman rubs to and fro with the small scraper, another draws the entire stone and printing-frame slowly along under the large one. if good underlays are used in addition, this process will produce beautiful work that cannot be produced so well with any other machine. however, a large field is left in this form for improvement. the fact that the concentric motion produced by a single lever can be transformed into an almost straight motion by use of a second lever, led me to design a double lever press, which has turned out very successful, giving great force with speed. as its description would demand much space, and since on the whole it ranks equally with the improved cylinder press, i offer to send models to those who desire to have everything useful for the art. vii the other stone printing-presses the cylinder press of the chemical printery in vienna would, without question, be of excellent service for the art if it were more powerful. its construction is as follows: the stone is fastened to a table with the printing-frame which has fine felt instead of leather. to make the impression a brass cylinder eight inches thick is rolled over it. as this cylinder would not produce enough pressure from itself, despite its massive make, two iron beams are fastened to the axles. they pass through the table and are fastened to a box that contains iron or leaden weights. unfortunately the space prevents the use of more than five or six hundredweights, and this is too little for the large surface of the cylinder, thus forbidding any sharp, clear impressions. this kind of press could be greatly improved if it were built higher to give more room below for weights, or the beams could be lengthened and passed through the floor into a lower room, thus giving space enough to add weights up to fifty and more hundredweight. the press of herr andre is much like this, except that its cylinder is only three inches in diameter and that it is forced on the stone not with weights, but with a lower cylinder that presses upwards. it prints fast, like the other, but does not possess enough power. in conclusion, i must remark that the concentration of ideas caused by writing this chapter has led me to begin experiments toward making a lithographic press which shall leave nothing to be desired. as soon as my affairs permit, i shall execute this on a large scale, and if the result fulfills my hopes, it will be a pleasure to describe it accurately to all friends of my art, or to furnish them models at cost. part ii concerning the various methods there are two principal methods of stone-printing, relief and intaglio. in the former, the fatty parts of the stone are not attacked by the etching fluid, while the rest of the stone is dissolved more or less. therefore the fatty places are left in relief. in the second method, the design is either engraved into the stone with a sharp steel instrument or etched-in with acid. the relief method has the advantage of greater speed and, generally, a greater number of impressions. it is easy for the artist to apply, especially in crayon work. the intaglio, however, makes possible finer and more powerful work, and again, in many cases, is the easier of the two for the artist. therefore it is impossible to say in a general way which is the better. it depends on the work to be done. chapter i relief method to this method belong principally: (_a_) brush and pen designs; (_b_) the crayon method; (_c_) the transfer method; (_d_) the wood-cut method; (_e_) a sort of scraped style; and (_f_) spatter-work. i brush and pen work this is one of the best in lithography, and perhaps the best, because it touches daily needs most directly. it can be used not only for all kinds of writings, but also for illustration that does not demand the supreme perfection of copper plate. the ease of manipulation, the speed and the almost countless number of impressions recommend it especially. it may even be prophesied that in future, when true artists have become better acquainted with it, it will be used for high forms of art. much as this method has to recommend it, it has been used mainly for script and music, and it is difficult to gain adherents and followers for it. the reason is an apparently trivial thing, but it has made most artists averse to it. since stone-printing exists i have found only two persons who could do anything with the steel pen at the first attempt. these were my brother klemens, and a herr porner, who works now in the establishment of herr müller in karlsruhe. all others have had to struggle more or less with this slight trouble, and yet it does not demand more than a few days of patience and study. for pen work one must not be too particular in selecting stones, as the less perfect ones are more available for this than for any other method. however, the general rule holds good here, too, that the purest and hardest stones are best. if they have been used previously, so that the fatty inks have penetrated pretty well, they still need not be ground too deeply, but it will suffice to grind them merely till all depressions and elevations of the previous design have vanished. they may be ground with sand or pumice, so long as they are made smooth so that no roughness can be perceived. the smoother and finer the surface is, the easier will it be to work on it with the pen. to design well on stone with chemical ink, the stone must be prepared after grinding so that the ink shall not flow and spread. dissolve one part of tallow in three parts of oil of turpentine and coat the dry stone very quickly. with a clean rag or tissue paper wipe it at once so thoroughly that the coating vanishes again almost entirely, leaving only a thin film that can be easily devoured and removed when the etching fluid is applied later. it is well to do this some hours before beginning work on the stone, partly to give the turpentine odor time to evaporate and partly because it is easier to work after a little while than immediately after coating the stone. the stone can be prepared far in advance, even so long as some months before using. in that case it is necessary merely to clean the dust away with a cloth or fine brush. this should be done anyway at intervals during the work, or it will clog the pen. i prefer another way of preparing the stone for designing, because it is one that insures the stone against containing any hidden preparation, which can easily occur in grinding owing to carelessness or uncleanliness on the part of the workman, especially if many old plates are being reground, when the gum which most of them contain from previous use will mix with water during grinding and thus form a partial preparation of the stone. i coat the plate with strong soap-water containing many soapy particles, and dry it off as well as possible. now, there will be too much alkali on the plate, which will not be good for fine work. i pour a few drops of clean water on the stone, make it quite wet with this and dry it again thoroughly. the fat of the soap will then have precipitated itself on the stone and at the same time has lost all alkali. the soap-water must not be too thin, as in that case it will precipitate too much fat on the plate at once and the etching fluid will not be able later to destroy it properly. this would mean the total destruction of the design. to make quite sure, i advise beginners, after applying soap-water and drying it, to coat the stone with the tallow and turpentine solution, clean it quickly, and thus be absolutely assured that the plate is thoroughly prepared for the design. it must not be imagined that this preparation for work is not very important. i am convinced that less depends on the quality of the ink than on a surface freed from all acid and mucous substances and provided with a sufficient amount of fat. on the stone thus prepared the rough design may be done with lead crayon or red chalk or by tracings or transfers. any surplus of lead or red chalk would make trouble during the succeeding completion of the design with chemical ink, and must be removed carefully. if the design has been laid on by transfer, the resultant fattiness must be lightly rubbed away with a fine sand, but not so as to injure the design. this method, of first drafting the design on paper with soft chemical transfer ink and then transferring to stone, offers such advantages that it pays to practice it. care must be taken to remove all surplus of color, as otherwise all lines that should not appear will resist the etching fluid and gradually show again. those who fear destruction of the design by the use of sand can effect the same purpose by printing off on clean waste paper a few times, or the design may be printed off on paper before being transferred, thus cleansing it of surplus fat. when the design has been laid on the stone clean and strongly with chemical ink, the plate can be etched and prepared, but not till the whole design is perfectly dry, because otherwise it cannot resist the action of the fluid. the parts finished first usually are dry long before the entire work is finished. a trained eye can recognize the proper degree of dryness from the sheen, which varies with different kinds of ink, but on the whole is always duller when the design is dry than while it still is wet. it is highly necessary that the design be thoroughly dry. it is possible to keep a designed plate for years without etching it, so long as it is protected against injury. etching is done in two ways, painting the fluid on and pouring it on. the former method is less circumstantial, but is used only in coarser work, because there is always danger of damaging delicate parts of the design. it has the advantage, however, that any dirt caused by corrections will be removed. a mixture of three or four parts of water with one part of aquafortis is painted over the stone with a soft brush of fox- or badger-hair. the brush must be dipped continually because the fluid loses its power. for the second method the stone is placed in a large wooden trough or box, provided with cross-pieces to keep the stone from the bottom. the acid, thinned down with thirty or forty parts of water, is poured over it. it is rather immaterial how much one may dilute the acid. very weak solutions simply mean that the pouring must be repeated oftener. the fluid acts on stones according to their degree of hardness. regard must be had, too, to the delicacy of the design, very fine lines being unable to resist etching that does not affect coarse lines. only slight experience is needed to recognize the effect of the acid. by looking at the stone sidewise and against the light, the growing elevation of the design can be perceived easily. when the fatty coating caused by the soap or turpentine wash has been etched away completely, and the water adheres equally everywhere, the stone generally is sufficiently etched to be ready for preparation and printing. for the sake of easier printing, and also so that future grinding and any desired improvement may be done on the stone, there should be a little more etching, if the design is not too delicate. but if the design is very fine, the etching absolutely must not be more than strictly necessary, because the fine lines might easily be eaten away. coarser designs can bear strong etching which often may reach the depth of a thick paper. but an inordinate amount of etching is not to be recommended, even if the design can bear it, because the edges of a deeply etched line are rough and take the color so strongly that it works into the cavities and is very hard to get out. when the stone has been properly etched, clean water is poured over it to wash away the free acid. then the work of preparing the plate with a solution of gum arabic in four or five parts of water can begin at once, or the stone may be set aside to dry, thus giving the finer parts of the design, that may have been most affected by the acid, time to adhere again to the stone and soak in, which can occur only in the dry state. this is entirely unnecessary with most pen drawings, but with brush and especially with crayon work it is of great value. when the stone has been prepared with gum, it is set aside to rest for a few minutes. then pour a few drops of water and exactly the same quantity of oil of turpentine on it, spread it in all directions uniformly and wipe the entire design off clean with a woolen rag. hard ink, especially if it has been on the stone for some time, is more difficult to remove and a little more turpentine is required. the stone should now be inked-in at once, because the turpentine, and with it all the fattiness, is liable to extensive evaporation, and then the stone will not take color well. inking-in of the pen designs is done as follows: a clean linen or woolen rag is soaked in clean water and wrung out till it is damp rather than wet. this is passed over the whole stone so that it becomes a little wet everywhere. immediately after this dampening, the well-inked printing-roller is passed to and fro over the plate several times. the roller must be lifted frequently during this work so that the points of contact change. to lay the color on well and quickly, the roller should be held rather firmly in the beginning, well pressed down and used with a certain rubbing motion that will tend to lay color on the design sideways, so to speak. then the roller must be allowed to roll to and fro a few times without much pressure, to spread the color and take away any surplus. do not roll too long, till the stone dries, because then it will take dirt immediately. should this occur, it must be wiped instantly with the damp cloth till it is clean again. if dirt is left too long, it will be extremely hard to remove. beginners usually wet their plates excessively to counteract this trouble of drying during the inking-in. this results in wiping away fine strokes, and the roller gets so wet that no good impression can be made till it has been dried sufficiently again. for this reason beginners should not use bath-sponge, because, though it is excellent, it leaves too much water on the stone unless one knows exactly how to use it. some printers put a little gum, others a little aquafortis into the water to wet the stone. others use stale beer, or even urine. i consider all this unnecessary, if the stone has been prepared correctly and the color is good. i have described the ink-rollers. i repeat that they must be uniform, soft, and elastic. as to the inking-in color, i am not able yet to lay down a strict rule. all that i can say, as a result of my experiments and experiences, is:-- ( ) the firmer the varnish in a color is, the cleaner is the work of inking-in. ( ) the same is true the more lampblack it contains. but in both cases the finer parts of the work are easily rubbed away, and too much lampblack makes the lines squash the impression. ( ) the toughness or fluidity of the color must bear correct proportion to the power of the press. the harder the varnish, the more power is required in the press. ( ) tough varnish is not so liable to squash under pressure, but if it has once been pressed into the spaces between the lines of the design it is not readily removed by the mere action of the inking-roller, and this causes more and more smutting and, finally, total ruin to the stone. generally when a tough color has adhered too much, there is no other remedy than to clean the stone well with gum and oil of turpentine; and this, if done too often, damages the preparation and makes the impressions continuously poorer. ( ) soft color spreads more readily under pressure, but is removable after each impression by merely dampening the plate. ( ) in using soft color, the paper may be kept damper than with hard colors. ( ) soft as well as hard printing-color, if not mixed with the proper amount of varnish, has the property of producing poor, sooty impressions because of a defect called shading. shading is caused as follows: if a drop of oil falls into a basin of clean water, a part of the oil will spread immediately. now, a stone is wetted before inking-in. after the inking a considerable portion of dampness remains. if the ink is very fluid, it will happen often that a part of it will spread away from the design to the surrounding moisture, producing something that looks like a shadow around every part of the design. this does not occur instantly, as in the case of the pure oil, but gradually, so that it is not as noticeable when the swifter lever press is used as with the slower cylinder press or if the workmen are slow. if a stone can be dampened so exactly that with the last touch of the ink-roller the last vestige of dampness is removed, this is not likely to happen. but it is difficult to arrive at such accuracy. it is better to add enough lampblack gradually to the varnish to make it lose its elasticity, when the shading effect will cease. ( ) while shading is obviated largely through enough intermixture of lampblack or other coloring substances to take away the fluidity of the printing-color, this intermixture will cause other troubles. the finer places will not take the harder color so well, whereas at other places too much will be taken. also an impression made with much lampblack will off-set more than one made with color in which varnish predominates. neither will the impressions be so black. experience teaches that a printing-color that has less lampblack will be blacker, because the sheen of the varnish will make the color strong and lacquer-like. i have tried to invent a kind of varnish that would not be so liable to shading and thus would permit a greater fluidity with safety, but lack of time has prevented me from exhausting the possibilities. i am sure, however, that it can be done, for i have found that the common linseed oil varnish can be made to lose its property of shading by admixture of fatty and resinous bodies. for instance, the addition of a slight amount of venetian turpentine permits a greater fluidity. very good is the following composition: six parts linseed oil, two parts tallow, one part wax, melted together and thickened by boiling down and burning like the ordinary linseed oil varnish. ( ) the inner composition of the stone and the temperature have a considerable effect on the print and also react on the color. a stone, especially a porous one, has much less internal moisture on very warm, dry days. then the dampening done before each impression often evaporates instantly and unequally, so that it is difficult to ink-in uniformly with a soft color or one lacking varnish, unless one wets the stone unduly, which, again, injures the impressions. in that case one must use a color that is firmer than should be used according to ordinary rule. it is also well, before printing from the stone, to lay it in clean water for a few hours, or overnight, so that it may soak in enough moisture to make it easier to dampen. ( ) if the drying of the printing-color is to be hastened, as is necessary with some work, a little finely powdered mennig may be mixed in. finely powdered litharge of silver dries still better, but only a small amount of printing-color must be mixed with it, because it toughens within an hour. it will not keep for another day, because the mennig will dissolve after a while. in printing from the pen design, the following must be observed:-- even if the stone has been inked-in uniformly and well with a good color, the impression can be spoiled in various ways: if the paper has not been dampened as required by the nature of the color and the power of the press; if the pressure is not in proportion to the consistency of the color; if the scraper is not even, and if the leather is not properly stretched. therefore care must be taken in printing pen designs:-- ( ) the paper must not touch the inked design till the scraper forces it down. it is not advisable to lay the paper directly on the stone. it should be in the printing-frame, which, as already described, should be so arranged that it will keep the paper at least one fourth inch away from the stone. ( ) the proper dampening of the paper is not a matter of the greatest importance in pen designs, so long as it is not too wet, in which case it causes squashed impressions, does not take color uniformly, and, if the printing-color is tough, will stick to the stone. in general, the rule holds good that the degree of dampening must be in proportion to the firmness of the varnish, and that a softer varnish permits increased dampening. dampening is done chiefly to soften the paper, and the qualities of the paper dictate the amount necessary to a large extent. ( ) the tension of the press must be more powerful with hard printing-color and carefully graduated with soft color. besides this, it depends-- ( ) on the structure of the scraper. if it is not absolutely uniform and well fitted to the stone, more power is needed. thus the defect often is corrected; but this may make the color squash and spread in other spots, therefore it always is better to correct any defects in the scraper. the sharper the scraper is, the clearer are the impressions, because then the whole force of the pressure concentrates on the smallest area. but usually the scraper soon becomes dull, and then the press must have more power. ( ) insufficient tension of the leather also may produce poor impressions, especially if the color is soft and the paper very wet. therefore as soon as impressions appear blurred and squashed, the leather should be tautened and well lubricated with tallow. now we come to an important matter, namely, the correction of errors. it does not happen often that a drawing or inscription can be made entirely without error, and it would be a great imperfection in lithography if these mistakes could not be corrected at once. errors may be observed before etching or afterward. different ways of making corrections are required. it is very easy to make corrections before etching. if the error is observed as soon as it is made, while the ink still is wet, it may be corrected by merely wiping out the defect with the finger. if the ink is dry, oil of turpentine is required. in each case the ink must be well removed so that it will not resist the etching fluid later. if only tiny spots are defective they can be corrected by delicate use of a sharp eraser. defects that need merely to be destroyed without drawing anything else in their place may be scraped off with a knife or with pumice stone. after the plate is etched, errors demand treatments that differ according to whether a defect or blemish is merely to be removed, whether something else is to be drawn in place of the removed part, or if something has been forgotten and is to be added. the area of the correction also makes a difference. if it is only a matter of removing small defects or places, delicate erasure will do. the same, or polishing with pumice, is done if the area is larger. then the corrected spots must be coated with a mixture of gum and aquafortis, using a soft brush very carefully that it may not touch any of the sound places. if something new is to be drawn in, the process is different. ink-in the stone very clean, and coat it with gum and water that is very thin and delicate. let it dry. then scrape the defective places away very carefully or grind them away by rubbing with pumice stone. coat the spots cautiously with soap-water or oil of turpentine and clean off again as thoroughly as possible. (this coating is not necessary in the case of a few isolated small lines or points.) now draw in your new design with chemical ink, and as soon as this is dry, etch the corrections carefully with a small brush and then prepare with gum. the third case, where something has been forgotten, is treated almost the same way. if it is only a very small thing, the stone need merely be scraped carefully. then the drawing may be put in, preferably with a thicker ink. if the area is large, the stone must be ground where the design is to be added, coated with soap-water or oil of turpentine, and then treated as explained before. when the stone has been corrected and prepared for printing, it can be used at once or set aside for some length of time. in the latter case it should be inked with a firm color and coated delicately with gum solution. then it can be held as long as desired. coating with gum solution is advisable not merely for storing away, but for every interruption of printing that lasts more than five minutes. if a stone has stood longer than a day without being freshly inked, it must be wiped off first of all with gum solution and oil of turpentine, that it may take the color well, so that the very first impression may be perfect. during the progress of printing, the following points are important: uniform distribution of water, the same of printing-color, frequent inking of the inking-roller, and the very greatest speed possible. in the main points the brush process is like that of the pen. the chief difference is that it is not possible to make the brush strokes as strong as those with the pen. therefore, brush work does not resist etching so well and must not be treated too powerfully. much depends on the treatment of the brush and the consistency of the ink. the brush does not permit such a flow of ink as does the pen, and generally requires one that is more fluid. a good brush ink is made as follows:-- mix two parts of pure white wax and one part of good tallow soap into a mass not larger than a hazel nut. the ink loses its good properties quickly and should be made fresh day by day. mix the two materials with a thick knife on a lukewarm (but positively not warm) stone, separate into small parts and moisten with rain water. as soon as the water has softened the mass a trifle, add as much lampblack as will lie on two knife points and mix the whole mass together once more till it is thoroughly mixed and quite firm. when required, a bit of this is rubbed down in a clean saucer with rain water. as a better flow of ink is needed for brush work than for pen work, it is evident that it would not be requisite to treat the stone with soap-water and oil of turpentine, as for pen work. however, it often pays to make certain fine lines with the pen, and therefore it is better to combine both processes and prepare the stone as for pen work. it is well, however, after drying the coating, to rub it very gently with dry sand, which will not make the pen strokes flow to any extent and still will prepare the stone so that it will take the brush strokes well and not make necessary such strong etching. if a brush design is to be etched in high relief, for ease in printing or for durability, it must be etched only to the extent absolutely required at first. then it must be prepared with gum and inked-in with good acid-proof color. set it aside for a while, that the color may concentrate so that it will resist the acid well, and then etch the stone to the desired degree. after etching, wash with water, coat with gum and put aside to dry. owing to this latter procedure any fine parts that may have been unduly affected by the acid will adhere to the plate anew and it can be printed then like a pen design. if pen and brush work are to be combined on a stone, and absolute certainty is desired, that even the very finest lines shall not suffer from etching, the following process will serve:-- over the cleanly ground plate pour a solution of weakened but pure aquafortis, about forty parts of water to one part of aquafortis. repeat this several times. then pour a great deal of water over the stone, to wash off all acid, and let it dry. pen as well as brush work is easy on such a stone, by using the proper ink for each method. when the work is finished and dry, the stone is merely coated with gum solution. after a few minutes it can be inked-in with acid-proof ink and treated as described before. ii the crayon method the fat of the chemical ink penetrates the stone in dry form as well as in fluid form, and makes the plate receptive to printing-color. if the dry ink is cut into long pieces and sharpened, it can be used much like lead or black crayon. if the stone is ground very smooth, the work can be made quite fine and resembles that done with fluid ink. the crayon, however, wears away too quickly. if the stone is ground rough, so that instead of a polished surface it has one resembling rough paper, the crayon work appears as a mass of dots that are coarser or finer according to pressure with the crayon, and produce an effect similar to crayon designs on paper. as almost every artist and painter knows how to use crayon, no particular practice is required for working on stone, and there are no obstacles such as the difficulty of using the steel pen. that crayon work on stone is capable of high perfection, and that it can represent the essentials of a painting in a manner scarcely to be excelled by the best copper-plate engraver, has been demonstrated by many successful productions. add to this that in no other style can one work equally fast, either on copper or stone, and we see that the crayon method is a genuine advantage for the art. for crayon work the stones must be uniform and hard. they must either be new, or, if they have been used, they must be ground so thoroughly that all traces of fat are destroyed and removed absolutely to a degree where it is certain that they will not appear again and take color, even if the stone is etched only lightly. as soon as the plates have been ground true, they must be grained by strewing some fine sand or powdered sandstone on them and rubbing in all directions with a small piece of limestone. the work can be done dry or wet. soap-water is best. it gives the stone a handsome grain. practice is demanded to get good results without scratching the stone. the artist must decide for himself what grain he needs. i think that it would be good if the artist himself were to grain the stone in varying degrees according to the need of his design. for instance, a coarser grain might be good for foregrounds. as soon as the stone has been grained, it must be cleansed perfectly from dust and dirt. it is best to pour clean water over it and wash it with a clean rag. the dust and sand must all be removed, otherwise they will not let the crayon reach the stone where it is used delicately. when the design is finished, it should be set aside for a day, that it may take good hold of the stone. it does no harm to let plates rest for years before etching. etching must be done by pouring. painting the etching fluid on is dangerous because of the danger of taking away fine spots. about one hundred parts of water are used to one part of aquafortis. everything depends on not etching a bit more than necessary. it is best to etch the coarser parts specially with a small brush and stronger etching solution, and it is very good to wash the stone with clean water after etching and let it dry completely before coating with gum. when the stone has been prepared, it should not be cleansed at once with oil of turpentine, but should be inked-in first with a light printing-color. only after it has taken this well should it be cleansed of the crayon and treated to a firmer color. in the first inking-in there should be very little pressure with the sponge or wet cloth when dampening it, as the lightest parts of the design are easily rubbed away before they have taken color. if such parts should vanish, the easiest way to restore them is as follows:-- coat the plate with gum solution and wipe with a clean dry cloth till it is perfectly dry. then take a flat, knife-like instrument of steel, which is cleanly ground so that it has no nicks or other defects that might injure the stone. scrape with moderate pressure to and fro over the defective places, but only so that it touches the elevated points and not the surface of the stone itself. smear a little fat, such as linseed oil varnish, over it and wash this away again instantly with gum solution. generally the parts all reappear very nicely when the stone is inked-in again. a second kind of correction is as follows: ink the stone with firm color, wash it well with plenty of pure water and let it dry. now redraw the lost places with crayon. printing crayon work is the most difficult of all lithography, but can be done perfectly if all necessary precautions are taken. these are mainly: (_a_) proper dampening of the paper; (_b_) perfect dampening of the stone;--too much meaning that the fine points will not take color well, too little making the stone smut easily; (_c_) good stretching of the leather, industrious lubrication, and an underlay of taffeta; (_d_) a good, finely mixed inking-color that will not shade off in printing and yet does not contain too much lampblack; (_e_) soft and well-dried ink-rollers; (_f_) proper tension of the press; (_g_) utmost possible speed in printing. the latter aids enormously, because the stone does not get so much time to dry out. aside from the spreading and running-together of the darker parts, one of the commonest faults of crayon work is that it is very liable to get a tone, which spreads over the whole design like a veil; or that the designs lose their firmness and appear "monotonic" because the shadings spread and thicken. the first fault comes from weak etching or from oil that was rancid when it was used to prepare the varnish. the latter fault makes the color adhere and smut the stone. the same fault is developed if the printing-color contains soap, which some printers mix into it for better adherence. it can occur also if the stone has lost its preparation owing to frequent cleansing and strong rubbing with a dry rag that is inky. even strong rubbing with clean water can cause it if the rag contains fats. as to the "monotonic" effect, it is frequent, and i have learned that it can be caused in two ways, namely, if the color is squashed continually during the print, which makes the stone sooty; or if the color spreads, as, for instance, during the night or during the noonday rest. the stone is prepared only on the surface. in the pen style, all lines are prepared on the sides also, so that they cannot spread because they are considerably more elevated than the crayon designs. if a crayon design dries after printing and is not coated properly with gum, the color is liable to spread away from the design and give the plate the before-mentioned tone. even if it is coated with gum, the color will spread, at least in the inner parts of the stone; and as soon as the very thin surface has been at all wiped away by rough usage, the underlying fattiness will appear gradually, and begin to take color. both faults of crayon work, namely, the taking of tone and the development of a "monotonic" condition, can be remedied by inking the plate for a while with a firmer color. if this does not help, the following must be resorted to: ink-in the plate as well as possible, lay it in the etching-trough and pour over it very weak aquafortis once or twice. then wash it with pure water and paint the gum solution over it. the etching must be done with great caution, with a solution so weak that the acid is scarcely perceptible. if the plate is to be saved at all without extensive corrections and re-drawing, this is the best way. if it is done correctly, it harms the design so little that i advise it even when the plate looks quite well, but has been standing very long after the first printing. i have etched several crayon designs over again, and rather extensively, to make them more durable and facilitate printing, and with good success. this gives the further advantage that corrections can be made at the same time. the correction of crayon designs, that have been etched already and used for printing, always has been so difficult a task that few have succeeded. this has led me to give the matter my best attention; and i hope that the following rules, based on many experiments, will show the way, at least, even if they do not produce absolute results. when a copper-plate engraver has partially finished his plate, he can have a proof pulled to enable him to study his work. then he can make corrections as he pleases,--an advantage that the stone worker has lacked hitherto. to produce an impression that shall be faithful to all the beauties of a crayon design is a matter dependent on so many trivial details that of the many hundred crayon designs that have been produced by lithographers since the origin of the art, hardly one has realized the designer's hopes and ambitions. the commonest fault is that the more delicate parts of the design print too light and the heavier ones too dark, thus destroying the balance of tones. the lightening occurs because the finest parts of the design have lost their power of taking printing-color. the darkening occurs because the closely shaded parts flow together, either because the etching has not made enough white space between the points and lines or because they are squashed in the pressure of printing. from this, two other faults may arise, that become visible after inking-in the plate: the first is the appearance of white dots, sometimes pretty large. the second is that black dots and smut-marks appear. the white dots are caused by speaking during the work, and thus dropping spittle on the plate. if the spittle is mucous, the plate covers itself there with a fine crust that resists the chemical crayon so that it does not soak into the stone and is wiped away by the inking-in. if the spittle is fatty,--for instance, if one has eaten anything greasy,--the dots that appear will be black. the same results from touching the plate with fatty hands. sometimes a whole picture of the fingers and skin will appear on the impression. let us suppose that after inking-in, a plate shows all these faults: the finest shadings vanished entirely, the darker places run together, white and black dots and smut-marks so that the plate has become useless in every respect. can this be remedied? if so, how? i answer that it can be remedied in every point; but that the artist himself must decide if it will not pay better to do the whole design anew. the second question i answer as follows:-- before everything else, it is necessary to remove all that should not be on the stone, all smut-marks and black dots; and where the design has darkened, white points or lights must be graved-in. to accomplish this, the stone is inked-in first with a firm acid-proof color, and over this with a lighter one. then erase or grind away the dirt that is outside of the design and that would dirty the margin of the printing-paper. no erasing or grinding must be done within the design itself because then the grain would be destroyed and the necessary drawing could not be done as it should be. therefore the faulty parts must be removed by engraving, with a more or less sharp needle of good steel, so that what remains looks quite like a good grain. a little practice will show that this work is not at all difficult and can be done quickly. places that have run together can be cleared and made transparent and clean in a few minutes. if certain points have become too large, they can be corrected by engraving a white point in their centre or by engraving a line through them. here i must note that parts of crayon designs thicken sometimes because the crayon has slipped in drawing, without leaving traces perceptible at the time. if the etching is weak, it may happen easily that this place takes printing-color. skillful engraving may not only correct the defect, but actually gives the design a beautiful tone and power such as cannot be easily produced by the crayon itself. when the plate has been cleansed thus of all surplus and blemishes, weak aquafortis is poured over it several times and then it is coated with gum. after a few minutes it is inked-in with fairly firm color. then it will be seen that the design is clean, but that all the parts that were too light are not darker, but perhaps even lighter, having been affected by the etching. to remedy this, coat the stone with gum solution and then wipe it off with a dry clean rag so thoroughly that only a thin film of gum remains behind. to judge this better, it is well to mix a little red chalk with the gum. when the plate is wholly dry, take a knife-like tool of steel as described before, and scrape the defective parts under moderate pressure, without injuring the elevated points of the design. great care must be taken during this process to let no moisture, not even the breath, touch the stone, because that would produce the very opposite of what is aimed at. when all faulty places have been treated, a little tallow or linseed oil is smeared over the plate and then washed away well but gently with thin gum and water. if this manipulation has been done accurately, the lost parts of the design will appear when the plate is inked with a somewhat softer color. those who fear that they do not possess the skill necessary for this rubbing-up of the defective parts may attain the object by re-drawing them. the stone must be washed off first with a great deal of very pure water and the crayon must contain much soap. this kind of correction must be finished as quickly as possible and the stone should not be set aside for any length of time without a gum coating. if the corrections are extensive, it is better first to ink the stone well with acid-proof color and then to wash it in pure water and let it dry. then if it is inked-in after the design is finished, and if weak aquafortis is poured over it and it is prepared with gum, it will keep for several months. slight blemishes, white specks, etc., can best be corrected by gentle touching-up with crayon during the proof-printing on the wet plate. it is understood, of course, that one can also work with pen or brush in a crayon design that has been already etched. parts that are too dark can be made lighter by passing over them a few times with a brush dipped in weak aquafortis and then re-coating with gum. these are about the best ways for correcting a crayon design that proves after etching to be imperfect. i close with the following:-- ( ) the tanners of munich manufacture an inking-ball, made especially for printing, of sheepskin, such as i could not obtain in other places, like london, offenbach, and vienna. it is not white like alum-dressed leather, but yellowish, and the oil has not been completely washed out. i have had dogskin and thin calfskin worked in the same way and have found them even better, because of their greater durability. if a roller is covered with this leather, so that the side that was hairy comes outermost (not innermost as many do), it develops a decided property of taking-on color, probably because of its smoothness and elasticity. this aids much in spreading the color uniformly over the stone. the property is increased if the roller is dampened slightly before being inked; but on the contrary, if the stone is kept too wet, the constant moisture will gradually prepare the roller, so to speak, and it will take less color and let it go quickly, thus inking the stone badly. if a roller has been used a long time, it loses its elasticity and softness and becomes useless for fine work. still worse is a roller that has hardened from the drying of the ink. it is surprising to see what a difference it makes if one has worked for a time with a poor roller and then replaces it with a good one. it is almost impossible to believe that the new impressions come from the same stone. i am inclined, therefore, to believe that the quality of the ink-roller has more effect on good impressions of crayon and fine pen work than even the quality of the printing-color. as stated, it is well to change rollers frequently, and it is wise to clean them with linseed oil or butter after use to keep them soft and tender. in working on crayon designs of superior value i advise the use of new rollers. ( ) it has been remarked before that the color of the stone often deceives the artist as to the values and proportions of his work and that the designs always look better on the soft-colored stone than they do on the glaring white paper. this observation led to printing on paper tinted like the stone, and the results fulfilled expectations. there were difficulties however. the very best quality of this paper is extremely dear, and other qualities had the property of dirtying the stone, on account of the coloring-matter used for tinting them. therefore the attempt was made to print the design on white paper and to color it afterwards. here, too, there arose many inconveniences, so that at last there came the thought of laying a yellow tint over the impression by means of a second printing. this method proved to be not only the most economical and quick, but it had the further advantage that the margins of the paper could be left white, thus enhancing the value of the design. hardly had it been used with success a few times before herr piloty conceived the idea of printing the high lights into the design with white printing-color, so that the impressions would resemble actual drawings. my experiments toward that end did not result satisfactorily, because no white oil color will print well enough; and i proposed that the high lights be engraved into the tint plate and thus permit the original white of the paper to show. so there came that kind of crayon impression with one or more tint plates, which has become so popular that various art connoisseurs hold it to be the triumph of the lithographic art. to make and print these tone plates, i have thought out many ways; but as i am sure that they will suggest themselves to those who have grasped my text-book, i will describe only the best of them all. take a stone of good average quality, the best not being essential, and grind it as for crayon work with a grain not too coarse. when it is clean and dry, cover it uniformly with the following chemical ink, which must be laid on so thickly that it surely will resist the aquafortis sufficiently, yet not so very thickly that it will hinder the drawing-in of the lights later on. the chemical ink for use on the tone plates is made of four parts wax, one part soap, and two parts vermilion. the two first materials are melted in a clean vessel over a moderate fire and then the vermilion is stirred in. a piece of ink as large as a hazel nut is rubbed down in a clean coffee cup and then dissolved in rain water till it is just fluid enough to lie evenly and nicely on the plate when applied with a soft brush. when the stone thus has been painted red, it must be permitted to dry thoroughly. when it is dry, a strong impression of the design is made on sized but well-dampened paper with a printing-color rather soft than firm. before the paper has a chance to dry and thus to shrink, the red stone is placed in the press and the impression is laid on it face down. use moderate pressure. the drawing will transfer itself to the red surface, but the paper will stick. wet it with weak aquafortis till it is completely softened and permits itself to be removed. care must be taken not to spoil the drawing by violent wiping and rubbing. this method is easier if a special transfer paper is used. coat well-sized, very clean paper with a thin paste of starch such as laundresses use for stiffening linen. this paper must not be dampened very much, because then it will not take the impression well. it also is removed from the tone plate by washing with weak aquafortis and it yields very easily, because the paste lets go of the color readily. when the design has been transferred to the tone plate, take good iron instruments and remove the wax surface wherever the high lights are desired. as the stone is ground rough, the scraping will produce only small specks at first, because the instrument will touch only the relief points. the more the scraping proceeds, the deeper it will go, till at last one reaches the bottom of the coating and thus obtains a white light. experts can so manipulate the tint plates that the lights will be graduated from the softest to the most glaring. as soon as the lights are drawn in, the margins of the drawing are scraped the same way. then the plate is treated to several washings of pretty strong aquafortis, about twenty parts of water to one part of aquafortis. after coating with gum, it is ready for printing. the most important requisite for this printing is a good arrangement that will insure an exact register of the second impression with the first, that the lights may appear exactly where they belong. to achieve this, the practice used to be to draw two register marks on the stone holding the original design, which were transferred to the tint plate with the rest of the design. when the first impression was made, the printed paper was cut away exactly at the marked points, and laid accurately, on the tone plate, being guided by the two marks there. this was effective, but it had the fault that the paper had to be trimmed off carefully for each impression and that the slightest inaccuracy spoiled the register. however, it is very useful for printing proofs. it is far better to have a printing-frame that is so fixed that it will never shift its position in the slightest degree. to this is fastened a little movable frame that has two steel needles whose position is adjustable at will. lubricate the leather inside with wax and lay a sheet of white paper on it. see that the tint plate is so fastened in the press that it cannot stir out of place. make an impression and take care especially that the two register marks print off well. now set the needles in the little frame so that they will be exactly over these two marks. if, then, an impression of the design is laid on so that the two guiding-marks on it come exactly under the two needles, it will, of course, register perfectly. of course the little frame must be so adjusted that it can be folded back out of the way before each impression, and the printing-frame must hold the sheets of paper so that they cannot move. to color the tint plate, use a firm varnish tinted with umber, or any other color that will give the desired effect. new rollers are best, insuring a fine, even, unspotted tone. ( ) in rough-grinding the stones, it is difficult to prevent scratches and furrows caused by the coarse sand. no design of value should be made on such a stone, but if one is used, the defects should be touched up with chemical ink and a fine brush, as crayon will hardly do it. ( ) as the delicate places in crayon work are not durable, etching having the property of reducing the light portions and darkening the darker ones, i tried the method of drawing the lighter portions on a separate stone in rather stronger manner and printing from it with paler ink. the success was so great that i hope in time to produce true masterpieces with the aid of skilled artists, and here call attention to it in advance. ( ) after learning how to make a second impression over a first one, it is not difficult to pass on to printing with several stones and from that going on to color-printing. in the early days of my invention i tried color-printing with a crayon plate and had the best success by using stencils such as are used by the painters of cards. on oiled stiff paper i made as many impressions of a design as there were to be colors. then all that was to be red was cut out from one stencil, green from another, and so forth. then the stone was wetted, the stencil laid on it and the uncovered parts of the stones inked-in with the right color. after all the colors had been applied, i made the impression, which generally looked neat enough, but still resembled a sketchy drawing rather than a painting, because no color except black, zinc red, and dark blue permitted itself to be printed strongly enough. but by using several stones, each of which can be designed and treated according to the necessities of color, impressions can be made that resemble the english colored copper prints very closely, especially if the crayon and pen or brush methods are united. ( ) a stone plate may be etched so that it will have the roughness needed for crayon work. grind it as clean and smooth as possible with pumice, pour aquafortis over it and coat with gum. wash it well in water and dry with a clean cloth. coat it very thinly but uniformly with tallow into which is mixed a little lampblack, so that one can see if the coating is perfectly even. with a small ball or roller covered with fine cloth, roll or pat the stone till it has a very uniform tone. now pour a little diluted aquafortis on one end as a test to see if it penetrates uniformly through the fatty coating. practice is needed to hit just the right thickness that the tallow coating must be. it must be thin, and yet sufficiently thick to resist the aquafortis somewhat, so that it yields only at those places where the roughness of the cloth on the roller has removed it more or less. if the test is satisfactory, make a raised border of wax around the stone and pour the aquafortis solution on it. a solution of forty parts of water to one part of aquafortis is better than a stronger one because the stones are more equally attacked. as soon as the resulting bubbles are as large as the head of a small pin, the etching fluid is poured away quickly and replaced with pure water to get rid of the bubbles. pour away the water and apply etching fluid again. repeat this four or five times, according to the grain desired, and in the end wash the stone well with oil of turpentine to remove all fattiness. then it must be washed with weak but very pure aquafortis, followed by a great deal of very pure water. after cleaning and drying very carefully with a clean rag, it is ready for use; and if the work has been well done, a grain will have been produced that is prettier and much more even than can be produced by rubbing with sand. ( ) the instructions given here teach how to draw on a stone that has been prepared beforehand with aquafortis and gum. this is not in the least inimical to the durability of the design if only the union of the gum with the stone has been destroyed again by washing afterward with diluted but pure aquafortis and every trace of this acid again has been removed by copious washing with pure water. if there is a considerable amount of the soap in the crayon, the good result will be greater than with an entirely clean stone, because, since it has already been etched twice, the etching after the design may be very limited, so that it is not harmful to even the most delicate shadings in the design. ( ) some attempts made by me to etch crayon designs more powerfully than usual proved that the more delicate places would suffer, but if i rubbed them up with a flat knife as described before, they appeared again and i had the advantage that the whole plate was much better prepared than it is with weak etching. ( ) if a crayon plate is spoiled in printing through carelessness or lack of skill, the rules for remedying the trouble are the same as those named for pen work, and the judgment of the worker must decide which method is the most applicable. in general, it may be assumed that the best remedy for blurred spots is to draw them over again with crayon; and for smutted parts the best is to apply firmer printing-color, or to cleanse with oil of turpentine and gum and afterward ink-in with acid-proof ink, and then use light etching with weak aquafortis followed always by coating with gum and water. iii transfer and tracing in the pen and crayon method all the lines that are to take printing-color are drawn directly on the stone with a fatty preparation. but lithography has a unique way of transferring to the stone a drawing or inscription that is first put on paper with the fatty substance. this is possible only for lithography, and i incline to the belief that it is the most important of all my inventions. it makes it unnecessary to learn reverse writing. everybody who can write on paper with ordinary ink can do so with the chemical transfer ink, and this writing can then be transferred to the stone and manifolded indefinitely. in munich and petersburg this method has been introduced for government work. the measures adopted in council are written during the session by the secretary, with chemical ink on paper, and sent to the printery. within an hour impressions are ready to distribute among the members. i am convinced that within ten years every european government will have a lithographic establishment. in war the method would have a great value. it would replace the field printery, and it permits greater speed and secrecy. the commander need merely write his orders himself and have them printed in his presence by a man who cannot read, to be sure that his plans will not be betrayed. the engineer officers can draw plans and have them circulated among the officers who need them. authors and scientists will find the method to be the means of circulating their works in manuscript very cheaply. even artists will respect the method when its gradual perfection enables them to draw their pictures on paper with ink or crayon and reproduce them. not from boastfulness, but from conviction of the importance of the method, have i thus recounted its advantages. i could fill a whole book with detailed explanations. i wish to gain friends for the method, that it may be improved to its ultimate degree by skilled artists. the chemical ink used for the paper may be soft or firm. the paper may be specially prepared or not. the stone may be warm or cold. the design leaves the paper entirely and clings to the stone, or does so only partly. to describe all this would take too much space. i will describe only the method that i consider best, namely, a method under which the work is done with a soft ink, and transferred to an unwarmed stone. this is the quickest and surest, and has the advantage of not spoiling the original. in a clean coffee cup rub down a piece, as large as a hazel nut, of the chemical ink described under the heading "transfer ink" in an earlier part of this work. dissolve with rain water or soft river water. the amount of water is determined according to the need for fine or coarse work. in the latter case, the ink should be thinner, that there may not be too much ink in the design after it dries. while the writing or design is drying, select a stone that either has not been used before or at least has been thoroughly ground off, and grind it down once more with pure and dry pumice stone without water, until it is certain that all parts of the surface have been rubbed down so thoroughly that the stone may properly be considered a new one. clean away the dust with clean paper, fasten the stone in the press, examine the scraper to make sure that it is even, adjust the press for the proper pressure; in a word, do all that is necessary for good impressions. from this time on the greatest care must be taken not to touch the polished stone with as much as a finger, not to mention keeping grease and dirt away from it. as soon as every point in the design on the paper is perfectly dry, wet it on the reverse side with a sponge dipped into weak but pure aquafortis until the paper is quite soft. lay it between waste paper sheets for a time, to prevent it from pulling out of shape and to remove the excess moisture. it must be soft, but not wet, when the impression is made. lay the paper face down on the stone. on it lay two sheets of dry waste paper, then an equally large piece of taffeta, another sheet of waste paper and make the transfer print with a moderately swift motion of the press, which must have more tension than is used for ordinary impressions. the power of a lever press is insufficient for larger stones, and a cylinder press is required. after a few minutes the stone is withdrawn from the press, the paper is lifted off and the stone permitted to dry for a minute. it is better if one can wait longer. then put it into the etching-trough, and pour over it, quickly and only once, a clean but weak solution of one hundred parts of water to one part of aquafortis. it is necessary to be skillful enough to cover the whole surface with one application. then the stone is washed by pouring pure water over it, and, if time permits, set aside to dry. if time is limited, the gum solution to prepare the stone can be put on at once. now the transfer is on the stone, properly etched and prepared. to make clean impressions, however, the printing-color must first be rubbed on, then the stone must be inked-in with acid-proof color and after that undergo another etching, a trifle stronger. to rub on the printing-color, rub a little acid-proof color into a piece of clean linen or cotton, so that it is well permeated but not thickly covered. rub this rag gently to and fro over the transfer while the gum is still on it, till every part of the design is nicely inked. this rubbing-in of color is an important part of many of the processes that will be described later. now clean the stone well with water, ink-in with acid-proof ink, and etch it again as has been described several times. then it is ready for printing. the last etching is not necessary if only a few impressions are desired. transfer is applicable not only for pen designs but also for crayon. the crayon used for the purpose should be softened a little with tallow, or, if the harder crayon is used, the stone should be warmed when making the transfer. but it must not be inked-in or have color rubbed on, until it is quite cold again. for crayon transfer the paper used generally is fine drawing-paper. it must be wetted with somewhat stronger aquafortis that it may release the crayon more readily. the rest of the process is the same. besides these two methods, the transfer process can be used for all products of the book-printer's art, type as well as wood-cut. a freshly printed sheet can be transferred directly to a stone, especially if the printer has used our before-mentioned acid-proof ink instead of his ordinary printer's ink. to get a perfectly clear transfer it is necessary merely to see that the printer does not use too much overlay, which would stamp the type too deeply into the paper; and that before trying to transfer the printed sheet to the stone it is subjected to gentle pressure in the press to free it from all inequalities. to do this without at the same time risking any loss of ink which might subsequently weaken the transfer, the sheet is well wetted, laid on a clean, wet stone that has been prepared so that it will not have any inclination to take color, and subjected to a very slight pressure, the press being used with almost no tension. this makes the printed sheet beautifully even. then if it is transferred to a stone properly prepared as described before, the transfer will be perfect. even old book pages can be freshened up and transferred. i have spoken already of those that are on unsized paper. with prints on sized paper the method is as follows:-- make a paint-like mixture of fine chalk and starch paste. thin it down with water and paint the sheet. dip a bit of linen rag into a thin color made of thin varnish and tallow tinted with vermilion. touch-up the wet paper with the rag till every bit of type has taken red color. pour clean water over it and touch-up the paper everywhere with a ball of fine cloth stuffed with horsehair. this will remove all surplus color. continue this till the type matter is only faintly red. then the paper must be washed very thoroughly with many pourings of water and laid between waste paper sheets to remove all surplus moisture. the transfer and so on must be done then as in the other cases. good transfers can be made also from a copper-plate engraving if the copper-plate impression is made with our acid-proof ink. the ordinary copper-plate ink is not so good. it will be self-evident that designs on stone can be transferred and reproduced the same way. the tracing process has the property in common with the transfer process that it transmits only a small amount of fattiness to the stone and requires subsequent rubbing-in of color to give it strength. coat a piece of thin and clean vellum paper with tallow and lampblack and wipe it off again as neatly as possible, so that there remains only a thin film, which will not smut the stone when laid face down, unless pressure is exerted. now draw on this with a clean english lead pencil that contains no sand, or with a composition of lead, zinc, and bismuth, and the pressure will force the design on the stone and transfer its fat, which then penetrates the stone and will give impressions. in preparing a stone thus made, greater care in etching is necessary than even in the transfer process. very weak aquafortis solution must be used. the process is something between pen and crayon work. it is quite applicable for sketches and pictures that are to be illuminated. iv concerning the wood-cut style for this purpose, the stone is coated completely with chemical ink on the places where this style is to be used. as soon as it is dry, the lights are drawn into it with a steel engraving-needle that is ground to a sharp or broad point according to requirement. those parts that are to be very white, with fine lines and specks, are best drawn in with the pen. thus the wood-cut style differs from the ordinary pen design chiefly in character and in the treatment of the darker parts. its practice is much easier on the stone than on wood, and it can be combined with crayon work. etching, preparation, and printing are the same as with other styles. v two kinds of touche drawing one of these resembles the wood-cut style in method but in effect approaches copper-plate work. the stone is grained as for crayon, etched, prepared with gum, cleansed with water, coated well with soap-water, wiped, dried, and finally coated with a thin, colored covering of fat, by either coating with acid-proof ink or with hard chemical ink. this first etching and preparation are required to prevent the fat to be applied afterward from penetrating too deeply into the stone, so that it may adhere only to the surface. now the design is made on it with a steel scraper. the manipulation is like that for making tint plates. it demands greater care, however, and better etching. the completed design is etched (phosphoric acid being best) and coated with gum. a few drops of oil of turpentine are poured on and all the color is wiped away with a woolen rag, but without any rough rubbing. then the plate can be inked-in with fairly firm acid-proof ink. the second method would excel crayon work if it were perfected. i have advanced pretty far with it. it is an imitation of the ordinary wash drawing which is done with a brush and dissolved chinese ink on paper. the stone, which must be very clean and free from all fat, is grained, coated with soap-water, cleaned with oil of turpentine, and dried. then a hard chemical ink, which may contain a little more soap than usual, or the ink described for brush work, is dissolved in pure rain water and used on the stone with a brush just as it would be used on paper. when the design is finished and very well dried, the entire surface of the stone is rubbed gently with a fine cloth, in order to perforate the color with tiny holes everywhere. as it will perforate more readily in the parts where the ink has been laid on thinly, the succeeding aquafortis will eat through there more easily, and thus the etching will correspond nicely with the tones of the design. it is necessary, however, to know the strength of the acid and the resisting power of the ink very accurately. it is well to experiment and write down the best proportions. in any case, the etching fluid must not be too strong and the etching must not be done by pouring or brushing, but in the copper etcher's manner, by framing the stone with wax so that the fluid will lie on the stone. as soon as the resulting bubbles reach the magnitude of a pin's head, the fluid is poured off instantly and then poured on again till the bubbles reappear. how long this must be continued depends on the strength of the ink. it is understood, of course, that the etched stone must then be coated with gum. vi the spatter method this speedy and easily executed style surely will come into wide use soon. it is done as follows:-- the outlines of a design are laid on a stone prepared for pen work, by tracing. then they are traced again, say four times, on sheets of paper. on each sheet everything that falls into the category of one of the four chief tones is cut out with a sharp penknife so that the four sheets are like the stencils of card painters. now the chief lines of the design are made on the stone with chemical ink, using either brush or pen. lay one of the stencils on it exactly, weight it that it may not move, and perform the operation of spattering. this is done by dipping a small brush, such as a clean toothbrush, into chemical ink and scraping it with a knife so that the ink is spattered over the stone. care must be exercised not to have too much ink in the brush, for fear of blots or over-large spattering. after practice it will be possible to produce such fine and uniform dots as cannot possibly be produced by the pen. after the desired grade of shading has been achieved, the stone is permitted to dry. then the second stencil is laid on and the operation repeated till all have been used. if enough stencils are made, the whole design can be made by spattering. it is not necessary, however, to make many, as the design has to be finished up by hand afterward anyway. this finishing-up is done first with the engraving-needle, which opens and decreases all dots that are too large, and then with the pen, which brings out the true proportions of the various tones. vii touche with several plates this really is only a process of using many tint plates. it makes splendid effects possible, equal to any produced by an artist with chinese ink, and deserves the attention of all artists, especially as it is the easiest and quickest of all methods, even though it is a little circumstantial in the printing. draw the outlines of a design on the stone in chemical ink with pen or brush, and then make four, five, or six transfers on stone plates prepared for pen work. register marks must be on the design. now draw-in the darkest parts on the first plate, the less dark ones on the second, the lighter ones on the third, and so on till the whole design is finished. the work is best done with a brush. one or more of the stones may be designed with crayon; but the number of stones designed with ink must be greater, in order to make the grain of the crayon designs unnoticeable. the etching is done as in pen work. for each stone the printing-color is chosen according to the tone of its design. of course particular accuracy is vital; but the artist should not permit the apparent difficulties to frighten him, as he will see very soon after trial that no other method produces such beautiful results. viii color-printing with many plates this method, in which the various colors are drawn on several stones, either with pen or crayon, resembles the one just described. according to treatment the impressions will resemble a painting, a copper-plate engraving in color, or an illuminated copper-plate engraving, if the color stones are used merely to lay colors over a design already printed in its entirety in black. the whole process is so like the preceding one that i need merely recount the colors that i have found serviceable for the purpose. red. vermilion, red lake of cochineal, fine madder lake, and finally carmine if it is mixed first with venetian turpentine before being combined with varnish, as otherwise it inclines to separate from the varnish and unite with water, staining the whole printing-paper red. blue. berlin blue and mineral blue. use only a small amount, sufficient for a few hours. these colors dry quickly, and, besides, make the varnish too tough, so that they must be thinned down from time to time with a little linseed oil. fine indigo is very good, also a blue lake that is made of logwood and verdigris. this latter is not durable in sunlight. i have had no success as yet with green or yellow. verdigris is difficult to manipulate because it smuts the stone easily and does not tolerate many mixtures. schweinfurther green, one of the new colors, is much better in all respects, but not dark enough. mixtures of yellow lake with indigo or mineral blue are not very durable. golden yellow ochre with mineral blue or indigo does not produce a pretty green, and king's yellow mixed with blue is handsome but not durable. neapolitan yellow and the newer chrome yellow with blue produce a green that is not dark enough. i have obtained the handsomest and darkest green by printing the design blue first and then printing over it a yellow plate, so that the yellow lay over the blue. by using berlin blue and fine ochre a fairly handsome color is produced. on account of its loss of color in water, ochre cannot be used unless venetian turpentine is first mixed with the varnish. a handsome and at the same time dark yellow is equally hard to obtain. till a good color is invented, we must content ourselves with ochre, terra de sienna, neapolitan yellow, mineral yellow or chrome. this printing with various colors is a process for which the stone is superior; and it is susceptible of such perfection that in future true paintings will be produced by its means. my experience convinces me of this. ix gold and silver printing this process is useful for decoration. those parts of the design that are to appear in gold or silver are drawn with chemical ink on a stone prepared for pen work. after the drawing is dry, it is etched and prepared in the usual way. the printing is done with a silver gray color of firm varnish, fine crayon and a very little lampblack. the paper must be entirely dry and very smooth. soon after the impression has been made, the printed parts are covered with silver or gold leaf such as is used by gilders. it is pressed on slightly with cotton, that it may adhere, and then a sheet of paper is laid over it. then the second impression is made, treated the same way, and so on. no more impressions must be made than one can cover with silver or gold in two hours. if the ink is on the paper too long, it will draw in and not take the metal well. after gilding or silvering, the sheets must lie for some hours or till the next day, that the ink may take perfect hold of the paper, so that, in the succeeding pressing, it will not penetrate the metal and make it look sooty. the pressing is done by laying six or eight impressions on a clean stone under the press and passing them through as for printing, with the proper tension. this tension must be adjusted according to the firmness of the printing-color; therefore it is best to make test with one sheet. then, if the metal does not adhere sufficiently, the pressure can be increased. in the end all surplus gold or silver is removed by gentle wiping with clean cotton. this is easy, as it will have fastened itself only to the printed parts. if the impressions can be set aside for some days without being wiped, it is better, and there is not so much danger of injuring the brilliancy of the metal. if gold and silver are to be printed on designs where there is other color also, or where there is black, the print on which the metal is to be applied must always be made first. only when the sheets have been gilded or silvered, pressed, wiped, and cleaned, is the black design to be printed on from the next plate. that all this must be done with the register marks previously described is, of course, self-evident. so i close my description of the relief method; and i hope that i have made it all so clear that good results will come to all who follow my directions. chapter ii intaglio method this differs from the other in that the fat, which is to attract the printing-color, is under the surface of the stone, the design having been either engraved-in or etched, and then filled with fat. like the preceding method, it has several branches. the best are these:-- i the line engraved style this is one of the most useful branches of lithography, and if the artist has attained enough skill and the printer knows his trade, it approaches very near to the handsomest copper plates, and at the same time is about three times easier and quicker than work on copper. it is splendidly adapted for writings and charts. choose a hard, uniform stone of the best kind. grind it as finely as possible. etch with aquafortis and prepare with gum. this, at least, was my early method, and it has remained in use in all printeries. later, however, i discovered that it is almost better to coat the stone with gum without previous etching, because it can be more easily worked then. only in that case it must be perfectly clean and contain no concealed fattiness. immediately after the stone has been coated with gum (not some hours later, as many do) the gum must be removed with water, that it may not penetrate too deeply and thus cause a condition which will prevent the finest lines from taking on color subsequently. then coat the plate with a tint made of gum solution and lampblack or red chalk. use a soft brush to make the coating very thin and uniform. it has the double purpose, first, of giving the stone a color so that the engraver can see his work, and of covering the prepared surface of the stone with a protective coat that later will admit the fatty printing-color only where it has been pierced by the engraving-tool. it is evident that this latter property is increased according to the amount of gum in it, yet only little gum must be used in it, the permissible amount being only just enough to insure that the coating shall not be easily wiped away during the work of engraving. the stone must be absolutely dry before any work is done on it. then the design is traced on it, or drafted directly on it with lead. transfer by printing from paper is not advisable, because the resulting fattiness of the design makes the graver slip. for the actual work of engraving there is no counsel to be given except to choose good and sharp needles of the very best steel, hard enough to cut glass; and that all lines must be graved clean. there must be no excessive pressure, and in wide strokes there must be no excessive depths. in making very fine lines the stone should merely be touched by the tool. if they appear white, and a little fine dust is observed, one may be certain that they will appear properly in the printing. broad lines often can be made with one stroke of a flat needle, but generally they are made by continued, gradual scraping. if the stone is to be only lightly wiped during printing, the broad lines must not be deeper than strictly necessary to make them clear, as otherwise they will squash. in true art works, however, which are to be printed with firm color and under more powerful rubbing and wiping, the depths of all lines must be considered carefully, as they will print darker or lighter according to depth. of all things the worker must take heed against touching the stone with dirty or greasy hands, for a plate thus blemished is not only difficult to engrave, but the grease finally may penetrate through the slightly gummed coating and enter the stone, making much consequent trouble when the printing begins. it is more harmful still to wet the stone in any way, because then the coating gum will dissolve, penetrate into the engraved lines and give them a preparation, so that they cannot take color afterward. therefore, especially in winter, a very cold stone must be warmed before working on it with the design, as otherwise the moisture in the room will precipitate itself on the stone. even the perspiration of the hands or the moisture of the breath may cause damage. therefore a good but careful warming is very advisable. if a plate has become moistened, as, for instance, from a breath, it must be permitted to dry before doing any further work on it, and especially it must not be wiped. the dust resulting from the engraving is to be removed either with a soft brush or by blowing it away. faulty lines that are noticed during the engraving may be scraped flat very carefully so that no furrows are made, or they may be rubbed off with fine pumice, after which those places must be prepared again, and coated with gum applied with a small brush. then the corrections can be made. if only tiny places are faulty, they need merely be coated with a mixture of weak phosphoric acid, gum, and lampblack or red chalk. this prepares them. thus they will not take color during the print, and so are practically removed. when the design is finished, the stone must be very dry that it may take color well. but it must not be warmed, as this would incline it to take smut. a color consisting of thin varnish, a little tallow, and lampblack is now rubbed swiftly into all the depressions, and immediately wiped away again with a woolen rag wetted with gum solution. this removes the original red or black coating also. thus the hitherto colored stone becomes perfectly white, while the engraved design, which has appeared white, is now black. the first impression that the eye will gain will be that now the design appears much finer than it did before. that is because every white line on a dark background looks wider than a black line of the same thickness on a white background. therefore, while engraving, the artist should aim to make his lines a trifle bigger than his eye would suggest. in printing the stone the usual precautions required in every form of lithographic printing must be observed. beyond that, the matter of chief importance is the proper composition of the printing-color. stone plates made in this way can be inked-in ( ) by rubbing-in the color and light wiping, and ( ) by harder wiping, and ( ) by the ink-roller. for the first method, a color can be made of thin varnish and burned lampblack, the latter being present in fairly large quantity but very finely rubbed-down. into this color is mixed a quantity, equivalent to one half the mass, of gum solution that is almost as thick as the color itself. everything must be mixed perfectly. if the solution is too watery, it is not easy to mix it. three clean rags of cotton or linen are needed for inking. the first is used to wet the stone and to clean it again in the end. the second is colored with a small quantity of printing-color and rubbed in by thorough wiping to and fro. the third rag is used to clean away any surplus that may adhere. then the first clean rag is used to cleanse the stone thoroughly. all three rags must be wetted with gum solution, and the first and third must be washed several times during the day. the stone plate is harder to clean at first than after some fifty impressions have been made. often there will remain little specks of color on the prepared places, which are easy enough to wipe away but are inclined to reappear. to remedy this it may be necessary to use more clean rags in the beginning or more gum solution. if the stone has been polished very well in grinding, this trouble will not be very noticeable if at all. under any circumstances, it will disappear gradually during the printing, so that at last it will be possible to clean the surface with the very same rag that lays the color on and is permeated with ink. in the second method, the wiping is harder in order to take more color away from the shallower lines, so that they will be pale compared with the deep ones which then will appear very black and strong. if the full beauty of a well-made copper plate is to be equaled, care must be taken, as said before, to achieve the proper depth of engraving, and the stone must be wiped harder. otherwise the method is the same, except that beautiful, shining impressions often can be made by using a firm color, if the stone can bear the necessary tension. the inking-in with the ink-roller is like the same process in other methods, except that the color must be softer and the roller well filled with it. it is necessary, also, to learn by practice how to work the color into all the deep lines. the impression must be made immediately after inking, as otherwise the color will sink too deeply into the stone and not give a strong impression without renewed inking. the paper must be wetted a little more than in the other method. the tension of the press is according to the size of the plates, but on the whole must be two or three times greater than for the other methods. more pressure still may be needed for very fine work, as the finer lines often are harder to print than the coarse ones. as soon as the first clean proof is pulled, it must be examined for errors or faults in the design. if there are any, the stone is removed from the press after being delicately coated with gum, and the correction is made as follows: before anything else, all such faults as are to be removed entirely are either scraped away with a very sharp knife or rubbed away with a very fine stone. the manipulation must be very delicate to avoid grooves and furrows or sharp edges that afterward will hold dirt. then the parts thus corrected are coated with a mixture of about six parts water, two parts gum, and one part aquafortis to prepare them anew. if anything new is to be added to the design or drawn in place of an error, the stone is washed with water throughout, or, if the correction is to be made only in a very small part, washed at the desired place. then it is coated with the red chalk as described in the beginning, but so thinly that the design can be seen plainly through the red coat. now all that is desired can be engraved, filled again with the rubbing-in color, and turned over to the printer, who cleanses it with gum water and proceeds to print. only a few more useful suggestions:-- ( ) it happens often that after the first rubbing-in of fat color and the succeeding cleansing with water, the stone gets a "tone" over its whole surface; that is, it takes color at least partly, and thus seems to have lost its original preparation. this may be due to the fact that not enough gum has been used in the original coating, or that the rubbing-in was rough enough to injure the protective coating, or that the rubbing-in-color was left on too long before being washed away with gum solution. a similar fault may develop with the second rubbing-in, after corrections, and from the following causes: poor color containing sand; too much pressure with the greasy rags; the use of rags not sufficiently cleansed of any soap used in washing them; rubbing-in of color with too dry a color rag; in brief, from anything that may destroy the stone's preparation wholly or in part. sometimes this defect may be remedied by mixing more gum into the printing-color and into the water with which the cleaning-rags are wetted. a firmer color may aid, if it is rubbed away by fairly strong pressure of the rag as soon as it has adhered. this operates as a remedy because the firm color takes hold of the dirt that has set itself into the pores of the stones, and when it is removed, takes the dirt with it. if none of these have results, there is nothing left except to grind off the plate very slightly and carefully with an exceedingly fine stone and gum solution. in the case of very delicate designs, this is not applicable, because the finest lines have practically no depth. therefore they must be washed instead, a rag being dipped into weak aquafortis or very much diluted phosphoric acid, and passed carefully over the stone till the dirt disappears. it is well to mix in a little gum, and also to rub acid-proof ink into the stone first, that the etching fluid may not attack the design too much. after this cleansing the tone will disappear, but another fault often appears in place of it. the color, after rubbing-in, will not permit itself to be wiped away readily, because the etching has caused some roughnesses to which the color adheres in the form of little specks. a number of clean rags with gum solution must then be used, or the stone should be lightly rolled a few times with the ink-roller after being rubbed-in. the roller will take the specks. indeed, the fault hardly ever appears if the inking-in is done with the roller, as suggested in the remarks about the third form of inking-in. as soon as some few impressions have been made, the roughness of the plate disappears gradually and it can be wiped off without leaving specks behind. gentle rubbing with pumice finely powdered and mixed with gum solution will remove the defect in the very beginning, but care is needed lest the design be injured. ( ) a line that has so little depth that it is almost level with the surface of the stone can be made as black as a deeply engraved one by continued rubbing with the color rag. in using a firmer color the lines, especially the wider ones, can be so overloaded after a while that the ink will squash under the press. this surplus can be removed again by the use of the ink-roller, but it is merely adding unnecessary work, as proper practice in inking-in and the use of exactly the right consistency of color will prevent the trouble. ( ) the best way to ink-in an intaglio design is to rub it in at first with a somewhat firm color that however, contains enough gum, then to wipe it a bit, and after that to rub gently to and fro over the stone under gentle pressure, with a rag containing a less heavy color. a firmer color does not adhere well to the more delicate lines, or, at least, is hard to print; but by applying it first, the printing of the wider and deeper lines is facilitated, while the succeeding rubbing with softer color brings out the perfection of the finer lines. the second rag with the lighter color must not be filled with it in mass, but should merely be made sooty with it, so to speak. otherwise the lighter color would penetrate the deeper lines also and mix there with the heavier color. in the end the stone must be wiped again with an entirely clean rag, as will be understood, of course, and thoroughly cleansed of all the color. ii the etched method in this the design is not engraved into the stone by pressure of the hand, but with aquafortis or other acid, and only so much pressure is exerted in making the design as is required to cut through the thin coating of varnish with which the stone is covered. therefore this method permits great freedom of action and is applicable especially for landscape work and for drawings in rembrandt's style. in treatment as in effect it resembles copper plate, and has its own advantage in that the lines may be strengthened gradually by stronger pressure on the engraving-needle. they may even be engraved a little into the stone so that afterward the lines will become stronger under etching. this cannot be done with copper at all or only with great difficulty. these considerations and the quicker printing permitted by it recommend the method to artists. in other respects it is not different from working on copper. but it is necessary that a good lithographer should be a master of this form of stone work, as it may be used for excellent work, not only by itself but in combination with the other methods. the stone must be ground as smoothly as possible, then treated with aquafortis and coated with gum, so that its surface thus is completely prepared. the aquafortis may be as strong as that used for etching pen work. it suffices, also, to wipe the plate merely with a sponge dipped in stronger aquafortis, the chief point being that no roughnesses shall be caused by uneven etching. a few minutes after this first operation is finished, the stone is rinsed with water, dried and coated with etching-ground. this can be best done as follows:-- ( ) warm the stone till an ordinary copper etcher's etching-ground will become so fluid on it that it can be worked with a leather ball like a varnish, and can be spread very thin and very evenly. great care must be exercised lest uneven warming crack the stone. if one can put it into a nearby baker's oven, it will obviate the necessity for an especial apparatus, which otherwise is demanded. after coating the stone with the etching-ground, it is reversed while still warm, and blackened by applying the flame of a tallow or wax candle, as the copper-plate etchers do with their plates. then the stone is set aside to cool, with great precautions against dust. after it is cool, dust will not harm it, and it can be kept indefinitely before use, so long as the coating is protected against injury. ( ) the method given is the best; but if the warming of the stone is difficult, there is a method applicable to cold stones. the etching-ground is dissolved in oil of turpentine and laid on the stone with a clean ball. a stone so treated must be put away for at least a day in a place safe from dust that the oil of turpentine may evaporate. to tint this etching-ground, it may be blackened by smoking with a candle, as in the first case; or color, such as lampblack or vermilion, may be mixed-in before it is applied. if one wishes to be very certain that the stone will bear the etching well, it may be coated, very thinly indeed, with a solution of very firm chemical ink after applying the etching-ground. the design is traced through this coating to the stone. it may be transferred, also, but in that case, as soon as the transfer is on the stone, it must be coated thinly once more with a solution of chemical ink that does not, however, contain any lampblack or other coloring-matter, but is transparent. this is necessary to fill out any little holes and other injuries that may have been caused by the pressure during transfer or by the inequalities in the transfer paper. the designing with the needle is done as in the engraved manner, except that the design is merely cut into the coating. when the design is complete, the stone is laid into the etching-trough and diluted aquafortis, muriatic acid, or strong wine vinegar is poured over it repeatedly, according to the depth that the lines are to have. if it is desired to etch so as to produce various tones,--some strong and some delicate,--after the manner of the copper-plate etchers, the pouring of acid should cease as soon as the very finest lines of the design have been etched sufficiently. wash away every bit of acid with clean water and let it dry. then, with a small brush and chemical ink, coat all parts that are not to be etched further. it is well if the chemical ink used for this purpose contains a little more soap than usual, so that it can penetrate well into all the depressions and leave no little holes. the coating must be done very cautiously, and it is better to paint on too much ink rather than too little, as the design will appear very dirty if etching fluid should penetrate here or there through the coated portions. when the ink is dry, etching is resumed till the second tones have been etched as far as desired. then the procedure is repeated, these second tones being coated. thus one continues till all gradations of shading have been reached. when the stone is fully etched, clean water is poured over it, and then all the parts that have not been coated with chemical ink are treated to a covering. the object of the previous coatings was to prevent access of acid to the parts; but at the same time the ink prepared the parts. therefore the remaining portions of the design also must be sated with ink before the stone is inked-in for printing. let the stone dry and then pour on it as much oil of turpentine as may be necessary to dissolve this whole ground coating, which then is wiped off with a woolen rag wet with gum solution. then the stone maybe inked-in and printed. if an error is observed before etching begins, the first question is if the defect is deeply engraved in the stone or if it has been drawn merely through the ground coating without affecting the stone itself materially. in the latter case it is necessary merely to cover the defective place with chemical ink and draw into it the correction. if the error has been graved deeply into the stone, it must be covered for the time being, but nothing new can be drawn there. to do this, one must wait till the plate has been etched and rubbed-in with color. then the incorrect part is scraped or ground off as evenly as possible, the place prepared anew with aquafortis and gum, and the correction made with the steel needle. an intaglio design often is greatly beautified by being printed with a tint plate like a crayon design. it can be done with a second stone, but it can be obtained also with the one plate that has the design on it. wash the designed stone with clean water and then paint a thick coat of chemical ink containing more soap than usual over the whole stone or over only such parts as one desires to improve by adding a tone. if lights are to be worked into this tone, it can be done, after inking-in, with a small brush dipped into weak aquafortis. in printing a stone thus toned, it must be rubbed-in thoroughly with the black color and then cleaned as well as possible. the tint that shows on the surface then is usually too dark, and the firmer the color the darker it is. then a second rag must be used with a much softer color, which may even be thinned-down with plain oil or butter. it may also contain another coloring substance. rub this rag very gently to and fro without much pressure till it is apparent that the dark tone has been replaced by a light one. then the stone is ready for printing. stones to be treated to a tint in this manner must be etched somewhat deeper than others, because the lines do not appear so dark against a tone. in all intaglio methods there is the advantage that parts that turn out too dark can be modified by fine scraping or grinding. the stone merely must be rubbed with acid-proof ink beforehand, that the necessary preparation of the corrected places with aquafortis or phosphoric acid and gum may not attack the rest of the design. those who attain skill in scraping or grinding with a small piece of black slate can make the softest gradations of shade in uniformly etched designs, and more easily and quickly than by drawing or coating and etching. if the stone has been rubbed-in with color for the first time only a short time previously, the ground or scraped surfaces do not even need to be etched. it is sufficient to wash them with a rag wetted in gum solution, because the color will not have penetrated the stone so deeply that it is likely to reappear. iii design with preparing ink, combined with spattered aquatint if a little dissolved gum is painted on a clean stone that then is inked over its whole surface with printing-ink, none will adhere where the gum is. in other words, the stone will have been prepared there. if the gum is permitted to dry before the ink is applied, those parts will become black, too; but as soon as a few drops of water are poured on and the ink-roller passes over the stone, all the gummed parts will show up white at once. this led me to make a color mixed with gum, with which one can design on stone and that would have the property of preparing it so that, on printing, the design or inscription will print white. some drops of gum arabic dissolved in water are mixed with an equal amount of lampblack and rubbed very fine. this makes an ink similar to chinese ink, and keeps well when dried. it is rubbed down in a saucer with a little water and then is ready for use. it can be used on a clean stone, but is likely to flow, for which reason the stone must be painted with a little weak aquafortis mixed with a little nutgall, and then well cleaned again. still better is it to paint a clean stone some days before with oil of turpentine which is cleaned off again immediately. in that case, however, it is well to mix a little phosphoric acid into the drawing-ink, that the designed parts will be prepared the more surely. when the design is dry, the whole stone is inked with printing-color, care being taken that not a drop of water touches it before it is perfectly black. then a little water is poured on, after which there must be a little more rolling with the ink-roller till all the design that is drawn with the preparing-ink is very white and clean. now the stone can be used for printing, being used in the manner used for pen work. to make the design more durable, that it may not in time thicken in its finer parts, the stone may be well inked-in with acid-proof ink and after a few hours, during which it draws together well, the drawing is etched in intaglio with aquafortis. then it is coated with gum and the printing is not likely to damage the design. here we have an intaglio design which is prepared and prints white. the case may be reversed, and the black plate may be made white again while the design will print black. this is because a stone treated with preparing-ink gives almost the same result, once it is grounded with acid-proof ink and etched as if the design had been engraved into etching-ground. the etched lines need simply be filled with chemical ink as in engraved work, to make them take color instead of coating them with gum. then there remains only the obstacle that the stone is not prepared over its whole surface and takes color everywhere. however, it is not difficult to clean the plate and prepare it perfectly, especially if the stone is finely polished. it must be rubbed well with color, and wiped clean at once without rubbing too much of it away from the etched design. to make the color easier to wipe out, frankfurter black and tallow may be mixed in it. then the rag that has been used for inking-in is dipped into a mixture of twenty parts water, two parts gum, and one part aquafortis, or better still, phosphoric acid, and rubbed back and forth. the rag must not be too dirty and heavy with color, but it must contain some so that the delicate parts of the design shall not be wiped out and thus rendered susceptible to the acid. the next thing is to try with the finger to see whether the color on top can be easily rubbed away or not. in the latter case the wiping must be repeated till the cleansing mixture has so far prepared the surface that the wet hand or a wet piece of leather can cleanse it perfectly and free it from the dark tone. now the stone is inked-in with firmer color (acid-proof ink is best). this is wiped off again thoroughly. very weak aquafortis (or phosphoric acid if it has been used for the work) is then poured over it a few times, and this generally prepares it so well that it can be inked and cleaned easily during the printing. this method is useful for many kinds of art, and it must not be imagined that it is superfluous because the other ways are quicker. the engraving-needle is very good for drawing the finer parts of the design through the etching-ground, but the coarser ones cause much trouble, while with the pen, these are the very ones that are easiest to produce. by using this method, both advantages can be combined and only that is drawn with the pen which is most readily produced that way. thus the whole design, with the exception of the finest parts, is drawn on the white plate with the black preparing ink touche. then, when it has been covered with acid-proof ink and made white, the finer parts are worked-in with the needle. or they may be left till the end, when they are engraved-in. for grounding or blackening the plate, one may use a substitute for the acid-proof ink if the ground is to be firmer. use the etching-ground (mentioned several times before) of wax, mastic, pitch, and resin, dissolved in oil of turpentine and mixed with fine lampblack. it will then be susceptible of being laid beautifully uniform on the stone with the ink-roller like printing-ink. the spattered aquatint method resembles this. the outlines of the design are engraved or etched into the stone very delicately. after rubbing-in with black printing-ink and cleaning again thoroughly, it is rinsed with a great deal of clean water to take away every trace of gum. when it is dry a small brush is dipped into the preparing-ink, and the stone is spattered as described in the article on spatter-work. after drying, the dots that are too large are treated with the needle, and missing ones are drawn in with the pen. now apply the roller with the dissolved etching-ground, that must, however, have only enough color so that the outlines of the design can show through it. then the spattered work is brought out by rolling with water. now coat the lighter parts of the design and etch. coat again and etch again, in short do as already described for the method of successive etching till the required gradations of shade have been attained. then proceed as usual with the inking-in and printing. iv aquatint in copper-plate styles and with etching-ground any one who has the necessary appliances of the copper-plate worker for making the aquatint ground used by them, and who has the necessary skill, can do so, although the stone is endangered by the heat, and the process is not advisable. the stone is dusted with fine resin. a flame of spirits is applied below until the stone is so hot that the resin melts and forms the ground. better is that copper-plate method in which the resin is dissolved in highly rectified spirits of wine and poured quickly over the whole stone. by breathing on this, the resin is made to separate from the spirits and form tiny pellets, which thus make the required aquatint ground. both methods are better for very coarse work than for fine designs. etching-ground, dissolved in oil of turpentine, or consisting simply of tallow and put on the stone very uniformly with a cotton ball, is much better, and produces an effect similar to wash drawing. however, it is better suited to the lighter parts of a design, because it will bear long and powerful etching only if one hits exactly the proper proportions between ground and etching fluid. therefore, it is well, after the first tones have been etched and printed, to spatter cautiously with chemical ink all those parts that are to be darker than half-tones. thus these dots will prepare the design so well at those places that they can withstand the most powerful etching. v aquatint through crayon ground this is a sort of middle process between aquatint and the scraped style. it has the advantage of great speediness. a stone that has been grained for crayon work is coated with the black or red gum ground described for the engraved method, but without previous etching, which would not do harm but is unnecessary. the outlines are drawn in with the needle very lightly, because they are to serve only to make the design visible. those lines, however, that are not to disappear in the aquatint tone, but are to show plainly, must be cut as deeply as necessary for greater or lesser blackness. then the stone is rubbed with color and washed with water as in the engraved method. when it is entirely clean and dry, all the design will be black and the stone white. the design must be examined carefully, and the various gradations of shading should be separated in the mind into about eight leading classes, of which four are numbered upwards to the lightest parts, and four numbered downwards to the darkest. everything in the category of the four dark parts now is worked strongly with chemical crayon. the purpose is to mass a number of evenly separated points over these parts of the design that shall withstand the etching fluid like an aquatint ground, between which the etching fluid may eat the stone and thus form a coarser grain than could be attained merely by rough grinding. then the four lighter parts must be coated with chemical ink. the very lightest parts, and all that is to remain white, must be left white on the plate and neither touched with crayon or ink. then the stone is etched for the first time. following this pour clean water over it and let it dry. then of the four dark parts the lightest are coated with chemical ink, and when it is dry the etching fluid is applied again. after washing and drying, the next lighter portions of the dark sections are coated, and so on till at last the very darkest shadows have been coated. then a clean brush is dipped into gum solution and everything that should remain white is painted. if a little oil of turpentine is now poured on the stone, and the crayon and chemical ink are dissolved and wiped off, the stone can be inked with soft inking-color and wiped again with a woolen rag. then the design will look as if a black veil were over it, because the lightest parts of it and the half-shadows are not worked out at all. wet a rag with gum solution and a little phosphoric acid, and hold it in one hand while with a fine scraper you scrape in the lights according to their gradation or grind them in with a fine stone, for instance, a slate pencil. as you scrape wipe over the design with the wet rag; and you will see exactly what you are doing as the various gradations will appear bit by bit. the printing in this as in other aquatint methods is done with soft and thin printing-color, and the paper may be more dampened than in other forms of lithography. the press needs considerable tension and the stones must be thick. vi intaglio crayon and traced designs the difficulty of getting impressions from crayon that shall not differ from the original design on the stone led me to consider the use of the grained style of the copper-plate engravers. a crayon-like design in intaglio would have a greater strength in the dark parts and greater delicacy in the lighter; be more durable and more easily corrected. i saw at once that if i could attain some perfection, it would mean a great step forward in color printing, also. thus there were originated the following two processes, which no doubt will in time interest artists to a high degree. a stone grained for crayon work is prepared with aquafortis and gum. then it is cleansed with water and covered with etching-ground when dry, as is prescribed for the etched process. the ground must be laid on so thinly and evenly that the design can be put in easily and that it still will resist the etching. when the stone is cold and the outlines of the design have been traced on it, a scraper of the best steel is used to scrape in the lights and shadows. the scraper touches only the most elevated points of the grained surface at first, and produces larger points only after continued work, just as chemical crayon does. when the whole stone is finished, it is etched as in the etched process and then cleansed and printed in the same way. if the stone is etched a little more strongly in all its gradations, it can afterward be ground down gently with very soft pumice, or, better still, with black slate and a gum solution, once it has been rubbed-in with color. this destroys all roughnesses that may remain from the first manipulations. parts that have turned out too dark can be lightened by this polishing, and the over-light ones can be improved with the needle. the designs made in this manner possess more delicacy as well as more strength than the ordinary crayon designs, and there remains to be desired only that they might have the advantage of the latter of being worked black on white, as it is so much easier for the artist to judge his work on the stone. of trials made in this direction, the two following ones met my views the best. one way is to grind the stone rough, pour diluted aquafortis and nutgall over it, clean it with water and dry it. then the design is drawn on it with a black chalk made of oil of vitriol, tartar, and lampblack. the further treatment is the same as that in the case of designs done with preparing-ink. i have not been able to give enough time to this process to invent a preparing-crayon that shall be very hard without losing its preparing-property. however, the compound mentioned will produce a crayon with which one can work well after a few days. it has the advantage that it may be rubbed on a shading-stump made of rolled paper, which will prove excellent for working the finest shadings into the plate. the other way is as follows: a colorless chemical ink is made of one part wax, two parts tallow, and one part soap. this i dissolved in water and with it i coated the stone, which had been ground rough and prepared with phosphoric acid, nutgall, and gum, and then washed with water. the coating was applied very lightly, but enough so that it could bear the succeeding etching. as soon as it was dry, i drew the design on it with a black crayon made of tartar, gum, a little sugar, and a good amount of lampblack, or i used the ordinary black paris crayon or a fine english lead pencil. then the design was etched, after which alum water was poured over it, and it was set aside to dry. as soon as it was absolutely dry, i coated it with fatty color, and then cleaned the stone with oil of turpentine and gum solution. if i wanted an exceedingly smooth surface, i ground the stone gently; but then the design had to be etched deeply. the good results of these two experiments led me to the following process: by following my instructions exactly the worker can produce striking imitations of wash as well as crayon drawings, and at the same time unite the greatest possible ease of drawing as well as certainty of good impressions, so that this process really deserves to be called one of the very best of all printing-methods. the outlines of the drawing must be drawn on the finest and thinnest paper that can be obtained. then a very finely polished stone is prepared with aquafortis and gum, or, better still, with phosphoric acid, nutgall, and gum, cleansed with water and dried. then it is coated very thinly with tallow, which is patted with a very clean leather ball or with the hand, so that it shall be very uniformly laid over the stone. everything depends on the thinness and uniformity of this tallow coating. then the stone must be smoked with a wax torch or a tallow candle. the durability of the ground depends on this smoking, as without it a very thin coating of tallow would be penetrated by the acid. now the stone is ready for the design. it must not be touched by so much as a finger. the designed paper is pasted to the stone at the ends, without pulling, as the least motion would injure the stone's surface. the arrangement of elevated supports for the hand (previously described) is needed for the succeeding work. the drawing is then done on the paper with paris chalk, delicate spanish chalk, an english lead pencil, or with a small piece of lead. all that is drawn on the paper will impress itself on the stone underneath and remove the ground at those places, thus opening the surface for etching. when the drawing is finished, it is etched and covered as with the etched process, and afterward is printed as in that process. when sufficient practice has made one a master of this style, it will be amazing what great perfection, what miniature-like delicacy, and also what strength can be obtained by proper etching. besides, this latter process is applicable in combination with the etched process. vii touche drawing with etching ink this method is very useful for filling-out etched or engraved designs, also for correcting and completing the various aquatint processes. dip a little brush into lemon juice mixed with a little lampblack and draw the design on the finely polished and prepared stone. the acid will eat little holes into it, which will take color if the lemon juice is washed away as soon as it has completed its etching, and the etched part has been dried and rubbed-in with fat color. to produce darker shadings it can be laid on the same place twice, and for lighter shadings the acid either is washed away sooner or diluted with water. i do not doubt that a skillful chemist could invent an etching ink which would be even more perfect, and then a drawing could be washed on the stone as easily as on paper, which would mean immense advance for the art. chapter iii mixed methods stone-printing has the unique property, owned by no other process, that it is possible to print relief and intaglio simultaneously. this property makes possible so many combinations of the two processes that a book might be filled with their description. i assume, however, that the reader will have understood the entire science of the new art from what i have said, and that his own reflection will tell him what methods to use or to combine for each of his purposes. i limit myself, therefore, to a few leading methods, thus giving some fundamental idea of the manipulations. i pen design combined with engraving this can be utilized in two ways:-- when the pen drawing is finished and etched, the stone may be coated with red gum covering and the needle used to draw-in the finest lines. the printing is the same as with pen work. the second way is to make the engraved or etched part of the design first, and after the stone has been rubbed-in with acid-proof ink, cleansed and dried, to draw-in the rest with the pen and chemical ink. as soon as the design is properly dried, it is etched a little and prepared, and otherwise handled like an ordinary pen drawing. both ways carry the advantage that the pen can be used for those parts best done with the pen, and the engraving-tool for those parts best done with it. the latter is especially excellent for very fine and elegant script, such as title-pages, the finest strokes being made first with the needle and the broader ones with the pen. ii intaglio design with relief tint this has been described thoroughly in our chapter on etched work. iii intaglio and relief with several plates as already shown, intaglio and relief can be printed on one stone. therefore it is evident that the two methods can be utilized still better for several plates, for instance, printing on an etched design with one or more plates that are tinted in relief, or by printing over a crayon or pen design in relief a tone plate in aquatint in intaglio. how to do this has been explained in the descriptions of relief and intaglio methods. iv transforming relief into intaglio and vice versa this is, so to speak, the test of a good lithographer, as it is the most difficult of all methods, and demands exact knowledge of all manipulations. i will try to explain it with a few examples. example i _to etch a transfer into intaglio_ prepare a finely ground plate with phosphoric acid and gum, wash very well with water, and let it dry. now transfer to it a design made with soft ink or crayon, or a fresh copper-plate impression. let the stone rest for a few hours, that the fatty colors may take hold well. coat it with clean gum water, and with a rag dipped into acid-proof ink try to rub about as much color on the design as appears to be required to make it withstand some etching. this etching is done with pure aquafortis which in addition has a little alum mixed with it. etch only enough to eat away the uppermost parts of the prepared surface that have not been permeated with fat. pour clean water over the whole stone and coat it with strong soap-water that is permitted to dry on it. finally, clean away the soap with oil of turpentine. ink-in with acid-proof color which will color the whole stone. now as soon as it is wiped gently with a rag dipped in gum solution and weak phosphoric acid, the whole design will appear in white as if it had been made with preparing-ink. if the stone is inked now with acid-proof ink and treated exactly as instructed in the article on the use of preparing-ink, the design that was in relief originally will be found in intaglio. this process is capable of great perfection and can produce true masterpieces especially if the stone is treated finally with the engraving tool. example ii _to etch into intaglio a design made with chemical fatty ink or crayon_ etch and prepare the clean stone with phosphoric acid and gum. then put on the design with ink or crayon, and perform the succeeding etching and other manipulations exactly as in the preceding case. example iii _to etch into intaglio any design etched into relief_ in the two examples given, the plate is etched with phosphoric acid before transfers or designs are made on it. as the weak etching with aquafortis and alum does not penetrate the places where there is fat, these retain their phosphorus-preparation, and thus are not so readily destroyed by the succeeding application of soap, whereas the etched parts immediately drink in the fat as soon as the soap touches them. in stones designed in the ordinary way, where the design does not lie on the prepared surface, but has really penetrated well into the stone, the transforming is somewhat more difficult, but can always be done after practice by using the following means:-- wash the stone with water and then coat chemical ink or strong soap-water over it and let it dry. then clean the stone with oil of turpentine and ink-in well with acid-proof color. dip a linen rag into gum water and phosphoric acid and endeavor to wipe away the color from the relief design. after wiping to and fro quickly a few times, try with the finger if the design will not whiten, or if the wiping with the acid must be continued. care must be taken not to injure the ground through too much pressure. when the design gets pretty white, ink the stone with firm acid-proof ink, and then treat as in the preceding cases. in this way designs in relief that have not turned out as desired can be changed into intaglio, and then, by the use of successive coatings and etchings, as described before, improved by making gradations of tones. but it requires great skill, lacking which one may destroy his plates utterly. example iv _to change an intaglio design into relief for easier printing_ many kinds of scripts and designs are easier to engrave with a needle than to do in relief with a pen; or one may have workmen who can use the engraving tool better than the pen, as the use of the latter requires more industry and skill than the use of the etching- or engraving-needle. if one wishes to transform such a design into one in relief, because then it can be printed more quickly and easily and also will give more impressions, the following method will prove useful:-- ink the stone with good acid-proof ink, and after a few hours etch it like a pen design till it is apparent that the design is showing up. let it rest again a few hours after etching and become quite dry. then coat with gum. otherwise treat it for printing like an ordinary pen design. * * * * * now i believe that i have described faithfully and as clearly as i can all the lithographic methods to which unceasing research and endless experimentation have led me. in the following appendix i merely make a few useful remarks, which do not pertain exclusively to lithography, yet are intimately connected with it and surely will not be unwelcome to art lovers. [illustration] appendix i printing with water and oil colors simultaneously when a plate, whether intaglio or relief, has been inked-in with oil color, it may be coated with one water color, or it may be illuminated with several, and then printed-off in one impression. two parts of gum and one part of sugar are used for this. they can be dissolved with any water color. care need be taken merely that the colors are well dried before the impression is made. if, however, it is desired that the colors have shades so that the impressions may resemble english or french colored copper-plate prints, the process is as follows:-- etch all shades of the color pretty deeply in any of the stippled or aquatint styles. after this, coat the stone with gum solution, that it shall take no color in these depressions. clean off the chemical ink or the ground with oil of turpentine, and prepare the whole plate if it has not been prepared already on its surface. then coat it with red gum surface, and into this inscribe all those lines that are to remain black. then the color is rubbed-in and the stone cleansed so that it will be white everywhere except in the engraved parts. when it is inked-in now, it can take color there only, and the other depressions (namely the various shades of the color) will remain white because they have been prepared. now it is necessary only to coat each part with the desired water color and it will be denser, and therefore darker, wherever there are more and greater depressions. ii simultaneous chemical and mechanical printing when a pen drawing is so constituted that the various lines are close together and there is no white space on it that is greater than at most one half inch in diameter, it will permit printing in a purely mechanical way without being prepared. it need merely be etched into all the relief possible without under-eating the lines. all that is needed then is a color-board or a so-called dauber, made as follows:-- a thin board of soft wood, about eight inches long and six inches wide, is planed down till it is not more than one line in thickness. glue on it a piece of fine cloth or felt almost as large as it. over this glue another board, of the same area as the first, but one quarter inch thick. it must be very well-dried wood, and must be made very true with the plane, or better still, by rubbing on a perfectly level stone with sand. this latter board is provided with a handle; and when all is dry this dauber is ground off true again with fine sand and oil on a stone. lay the printing-color on this utensil very gently and uniformly with a leather ball. tap and pat the stone, which has first been cleaned with oil of turpentine over its whole surface, very carefully with the appliance, holding it as horizontal as possible and taking great pains to distribute the color evenly. as compared with chemical printing, this process in itself has no advantages, but can be united with it and thus used to print three colors from one plate. this is shown by the following example suppose that a design shall be colored black, blue, and red, and that all these colors shall be put simultaneously on one plate. take a stone made ready for pen work, and prepare it first of all with phosphoric acid, nutgall, and gum, then wash it with water, and let it dry. now draw-in all that is to be red with chemical ink, that must, however, contain only just enough soap to permit its solution. when this drawing is dry, etch it into pretty high relief, the higher the better. after this prepare the stone with gum, wash it, and let it dry again. then coat it with etching-ground that has been dissolved in oil of turpentine, and draw-in all that is to be black, between and over the high etched parts. then etch this design pretty powerfully into intaglio, after which wash with water, rinse with alum solution, and dry. when the plate is thoroughly dry, rub-in printing-color, and clean with a woolen rag dipped into gum solution and oil of turpentine. then it will become white everywhere except in the deep lines where it will have taken color. after cleansing again with water and drying, draw-in all parts that are to be blue, using a chemical ink that contains a great deal of soap. let this dry well, and cleanse the plate with gum and oil of turpentine again. then it is ready for inking-in. to lay on the color, proceed as follows:-- first the black is rubbed-in, as prescribed in the article on the intaglio style. in the very deep parts the stone will get very black. in the parts last drawn, that are level with the surface, it will be only gray, if the color permits ready wiping, which can be facilitated by the use of gum and a woolen rag. then the tone remaining on the level parts drawn with the chemical ink will be so pale that it will not affect the blue color. now wipe a rag dipped in blue color gently to and fro till everything that is to be blue has taken the color well. then take the dauber which has been filled with red color, and pat the stone, which should be dry by that time. then the parts of the design in high relief will take the red color, and thus an impression can be made with the three colors at once. each inking-in must be done the same way. iii use of the stone for cotton-printing through wiping. a unique printing process etched copper plates have been used for some considerable time for cotton-printing, and as the ordinary oil colors were not suitable for this, while the suitable colors were too fluid, so that they were always wiped out of the engravings, another method was devised. the plate was covered with color and then a kind of straight edge was scraped across it, which removed all color from the surface, leaving it only in the depressions. this same sort of wiping is applicable to stone, and it is necessary merely to see that the stone is very even and highly polished. the color must be one that permits itself to be wiped off clean, and the wiper must be very uniform and sharp. starch-paste or gum with some caustic material is easily scraped off. iv color print with wiping this process is also useful for printing papers such as cotton papers, tapestry, etc. almost all intaglio designs permit good printing in this way, if a handsome color is used. fresh cheese, or drops of congealed milk, mixed with soap, potash, linseed oil varnish, and the desired tint, make an excellent composition, with which all intaglio designs, even aquatints, can be printed handsomely if the plate is very smooth. if the design is made well, the various colors can be laid on quite roughly, care being taken merely that each color shall be laid only where it is desired. then the stone should be permitted to dry, after which all the surplus colors can be scraped away with one manipulation, without danger that one will mix with the other in the design. v oil-painting print through transfer colored impressions resembling oil paintings can be made by printing with colors and several plates on paper grounded with oil color. but perfect oil paintings are produced only as follows:-- make a considerable quantity of special paper by coating unsized paper thinly with starch-paste or glue. on this make the separate impressions from each color plate. if the painting itself is to be produced from these separate parts, take a canvas that has been prepared for oil painting and lay on it a wetted impression of one of the colors, let us say, red. print this off under light tension of the press, and when the paper is pulled away, it will be seen that the color has been transferred to the canvas. then a wet impression of another color is laid carefully in place so that it will register exactly, and the process is repeated, till all the colors have been transferred to the canvas. the transferring can be done with the hand or with any other method, as no great power is needed, since the color transfers itself readily. vi stone-paper this is the name already generally adopted for a substitute invented by me for the solenhofen stones. i had been trying for a long time to invent some stone-like mixture that would be equally suitable for printing. the ordinary parchment of the writing-tablets would do if its surface were not soluble in water. i made considerable progress with a composition of lime and freshly congealed milk after the mixture had aged enough so that the lime could sate itself with oxygen. then i made a composition of chalk, gypsum, and glue, which i dipped into a solution of nutgall and alum, and i was able to use this for coarser work, at least, if not too many impressions were required. i did not get a wholly satisfactory idea, however, until i observed that fat spots that were caused on a stone by oil, and also designs that had been transferred to the stone with mere oil color, refused to take color after a few weeks if they were prepared in only the slightest degree. i reasoned from this that oil suffered a change from exposure to air, and by combining itself presumably with oxygen acquired a more earthy character. this deduction may be correct or not; but it led me to experiment with oil as a binder for various earthy substances, because i reasoned that such a composition would be insoluble in water. the only question, then, would be if despite the intermixed oil it would permit itself to be prepared, that is, if it could be made resistant to other fats. the result justified my hopes so thoroughly that i am convinced now that with various compositions of clay, chalk, linseed oil, and metallic oxides a stone-like mass can be made that is excellent for coating paper, linen, wood, metal, etc., and thus for making plates that not only replace the stone for printing, but in many cases are far superior to it. i shall give the world a book soon about these fortunate attempts of mine, and thus perhaps give expert chemists an opportunity to perfect my invention still more. vii chemical print on metal plates all metals have great inclination for fats; but if they are quite clean, being ground with pumice, for instance, or rubbed-down with chalk, they can be prepared like a stone, that is, they acquire the property of resisting oil color, thus becoming available for chemical printing. iron and zinc can be prepared like the stone with aquafortis and gum. to prepare zinc and lead, aquafortis with nutgall and gum will serve, but a slight admixture of blue vitriol will make still a better preparation, and this in a degree that improves according to the amount of copper that the surface acquires from the coating. the most durable preparation for lead and zinc is a mixture of aquafortis, gum, and nitrate of copper. brass and copper are best prepared with aquafortis, gum, and nitrate of lime, all mixed in proper proportions. lime and gum are a good preparation for all metals; also potash with salt and gum. this alkaline preparation, however, is applicable only for the intaglio style. for the relief style, the acids are better. recently i have applied chemical printing from metal plates to a new form of copying-machines, with which everything written or drawn with chemical ink or crayon on paper can be transferred in a few moments and manifolded several hundred times. his royal majesty of bavaria has had the supreme condescension to grant me a six years' patent on this invention. until now i have not been able to give this matter the necessary attention because the work of publishing this book hindered me; but now i shall make such a stock of these simple, convenient, and so widely useful hand-presses that it will be worth while to open a subscription, which would enable me to sell them for a low price. this would please me best, as my highest reward would be the general use of my inventions, to fulfill which desire i have taken the utmost pains in this work. in the last parts of the book i have gone less into details, merely because i assume that those who have mastered the first parts of this work will not need many words to understand the rest. if the demand for this perhaps prematurely announced book had not become so vehement lately that i could not possibly delay its publication any longer, i should have tried to produce sample illustrations that combine inner art value with good printing. as it is, i postpone this for a supplementary volume soon to appear, in which i shall occupy myself mainly with processes and methods not yet generally known, representing each by means of a true work of art. with which i now end my text-book, with the hearty wish that it will find many friends and create many good lithographers. this may god grant! the riverside press printed by h. o. houghton & co. cambridge, mass. u.s.a. * * * * * transcriber's notes: punctuation and spelling standardized. inconsistent hyphenation retained. this book has no table of contents for section i. transcriber's note: italic text is denoted by _underscores_. practical lithography [illustration: alois senefelder. the inventor of lithography. born --died .] practical lithography by alfred seymour author of "modern printing inks and colour printing" "rule of thumb in the workshop" "some work-a-day notions" etc., etc. with frontispiece and thirty-three illustrations london scott, greenwood & co. ludgate hill, e.c. new york d. van nostrand company murray street [_all rights remain with scott, greenwood & co._] introduction "alois senefelder never benefited much by his discovery of the elementary principles of lithography, but none of those to whom it has given profitable occupation will remember without some feeling the patient and persistent efforts of the struggling actor and dramatist who, only after the greatest sacrifices and hardships, laid the germ of this splendid development, and watched and guarded its growth." there is one characteristic feature of the discovery of lithography for which senefelder ought to receive the fullest credit. unlike other discoveries of industrial and scientific value, there can be no doubt whatever as to its origin. senefelder's claim has never been disputed, yet "the payment of a debt of gratitude to the fact is easily overlooked when the wheel of history has made another turn." it has been again and again suggested that the blighting influences of commercialism have robbed lithography of many of its traditional features and a few, at least, of its best and most artistic qualities as a reproductive art. this same commercial spirit, however, has inspired and encouraged a charming variety of effect both in colour and design, and lithography of to-day, in almost every form of its manifestation, is infinitely more attractive and capable of considerably more expressive power than could ever have been hoped for before commercial utility and value demanded a full recognition. pleasing and harmonious effects, which are almost invariably sought after in lithography, need not be inartistic; and it is quite possible for the technique of the lithographic draughtsman to translate original work without a serious depreciation of its pictorial and artistic value. while expressing a sincere hope that this volume may be of considerable assistance to his fellow-craftsmen, the writer wishes to emphasise the fact that resourcefulness and intelligent application are faculties which may be encouraged and amplified but cannot be imparted even by volumes of text. a mere formal acknowledgment of assistance cordially rendered by the editors of the _british printer_ and _the caxton magazine_ and _press_, messrs. penrose & co., and other firms whose blocks are _primâ facie_ evidences of their interest, does not adequately express the appreciation with which it has been accepted and made use of. a. s. london, _december _. contents page introduction v list of illustrations xi chapter i elementary details concerning stones--character and texture--some simple elements--preparation of stones--planing and levelling-- grinding grained stones--descriptive treatment-- american method - chapter ii lithographic transfer inks various forms--distinguishing features--formulæ--writing transfer ink--stone-to-stone transfer ink--copperplate transfer ink--a modification - chapter iii lithographic transfer papers essential features--varnish transfer paper--damp-stone transfer paper--french transparent transfer paper-- copperplate transfer paper--an alternative recipe-- granulated papers--photo-litho transfer paper - chapter iv copperplate transfer printing the copperplate press--the operation--charging the engraved plate--cleaning-off and polishing--making the impression--useful notions - chapter v the lithographic press mechanical principles--constructive details--scraper-- tympan--practical suggestions--elastic bedding - chapter vi lithographic press work preparing the design--treatment of an ink drawing--chalk drawings--alterations--value of impressions--offsets--the lithographic hand-roller--proving--registration--general features--transferring--a commercial necessity-- arrangement--choice of paper--transference to stone-- preparing the forme - chapter vii machine printing the printing machine--the halligan--some mechanical phases--speed--pressure--levelling the stones--cylinder brake--inking rollers--damping - chapter viii machine printing--_continued_ register--atmospheric conditions--the key--the gripper-- starting the machine--fixing the stone--strength of colour--grit--making ready--regulation of speed - chapter ix lithographic colour printing a commercial value--peculiar features--colour sequence-- controlling elements--a question of register--suitable paper - chapter x lithographic colour printing--_continued_ printing inks--varnish--reducing medium--relative values--some useful hints--bronze blue--vermilion--ink mixing--ceramic transfers--colour transparencies - chapter xi substitutes for lithographic stones metal plates--preparation--manipulation--descriptive details--machine printing--the printing bed--rotary printing machine - chapter xii tin-plate printing its evolution--transfer and direct transfer printing-- the coated paper--reversed designs--sequence of printing--printing inks--purity of tone--drying - chapter xiii tin-plate printing--_continued_ direct tin printing--the machine--peculiarities of impression--cylinder covering--colour sequence--printing inks--drying racks--air-drying _versus_ stoving - chapter xiv tin-plate decoration suitable designs--a variety of effects--gold lacquer-- super-position of colours--embossed effects--embossing plates--lacquers - chapter xv photo-lithography early experiments--an analysis--the direct process-- transfer process--line and half-tone--some difficulties-- a natural grain--ink photo-screen effects--essential features - chapter xvi photo-lithography--_continued_ the copy--gradations of tone--"scraper boards"--description and effect--shading mediums--crayon drawings--half-tone copy - chapter xvii photo-lithography--_continued_ a copying table--exposure--illumination--photo-litho transfers--the paper--printing--developing--a direct process - index - illustrations page alois senefelder _frontispiece_ stone-planing machine stone-polishing machine copperplate press hot plate lithographic press details of lithographic press lithographic hand press lithographic hand roller register lines arrangement of transfers transferring board lithographic printing machine halligan machine pressure mechanism inking rollers damping rollers gripper trimmed edges counter shafting motor driving plate-graining machine , plate bed aluminium rotary machine aluminium rotary section tin-plate printing machine tin-plate racks , method of stacking plates scraper board work scraper board textures photographic copying board practical lithography chapter i elementary details concerning stones--character and texture--some simple elements--preparation of stones--planing and levelling-- grinding grained stones--descriptive treatment--american method. there are a vast number of details in connection with lithography and lithographic printing which are indisputably elementary in their character. it would be impossible, however, to regard them as non-essential, and a just appreciation of their value and influence must of necessity enter into any comprehensive exposition of the craft. _stone as a printing medium._--the value of the bavarian limestone was one of those fortunate discoveries which tended to materialise lithography as a graphic art, and may even be regarded as a fundamental principle, the practical value of which is only equalled by its far-reaching effects. other printing surfaces have been discovered and developed, with more or less substantial results, yet without depreciating their merits, it will be but a fair recognition to concede the premier position to the solenhofen and other limestones of a like nature. the homogeneity and porosity of these stones render them peculiarly suitable for lithographic purposes, and it undoubtedly reflects a vast amount of credit upon senefelder that even at the outset he should select a medium so well adapted and in every way so eminently suitable for graphic reproduction. i have already, and almost inadvertently, indicated the peculiar value of the bavarian stone, for homogeneity and porosity of texture are absolutely essential properties, and upon these is based almost every theory which has assisted in the development of this craft. these properties, in conjunction with a suitable greasy pigment, provide the requisite materials for that cause and effect which require and compel consideration. the simple elements of lithography may be very briefly described, and in this direction at least we must follow certain well-defined lines which may be regarded as well-worn ruts, the consideration of which offers little that is new. a brief review of the theories of chemical and mechanical affinities is best calculated to impress upon the mind the elementary principles of the lithographer's art. the penetrative power of a greasy pigment, together with the porous nature of the litho-stone, may be regarded as the cause by which the lithographer produces as an effect a design or impression which, to some extent, enters into the texture of the stone--the homogeneity of which checks any tendency to _spread_. this fatty matter may be applied in one or two ways, either as a transfer from some other printing surface, or as a direct drawing with pen, brush, or crayon. the first question for consideration will be the initial preparation of the litho-stones. these preparatory operations--which have for their object the levelling, polishing, and cleaning of the stones--were at one time entirely performed by hand labour, but are now accomplished with much greater facility and in a more effective manner by machinery. the importance of each individual operation will be more readily appreciated when once its purpose is clearly understood. a litho-stone having a _perfectly level_ surface is necessary in order to enable the printer to secure a firm and uniform pressure over the whole design when printing therefrom. a _smooth_, _polished_ surface will readily receive the finest designs, and retain all their original characteristics. a _clean_ surface is an absolute necessity, _i.e._ a chemically clean surface free from grease or any foreign matter which would be likely to enter into the texture of the stone and by so doing injure any greasy drawing or transfer which might be made thereon. these are simple, elementary principles, and as such are probably familiar to every reader, but the frequent result of familiarity is a dangerous tendency to under-estimate the importance of everyday causes and effects. if, therefore, such a reference as the above to common details serves to convey some intelligent idea of their place and true value, then no apology whatever will be necessary for their insertion in this volume. it has already been stated that, in the preparation of litho-stones, the superseding of hand labour by machinery has effected considerable and important changes. several machines, all of more or less practical value, have been introduced to the trade. one of the more recent developments, a stone-planing machine, possesses many features of real merit (fig. ). the stone is securely fixed on a perfectly true bed and passes slowly to and fro beneath the blades of powerful cutting knives. these blades are arranged in an inverted v-shape and locked in an oscillating framework. by an automatic action they are almost imperceptibly lowered at each traverse of the machine, when they lightly cut away the surface of the stone until the old work is completely removed and a smooth level face is assured. the chief objection to this type of machine is that in course of time the knives become worn and slightly irregular, and it is but reasonable to suppose that when a number of small stones have been operated upon and immediately afterwards a full-sized stone is planed, such irregularities will be very pronounced and detrimental. [illustration: fig. .] many machines have been designed on the simple grinding principle, but one type differs from its contemporaries and offers several distinct advantages over them (fig. ). this machine is constructed on hand-polishing lines, _i.e._ the movements are to some extent mechanical arrangements of hand-polishing principles. the size of stone makes no difference whatever, and the results are in the main uniform and satisfactory. the inconveniently sharp edges, such as are produced by the planing machine, are unknown,--the wear and tear on the stone is perceptibly lessened, and the power required to drive such a machine is not by any means a serious matter. when a planing machine does not enter into the operation, and grinding by hand is therefore necessary, sharp, clean sand should be used as a grinding medium. to secure some degree of uniformity in the grain, and at the same time remove all the larger particles of grit, pass the sand first through a fine sieve. the harder qualities of sand have, of course, the greatest cutting power, and therefore are the most suitable for this purpose. [illustration: fig. .] when hand-grinding is resorted to, a continuous elliptical motion of one stone over the other with a slight twist from the wrist will prove most effective. to finish the grinding, and as far as possible remove the deeper sand scratches, work off the sand in the form of a _sludge_. unless this operation is carefully and patiently performed, scratches of considerable depth may appear on various parts of the stone's surface. these, in the subsequent polishing, may offer a strong temptation to the operator to work over one part of the stone more than another, so as to effect the removal of such scratches with greater rapidity. the almost certain result of this would be an uneven surface, which would in many ways prove troublesome to the printer. _the graining of stones._--this is a matter concerning the preparation of stones which must not be overlooked. the introduction of shading mediums and other contrivances of a similar character has considerably minimised the importance of the grained stone, inasmuch as it cannot now be regarded as an indispensable feature of lithography. it is, however, still of inestimable value, and will probably always find a place and purpose in the practice of lithography, despite its depreciation owing to present-day limitations. recognising, then, the possibility of its retention, at least for some time to come, as a suitable printing surface upon which the lithographic draughtsman can work with undoubted facility of execution and effect, we must perforce include a brief description of its preparation in this chapter. first of all, level the stone and to some extent polish it, after which the graining may be proceeded with. a glass muller about or inches in diameter makes an excellent "grainer." failing this, a handy substitute will be found in the form of a small litho-stone, hard in texture, and with a smooth, level surface. use as a graining medium sharp, clean silver sand only, passing it carefully through a sieve according to the size or depth of the grain required. sprinkle a little of this sand uniformly over the stone under treatment, together with a few drops of clean water. with a continuous circular movement pass the graining muller from end to end of the stone, exerting a firm and uniform pressure. repeat this operation again and again, adding sand and water as required. considerable time coupled with intelligent application will be necessary to carry out this work successfully. should the sand become too much worn before its renewal the grain will in proportion lose its "tooth" or sharpness. on the other hand lies the danger of producing a grain which is too harsh or pronounced. therefore much depends upon the skill and judgment of the operator. a safe plan is to ascertain the progress at any time when a satisfactory result might be reasonably expected. the best way to accomplish this is by washing from the face of the stone any accumulation of sand, and drying it, so that a test can be made with the actual grade of crayon to be used in the subsequent drawing. a powerful current of clean, cold water affords the best means for removing every trace of sand from the finished stone, and will leave it in a condition of almost complete readiness for the draughtsman; a good drying is then all that is necessary. good results have been claimed for a method of graining which was introduced by the americans a few years ago. in this process the grain is produced by sprinkling the surface of the stone with sand and rolling it with small glass balls. these balls having a limited area in which to work exert a continuous cutting power without any tendency to produce scratches. some mechanical arrangement is necessary to impart this continuous rolling movement to the glass balls and to maintain a uniform speed. it is quite easy to understand that with such a process, carried out under favourable conditions, very fine results might be produced with great rapidity. chapter ii lithographic transfer inks various forms--distinguishing features--formulæ--writing transfer ink--stone-to-stone transfer ink--copperplate transfer ink--a modification. given a perfectly clean and smooth polished stone as described in the previous chapter, the next important point is the composition of the fatty matter wherewith a design or drawing is applied. as already stated, the active principle in any suitable transfer medium of this character is invariably the same, no matter what form its composition takes. for applying with pen or brush it must possess soluble properties, and of necessity be reduced to a liquid form. such soluble properties, however, must not interfere with its fatty properties, these latter being essential features. in crayon or _chalk_ drawing the composition must be employed in a concrete form, as a crayon, the hardness and texture of which will be controlled ( ) by the character of the work to be carried out; ( ) by the character of surface to be operated upon. transfers from other printing surfaces can only be made when the composition used is in the form of a pigment, and reduced to a convenient working consistency. these, then, comprise the varieties of transfer mediums which are likely to be required in most phases of commercial lithography. others are, of course, employed for specific purposes and under peculiar conditions; but these, again, are more or less modifications of existing formulæ, prepared to meet particular requirements. the ink used for transferring impressions from one printing surface to another, _e.g._, the re-transferring of work from stone to stone, may with a very slight alteration serve for type to stone transfer; but a considerable departure must be effected to produce a satisfactory photo-litho transfer ink, while a composition of a peculiarly distinctive character will be requisite for the successful production of transfers from copperplate engravings, as well as for a transfer ink for writing and drawing on stone or transfer paper. this writing transfer ink must be soluble in water, yet without becoming slimy; otherwise it will not work freely with the pen or brush. it must also dry quickly, and without any tendency to smear. a plate transfer ink must neither melt nor drag when applied to the hot plate. it must, of course, soften sufficiently to fill in the lines of the engraving, and should so harden as it cools that it cannot easily be dragged away during the cleaning and polishing operations. see chap. iv. page . each and all of the above inks must be excessively greasy and penetrative, but without having the slightest tendency to spread superficially. the ingredients and methods of preparation specified in the succeeding paragraphs are not given as standard formulæ, but in corroboration of statements made, and as practical illustrations of the character and purpose of transfer inks and compositions generally. _transfer ink._--writing transfer ink, for writing or drawing on stone or transfer paper, may consist of equal quantities of:-- castile soap, wax, tallow, shellac, with the addition of carbon black or black printing ink as a colouring matter. another reliable formula is:-- soap parts tallow parts wax parts shellac parts carbon black parts whichever formula is adopted the method of preparation is the same combination. free the soap from all moisture by drying, and thus facilitate its combining with the other ingredients. melt the tallow and wax over a hot fire until they are thoroughly well mixed. add the dried soap a little at a time, so that it may become thoroughly incorporated with the wax and tallow. bring the mixture to boiling-point, then remove it from the fire or stove and ignite the fumes which will then be rising freely. continue the burning process for about fifteen minutes, then extinguish the flames by replacing the lid of the pan. the shellac and black may be added while the composition is cooling. _stone-to-stone re-transfer ink._--the ingredients of this ink consist of:-- oz. transfer ink. oz. litho black ink. oz. medium varnish. oz. canada balsam. melt the transfer ink over a slow fire and add the other ingredients separately. canada balsam will not only add to the effectiveness of this ink, but it will also improve its working qualities. _copperplate transfer ink._--ingredients consist of:-- oz. tallow. oz. bee's wax. oz. shellac. oz. soap. oz. bitumen. oz. canada balsam. oz. carbon black. the method in this case differs somewhat from the preceding. first melt the bitumen and then add the wax and soap in small pieces as before. burn this for fifteen minutes, and add the shellac, balsam, and black, boiling the whole gently for forty minutes. mould into squares or sticks, and for convenience in handling cover these with tinfoil. should an extra powerful ink be required for shading or stippling films, the stone-to-stone re-transfer ink can be reduced to a working consistency with castor oil instead of varnish, and thus rendered suitable for this purpose. chapter iii lithographic transfer papers essential features--varnish transfer paper--damp-stone transfer paper--french transparent transfer paper-- copperplate transfer paper--an alternative recipe-- granulated papers--photo-litho transfer paper. transfer papers are even more used than the transfer compositions already described, and in greater variety, in consequence of which there is a wide difference of opinion concerning their merits. to a certain extent the specific value of any transfer paper must depend upon local conditions. that which might be of the utmost value to one printer would in all probability fail to meet the requirements of another. with these also, as with the transfer inks, the main point is to grasp the general principles involved. adhering to these principles enables any intelligent workman to adapt the transfers to his own peculiar necessity. it is most important that lithographic transfer paper should be absolutely impervious to the transfer composition or ink, so that an impression of full strength can be conveyed to the stone, leaving its greasy properties unimpaired. the paper therefore must undergo special preparation, and here again the character of the work and the conditions under which it is carried out are the chief controlling elements. so much is this the case that many lithographic printers prefer to make their own transfer paper, and find such a procedure eminently satisfactory. a good bank post double foolscap paper, about lb., first thinly coated with a solution of concentrated size and afterwards varnished with a heavy coach body varnish, gives excellent results. when transferring large work in which a number of printings are involved, and where accuracy of register is a _sine quâ non_, the following mixture may, if desired, be substituted for the coach body varnish:-- best oak varnish quart. turpentine / pint. boiled linseed oil / pint. paper thus prepared rarely stretches or becomes distorted to any appreciable extent, and can be used with equally good results on either cold or warm stones. its keeping qualities are, however, limited; it is therefore advisable to utilise the transfer impressions with as little delay as possible. this may be criticised as a somewhat primitive and old-fashioned transfer paper; but of the many transfer papers now in use, none can claim to be exactly new. another stone-to-stone transfer paper of the simplest possible character can be made by coating a good writing paper with the following composition. soak oz. of glue in oz. of water for about hours. reduce lb. of starch to a thick, creamy paste by rubbing it down in a little cold water and then adding boiling water until the required consistency is obtained. mix the starch and glue together, and add a little gamboge or cochineal as colouring matter, so as to enable the printer to see at a glance which is the coated side of the paper. spread this composition on the paper while it is still warm. a transparent transfer paper with a soluble coating is frequently desirable, and for certain purposes may be strongly recommended. a french transfer paper meets such a requirement, and at the same time possesses many other excellent qualities. it picks up a firm, clean impression, and transfers every particle of it to the stone. it is also transparent, and sufficiently adhesive to stick to a very slightly damped stone under a light pressure. a transfer paper which may be used as a base upon which to write or draw a design for subsequent transference to stone, as well as for stone-to-stone transferring, should be coated with a composition of a gelatinous character, which will not be readily soluble in water. writing transfer ink is of course dissolved in water, and its effect on a soft, soluble composition would be disastrous. the following formula is suggestive as well as practical:-- gelatine oz. isinglass oz. flake white lb. gamboge oz. make a strong size of the above by boiling the gelatine and isinglass with a little water. mix the gamboge and flake white with a little warm water, and add the mixture to the gelatine solution. this composition must be applied to the paper while still quite warm, as it forms into a comparatively stiff jelly while cooling. this paper should be transferred to warm stones. copperplate transfer paper is to some extent a development of the variety just described; that is, if the conditions under which such transfers are made will bear comparison with operations of an essentially different character. the composition used for coating copperplate transfer paper must possess a somewhat heavy body, and for this reason plaster of paris enters into its composition, which is as follows:-- plaster of paris lb. flake white lb. flour lb. fish glue / lb. alum oz. soak the alum and glue from to hours, and then boil them until they are dissolved. make the flour into a smooth paste by the addition of a little water, and mix it with the flake white. mix the plaster of paris with water, and stir continuously until it becomes incapable of setting. add the other ingredients, already mixed, and see that they become thoroughly incorporated with the plaster of paris, after which coat the paper twice with the mixture. the following may be substituted for the above:-- plaster of paris lb. flour lb. gelatine oz. a transfer paper with its surface granulated to represent a mechanical stipple, or the texture of a grained stone, may be prepared in the following manner. take of:-- starch oz. parchment chippings oz. flake white oz. prepare the starch as previously described, and dissolve the isinglass by boiling. mix the flake white into a thin paste by the addition of water. warm the three ingredients, and mix the whole thoroughly. coat a fairly heavy printing paper twice with this composition, and when it is thoroughly dry give it the required granulation by means of grained stones or engraved plates. the grain thus imparted breaks up the drawing into a series of minute dots. paper of this description is most suitable for pencil or crayon work. its usefulness is obvious. it enables the artist to use his chalks in the usual manner, without the inconvenience of handling large stones. no graining of the stone is necessary, and the grained effect can be confined to any portion of the design. photo-litho transfer paper is in every respect a specific article, the coating of which consists of a gelatinous emulsion, which can be readily sensitised, and upon which a photographic image can be developed. special preparation and manipulation are therefore necessary in connection with its production, and these points will be fully dealt with in a subsequent chapter. one more variety of transfer paper should be mentioned, namely, the diaphanic, which possesses excellent qualities for certain classes of work. it is very transparent, and extremely useful in the tracing of key formes, or for making facsimile drawings for immediate transference to stone. chapter iv copperplate transfer printing the copperplate press--the operation--charging the engraved plate--cleaning-off and polishing--making the impression-- useful notions. although copperplate printing may not now be so extensively practised as in years gone by, it is not, so far as we can judge, very likely to be superseded in the near future. it is still regarded as a necessary adjunct to lithography, especially where the amount of commercial work produced is of any moment. from a purely mechanical point of view the construction of the copperplate press (fig. ) is of an exceedingly simple character. its primary purpose is to produce a heavy and uniform pressure on the plate during operation. [illustration: fig. .] after being charged with a special pigment and cleaned as hereafter described, the plate is laid, face upwards, on the iron bed or table of the press and in contact with the paper, and passed through between two iron cylinders. these cylinders are so adjusted as to produce an exceptionally heavy pressure. such are the simple elements of a process which, however, requires much closer investigation. in its application to lithography the following are the only requisites for copperplate transfer printing. a stick of prepared transfer ink--whiting, free from grit--transfer paper, and a plentiful supply of soft rags. likewise, an iron plate with a gas jet underneath (fig. ), a square of printer's blanket, and a damp book consisting of twenty or thirty sheets of blotting or other absorbent paper slightly and uniformly damped. [illustration: fig. .] a good copperplate transfer paper can be made according to the recipe given in chap. iii., but unless a fairly large quantity is used the commercial qualities will be found most economical. copperplate printing, in its application to lithography, is a simple operation, but it requires extraordinary care for its successful execution. the conditions under which lithographic transfers are made from a copperplate engraving are vastly different from those which control copperplate printing for ordinary purposes of reproduction. the engraved plate is first well heated by means of the hot plate already mentioned. the transfer ink is then _forced_ into the engraved parts until every line is fully charged, the ink having been previously enclosed in a double fold of soft rag. during this part of the operation great care must be taken that the transfer ink does not burn through overheating, as this would partially destroy its greasy nature and leave it hard and brittle. the transfer impression would suffer in consequence, and, though to all appearance perfect on the paper, it would be weak and ineffective when applied to the lithographic stone. such an error of judgment is not at all unusual, and should therefore be the more carefully guarded against. it frequently occurs without the knowledge of the operator, owing, it may be, to his over-anxiety to complete his work in as short a time as possible. the plate must now be cleaned, _i.e._ the surplus ink and scum must all be removed. this may be done before the plate is quite cool, and after a little experience it will be possible to accomplish the cleansing process without in any way disturbing the ink in the lines of the engraving. the rag used for cleaning must be tightly folded into the form of a pad and kept free from creases. after final cleansing and polishing with whiting the plate is ready for an impression. the transfer paper requires damping until it is quite limp, when it is brought into contact with the inked plate and subjected to a very heavy pressure. the backing is a woollen blanket, preferably of fine texture; this ensures perfect contact between the plate and the paper. the plate is now very slightly warmed to dry the transfer paper, which is allowed to peel off; this it does very readily if, after a little while, the corners and edges are but slightly eased. oil of tar will effectually remove any accretions of copperplate transfer ink which may have hardened in the lines of the engraving. it may be useful also to know that it is possible to use a small lithographic press in place of a copperplate press, assuming, of course, that a sufficiently heavy and uniform pressure can be guaranteed. this is not altogether an innovation, yet it is not a familiar notion. chapter v the lithographic press mechanical principles--constructive details--scraper-- tympan--practical suggestions--elastic bedding. it is not a little surprising to find that the mechanical principle of the lithographic press in general use to-day is almost identical with that which the pioneers of the craft employed so successfully. this is an interesting fact which either reflects much credit upon the ingenuity of the early lithographic printers or points to an unreasonable conservatism on the part of the present-day craftsmen. a discussion of this phase of the question would be of doubtful interest, for the practical printer has long been accustomed to regard it simply as a convenient appliance for the production of a heavy and readily adjustable pressure. a brief examination will prove to what extent these requirements are fulfilled by the modern lithographic press (fig. ). the simplicity of its construction suggests a first point for favourable criticism. in fact, its general mechanical arrangements are so exceedingly simple that the merest tyro might readily understand their principles and purpose. the adjustability of the pressure by means of the screw d (fig. ) is both effective and necessary, owing to the constantly varying thickness of the lithographic stones. the pressure of the boxwood scraper b on the surface of the stone is perfectly rigid, and yet, owing to the intervention of the tympan c, is sufficiently elastic to ensure the closest possible contact. figs. and show one or two constructive details by which the hand lever a and the cam motion e bring up the cylinder f to the bottom of the carriage or bed of the press, fig. . [illustration: fig. .] it is in this position that the movement of the carriage gives the necessary pressure required to pull an impression. the shaft h runs across the press and operates a similar cam to e on the opposite side. these two cams raise the brass block g and give the requisite support to the cylinder f when the pressure is applied. these are the chief characteristics of the lithographic press, and as such they require not a little attention and intelligent manipulation. it is practically impossible to secure a steady and uniform pressure unless the scraper and tympan are carefully adjusted. [illustration: figs. and .] the former must be perfectly true with its v-shaped edge nicely rounded, and the latter tightly stretched on the frame c so that it will not sag or bulge when pressure is applied and the scraper passes over it. to reduce the enormous friction caused by this pressure the back of the tympan is usually dressed with a mixture of tallow and plumbago, a dressing which requires frequent renewal. the plumbago possesses but little body, and its salutary effect soon passes away. to prevent this and to increase its adhesiveness it is sometimes mixed with a little gum. a mineral black which is found in large quantities in the west of england is even more effective than plumbago for this purpose. it forms a strong and flexible dressing for the leather, is peculiarly adhesive and provides an efficient lubricant. it is a decided advantage to have two tympans in use, one for small stones and another for the larger sizes. it is obviously unwise to pull a number of impressions from small stones with a large tympan, for if this practice is persisted in the tympan leather not only loses its shape, but becomes perceptibly thinner on such parts as may have been most subjected to pressure. for similar reasons it is advisable to have a number of boxwood scrapers of different sizes. the "dents" produced by a small stone on a large scraper can only be removed by planing. in lithographic press work some form of elastic bedding placed underneath the stone will not only materially assist the pressure, but will also minimise the risk of breakages. in fact, the pressure is frequently so keen and of such a direct character as to render this arrangement little short of a necessity. extra thick linoleum will serve this purpose admirably, and a zinc covering for this bedding will complete the equipment of the lithographic press. [illustration: fig. .] the operations directly associated with lithographic press work are of sufficient importance to warrant a full description of each, and will form the nucleus of the following chapter. chapter vi lithographic press work preparing the design--treatment of an ink drawing--chalk drawings--alterations--value of impressions--offsets--the lithographic hand-roller--proving--registration--general features--transferring--a commercial necessity-- arrangement--choice of paper--transference to stone-- preparing the forme. the operations directly associated with lithographic press work are more or less of a preparatory character. the preparation of a design, in its progressive stages, from the lithographic draughtsman to the printing machine, is usually carried out in conjunction with the press. only under exceptional conditions or for some particular class of work is the lithographic press actually employed for printing purposes. its ready adaptability to the ever-varying thickness of lithographic stones, and the manner in which pressure can be applied at will, as well as the intense sharpness of such pressure, render it peculiarly suitable for the work now under discussion. such operations will be better understood and probably more easily remembered if they are described in a sequence such as might be presented under average commercial conditions. taking a design as it leaves the lithographic draughtsman, _i.e._ in the form of a greasy drawing on stone, the first object of the printer is to so prepare it as to preserve the conditions described in chap. i. page . this he may accomplish in the following manner. cover the whole stone with fresh strong gum and allow it to dry. then if it be an ink drawing, wash off the gum with water, and remove the drawing ink from the surface of the design with a few drops of turpentine and a piece of clean rag. proceed to roll up with a lithographic hand-roller charged with good black printing ink. the consistency of this printing ink can only be determined by the character of the work under treatment. it is therefore a matter of experience rather than rule. heavy designs covering large areas can be worked up with moderately thin ink, while work of a finer description will most probably require a stronger ink for its successful treatment. between these two extremes there is a variety of conditions and effects which will require a ready recognition and an intelligent adaptation or modification of any operation which may be described. it may even be advisable to _rub up_ the work with a piece of soft rag and printing ink, but the clearness and crispness of the drawing can best be preserved by a complete removal of the greasy ink with which the drawing was originally made. more particularly is this desirable when heavy, solid work is in close contact with work of a finer description, for the excessively greasy character of the artist's drawing ink has a dangerous tendency to smear or spread and to thicken the design, unless a reasonable amount of care is exercised. after rolling up the work as well as possible, and having decided that it is firm and strong and is fully charged with ink, dry the stone perfectly and dust over the design with finely powdered resin or french chalk. with a piece of water of ayr stone polish away any scum or dirt which may surround the work, and etch it quickly with a weak solution of nitric acid. cover up with strong gum and dry it. the design is now ready either for proving or transferring. the treatment of chalk drawings, grained stones, or transfers from grained paper needs a slight variation of the operations already described. the preliminary etching is generally carried out by the draughtsman by flooding the stone with a mixture of gum and acid, after which the gum solution is allowed to dry. the chemical change which takes place during this etching is often described as one in which the soap present in lithographic chalks is changed to an insoluble compound. this chemical change is perhaps a somewhat contentious matter, but the effect and not the principle involved is to us the matter of primary importance, and this effect is such as to actually prevent any spreading of the design on the stone beyond the lines of the original drawing. returning once more to the operation, wash off the gum, and, having removed the excess of water in the usual way, roll up firmly with a strong black ink. instead of washing out the drawing with turpentine immediately, work off the original chalk by rolling up with a good nap roller and taking frequent impressions. in this way the grain of the drawing will be gradually developed and rendered fit for further operations. the stone can then be passed to the prover or transferrer. a french writer, in referring to the importance of really good _chalk_ drawing and printing, as well as to its artistic and technical value, once said: "the printer requires a fair appreciation of that subtle suggestiveness which gradations of tone can impart to a chalk drawing before he can hope to successfully reproduce the artist's original conception. a good printer handles his roller over a chalk drawing with the same feeling as that with which a violin player handles his bow. by movements rapid or slow, and by greater or less pressure over certain parts, he charges the drawing to the proper tone." if at any time the original work requires alterations, they may be executed in the following manner. roll up the design firmly in strong, black ink, and, after fanning the surface dry, dust it over with french chalk. make the necessary erasures with water of ayr stone and etch with fairly strong nitric acid. polish slightly, and wash well with a plentiful supply of clean water. pour over the stone a very weak solution of alum, and again wash thoroughly with hot water, so that its rapid evaporation may leave the work ready for immediate manipulation. alterations may be made by transferring or drawing. in either case it is advisable to gum up the work with strong gum and allow it to stand until dry. the subsequent treatment of any alteration will, of course, depend upon their character and extent. as new work, they should be carefully handled. it is most important that a very _weak_ solution of alum should be used. being an alkali, a strong solution would have a tendency to dissolve the greasy particles of the drawing and cause them to spread and thicken. it is always advisable to take an impression from each design, whether it be in ink or crayon, before it is laid aside for subsequent manipulation. these impressions will not only reveal any inaccuracies or weaknesses which might otherwise pass unnoticed, but also serve as a useful record and for comparison with other transfers or impressions which may be required. there are other phases of preparatory work which come within the scope of the lithographic pressman, and as they frequently constitute an intermediary stage between the first drawing of the draughtsman on stone and the making of transfer impressions to facilitate reproduction, a description at this point will be appropriate. it may be that a key forme only has been prepared, or perhaps an outline forme with sufficient detail. in either case a number of offsets equivalent to the number of colours necessary for the completion of the design will be required. these are made by taking good, solid impressions in stiff black ink from the key or outline forme. dust these over with a mixture of three parts venetian red and one part lamp-black. lay them in convenient positions on a well-polished dry stone, and run them through the lithographic press with a light yet firm pressure. the result will be faint yet sufficiently clear offsets of an outline which will enable the lithographic draughtsman to prepare any number of formes, and these will register or fit each other and the original drawing with perfect accuracy. such outlines will in no way affect the work of the draughtsman, and will disappear at the first application of the gum sponge or moisture in any form. [illustration: fig. .] a lithographic _nap_-roller (fig. ) facilitates the work of the pressman in the preparation and development of original drawings on stone, and becomes an absolute necessity when crayon drawings on grained stones are operated upon. the preparation and preservation of a roller of this description requires a more than average amount of care and attention. the best rollers are covered with french calf-skin with a soft, velvet-like nap, and may be prepared as follows. run the roller in crude castor oil for a short time until the leather becomes soft and pliable, then work out the superfluous oil by repeated rolling in medium varnish, occasionally scraping off the varnish with a broad blunt knife. continue this for a day or two, then gradually work into the skin some good non-drying black printing ink. the roller thus prepared may be somewhat harsh, but a few days' use will bring it into condition. an occasional application of tallow or lard, say about once a week, will keep the roller skin soft and pliable, and counteract the hardening effect of constant contact with the damp surface of the lithographic stone and the oxidisation of the printing ink. proving the work of the lithographic artist, though not always an absolute necessity, is a helpful and most important function. in its progressive stage it enables both designer and lithographer to observe the realisation of their colour schemes, and to amplify or minimise if necessary the effects they desire to produce. errors of judgment or of detail can be rectified before the work reaches a more advanced stage. again, a finished proof offers something of a tangible character for an expression of approval or disapproval, and serves as a useful and helpful guide to the printer throughout the subsequent operations. this will show clearly the importance of the prover's work, and though it is not by any means an unusual proceeding to _prove up_ even the most elaborate designs in the lithographic printing machines, it is, for obvious reasons, more convenient to confine such work to the press. it may therefore be regarded as an intermediate operation, distinctly apart from the preparation of the original drawing which precedes it, and the arrangement for machine printing which follows. the distinctive and pre-eminently the most important feature of proving is the manner in which one colour is registered with another; and although the methods usually adopted are of the simplest possible character, the most scrupulous care is requisite for their successful application. it appears to be an almost ridiculous plan, so simple is it, to cut away the angles formed by the register lines after the first printing (fig. a), and then to place them to corresponding lines on each colour forme, or to pierce the register lines as in fig. b, passing a fine needle through each puncture into corresponding holes drilled in the stones and allowing the sheets to fall into position,--yet these operations demand constant care and attention. [illustration: fig. a.] [illustration: fig. b.] the mixing of colours for proving, and the general principle of their application, are matters which are almost entirely under the control of the printer. their selection and the manner in which they are employed are both determined by the individual character of the work. it is impossible to indicate any "rule of thumb" guide for their application or manipulation. the individual fancy of the artist, or the wish of a customer, are the only probable complications which may have to be considered. then again, many phases of the work are more or less experimental, when the resourcefulness of the printer may be tested, and the mechanical features of his work be relieved by the exercise of intelligent application, if not of artistic perception. very rarely is it possible to print from the litho-draughtsman's original drawing, and even when it may be convenient to do so, it is, in the majority of cases, unadvisable on account of the element of risk involved. there is an ever-present danger of the stone breaking,--a catastrophe which would necessitate an entire reproduction of the design, and even under the most favourable conditions the constant attrition produced by the rollers, etc., would have an appreciable effect on the work, and in course of time destroy its value for graphic reproduction. many other equally cogent reasons why duplicates of the original should be made for printing purposes present themselves. the chief of these is an essentially commercial one. to reproduce half a million impressions from a single small drawing would obviously depreciate the commercial value of lithographic printing very considerably, and although there is no record of the circumstances under which the duplicating of original work by means of transfers was first evolved, it is only reasonable to suppose that it was the direct outcome of a necessity which was as peremptory in its demands as it has been far-reaching in its effects. the method is one by which any number of impressions can be made on a suitably prepared paper, and with a sufficiently greasy pigment. these can be re-transferred to a lithographic stone, and in this way facsimiles of the original may be secured and arranged in the manner most convenient for machine printing. great care is necessary in making these transfer impressions. they must be perfectly solid, yet not overcharged with ink, _i.e._ they must be clean and sharp, and as nearly an exact replica of the original work as it is possible to make them. that the further description of these operations may be as lucid and practical as possible, we will apply it to ordinary work-a-day conditions, and suppose that a design in three workings has been lithographed and prepared for transferring as already described. the size of the work is - / in. by - / in., then the paper on which it is to be printed ought to be double crown, in. by in. this will allow - / in. for the gripper and / in. margin at the back and sides. sixteen transfers can be pulled from each colour forme on a thin, transparent transfer paper. mark out a sheet of stout paper as in fig. , and arrange the transfers in the position indicated by the dotted lines. the gripper margins a a are determined by the construction of the machines, and may be varied accordingly. varnished transfer papers may be laid down on a slightly warmed dry stone, and if french transfer paper be used the stone must be slightly damped. if the sheet of transfers is laid down to a board--fig. --uniformity of gripper margin will be assured throughout the series, and the work of the machine printer facilitated. [illustration: fig. .] pull it through the lithographic press with a gradually increasing pressure in the usual way. the varnish transfer paper will be sufficiently tacky to adhere slightly to the surface of the stone, so that the pressure may be repeated again and again with perfect safety. it may not be possible to remove the base upon which they were arranged, as it is usual to secure them in position with paste. at this point the manipulation of the two varieties of paper differs slightly. the thin, transparent variety is usually fastened down to its paper base with syrup, glucose, or some sticky composition of a similar character. this paper backing can be removed immediately after sufficient pressure has been applied to fix the transfers to the stone. as this transfer paper is adhesive it is necessary to damp the surface of the litho-stone before it is laid down, when, of course, it will readily adhere, even under a moderately light pressure. [illustration: fig. .] the further preparation of work, after being transferred in this manner, is in many respects similar to the treatment of new work, but with this important difference. a new transfer should almost invariably be worked up with a soft rag and black ink, the latter being thinned down with turpentine and varnish. gum up the work, and allow the gum to dry. roll a piece of soft rag into a pad, and charge it with printing ink which has been thinned down. wipe off the gum on the surface of the stone, leaving only a thin film over the work. rub up the transfers with the rag already prepared, and when fully charged with ink cover them with fresh gum. if possible they should stand for one or two hours, when the rolling up and etching may be proceeded with. accuracy of register can be ensured by the second and third sets of transfers being patched up to the first forme in the following manner. make two fairly strong black impressions of this forme on a stout unstretchable paper. fix these up on a glass frame in such a position as to allow the light to pass through them, and carefully place each transfer in its exact position. they can then be laid down on separate stones in the same way as the first set. these are the simple outlines of the transferring process. in detail they may, of course, be modified to meet the exigencies of peculiar conditions, which in lithography are frequently the controlling powers, and at all times are matters of vital importance. chapter vii machine printing the printing machine--the halligan--some mechanical phases--speed--pressure--levelling the stones--cylinder brake--inking rollers--damping. concerning the structural qualities of the various types of lithographic printing machines now in use, much might be written and divers opinions expressed. in this respect, however, it would be invidious to suggest that one maker's machines were better than another's, and such would be the natural trend of a discussion on these lines. the machines all have, it is true, many points in common where comparisons would be legitimate and easy. yet, on the other hand, they each possess distinct advantages which will no doubt appeal to the printer individually, in proportion to their suitability or otherwise for his particular work. conviction will follow experience in these matters, and any decision arrived at after this fashion may be regarded as a useful and valuable acquisition. the illustration on page (fig. ) gives a fair general idea of the modern lithographic machine. fig. illustrates a somewhat novel type of lithographic printing machine, in which the gripper is entirely dispensed with, the sheet being held to gauges by the operator until caught between the small cylinder and the stone, when pressure is immediately applied. the stone is simply blocked up in the bed of the machine and the position of the print on the paper assured by moving the gauges. this useful little jobbing machine is a decided innovation, and the simplicity of its construction is only equalled by the precision of its movements. [illustration: fig. .] lithographic machine printing presents many peculiar features, each one of which requires careful and constant attention for their successful operation. some of its purely mechanical aspects--the care of the machine and its accessories, together with their various functions and applications--offer a wide scope for resourcefulness and ability of a high order. the primary purpose of the machine itself was undoubtedly to accelerate the reproductive power of lithography from a commercial point of view; and throughout the entire course of its development the aim of the engineer has been to produce a printing machine with an ever-increasing capacity for reproduction. it does not follow, however, that the printer's responsibility has been proportionately increased. mechanical appliances have now so far superseded hand labour that, apart from a thorough knowledge of the principles of lithography, which is in itself essential, successful lithographic machine printing is largely due to resourcefulness, alert perception, and a skilful blending of mechanical and technical knowledge. [illustration: fig. .] passing over the vast amount of detail which is usually and almost invariably associated with machine printing, but which offers little that is new to the practical worker, it might be advantageous to discuss a few points which are too often overlooked. speed, as has already been pointed out, is a very important factor in lithographic machine printing. it has become quite a necessity, and everything which conduces to it should receive the most careful consideration. economy of power is too seldom regarded as a standard of efficiency in the printer. at any rate, as far as this is concerned it is doubtful if he fully realises the effect of what may appear to him as insignificant matters. a little pressure more or less on the stone may be in itself a mere trifle, so also would be a careless arrangement of the inking rollers or indiscriminate damping of the stones, yet, when taken together, what a considerable waste of power they might cause;--a waste which is altogether unnecessary and could easily be obviated by care and forethought. excessive pressure is frequently resorted to in order to "bring up" an impression which is defective owing to some error of judgment in its preparation. it undoubtedly secures the desired effect, but at what a cost! there is a proportionately heavier drag on the machine and a greater strain on its most vital parts. the following view of this matter may be regarded as somewhat exaggerated, but it is by no means an uncommon state of affairs, and will at least serve to emphasise the importance of this point. it is a popular fallacy to suppose that in adjusting the litho-stone to the bed of the printing machine it should be made _perfectly level_. as a matter of fact a much easier and more satisfactory impression can be made from a stone which is worked just a little higher at the front or gripper edge than at the back, and for this reason. the drag on the cylinder as it makes the impression is appreciably greater at the back than at the front, and when the pressure is heavy it has a tendency to leave the back edge with a very decided jerk. the remedy is obvious and simple. as already suggested, the stone should be set in the machine with the least possible inclination towards the front. this adjustment is easily effected by a judicious arrangement of a few layers of brown paper. just think for a moment of the effect likely to be produced by such a jerk or jar, which would under ordinary working conditions occur from twelve to fourteen times per minute whilst the machine was in motion! abnormal pressure would of course intensify the strain, and sooner or later produce results of a decidedly disastrous character. under the most favourable conditions this continual springing would tend to move the stone out of position, and thus affect the register of one forme with another. another certain result of this condition of things is, that the sharp pressure on the back edge of the stone would almost certainly cause an appreciable indentation in the cylinder covering. this would eventually cut through, or at least interfere with the working of a larger sheet at some future time. the mechanism for raising or lowering the lithographic stone in the machine for the adjustment of pressure is comparatively simple (fig. ). [illustration: fig. .] there are two screws similar to a which pass right through the feet of the stone carriage b b. a movement of the screws will therefore cause a corresponding movement of the stone carriage on the blocks or inclines c c. the lock-nut d holds the screw securely once the pressure is adjusted. so few printers really understand the proper adjustment of a cylinder brake that some information concerning it will no doubt prove acceptable. in the first place, a continuous action brake which can be released at certain intervals is most suitable. it holds the cylinders perfectly rigid whilst the machine is running free, and applies a sufficient check at the points required. the intermittent movement referred to is obviated in various ways. fig. shows an example of one which is both simple and effective. it might be well also to explain the principle and purpose of the cylinder brake. it is almost impossible to cut mechanical gearing which will run easily and yet be entirely free from _slogger_. consequently the revolution of a printing machine cylinder would be more or less jerky unless steadied in some way. this is especially the case when it reaches the stone, and, owing to the pressure applied, lifts a little in the gearing. a recognition of this simple matter will enable an intelligent workman to arrange the brake action with judgment and effect. [illustration: fig. a.] a comparison of the old arrangement of inking rollers (fig. a) with the new (fig. b) is in itself an object lesson in this question of power and its economical application. it is but reasonable to suppose that the power required to move a set of rollers arranged in the old-fashioned manner (fig. a) will be infinitely greater than that which would be needed for such an arrangement as shown in fig. b. [illustration: fig. b.] pursuing this matter still further, the question of indiscriminate damping presents itself. granted that the influence here is an indirect one, yet it is a cause which frequently leads to an undesirable finish. every printer knows something of the effect produced by excess of water upon printing inks. it hardens and stiffens them by accelerating oxidisation. in course of time their free working on the rollers is interfered with, and loss of power is by no means the worst result. weak and impoverished impressions, abnormal wear and tear of the printing forme, and excessive saturation of the paper may follow. in lithography generally, and in lithographic machine printing particularly, the damping of the stone is a matter which requires constant and careful attention; any arrangements for this purpose should therefore be as effective as possible. the damping rollers should be thoroughly cleaned each day, in order to remove any scum or grease which may have been collected from the printing forme. [illustration: fig. .] the arrangement of damping rollers shown in fig. is a decidedly practical one. the upper roller consists of metal, usually brass or zinc. it collects any accumulation of ink or scum from the actual dampers, and can be cleaned at any time without serious interference with the progress of the work. its adoption, however, has not been very general, although it would be difficult to ascribe any good reasons for such a fact. chapter viii machine printing--_continued_ register--atmospheric conditions--the key--the gripper-- starting the machine--fixing the stone--strength of colour--grit--making ready--regulation of speed. it is almost impossible to overestimate the importance of register in lithographic machine printing, and any suggestions which are likely to be of assistance to the printer in this matter will no doubt be welcomed. variable atmospheric conditions, insufficiently matured paper, or constitutional defects in the machine, are frequent sources of inaccurate register. these may be to some extent unavoidable and therefore beyond the printer's control, but there are numerous other points which have an important bearing upon the accurate fitting of one colour or forme with another, and therefore require care and attention. the following method of procedure is well worth consideration, as it has decided advantages over many others. the _key_, or outline forme, to which the colour formes have been set up, is put into the machine at the beginning of the printing operations. the exact position of the design on the sheet is arranged, and twenty or thirty impressions taken on a reliable paper. with these impressions as a guide it is a comparatively easy matter to register each colour accurately. this effects a saving both in time and material, and rarely fails to produce satisfactory results. during the early stages of the printing, when it is difficult to detect any slight movement of the stone in the machine, a sheet bearing an impression of the key may be printed in the usual way, when any variation in register will be revealed at a glance. the relative positions of the side lay and gripper seldom receive the consideration they ought to have. the gripper and side lay should be exactly at right angles to each other, and any divergence whatever from this rule simply courts disaster. if they form an acute angle there is a danger of the sheet moving _forward_ a little as the gripper closes. if, on the other hand, they are fixed at an obtuse angle, there is a proportionate risk of the sheet falling back as the gripper closes. if any degree of uniformity could be guaranteed in these movements, then all would still be well, but unfortunately no such guarantee can be given, owing to a possible variation in the cutting of different batches of paper. [illustration: fig. .] another matter of a similar character and quite as important in its issues is more directly connected with the gripper. the type of gripper shown in fig. is probably the best for general use. it enables the printer to use two or more pins upon which to rest his sheet, according to the particular requirements of his work. two pins are usually sufficient and answer best, for the following reasons. it is by no means unusual to find that the paper, trimmed though it may be, has slightly convex or concave edges, owing either to insufficient damping or an inaccurate setting of the knife in the guillotine cutting machine. this can, of course, be avoided, but the point at present under consideration is one of _possible_ effects. this contingency and its effect are considerably exaggerated in figs. a and b, but for purposes of illustration the suggestiveness of the two sketches is not at all too emphatic. [illustration: fig. .] start the machine with a light pressure, for once the stone is locked up a certain amount of danger will always exist if at any time it is necessary to reduce the pressure. the stone may still be held by the blocks, even after the bed of the machine has been lowered, only to come down with a snap when pressure is applied. such a danger might, of course, be averted by slackening the screws and blocks; but then the stone would almost certainly move out of position and the registration of the forme be altered. narrow slips of paper folded two or three times, and inserted between the block and the stone, will often check any tendency the latter may have to lift when the screws are tightened. of the many annoyances associated with the lithographic machine printer's work, _grit_ is probably the most troublesome, inasmuch as its presence is almost imperceptible, while its effect is extensive and often disastrous. its sharp grains become embedded in the inking-roller skins, and plough tiny furrows across the printing forme, doing much damage before the printer realises the presence of any foreign matter on the inking-rollers. prevention is a simple matter enough, but a cure is rarely, if ever, accomplished. dust the rollers and examine them carefully before commencing operations, and in this way ensure perfect cleanliness. it may seem a trifle, but it is none the less an important one, and perhaps the reader has already realised that "trifles make perfection, and perfection is no trifle." [illustration: fig. a.--patent conical counter shafting.] [illustration: fig. b.--patent conical counter shafting.] [illustration: fig. .] in _making ready_ on a lithographic printing machine, as in almost every phase of industrial life, method is the great secret of success. method conquers the most stubborn difficulties, and, though it is not at all times profoundly interesting in its application, yet it more than repays any monotony it may involve. in the matter of lithographic printing, at any rate, a few methods of an essentially simple character might be cultivated with advantage. this chapter is not intended as a complete record of such methods, but a number of items are discussed herein which, though simple, are intensely practical, and likely to suggest more to the reader than is found described in the text. the question of speed may sometimes seriously handicap progress. it is a self-evident fact that the solid impression of a heavy poster cannot be made at the same speed as a light tint in chromo work. speed cones are usually fixed to a counter-shaft to regulate the speed of the machine as required. figs. a and b show an improved arrangement of this character, in which tapering drums a a are substituted for cones, the belt being moved and held in any position by the screw and forks b and c. d is the driving pulley which transmits the power to the machine. electricity as a motive power for printing machinery is quietly yet irresistibly winning its way into general favour, and for very cogent reasons. it is the most convenient form of motive power, and can be transmitted for long distances without any appreciable loss. it takes up little space, and almost entirely dispenses with belts and shafting. it is also essentially economical, because it can be applied to the smallest press just as easily as to a ' by ' poster machine (fig. ). chapter ix lithographic colour printing a commercial value--peculiar features--colour sequence-- controlling elements--a question of register--suitable paper. as a commercial phase of lithographic printing, colour printing offers a vast and ever-widening field of usefulness. nor is it altogether deficient in these artistic qualities which are pre-eminently suggestive, as well as attractive and artistic. colour printing, in its application to lithography, is in many respects peculiar. it is not what might be described as a self-contained process; for its successful realisation depends as much upon the harmonious and skilful combination of colours in the design as upon the manipulation of the printing inks, the sequence of the colour formes, and their accurate fit or register during the actual printing. the most excellent printing would produce barely passable results unless the design was effectively arranged, and prepared with some consideration for the conditions under which it might be printed. nor is it at all unlikely that a design, however smart and artistic it might appear in its original form, would be irretrievably spoiled by clumsy handling or careless printing. the subject for immediate consideration is the practical employment of printing inks for the reproduction of coloured designs, their qualities, peculiarities, and relative values, as well as the means employed to make them amenable to commercial conditions. an intelligent appreciation of these points will not only extend the possibilities of printing inks, but will also enable the machineman to accentuate their attractive and suggestive power. "colour is to design what salt is to food," and successful colour printing has been very aptly described as the adaptation of printing ink to the ever-varying character of work and conditions of employment. this very practical definition will form the keynote of a chapter which, by the very nature of things, must be to some extent authoritative and comprehensive. the colour sequence, _i.e._ the order in which the colours must be employed to secure the best and most economical results, is of primary importance in colour printing. on broad lines, the principle usually followed is one in which the opaque colours are printed first, and upon these all secondary effects are built up. this building up of colours plays also a most important part. its relation to colour sequence is a necessary and influential one. for example, it might not be absolutely essential that even a yellow should be printed first, if it did not form the base for the building up of a green by the super-position of blues, of an orange effect in conjunction with red, or as a secondary flesh tone under the buff. the difference between printing a blue over a red or _vice versâ_ is also very striking. one produces a purplish-black brown, and the other a rich chocolate-brown. other complications of a similar character are common, but these will indicate with sufficient clearness the possible modifications of colour sequence. another feature upon which colour sequence in printing largely depends is the point at which the outline forme can be most effectively introduced. it is advisable to print the outline forme at as early a stage as possible for obvious reasons. perfect registration is far from easy to secure. red in the lips, blues in the eyes, and isolated touches of colour in various parts of the design must fit the browns, and therefore fit each other, and yet they may have no direct relation to each other in the printing. a remedy has been already suggested, but once an outline forme is printed the cause of bad registration is to some extent removed, and a remedy quite unnecessary. when worked on reasonable lines it is frequently an advantage to make the outline one of the earlier printings, so that any harshness of contour, etc., may be toned down by the succeeding greys. it is often a matter of personal opinion, or perhaps of circumstance, which decides the final printings. the pink may be reserved to impart brilliancy and warmth to the prints, or it may be equally suitable to hold back a grey, and, by regulating its tone and strength, soften down any tendency to hardness, pick out the darker prints, and emphasise the shadows. even these suggestions, although usually regarded as standard ideas, must be subjected to modifications under certain conditions. here is a practical instance. unless paper is unusually well seasoned and of first-rate quality, the temperature of the workroom equable, and the printing machine in good order--a combination of excellences which is unfortunately rarely met with--the colour sequence must be of a fairly elastic nature. to print a gold first is quite usual, because the bronze powder will persistently adhere to any preceding printings. from that standpoint alone such a procedure would be eminently practical and convenient, but suppose for a moment that the gold must fit a later printing with absolute accuracy, _e.g._ an outline forme, or as forming the base for some ornamental scheme, then the difficulties which arise are somewhat trying, and for this reason. the paper being new, the most serious distortion of any kind is likely to occur during the first printings, and so long as yellows, fleshes, or other colours of a similar character are printed first, no serious difficulty is likely to arise; but with the gold printing it may be altogether different. it is quite possible to make both yellow and flesh dry dead, _i.e._ without even sufficient tack to catch the almost impalpable bronze powder. at the same time, care must be exercised that the colouring matter is not left dry on the surface of the paper owing to its separation from the reducing medium. this plan has been adopted under actual commercial conditions and with conspicuous success, and it is therefore offered as a preventive measure which is free from many drawbacks which are the frequent accompaniment of novel ideas and operations. here then is a simple practical summary of the idea. the yellow and flesh, or equivalent colours, are printed first, so that they will dry free from gloss or _tack_. the fit required between such colours and subsequent printings is generally a matter of minor importance, and at this stage distortion of the paper, whether it be by stretching or contracting, will not seriously depreciate the value of the print when completed. register between the gold and an outline is frequently of an entirely different character, and in many cases the slightest variation will be readily discernible, and have a decidedly bad effect on the finished work. apart from this, the questions which decide or control the colour sequence have been clearly indicated previously. this matter may be one of convenience also, for unless otherwise predetermined it would be unwise and far from economical to print a blue before a yellow, or a black before a red, etc. the amount of cleaning up thereby involved would become a serious and distinctly disagreeable item, and purity of tone in the lighter colours would be conspicuous by its absence. the matter of well seasoned printing paper has been already referred to. for effective colour printing the paper must also possess several other essential qualities. it should be firm in substance, sufficiently absorbent to carry the successive layers of printing ink, as far as possible unstretchable, and should present a smooth surface though not a glazed one. the chalky, dull, enamelled papers offer many recognised features of value to the colour printer. they assist in the absorption of the ink as well as afford a suitable surface for their impression. friction-glazed and other prepared papers are also excellent for colour printing by lithographic methods. chapter x lithographic colour printing--_continued_ printing inks--varnish--reducing medium--relative values-- some useful hints--bronze blue--vermilion--ink mixing-- ceramic transfers--colour transparencies. for the successful manipulation of printing inks of any description it will be necessary to know something of their composition, or at any rate of such features as render them peculiarly suitable for printing purposes. from a printer's point of view the most important of these features is what may be described as the reducing medium, _i.e._ the medium which holds together the various colours so as to produce pigments of suitable working consistency. the most useful and the commonest form of reducing medium is a linseed oil product, known in its prepared state as a lithographic varnish, with a supplementary title indicating its specific character. its value to the lithographic printer lies mainly in the fact that when it is fully matured it possesses a good full body along with fair drying properties and freedom from any excess of greasy matter. this varnish is used in three or four consistencies between which any degree of strength may be arranged by mixing. a brief outline of the manner in which they are prepared may still further emphasise their usefulness in lithographic printing. raw linseed oil is matured and oxidised until its consistency is considerably reduced. it is still further reduced by being boiled at a high temperature, and is known commercially as "boiled linseed oil." as this boiling is continued the fumes which quickly rise can be ignited, and the liquid soon assumes a syrupy or stringy character, according to the length of time during which it is subjected to the action of fire. by extending or discontinuing the burning the varnish is produced in three grades--thin, medium, or strong. lithographic varnish is a good servant but a bad master, and it is a generally recognised fact that, beyond a certain point, lithographic varnishes as a reducing medium will depreciate the value of colour. the chief requisite in colour printing is the production of a solid flat impression, and for this purpose almost all printing inks must be reduced to a suitable working consistency. to accomplish this, and at the same time retain the full colour strength of printing ink, a soft, free-working composition will be useful and desirable. there are several commercial varieties of solid oil from which the excess of grease has been extracted. these form excellent reducing mediums. they break down the _tack_ of stiff pigments and enable them to work freely during the printing operations. the drying of inks thus prepared is not seriously retarded; they _lift_ readily and usually produce brilliant impressions. there is a reasonable and logical explanation of these peculiarities which is both interesting and suggestive. whatever the character of a reducing medium may be, its effect on the strength of colour will of course be in proportion to the quantity used. in all probability oz. of a solid oil composition, otherwise known as lithographic reducing medium, would soften down a quantity of printing ink for which at least three times its bulk of varnish would be required. consequently, the depth of colour and covering power of an ink reduced with "litho medium" would be proportionately greater than that reduced with varnish. vaseline in some of its commercial forms is frequently used by american printers, and even in this country its use is being tardily, though none the less surely, recognised. a few remarks anent the _intelligent_ application of a softening medium may not be inopportune. considerable care and judgment must always be exercised or there will be a loss of cohesion in the colour pigments which cannot fail to prove disastrous. the tendency of lithographic varnish is to bind the colour pigments together, and this should not be entirely counteracted by the addition of fatty compositions, lest the printing inks run "scummy" during printing operations, and in drying leave the colouring matter, from which they have been detached, on the surface of the paper in the form of a dry powder. such lack of cohesion may, however, be an inherent feature of the ink itself, and not be produced in the manner just indicated. bronze blue affords a striking example of a printing ink of this character. it is, in fact, a "constitutional weakness" which cannot apparently be prevented, but which is fortunately not incurable. the addition of a little canada balsam to bronze-blue ink will add considerably to its working qualities. the loose particles of the pigment appear to be held together without becoming harsh or stringy, as might easily happen if varnish of sufficient strength was added to produce the same effect. other colours, again, such as vermilion and yellow, owing to their weight and texture, will always require a fair percentage of varnish in their composition. at the same time, a little reducing medium might also prove beneficial. referring once more to the fact that vermilion, as distinguished from its imitation, is unusually heavy, etc., it may be useful to know that for "blocking out" work it has no equal in all the range of printing inks. it possesses unrivalled opacity, and as a "blocking-out" agent frequently plays an important part in colour printing. of the other printing inks, few possess characteristics of a sufficiently striking character to require special mention. their working qualities present no exceptional difficulties, and their employment either under primary or secondary conditions is almost invariably determined either by the character of the work or some such conditions as have been already indicated. when the strength of a colour is problematical, or its effect more or less a question of experiment, it is a safe plan to mix it a little lighter than will be required. for obvious reasons it is much easier to alter the line or tone of a light colour than that of a darker one. the arrangements for extensive and economical ink mixing need not be of a very elaborate character. standard colours might with advantage be mixed in large quantities and kept as stock shades. fleshes, pink, blues, greys, etc., are all useful colours which are in constant use. a warm or cold tone could be imparted to a _stock_ grey as required, and a similar method adopted with regard to the other colours. other peculiar conditions could be met in a similar manner, and many economies thereby effected. although the foregoing remarks refer mainly to lithographic colour printing generally, they may with equal effect be applied to many of its more specific branches. colour printing for tin-plate decoration will be fully discussed in a subsequent chapter. transfer printing for ceramic decoration presents many features in common with transfer printing for metal decoration. printing colour transparencies is a commercial phase of colour work which is productive of many curious and attractive effects. unlike the ordinary colour prints, the transparency is intended for exhibition both by reflected and transmitted light. the paper is of a thin, tough quality, and the first printing is usually a white of good covering power and exceptional opacity. it is not necessary to print a solid white groundwork for the coloured design. if an intense brilliant colour is required by transmitted light the omission of part of the white printing will add considerably to the effective character of the design. a brilliancy secured in such a manner may be still further intensified by printing the colour or colours in register _on both sides of the paper_. this can be easily accomplished by first allowing the cylinder covering to take an impression from the stone, and then, with the sheet laid in the gripper, make a second impression in the usual way immediately after. the first print, which might be termed the transfer, will then be made in accurate register on the back of the sheet. semi-transparent, or even transparent, effects can be obtained with any of the colours by an omission of the white printing from the parts affected. complete opacity may be secured by its introduction. this print is afterwards rendered more or less transparent by coating it with a suitable varnish. chapter xi substitutes for lithographic stones metal plates--preparation--manipulation--descriptive details--machine printing--the printing bed--rotary printing machine. metal plate, as a substitute for stone, is now such an important factor in lithography that the printer who wishes to consider himself thoroughly efficient must possess a fairly comprehensive and practical knowledge of its manipulation and possibilities. the prejudice which has hitherto checked the progress of this branch of lithography was not altogether of an unreasonable character. the plates themselves were far from reliable, and the difficulties resulting therefrom were a fruitful source of trouble and expense. metal, as a printing surface, is even yet a comparatively new factor in lithography, and the majority of printers have been working with lithographic stones from their apprenticeship till the present time. it is not surprising, therefore, that in relation to the use of stones almost every possible contingency has been provided for, but with metal plates a little fresh knowledge must necessarily be acquired before the workman can claim the same familiarity of manipulation which he may feel towards the parent process. this is, in fact, the point upon which the whole question usually turns. good work can be produced from zinc and aluminium plates,--of that there is not the slightest doubt,--and it is equally certain that the advantages offered by their use are of a substantially practical character. they can be handled with ease and with absolutely no fear of breaking. they are much less costly than stone, and require less storage room. a grain of a finer and sharper texture can be imparted to metal than is the case with stone, and what is even of greater importance, the character of such a grain remains unaffected for a considerable time. surface inequalities are rarely met with in metal printing surfaces, and consequently uniform pressure is to a certain extent guaranteed. in photo-lithography it is possible to make a print from a negative direct on to the plate (chap. xvii. page ). this ensures an original of exceptional clearness and strength, especially in half-tone subjects. although an ordinary zinc plate, which has been carefully polished to free it from every trace of grease, can be used for lithographic printing, the best results are obtained from plates which have been specially prepared. a slight de-polishing with pumice sand and a piece of felt may impart the requisite "tooth" to the face of the plate, or the following method may be adopted:--clean the plate with pumice sand and felt, and immediately immerse it in a hot bath containing:-- oz. water. / oz. alum. dram nitric acid. keep this liquid in constant motion over the face of the plate until it assumes an even, silvery-grey appearance, and then wash it thoroughly with a plentiful supply of clean water. dry at once, and quickly. these plates can also be sand-grained by specially constructed machinery, or a variety of grains and stipple can be imparted to their surface by etching or sand blast. a novel yet practical idea, which has met with considerable success, is to electrolytically prepare the surface of the plates. the value of this preparation has been amply demonstrated by its extensive adoption and successful use. another distinctly progressive feature is a deposit of alumina on the zinc, which for printing purposes gives it all the advantages of an aluminium plate. [illustration: plate-graining machine, showing oscillating motion.] transfers can be made on metal plates in much the same manner as on lithographic stones. for press work mount the plate on a piece of cardboard its own size, then, having gummed a sheet of brown paper on the face of the litho-stone, place the mounted plate near the centre and fasten it with paste or gum. this will prevent it moving about, and also raise it sufficiently from the stone to enable the printer to use his damping-cloth and roller freely. before mounting, the back of the plate should be carefully dusted to free it from grit and dirt. after the drawing or transfer has been made cover the surface of the plate with strong gum, and while this is still wet add to it a solution of bichromate of potash. leave a slight film only of the gum bichromate, and then dry it quickly and thoroughly. wash out the work with turpentine, _not with water_. the gum, being insoluble in turpentine, remains unaffected. [illustration: plate-graining machine, showing interior of trough.] roll the plate up _solid_ in black ink, sponge it over with water, damp it with a cloth, and then roll it up in the usual way. when the work becomes fully charged with ink, dust it over with a mixture of resin and french chalk, and etch it with the acid etching solution. every maker of zinc and aluminium plates supplies this special etching solution, prepared for a certain quality and character of metal. it is advisable, therefore, to use the preparation recommended, and thus avoid the many pitfalls which beset the path of the experimentalist. "the plate is now well washed over with clean water, and _thinly_ gummed up. when the gum is dry wash out the work on the top of the gum with dry flannel or felt till all the work is removed, sprinkle a few drops of water on the plate, and with a rubbing-up rag and a little ink and turps rub up the work till it is gently charged with ink, then roll up till work or transfer looks strong and sharp, when the plate is ready for printing." for etching and rolling up chalk drawings on grained plates: "pour in a saucer some of the etching solution, and add about the same quantity of fresh, strong gum. this solution is evenly distributed all over the plate with a camel-hair brush, and left to dry. then the etching is removed with water, and the plate very thinly gummed up and left to dry. now the work is washed out with turps and a piece of dry, soft felt or flannel, _without water_, till all the work disappears, and the plate rolled up solid black. then sponge over with water-sponge, damp over and roll up till work appears nice and sharp. now dust over with resin and french chalk, and etch again with the etching solution, full strength. after the etching has dried remove the same with water, and gum up again. "when drawings are to be washed out for proofing or printing, the plate should first be thinly gummed up. this gum layer is left _to dry thoroughly_, and is not removed when the work is washed out (without water) with turps and a dry piece of flannel or felt. next wipe away all the black ink and turps, still using no water for this operation. should any black work be left, use some more turps on the _clean dry rag_ till all the work has been removed, then sprinkle a few drops of water on the plate, and use a clean rag to remove the gum layer and loose black ink left on the plate, then damp over as usual and roll up. "plates treated in this way retain the grease contained in the drawing, and the work rolls up easier and quicker, and none of the finer work gets weakened or lost; also, the plate keeps cleaner and free from scum. "when alterations are necessary the work should be rolled up with a strong black ink, and dusted over with french chalk (powdered talc). remove the part which requires altering with a mixture of equal parts etching solution and turpentine on a small piece of felt or flannel, and rinse well with water. pour some special re-preparing solution in a saucer, and apply this solution with a camel-hair brush to the parts where the work has been removed; after the solution has remained for a few seconds rinse well with water. this operation is to be repeated several times till the surface looks clean, no work being visible; and after the plate is dried with clean white blotting paper it is ready to receive the additional work. when the alteration has been made, the rolling up should be done with the bichromate solution, as per general directions. [illustration: fig. .] [illustration: fig. .] "where the alterations involve additional work only without erasures roll up the design first with a good, strong ink, and dust over with french chalk. the special re-preparing solution is used in the same manner as acetic or citric acid is employed on a litho-stone. for this purpose we recommend that the special solution should be diluted with an equal quantity of clean water, and the solution applied with a camel-hair brush. it should remain on for a few seconds, and then be quickly rinsed with clean water. this operation may with advantage be repeated two or three times for securing a clean surface for the additional work. when the plate has been thoroughly dried with clean blotting paper it is ready to receive the additional work. the rolling up should be done with the bichromate solution, as per general directions." machine printing from zinc or aluminium plates requires but a slight modification of well-known methods; and although it may in some respects present entirely new features, the making ready of work in which several printings are employed is simplified, and consequently much time is saved. in the ordinary type of litho-printing machine the printing bed (fig. ) is levelled in the machine for the first printing, and, if this is carefully arranged, no alteration will be required throughout the whole series; for, in changing from one colour to another, the printing plate can be slipped from the bed and another substituted in a very few minutes. the most scrupulous care should be exercised at all times to prevent dirt or grit of any kind insinuating itself between the surface of the printing bed and the back of the plate. it is not in connection with the flat-bed printing machine, however, that the most decided progress is likely to be made in surface printing from metal plates. "the change which is already foreshadowed in the printing mechanism of to-day is shown by the growing demand for the rotary in place of the slow and tedious movements of the flat-bed press." the mechanical principle of the rotary machine (fig. ) at once suggests an absolute precision of movement which it is scarcely possible to guarantee in the flat-bed press. there is no appreciable lift in the gearing of the cylinders when the impression is made, and practically no risk whatever of _slogger_, such as that described in chap. vii. page . the uniform velocity of the cylinders, which is to a great extent due to the points already indicated, considerably reduces friction, produces perfect registration, and enables the machine to be worked at a high rate of speed. the machine shown on page presents many novel and essentially practical features. the side elevation (fig. ) gives a fairly accurate idea of its general mechanical principles. [illustration: fig. .] chapter xii tin-plate printing its evolution--transfer and direct transfer printing--the coated paper--reversed designs--sequence of printing-- printing inks--purity of tone--drying. tin-plate printing or decoration is probably the most remarkable development of modern lithography. from a most unpretentious and unpromising beginning its evolution has been an unbroken record of phenomenal progress. owing to its intrinsic merits and peculiarly assertive character it has created an enormous demand for its own productions. difficulties innumerable were encountered and surmounted, whilst a whole host of trade prejudices had to be removed before anything approaching a commercial success could be claimed. the original idea was to transfer a printed design from a suitably prepared paper to the metal plates in much the same manner as the children of to-day use transfer prints for decorative and other purposes. though this method is now to some extent superseded, it is by no means obsolete. it is extensively used for certain classes of work, and so long as the present type of direct tin-printing machine is used this transfer method of metal decoration will more or less be retained. it is difficult, and in some cases impossible, to print unusually large or exceptionally thick metal plates by the direct process. hence the value of transfer printing as a useful auxiliary process which can be resorted to without the expense of special machinery. the ordinary lithographic paper-printing machine, without any modification whatever, will fulfil every requirement. almost any paper which has been coated with a starchy composition will be suitable for transfer printing. though not absolutely essential, it is decidedly an advantage to use a paper which is somewhat porous, not too hard. a brief description of the principles involved will probably lead to a clearer understanding of the points already indicated. the print is made on the starchy composition with which the paper is coated, and never actually penetrates to the paper itself. this composition, being readily soluble in water, can be transferred from its paper base to any other surface, and will carry with it any print or impression previously made thereupon. in theory, then, this process is exceedingly simple, nor is it likely to present any insuperable difficulties in practice. one of the most important features of transfer printing, which affects not only the colour sequence but the draughtsmanship, is the inversion of the design when printed. to the printer who is accustomed to chromo work on paper, this matter will probably offer many awkward situations. the control over colour effects is somewhat restricted, and consequently not only care and skill, but a certain amount of special training and actual experience, will be necessary for the production of really successful work. in theory the outline forme should be printed first, but in practice it is frequently advantageous to introduce some of the transparent tints as first printings. in the first place, such prints rarely affect the design to any great extent as far as register or fit is concerned. consequently, any distortion of the paper from atmospheric or other causes has no very serious consequences, and such distortion, _i.e._ expansion or contraction, would be most likely to occur during the initial printings. there is yet another and equally important reason for this suggested modification of the colour sequence. the light, tacky tints considerably improve the printing surface offered by the mucilaginous coating of the paper, and the stronger inks can be printed on it with a full body of colour yet without any tendency to smash and smear. the lighter tints, then, are printed first, and these are followed by the opaque colours, reds and yellows being last. the peculiar feature of such an arrangement is that, after the first few printings, the design becomes partly obscured, and the relative value of different colours, together with the effect of their super-position, are frequently questions of skilful calculation rather than visual appreciation. thus successful manipulation is therefore more or less the result of careful observation and wide experience. in certain classes of work it may, of course, be absolutely essential to ascertain the effects of colours as they are printed. this can be done by transferring a progressive print to a sheet of dull enamel surface paper, using gum water as a transferring medium. in all work where specific colour effects are required it will be advisable to make such test transfers again and again at different stages of the work. concerning the printing inks themselves but little need be said. they must be of good quality, varnishable, and of intense colouring power. purity of tone is requisite, not only under ordinary circumstances, but under what may be regarded as exceptional conditions. the print, when subsequently transferred to the metal plate, will be placed in a stove having a temperature of ° fahr. few colours remain quite unaffected by this stoving, but with carefully selected printing inks the effect is scarcely perceptible. it can, moreover, usually be anticipated, and to some extent minimised, either by judicious super-position or skilful preparation of the colours themselves before printing. the following example will suggest a number of expedients for the preservation of tone of colour in tin-plate decoration. pale blues will frequently become of a decidedly greenish _hue_ when varnished or stoved, and this may be modified by an exaggerated intensity of colour, even to hardness, when printing. at the same time, it must be remembered that "blues" are seldom, if ever, affected in _tone_. pinks of the lighter shades, on the other hand, may suffer both in _hue_ and _tone_. "reds" may be mixed with a more liberal amount of "lake" than they apparently need, and then backed up with solid masses of "yellow" and "flesh." these will restore the bright vermilion hue, and likewise give a greater amount of density or covering power to the colour. black, in the same manner, may be intensified by an underlay of blue. as far as purity and density are concerned, the "white" printing is by far the most important. the primary function of this printing in tin-plate decoration is the formation of an opaque ground on the metal plate--equivalent to the white paper. without it the colours of a design would lose their brilliancy and effect, for their purity and density would be affected by the lustrous sheen of the bright metal plate. it is a printing, then, of some, importance, and the most scrupulous care should be exercised during its manipulation. in consequence of the exceptional density required it is usual to repeat the "white" printing either two or three times. the first printing especially should be made with a smooth, well-mixed ink, which should be worked with the intention of securing a perfectly flat and solid impression rather than a heavy body of colour. the requisite amount of density can be obtained by the second or third impressions. a slight tinge of "oriental blue" given to the "white" will improve its appearance and counteract the discoloration produced by the varnishing and stoving. another point with which the average printer is not familiar is the unusually rapid drying of each colour. the printing inks must dry on the surface, and not even in the slightest degree be allowed to permeate the paper. this is, in fact, the _crux_ of the whole matter; and, assuming that the coating of the paper is suitable and perfect, the drying cannot be otherwise than on the surface. dryers, preferably liquid, must be mixed with the printing inks in liberal quantities. here, again, experience alone can be relied upon for guidance. printing inks have their peculiar characteristics, and atmospheric conditions are ever varying. it would therefore be unwise to indicate any hard-and-fast lines upon which to work. there is at least one danger accompanying the use of dryers in any form which must not be overlooked. colours may dry too hard and present for the succeeding printings a surface similar to a varnished sheet, which will offer no _grip_ to the printing ink, and upon which it will probably run, and, consequently, produce a defective impression. this is by no means an infrequent occurrence. experience alone can prevent it, but the remedy is as simple as it is effective. briskly rub each printed sheet with a pad of soft rag and a little magnesia or french chalk. magnesia is best. it is an almost impalpable powder, and has no ill effect even upon the most delicate tints. this rubbing will produce a slightly matt surface on the hard glossy ink, and on this a good solid impression may be made without further trouble. the printed sheets should be exposed to the air for a few hours to accelerate drying. this may be done in any convenient manner, either by laying them out in frames or hanging them up. a "set off" in transfer printing should be sedulously avoided; not that the soiling of the back of a sheet is of any moment, but because the matter set off on the back of one sheet must be pulled off the face of another, and that very often in liberal proportions. chapter xiii tin-plate printing--_continued_ direct tin printing--the machine--peculiarities of impression--cylinder covering--colour sequence--printing inks--drying racks--air drying and stoving. "direct tin printing" is not, as the term might suggest, a _direct_ impression of the printing forme on the metal plate. it is in reality a transfer printing process in which the transferring medium is a cylinder with an elastic covering. this additional cylinder is one of the chief characteristics of a direct tin-printing machine, and, apart from a few accessory movements, it is in this respect alone that it differs from an ordinary lithographic printing machine. fig. gives a sufficiently clear idea of this distinguishing feature. a detailed description of its mechanical principles is unnecessary, but the following points will prove helpful. the impression is made from the printing forme upon the lower cylinder during the first half of its revolution, and transferred to the metal plate, which is carried by the upper cylinder as the revolution is completed. the reciprocal movement of these two cylinders is therefore a matter which demands the keenest possible attention. their pitch must be absolutely accurate, the pressure of one against the other nicely adjusted, and the brake arrangement on both such as to ensure a perfectly steady revolution. the lower cylinder is covered with a three-ply rubber blanket, which provides a sufficiently elastic impression surface. [illustration: fig. .--rapid tin-plate printing press.] this rubber covering is a most important feature, and requires both careful adjustment and intelligent use. careful adjustment is requisite to ensure the tension being perfectly uniform over the whole surface, when the material is drawn taut by means of a tooth-and-ratchet arrangement. were it not so, the printing surface presented would naturally vary in thickness and resilience, in consequence of which the pressure would be variable and the impression distorted. a most remarkable peculiarity of this rubber covering is that it has a very decided influence upon the size of the impression. if, for example, its pressure upon the printing forme is increased, the impression will be slightly less than the work on the stone, whilst a lighter pressure will of course produce the opposite effect. it is advisable, therefore, when making a first impression, to measure it from back to front and compare it with the printing forme. this method will ensure a print of the exact size, and avoid any risk of complications in the subsequent printings. such distortion--for a distortion it really is--may frequently be turned to good account, and under certain conditions it may prove to be a help rather than a hindrance. some slight inaccuracy in the fitting of any part of the design may occasionally be corrected by inserting patches of thin paper under the cylinder covering, so as to almost imperceptibly increase the pressure over the required area. this idea in its application to "making ready" at a tin-printing machine will suggest many possibilities to the resourceful printer, and if intelligently treated will rarely prove troublesome. in a lesser degree the same system of packing may be applied to the upper cylinder, and the size of the impression to some extent controlled during its transference to the metal plate. the speed of the machine also affects the impression, and in a somewhat peculiar manner. several theories have been set forth to prove why an increase in speed should produce a slight enlargement of the impression, and _vice versâ_; but it is doubtful if any of them are altogether satisfactory. most probably it is due to a momentary change in the resilience of the rubber. the character of the pressure, which is certainly influenced by increasing or diminishing the speed, would of course effect such a change. the effect, as just indicated, is, however, only perceptible when a very pronounced variation in the speed takes place. a rubber blanket is also affected in a somewhat similar manner by atmospheric changes, though not appreciably by moisture. one other point in connection with the cylinder covering is worth noting. whenever it is necessary to remove the impression from the blanket,--and the necessity may arise many times during the course of a day's run,--let it be done with turpentine or benzole, and as rapidly as possible. after the superfluous turpentine or other cleanser has been wiped off, dust over the blanket with french chalk. this will completely absorb any of the cleanser which may have permeated the rubber, and thus minimise any injurious effect. unlike the transfer process in direct printing, the colour sequence is practically the same as for paper printing. there are, of course, essential points of difference, and these may fitly mark the next stage of progress in the discussion of this subject. in the first place, a bright metal plate does not present an altogether suitable printing surface, and for several reasons. the sheen of such a plate will show through many of the printed colours with a dull metallic lustre. the surface, again, is hard and excessively smooth, or, as it is sometimes expressively described, without _tooth_. as can easily be seen, this is far from an ideal printing surface. white also plays a prominent and effective part in many designs, and is frequently indispensable. its presence, when necessary in direct tin printing, must therefore be arranged for in some form or other. one white printing is seldom sufficient to produce a perfectly clean and solid ground. two printings, or even three, may be necessary. purity of tone is a most important point, and therefore a pigment should be chosen which will not only remain unchanged by its contact with the metal, but which will be unaffected by the heat applied during stoving. the appearance of this white may be improved by the addition of blue, as in transfer printing (p. ), and here also the smallest possible quantity will be sufficient. gold lacquer printing is peculiar to tin-plate decoration, and its advent indicated a vast progress in artistic display and effect. printing lacquer is a transparent pigment of about the same consistency and character as printing ink. it is usually prepared in three shades of colour--red, citron or orange, and pale gold. a combination of these in suitable proportions will produce almost any strength or shade of gold which may be required. except as regards their unusually brilliant transparency, these lacquers much resemble yellow lakes, and in paper printing might even be used as economical substitutes for the more expensive pigments. this, however, is only a suggestion, and has little if any practical bearing upon their application to tin-plate printing, where they completely transform the bright sheen of the highly polished metal plate into a brilliant and most effective gold. gold lacquer is an exceptional pigment in many respects. it works exceedingly well, and gives a sharp, flat impression where most other pigments would fail. it also has the power of conveying many of its own good qualities to any printing ink with which it may be incorporated. in transfer printing the question of rapid drying is very important, and in direct tin printing it is even more so. arrangements of a somewhat extensive character must be made for the reception of metal plates immediately after printing, so that the air may freely circulate about them, and thus assist in the drying. the room in which the printing sheets are thus stored must be free from dust, for it will readily adhere to the tacky printing ink, and afterwards prove a source of endless trouble. [illustration: fig. .] drying racks of various descriptions are used for the storage of printed metal plates. one of the best is constructed on the lines shown in fig. . the shelves a a are adjustable so as to carry plates of different sizes. the printed sheets are set up on end in the grooves b b, and by arranging them back to back in pairs a large number can be accommodated without hindering the drying. other types of drying racks are shown in the sectional drawings (figs. a and b). [illustration: fig. a.] the question of air-drying _versus_ stoving has ever been a contentious one, and admits of considerable diversity of opinion. air-drying _is_ preferable where convenient. it is much more economical than stoving, of course; but, on the other hand, it might be a better plan to stove a printing than to wait, perhaps for some hours, until it dried naturally. with some printing inks and under certain climatic conditions both may be necessary, so it is almost impossible to lay down any hard-and-fast rules as to the adoption of either plan. [illustration: fig. b.] some knowledge of their respective disadvantage should be acquired, however, in order to avoid, or at least minimise, them. [illustration: fig. .--convenient method of stacking decorated metal plates to distribute their weights and prevent injury.] take, for instance, a course of eight printings, each one absolutely necessary to the design, and each one to be dried by stoving. it is only reasonable to suppose that the first and second printings will be seriously affected by the subsequent stovings. they will undoubtedly harden to such an extent as to render the super-position of other colours a difficult matter, and their purity of tone will most probably be affected. according to the same line of reasoning, some sheets would be more affected by the heat than others, owing to their position in the racks, the heat of stoves being greatest near the top. air-drying can only be accomplished by adding to the printing ink a proportion of some suitable drier. (_see_ transfer printing, p. .) naturally, it requires a much longer time, but it is equally effective, much less troublesome, and generally more satisfactory. chapter xiv tin-plate decoration suitable designs--a variety of effects--gold lacquer-- super-position of colours--embossed effects--embossing plates--lacquers. it is usually and rightly supposed that the most effective results in tin-plate decoration are produced from designs which are lithographed for that specific purpose. designs which are specially arranged for paper printing can be used so long as the effect produced by the transposition from right to left does not affect its application, or render the same impossible. this, of course, applies more particularly to designs in which lettering appears, but at the same time it may affect designs of an essentially pictorial character in an equally important manner; for it must be remembered that a drawing for tin-plate printing must appear on the lithographic stone exactly as it is impressed on the metal, and not, as in paper printing, reversed from right to left. this naturally simplifies the drawing on stone, and to some extent enables the draughtsman to dispense with the reversing mirror when copying. the primary object of this short chapter will be to point out some of the characteristic features of tin-plate decoration, so that such methods as are usually adopted by the artist and the printer may be modified or amplified to meet any peculiar requirements of work in hand. a greater variety of effects can be attained on the polished metal plate than it is at all possible to produce on paper. a gold effect, the result of lacquer printing, is especially striking. in a similar manner an excellent translucent lustre can be imparted to almost any colour by taking away the white opaque ground, and thereby producing a peculiar semi-transparency which is both pleasing and effective. lacquer printed over _white_ produces a _buff_ colour, which can be used as a second yellow or to form the base of a flesh. the colour of the lacquer is softer and less obtrusive when printed under instead of above the white. the super-position of colour generally, as described in chap. xii. page , is peculiar to tin-plate printing, and suggests the advisability, if not the necessity, of a special design. the advantages of such super-position are obvious and substantial. under ordinary commercial conditions it is almost impossible in tin printing to obtain the same intensity of tones in the printed colours as in paper printing. some such strengthener as the super-position of suitable colours is therefore necessary. the work of the lithographic draughtsman is in this respect of a somewhat unusual character; but a little intelligent consideration will render its execution on these lines comparatively easy and satisfactory. as already stated, yellows can be accentuated by a super-position of lacquer, and in the same manner blues and greys add intensity to black. red can be strengthened by a foundation of lacquer, also flesh and yellow, either singly or in combination. the drawing of lacquer and white formes should receive the most careful attention. they should fit each other accurately, even to the most minute details; for the slightest overlapping will be revealed by the presence of a very assertive buff colour, while any deficiency in combination will leave a not less striking margin of bright tin exposed. in some instances it might be an advantage to transfer one forme from _black_ to _white_ to produce the opposite colour, and thus ensure perfect register. in decorative designs particularly, tin-plate printing suggests almost unlimited possibilities for brilliant effects, and in this respect it offers fair latitude for individual originality and manipulative skill. in the production of show tablets especially, considerable attention has been given to embossing, in order to suggest and represent relief. though not actually produced by the artist, this is in effect part of the scheme or plan of his design, and will consequently influence his work to some extent. for simple ornamentation only, metal embossing presents little that is new or novel; but for the production of relief effects in the pictorial elements of a design its application becomes a more important and influential matter. by its aid a flat and otherwise uninteresting subject can be made attractive and vigorous, and for general purposes of effective display its value will be considerably enhanced and its assertive character emphasised. without entering too minutely into matters which affect the lithographic printer in an indirect fashion only, it will yet be useful to him to know how an embossing die is produced which registers accurately with the design to be operated on. a black impression of the outline forme of the design is made on transfer paper similar to that described in chap. xii. page , and re-transferred, by pressure only, to another sheet of the same paper. the re-transfer is to be the impression required, and this in its turn is re-transferred again to a prepared brass plate. the only preparation necessary is the levelling and planing of the plate, and, if desired, it can be coated with a thin layer of white paint or enamel. this white ground makes the work easier, by rendering the impression more distinct. with such a guide as this the cutting or engraving is a comparatively simple matter. the engraved plate is placed in a casting box, and a stereo-metal casting is made from it. a little trimming may be necessary for the completion of these two tools, and they will require to be suitably mounted, so that they may be accurately adjusted in the embossing press. metal embossing has certain limitations which must be recognised as an essential condition of its effective application. the plates vary considerably in texture and temper, and the depth and character of relief will, to some extent at least, be controlled by the quality of the metal. sharp lines and abrupt terminations impose a strain under which many plates split, therefore such features ought to be avoided. easy, rounded lines, rather than those of the straight furrow description, produce the best results and give least trouble during operations. where abrupt terminations are quite unavoidable the design should, if possible, be so arranged as to evade the super-position of colour over these parts. lacquer, if properly mixed and applied, is probably the toughest pigment used by the tin printer, and is generally suitable for embossed work. it prints an exceedingly thin layer or film on the face of the metal, which under average conditions rarely interferes with the working of the embossing tool. chapter xv photo-lithography early experiments--an analysis--the direct process-- transfer process--line and half-tone--some difficulties-- a natural grain--ink photo-screen effects--essential features. one of the most promising features of lithography is its co-partnership with photography as a rapid and accurate method of reproduction. the resources offered by this combination are very extensive. for facsimile copying and proportionate enlargement or reduction photography stands unrivalled, and, although in certain phases it may be somewhat mechanical in its effects, its relation to lithography as a reproductive art is nevertheless of an intensely practical nature, and far from inartistic in character. the first idea of inking up a photographic print so that it might be transferred to the lithographic stone was suggested in the simplest possible manner. a brief account of its inception will be instructive as well as interesting, inasmuch as it will lead to a clearer conception of the elementary principles involved. during the early experiments in carbon printing it was discovered that a gelatinous film sensitised with certain bichromates could be charged with a coloured pigment, and a picture developed thereon. at first it was not realised that images produced by the action of the light on such a surface could be inked up with a greasy composition and afterwards transferred to the lithographic stone, but it was not long before this important point became apparent. it was found that after exposure under the negative the transfer ink would only adhere to such portions of the gelatinous surface as had been acted upon by the light. photo-lithography will best be considered under two sections, namely:-- . the _direct_ process, in which the actual printing surface is prepared and exposed under the negative. . the _transfer_ process, in which a gelatine-coated paper is sensitised in a solution of bichromate of potassium and the photographic print made upon it. the _direct_ process in its application to the lithographic stone is uncertain in its results. it is impossible to secure sufficiently close contact between the negative and the stone, particularly when large surfaces are under operation, and consequently the print is rarely if ever an unqualified success. the erasure of defective work is also a serious matter, and can only be effected by polishing and preparing the stone again. in the _transfer_ process absolutely close contact can be assured by the use of the transfer paper; and should the print from any cause whatever prove defective, another can be made immediately without any serious loss of time or material. the successful application of the _direct_ process to zinc and aluminium plates is, however, an accomplished fact. the metal plate is sufficiently elastic to adapt itself to any inequalities on the surface of the negative. under such conditions as these this process offers at least one very important advantage. there is not the slightest possibility of distortion such as might occur in the development of a transfer. the metal plate also lends itself to easy manipulation. _photo-lithography_ in _line_ is simply the reproduction of line drawings or prints in which the design is represented in black and white with only such gradations as may be suggested by lines or dots. _half-tone_ photo-lithography is the reproduction of a design or copy which has in its composition gradations of tone in the form of flat tints. it is sometimes described as the translation of the graduated light and shade of the original copy into a surface which can be printed from by mechanical means, for which purpose the ink-bearing surface is broken up into the most minute sections, and thus forming an almost imperceptible grain. the first attempts to reproduce the half-tones of a copy, in the form of a grain consisting of minute dots of varying size and contiguity according to the gradation of tone required, were made with a screen of open textile fabric. this screen was placed between the lens and the sensitive plate, but the results were crude and unsatisfactory. the invention of cross-lined screens, in which the lines were cut on glass and filled with black or other suitable colouring matter, was a decided advancement in the half-tone photo processes. the "screeny" effect produced by the "unvarying uniformity of grain" in half-tone work is undoubtedly the chief drawback to its more extensive adoption for photo-lithography. fine etching cannot be resorted to as in photo-engraving, neither is it possible, to emphasise effects by skilful overlay and underlay; consequently half-tone impressions from a lithographic stone are frequently disappointing. there are no insurmountable obstacles to hinder the production of excellent transfers, nor is it a difficult matter to transfer them to stone. the trouble is, as already pointed out, the unvarying uniformity of the grain. this effect, or rather this lack of effect, has been to some extent overcome by the use of a "four-line" screen in lieu of the usual "crossed" screen, but even this is merely a _remedy_ and not a _cure_. it has been confidently asserted that the highest degree of excellence in photo-process work will be attained by the adoption of what may be termed a natural grain. several processes have been introduced which are undoubtedly based upon collotype methods in which a reticulated grain is produced more or less suitable for lithographic printing. unlike the mechanical screen grain the texture of these processes reproduces the original copy with but little, if any, loss of expressive power. this is indeed a feature of considerable importance, and suggests many possibilities in the way of artistic reproduction. to reproduce an old chalk drawing so that it might be successfully transferred to stone and printed in the usual way, would be practically impossible by any other process. in copying through a ruled screen many of the delicate contrasts of light and shade would be so reduced as to become almost valueless, consequently the print loses both in artistic and expressive power. in contradistinction to this a natural grain exhibits no harshness or indistinctness in the gradations of tone, and retains its clearness and sharpness throughout the printing operation. reverting again to the half-tone ruled screens, it may be well to state that small prints, being usually subjected to a closer inspection than large ones, must be reproduced with great attention to the finer details to ensure a certain amount of fidelity, and for this reason a screen with fine rulings must be employed. naturally, stronger and more vigorous reproduction can be secured with the coarser rulings, but the _screen_ effect will be too pronounced for close scrutiny. there is still much to achieve in photo-lithography, and it is probably owing to a full recognition of this fact that the progressive character of the process is maintained. its commercial value is undoubted, and its successful application is chiefly a question of _how_ and _where_ it can be most effectively introduced. the essential features of photo-lithography are:-- . a copy or original in which the modelling is well defined, and the light and shade well emphasised, even to a point of slight exaggeration. . a _negative_ in which the whites of the original appear opaque, with clear glass to represent the lines and solids. . a _print_ which can be developed or inked up with a pigment sufficiently greasy in nature to transfer to the lithographic stone. chapter xvi photo-lithography--_continued_ the copy--gradations of tone--scraper boards--description and effect--shading mediums--crayon drawings--half-tone copy. it has already been pointed out that well-defined modelling is most desirable in the original copy. to secure this a considerable degree of artistic perception and discretion, as well as manipulative skill, is requisite. in photo-process work it is almost impossible to produce artistic effects from an indifferent or unsuitable copy. pen-and-ink sketches and wash drawings are entirely under the control of the artist, and characteristic effects are chiefly due to bold and vigorous conception and skilful drawing. few photographs are suitable for photo-mechanical reproduction without some previous preparation. accentuation or modulation of the high lights and shadows will in all probability be necessary to secure a sufficient contrast of light and shade. the middle tints may require but little attention, unless it be to work down any tendency to abruptness in the gradations of tone. a bold and well-defined silver print usually copies well when clamped between two pieces of glass to take out the grain, and photographed by artificial light. scraper boards offer most remarkable possibilities for black and white and half-tone sketches. a careful examination of fig. will serve to demonstrate their peculiar fitness for process drawing. a light wood pulp board forms a convenient base upon which a thick coating of white composition is laid. black ruled lines are printed on this surface, and lines of a similar texture are embossed at right angles to them. some of the characteristic effects which can be produced on this board by the use of the crayon and scraper are suggested by nos. and , fig. . no. gives a stipple which is both printed and embossed. no. is a plain board upon which pen-and-scraper effects alone are produced. drawings in pen and ink, on nos. and patterns, may be effectively handled by a free and skilful use of the scraper. embossed lines only are the peculiar features of these boards, but variety of texture can be obtained by scraping these lines into dots. scraper board sketches almost invariably represent a maximum of effect with a minimum of work, and for this reason alone such an adaptable and simple medium should soon win its way into general favour. their merit, however, is not confined to this one point. they provide almost unrivalled copy for photo reproduction, and can therefore be applied to a variety of purposes. even a cursory glance at the scraper board sketch on page will reveal many points of interest and value which a more careful scrutiny can scarcely fail to emphasise. small patches of scraper boards can be introduced into process drawings of any description, and brilliant results be secured thereby. in such a manner clouds, waves, foliage, and a variety of other effects can be introduced. shading mediums are already well known to lithographers, yet it is doubtful if their usefulness for the amplification of sketches or process drawings is fully appreciated. they offer almost endless combinations of texture and tint, and are therefore most useful and valuable accessories in the hands of a resourceful artist. [illustration: fig. .--reproduction of a drawing made on gilby & hermann's scraper boards.] [illustration: fig. .--some scraper board textures.] many artists favour crayon work on a grained paper, adopting a broad sketchy treatment in liberal proportions, so that in the subsequent reduction the freedom of the original will be toned down just sufficiently to enhance the picturesque and artistic value. drawings made on scraper boards, grained papers, or by the aid of shading mediums, are photographed and reproduced by the ordinary line method. in making sketches for "half-tone" photo-mechanical reproduction it must be remembered that, as far as photo-lithography is concerned, it is impossible to accentuate effects by what is known as "fine etching" when applied to photo-engraving. a negative for photo-process work of any description should be absolutely perfect in every respect. the whites of the copy in the negative should be of an absolutely opaque black, showing clean, sharp edges, with clear glass representing the lines, dots, etc. these are all-important factors, and their influence upon the reproduction of the original can scarcely be over-estimated. chapter xvii photo-lithography--_continued_ a copying table--exposure--illumination--photo-litho transfers--the paper--printing--developing--a direct process. to discuss the respective merits of the "wet" collodion, collodion emulsion, and dry-plate processes lies beyond the province of this work, as does also a detailed description of the operations involved. the processes are purely photographic, and have already been presented to the craft in various forms. it is, moreover, almost impossible to bring within the limits of a single chapter anything approaching to a comprehensive record of the multitudinous details upon which process photography is based. all that can be attempted is to take one or two outstanding features which suggest a few useful hints. the original or copy for reproduction must be on the same optical plane as the sensitive plate in the camera, _i.e._ they must be absolutely parallel with each other. there are several ways of ensuring this. the most convenient method is to use a copying table and board similar to fig. . with such an arrangement as this direct copying can be attained through the lens, or the camera can be turned half-way round, and the image reversed by means of a mirror or prism attachment. the chief advantage of such an arrangement is, that the position of the camera can be altered at will without affecting the relative positions of the plate and copy. [illustration: fig. .] correct exposure and sufficient illumination of the copy are important factors in photographic reproductions of any kind, but they are of infinitely greater importance when applied to photo-process reproduction. one is, to a certain extent, dependent upon the other. the former must of necessity be controlled by the latter; yet no amount of exposure will compensate for defective illumination. where artificial light is employed the advantage of using two lights is obviously great. apart from the greater brilliancy and intensity of the light, the illumination of the copy is more evenly distributed. in scraper-board copies no shadows are thrown from the embossed dots or lines, and the granular texture of grained papers is almost entirely eliminated. a bichromated, gelatine paper can be obtained by coating a hard writing paper of medium thickness with a gelatinous solution consisting of oz. of gelatine and oz. of water, and afterwards sensitising it with bichromate of potassium. it is advisable, however, to use the commercial varieties of coated paper, and to sensitise it as it is required. the sensitising solution can be prepared by dissolving oz. of bichromate of potassium in fluid oz. of water. add to this sufficient ammonia to give it a bright orange tinge. keep this solution at a temperature of ° fahr., and float the paper on it for about one minute. pin or clip the paper to a board or squeeze it to glass, and dry in a dark room. print this paper under the negative in a diffused light until the design appears in a rich golden-brown colour, when the exposure may be regarded as sufficient. the time allowed for such an exposure will, of course, vary according to the quality of the negative and the intensity of the light. a development of the print may now be proceeded with in the following manner. thin down a little transfer ink with turpentine and distribute it evenly on a composition roller. roll up the print until it is completely covered with an exceedingly fine film of ink, after which allow the turpentine to evaporate. immerse the transfer in tepid water for about minutes, and then rub it gently with a piece of cotton lint previously soaked in water, until the superfluous ink is removed and the design stands out clean and sharp. the transference of the print to stone can be accomplished in the usual lithographic manner. the chief points to be observed are, to allow sufficient time for printing, and to ink up the transfer with the thinnest possible film of ink. a photo print can be made direct on the zinc or aluminium plate, and by a slight modification of the photo-engraving process it can be developed according to lithographic methods. it is impossible to introduce an intermediate process without, in some manner at least, depreciating the quality of the work. in a direct photo print on zinc, or, in fact, on any suitable printing surface, the finer qualities of the work are much more likely to be retained than when a transfer print is made under the negative and afterwards transferred in the usual manner. coat a finely grained zinc plate with sensitised asphalt solution and expose it under a negative for about - / minutes in direct sunlight, and from to minutes in a diffused light. the action of light on the asphalt solution is to render it insoluble in turpentine, so that if a sufficiently exposed plate is immersed in pure turpentine the lines, etc., of the design, being of course represented by clear lines in the negative, will remain intact, while the surrounding portions will be dissolved and washed away. after development wash the plate freely in water, and dry it by fanning or with a pair of bellows. let it stand for about minutes and then slightly etch it with a very weak solution of nitric acid. cover the work with strong, fresh gum, and dry it thoroughly and quickly. remove the gum and "rub up" the design with black ink in the usual way. wash, dry, and dust over with french chalk. the plate can then be prepared in the manner described in chap. xi. page . the end index page adjusting pressure in machine, adjusting stones in machine, air drying--tin printing, , alum, aluminium plates, aluminium plates-- alterations, direct photo, , , etching, machining, printing bed, rolling up, sensitising, transferring, aluminium rotary machine, , american printers, asphalt solution, bavarian limestone, , blocking out, , blue tinge, , boxwood scraper, brake cylinder, bronze printing, cam motion, canada balsam, castor oil, cause and effect, ceramic decoration, chalk drawings, , chemical affinity, clean stones, cohesion in printing ink, colour and design, changes, mixing, printing, registration, sequence, , , super-position, , transparencies, colours, standard, copperplate press, printing, - stove, copy, photo-litho, copying table, crayon or chalk drawing, crayon work, , cylinder press, damping rollers, design, design, inverted, design, suitable, development, photo print, direct impression, a, discoloration, distortion, , , dryers, drying colours, , drying metal plates, , drying racks, , duplication of design, , effect of pinks and greys, effects in tin-plate printing, elastic bedding, , electricity, elements of lithography, embossed lines, plates, embossing dies, , enamelled paper, etching, , evolution of tin-plate printing, exposure, fine etching, french chalk, , skins, friction glazed paper, glass muller, gold lacquer, , gold printing, grain, natural, graining stones, , grinding stones, - gripper, gripper margins, grit, half-tone, photo-litho, halligan machine, - hand labour and machine, lever, roller, high lights, homogeneity of stones, illumination of copy, impression, impression, size of, impression, solid, inking rollers, inks, printing, - tin-plate printing, - transfer, - inverted design, key formes, , lacquer, peculiar feature of, lacquer, tin-plate, lamp-black, leather dressing, level surfaces, levelling stones, line, photo-litho, linoleum, linseed oil, , litho press for copperplate, litho press, mechanical principles, , litho press, pressure, litho varnish, , magnesia, mechanical affinity, metal plates, method, modification of colour sequence, motor driving, nap roller, natural grain, negative, offsets, , oriental blue tinge, , original stones, outline forme, packing cylinder, paper, enamelled, well seasoned, - pen and ink sketches, pen and scraper effects, photo litho-- copy, development, , direct, half-tone, inception of, line, printing, transfer, transfer paper, plumbago, porosity of stones, preparation of stones, - preparing designs, , pressure alterations, excessive, litho press, peculiarities, , printing inks, cohesion of, printing medium, proving, , recipes, transfer inks, - transfer papers, - reciprocal movement, reducing medium, , register lines, , registration, , registration of colour, remedy, a, re-transferring, rotary machine, printing, , rubber blanket, - resilience of, scraper, - scraper boards, , scratches, screen effect, screen photo, senefelder, sensitising solution, sequence of colour, set off, shading mediums, shadow, sheen of metal plate, side lay, silver print, slogger, sludge, solid oil, speed, , , speed cones, standard colours, stone-planing machine, , stone-polishing machine, , stoving tin-plates, transferred prints, substitutes for stone, suggestion, a, super-position of colours, tooth of grained stones, of metal plates, transfer inks-- active principle of, , copperplate, , extra powerful, plate, stone to stone, writing, , transfer paper-- autographic, copperplate, , diaphanic, grained, , photo-litho, , specific value of, stone to stone, transparent, , varnished, transfer printing, transferring, , , transparencies, trimming paper, tympan, , v-shaped edge, varnish, litho, , vaseline, venetian red, water of ayr stone, white printing, , , zinc plates, zinc plates-- alterations, de-polishing, etching, graining, machining, photo, direct, , , printing bed, rolling up, sensitising, transferring to, _printed by_ morrison & gibb limited, _edinburgh_ * * * * * transcriber's notes: obvious punctuation errors were repaired. both "overestimate" and "over-estimated" appear in the original text. the following additional corrections were made to the text: page , "therein" changed to "herein" (are discussed herein which,) page , "superposition" changed to "super-position" (the super-position of blues,) page , word "the" added to text (at the same time,) page , " " changed to " , " (bavarian limestone, , ) page , "discs" changed to "dies" (embossing dies, , ) page , " " changed to " " (paper, enamelled, ) page , " " changed to " " (extra powerful, ) page , "depolishing" changed to "de-polishing" to match text (de-polishing, ) an almanac of twelve sports by william nicholson _words by rudyard kipling_ published by r. h. russell. new york. . . january. _sunday_ _monday_ _tuesday_ -- _wednesday_ -- _thursday_ -- _friday_ -- _saturday_ -- february. _sunday_ _monday_ _tuesday_ -- _wednesday_ -- _thursday_ -- _friday_ -- _saturday_ -- march. _sunday_ _monday_ _tuesday_ _wednesday_ _thursday_ _friday_ -- _saturday_ -- april. _sunday_ _monday_ _tuesday_ _wednesday_ _thursday_ _friday_ _saturday_ may. _sunday_ _monday_ _tuesday_ _wednesday_ -- _thursday_ -- _friday_ -- _saturday_ -- june. _sunday_ _monday_ _tuesday_ _wednesday_ _thursday_ _friday_ -- _saturday_ -- here is a horse to tame-- here is a gun to handle-- god knows you can enter the game if you'll only pay for the same, and the price of the game is a candle-- one single flickering candle! . july. _sunday_ _monday_ -- _tuesday_ -- _wednesday_ -- _thursday_ -- _friday_ -- _saturday_ -- august. _sunday_ _monday_ _tuesday_ _wednesday_ _thursday_ -- _friday_ -- _saturday_ -- september. _sunday_ _monday_ _tuesday_ _wednesday_ _thursday_ _friday_ _saturday_ -- october. _sunday_ _monday_ _tuesday_ -- _wednesday_ -- _thursday_ -- _friday_ -- _saturday_ -- november. _sunday_ _monday_ _tuesday_ _wednesday_ _thursday_ -- _friday_ -- _saturday_ -- december. _sunday_ _monday_ _tuesday_ _wednesday_ _thursday_ _friday_ _saturday_ hunting. certes it is a noble sport and men have quitted selle and swum for't, but i am of a meeker sort and i prefer surtees in comfort. reach down my "handley cross" again. my run, where never danger lurks, is with jorrocks and his deathless train pigg, binjimin and arterxerxes! [illustration: january.] coursing. most men harry the world for fun-- each man seeks it a different way but "of all daft devils under the sun a grey'ound's the daftest" said jorrocks j. [illustration: february.] racing. the horse is ridden--the jockey rides-- the backers back--the owners own but ... there are lots of things besides, and i should leave this play alone. [illustration: march.] boating. the pope of rome he could not win from pleasant meat and pleasant sin these who, in honour's hope, endure lean days and lives enforced pure. these who, replying not, submit unto the curses of the pit which he that rides (o greater shame!) flings forth by number not by name... could triple crown or jesuit's oath do what yon shuffle-stocking doth? [illustration: april.] fishing. behold a parable! _a_ fished for _b_. _c_ took her bait; her heart was set on _d_. thank heaven, who cooled your blood and cramped your wishes, men and not gods torment you, little fishes. [illustration: may.] cricket. thank god who made the british isles and taught me how to play, i do not worship crocodiles or bow the knee to clay! give me a willow wand and i, with hide and cork and twine, from century to century will gambol round my shrine. [illustration: june.] archery. the child of the nineties considers with laughter the maid whom his sire in the sixties ran after, while careering himself in pursuit of a girl whom the twenties will dub a "last century heir-loom." [illustration: july.] coaching. the pious horse to church may trot. a maid may work a man's salvation. four horses and a girl are not, however, aids to reformation. [illustration: august.] shooting. "peace upon earth, goodwill to men!" so greet we christmas day. oh christian load your gun and then, o christian, out and slay! [illustration: september.] golf. why golf is art and art is golf we have not far to seek-- so much depends upon the lie, so much upon the cleek. [illustration: october.] boxing. read here the moral roundly writ for him that into battle goes-- each soul that, hitting hard and hit, encounters gross or ghostly foes:-- prince, blown by many overthrows half blind with shame, half choked with dirt _man cannot tell but allah knows how much the other side was hurt!_ [illustration: november.] skating. over the ice she flies perfect and poised and fair-- stars in my true-love's eyes teach me to do and to dare! now will i fly as she flies ... woe for the stars that misled! stars that i saw in her eyes now do i see in my head! [illustration: december.] now we must come away. what are you out of pocket? 'sorry to spoil your play, but somebody says we must pay-- and the candle's down to the socket-- its horrible tallowy socket! a treatise on etching. "amongst frenchmen claude is the best landscape etcher of past days, and lalanne the best of the present day."--p. g. hamerton. [illustration: frontispiece] a treatise on etching. text and plates by maxime lalanne. * * * * * authorized edition, translated from the second french edition by s. r. koehler. with an introductory chapter and notes by the translator. * * * * * boston: estes and lauriat, publishers. _copyright_, by estes and lauriat. . university press: john wilson and son, cambridge. translator's preface. so much interest has of late years been shown in england in the art of etching, that it seems hardly necessary to apologize for bringing out an english edition of a work on the subject from the pen of an artist whom a weighty english authority has pronounced to be the best french landscape-etcher of the day. it might be urged, indeed, that more than enough has already been written concerning the technical as well as the æsthetic side of etching. but this objection is sufficiently met by the statement of the fact that there is no other work of the kind in which the processes involved are described in so plain and lucid a manner as in m. lalanne's admirable "_traité de la gravure à l'eau-forte_." in the laudable endeavor to be complete, most of the similar books now extant err in loading down the subject with a complicated mass of detail which is more apt to frighten the beginner than to aid him. m. lalanne's _treatise_, on the contrary, is as simple as a good work of art. it may, however, be incumbent upon me to offer a few words of excuse concerning my own connection with the bringing out of this translation; for, at first sight, it will, no doubt, appear the height of presumption, especially on the part of one who is not himself a practising artist, to add an introductory chapter and notes to the work of a consummate master on his favorite art. but what i have done has not, in any way, been dictated by the spirit of presumption. the reasons which induced me to make the additions may be stated as follows. it is a most difficult feat for one who has thoroughly mastered an accomplishment, and has practised it successfully for a lifetime, to lower himself to the level of those who are absolutely uninformed. a master is apt to forget that he himself had to learn certain things which, to him, seem to be self-evident, and he therefore takes it for granted that they _are_ self-evident. a practised etcher thinks nothing of handling his acid, grounding and smoking his plate, and all the other little tricks of the craft which, to a beginner, are quite worrying and exciting. it seemed to me best, therefore, to acquaint the student with these purely technical difficulties, without complicating his first attempts by artistic considerations, and hence the origin of the "introductory chapter." very naturally i was compelled, in this chapter, to go over much of the ground covered by the _treatise_ itself. but the diligent student, who remembers that "repetition is the mother of learning," will not look upon the time thus occupied as wasted. the notes are, perhaps, still more easily explained. m. lalanne very rarely stops to inform his reader how the various requisites may be made. writing, as he did, at and for paris, there was, indeed, no reason for thus encumbering his book; for in paris the veuve cadart is always ready to supply all the wants of the etcher. for a london reader, mr. charles roberson, of long acre, whom mr. hamerton has so well--and very properly--advertised, is ready to perform the same kind office. but for those who live away from the great centres of society, it may oftentimes be necessary either to forego the fascinations of etching, or else to provide the materials with their own hands. for the benefit of such persons, i have thought it advisable to describe, in the notes, the simplest and cheapest methods of making the tools and utensils which are needed in the execution of m. lalanne's precepts. by the arrangement of the paragraphs which i have ventured to introduce, m. lalanne's pleasant little book has, perhaps, lost something of its vivacity and freshness, especially in the fifth chapter. but this dull, methodical order will be found, i hope, to add to the convenience of the work as a book of reference, which, according to m. lalanne's own statement, is, after all, its main object. it is due to the english public to say, that the additions were originally written for the american edition of this book, published by messrs. estes & lauriat, of boston, mass. to free them from the american character which they very naturally bear, would have necessitated the resetting of a great part of the work, and a consequent increase in its cost. it has been deemed advisable, therefore, to leave the whole of the text in its original condition, more especially as the changes are such that they can easily be supplied by the reader, and do not in the least affect the value of the information conveyed. s. r. koehler. beech glen avenue, roxbury, boston, july, . contents. page translator's preface v introductory chapter.--the technical elements of etching xiii paragraph . definition of etching xiii . requisites xiv . grounding the plate xviii . smoking the plate xviii . points or needles xix . drawing on the plate xix . preparing the plate for the bath xx . the bath xx . biting and stopping out xx description of the plates xxiii letter by m. charles blanc xxv introduction (by the author) chapter i. definition and character of etching. paragraph . definition . knowledge needed by the etcher . manner of using the needle.--character of lines . freedom of execution . how to produce difference in texture . the work of the acid . the use of the dry point . spirit in which the etcher must work . expression of individuality in etching . value of etching to artists . versatility of etching . etching compared to other styles of engraving . etching as a reproductive art chapter ii. tools and materials.--preparing the plate.--drawing on the plate with the needle. . method of using this manual a. _tools and materials._ . list of tools and materials needed . quality and condition of tools and materials b. _preparing the plate._ . laying the ground, or varnishing . smoking c. _drawing on the plate with the needle._ . the transparent screen . needles or points . temperature of the room . the tracing . reversing the design . use of the mirror . precautions to be observed while drawing . directions for drawing with the needle chapter iii. biting. . bordering the plate . the tray . strength of the acid . label your bottles! . the first biting . the use of the feather . stopping out . effect of temperature on biting . biting continued . treatment of the various distances . the crevé.--its advantages and disadvantages . means of ascertaining the depth of the lines . the rules which govern the biting are subordinated to various causes . strong acid and weak acid . strength of acid in relation to certain kinds of work . last stages of biting chapter iv. finishing the plate. . omissions.--insufficiency of the work so far done . transparent ground for retouching . ordinary ground used for retouching.--biting the retouches . revarnishing with the brush . partial retouches.--patching . dry point . use of the scraper for removing the bur thrown up by the dry point . reducing over-bitten passages . the burnisher . charcoal . the scraper . hammering out (repoussage) . finishing the surface of the plate chapter v. accidents. . stopping-out varnish dropped on a plate while biting . revarnishing with the roller for rebiting . revarnishing with the roller in cases of partial rebiting . revarnishing with the dabber for rebiting . revarnishing with the brush for rebiting . rebiting a remedy only . holes in the ground . planing out faulty passages . acid spots on clothing . reducing over-bitten passages and crevés chapter vi. difference between flat biting and biting with stopping out. . two kinds of biting . flat biting.--one point . flat biting.--several points . biting with stopping out.--one point . biting with stopping out.--several points . necessity of experimenting . various other methods of biting chapter vii. recommendations and auxiliary processes.--zink and steel plates.--various theories. a. _recommendations and auxiliary processes._ . the roulette . the flat point . the graver or burin . sandpaper . sulphur tints . mottled tints . stopping-out before all biting b. _zink plates and steel plates._ . zink plates . steel plates c. _various other processes._ . soft ground etching . dry point etching . the pen process chapter viii. proving and printing. . wax proofs . the printing-press . natural printing . artificial printing . handwiping with retroussage . tinting with a stiff rag . wiping with the rag only . limits of artificial printing . printing inks . paper . Épreuves volantes . proofs before lettering . Épreuves de remarque . number of impressions which a plate is capable of yielding . steel-facing . copper-facing zink plates notes. by the translator list of works on the practice and history of etching a. technical treatises b. historical and theoretical c. catalogues of the works of the artists a. dictionaries b. individual artists introductory chapter. the technical elements of etching. as explained in the preface, this chapter has been added to enable the beginner to master the most necessary technical elements of etching, without complicating his first attempts by artistic considerations. let him learn how to use his ground, his points, and his acid, before he endeavors to employ these requisites in the production of a work of art. all the materials and tools necessary for making the experiment described below can be bought at the following places:[a]-- new york: henry leidel, artist's materials, fourth avenue. philadelphia: janentzky & co., artist's materials, chestnut street. boston: j. h. daniels, printer, washington street. but any one living within reach of a druggist, a paint-shop, and a hardware-store can do just as well with the exercise of a little patience and a very little ingenuity. for the benefit of such persons all the necessary directions will be given for making what it may be impossible to buy. [a] in london, mr. hamerton recommends mr. charles roberson, long acre. * * * * * . =definition of etching.=--to be able to get an impression on paper from a metal plate in a copper-plate printing-press, it is necessary to sink the lines of the design below the surface of the plate, so that each line is represented by a furrow. the plate is then inked all over, care being taken to fill each furrow, and finally the ink is cautiously wiped away from the surface, while the furrows are left charged with it. a piece of moist paper pressed against a plate so prepared, will take the ink up out of the furrows. the result is an impression. in _engraving proper_ these furrows are cut into the plate by mechanical means; in _etching_ chemical means are used for the same purpose. if nitric acid is brought into contact with copper, the acid corrodes the metal and finally eats it up altogether; if it is brought into contact with wax or resinous substances, no action ensues. hence, if we cover a copper plate with a ground or varnish composed of wax and resinous substances, and then draw lines upon this ground with a steel or iron style or point, so that each stroke of the point lays bare the copper, we shall have a drawing in lines of copper (which are affected by nitric acid) on a ground of varnish (which is not thus affected). if now we expose the plate to the action of nitric acid for a certain length of time, we shall find, upon the removal of the ground by means of benzine, that the lines have been _bitten into_ the plate, so that each line forms a furrow capable of taking up the ink. the depth and the breadth of the lines depends upon the thickness of the points used, and upon the length of time allowed for biting; or, in other words, by varying the size of the points and the time of exposure the lines may also be made to vary. this is the whole of the _science_ of etching in a nutshell. . =requisites.=--the following tools and materials are the only ones which are absolutely necessary for a first experiment:-- . a copper plate on which to execute your etching. do not waste your money on a large plate. a visiting-card plate is sufficiently large. if you happen to have an engraved plate of that kind, you can use the back of it. if you have none, get one at a card-engraver's. the price ought not to be over fifteen cents. if you do not live in any of the large cities named above, or cannot find a card-engraver, send fifteen cents in stamps to mr. geo. b. sharp, gold st., new york, n. y., who will forward a plate to you by mail. be very particular in giving your full and correct _post-office_ address. these plates only need cleaning to fit them for use. . benzine, used for cleaning the plate, sold by grocers or druggists at about five cents a pint for common quality. . whiting or spanish white, also for cleaning the plate. a very small quantity will do. . clean cotton rags.--some pieces of soft old shirting are just the thing. . etching-ground, with which to protect the plate against the action of the acid. this ground is sold in balls about the size of a walnut. if you do not live in a city where you can buy the ground, you may as well make it yourself. here is a recipe for a very cheap and at the same time very good ground. it is the ground used by mr. peter moran, one of the most experienced of our american etchers. buy at a drug-shop (not an apothecary's) or painter's supply-store:-- two ounces best natural asphaltum (also called egyptian asphaltum), worth about ten cents. one and a half ounces best white virgin wax, worth about six cents. one ounce burgundy pitch, worth say five cents. break the wax into small pieces, and reduce the burgundy pitch to fine powder in a mortar, or have it powdered at the drug-shop. take a clean earthenware pot glazed on the inside, with a handle to it (in boston you can buy one for fifteen cents at g. a. miller & co.'s, shawmut avenue), and in this pot melt your asphaltum over a slow fire, taking very good care not to let it boil over, or otherwise you might possibly set the house afire. when the asphaltum has melted add the wax gradually, stirring all the while with a clean glass or metal rod. then add the burgundy pitch in the same way. keep stirring the fluid mass, and let it boil up two or three times, always taking care to prevent boiling over! then pour the whole into a pan full of tepid water, and while it is still soft and pliant, form into balls of the required size, working all the while under the water. if you touch the mass while it is still too hot, you may possibly burn your fingers, but a true enthusiast does not care for such small things. you will thus get about eight or nine balls of very good ground at an outlay of about thirty-six cents in cash, and some little time. nearly all recipes order the wax to be melted first, but as the asphaltum requires a greater heat to reduce it to a fluid condition, it is best to commence with the least tractable substance. for use, wrap a ball of the ground in a piece of fine and close silk (taffeta), and tie this together with a string. . means of heating the plate.--any source of heat emitting no smoke will do, such as a kitchen stove, a spirit lamp, or a small quantity of alcohol poured on a plate and ignited (when the time arrives). . a hand vice with a wooden handle, for holding the plate while heating it; price about seventy-five cents at the hardware-stores. but a small monkey-wrench will do as well, and for this experiment you can even get along with a pair of pincers. . a dabber for laying the ground on the plate. cut a piece of stout card-board, two or three inches in diameter; on this lay a bunch of horse-hair, freed from all dust, and over this again some cotton wool. cover the whole with one or two pieces of clean taffeta (a clean piece of an old silk dress will do), draw them together tightly over the card-board, and tie with a string. when finished the thing will look something like a lady's toilet-ball. the horse-hair is not absolutely necessary, and may be omitted. . means of smoking the ground.--the ground when laid on the plate with the dabber, is quite transparent and allows the glitter of the metal to shine through. to obtain a better working surface the ground is blackened by smoking it. for this purpose the thin wax-tapers known to germans as "wachsstock," generally sold at german toy-stores, are the best. they come in balls. cut the tapers into lengths, and twist six of them together. in default of these tapers, roll a piece of cotton cloth into a roll about as thick and as long as your middle finger, and soak one end of it in common lamp or sperm oil. . stopping-out varnish, used for protecting the back and the edges of the plate, and for "stopping out," of which more hereafter. if you cannot buy it you can make it by dissolving an ounce of asphaltum, the same as that used for the ground, in about an ounce and a half of spirits of turpentine. add the asphaltum to the turpentine little by little; shake the bottle containing the mixture frequently; keep it in the sun or a moderately warm place. the operation will require several days. the solution when finished should be of the consistency of thick honey. . camel's-hair brushes, two or three of different sizes, for laying on the stopping-out varnish, and for other purposes. . etching points or needles, for scratching the lines into the ground. rat-tail files of good quality, costing about twenty cents each at the hardware-stores, are excellent for the purpose. two are all you need for your experiment, and even one will be sufficient. still cheaper points can be made of sewing, knitting, or any other kind of needles, mounted in sticks of wood like the lead of a lead-pencil. use glue or sealing-wax to fasten them in the wood. . an oil-stone for grinding the points. . an etching-tray to hold the acid during the operation of biting. trays are made of glass, porcelain, or india-rubber, and can generally be had at the photographer's supply-stores. a small india-rubber tray, large enough for your experiment, measuring four by five inches, costs fifty-five cents. but you can make an excellent tray yourself of paper. make a box, of the required size and about one and a half inches high, of pasteboard, covered over by several layers of strong paper, well glued on. if you can manage to make a lip or spout in one of the corners, so much the better. after the glue has well dried pour stopping-out varnish into the box, and float it all over the bottom and the sides; pour the residue of the varnish back into your bottle, and allow the varnish in the box to dry; then paint the outside of the box with the same varnish. repeat this process three or four times. such a tray, with an occasional fresh coating of varnish, will last forever. for your experiment, however, any small porcelain (_not_ earthenware) or glass dish will do, if it is only large enough to hold your plate, and allow the acid to stand over it to the height of about half an inch. . a plate-lifter, to lift your plate into and out of the bath without soiling your fingers. it consists of two pieces of string, each say twelve to fifteen inches long, tied to two cross-pieces of wood, each about six inches long, thus [illustration]. it is well to keep the fingers out of the acid, as it causes yellow spots on the skin, which remain till they wear off. . nitric acid for biting in the lines. any nitric acid sold by druggists will do, but the best is the so-called chemically pure nitric acid made by messrs. powers & weightman, of philadelphia. it comes put up in glass-stoppered bottles, the smallest of which hold one pound, and sell for about sixty cents. . water for mixing with the acid and for washing the plate. . blotting-paper, soft and thick, several sheets, to dry the plate, as will be seen hereafter. . spirits of hartshorn or volatile alkali.--this is not needed for etching, but it is well to have it at hand, in case you should spatter your clothes with acid. spots produced by the acid can generally be removed by rubbing with the alkali, which neutralizes the acid. . =grounding the plate.=--having procured all these requisites, the first thing to do will be to clean the plate so as to remove any oil or other impurities that may have been left on it by the plate-maker. wash and rub it well on both sides with a soft cotton rag and benzine, and then rub with whiting, as you would do if you were to clean a door-plate. take care to remove all the whiting with a clean rag. now take hold of your plate by one of its corners with the hand-vice, wrench, or pincers, between the jaws of which you have put a bit of card-board or stout paper, so as not to mark the plate. hold it over the stove, spirit lamp, or ignited alcohol, and see to it that it is heated evenly throughout. hold the plate in your left hand while heating it, and with the other press against it the ball of ground wrapped up in silk. as soon as you see the ground melting through the silk, distribute it over the plate by rubbing the ball all over its surface (the _polished_ surface, as a matter of course), taking care the while that the plate remains just hot enough to melt the ground. if it is too hot, the ground will commence to boil and will finally burn. the bubbles caused by boiling are liable to leave air-holes in the ground through which the acid may bite little holes in the plate; burning ruins the ground altogether, so that it loses its power of withstanding the acid. after you have distributed the ground tolerably evenly, and in a thin layer, lay the plate down on the table (keeping hold of it, however, by the corner), and finish the distribution of the ground by dabbing with the dabber. strike the plate quickly and with some force at first, and treat it more gently as the ground begins to cool. if it should have cooled too much, before the distribution is accomplished to your satisfaction, in which case the dabber will draw threads, heat the plate gently. the dabber not only equalizes the distribution of the varnish, but also removes what is superfluous. an extremely thin layer of ground is sufficient. . =smoking the plate.=--while the plate is yet hot, and the ground soft, it must be smoked. light your tapers or your oil torch, and turn the plate upside down. allow the flame just to touch the plate, and keep moving it about rapidly, so that it may touch all points of the plate, without remaining long at any one of them. if this precaution is ignored, the ground will be burned, with the result before stated. the smoking is finished as soon as the plate is uniformly blackened all over, and the glimmer of the metal can no longer be seen through the ground. now allow the plate to cool so that the ground may harden. _avoid dust as much as possible_ while grounding and smoking the plate. particles of dust embedded in the ground may cause holes which will admit the acid where you do not wish it to act. . =points or needles.=--the plate is now ready for drawing upon it, but before you can proceed to draw you must prepare your points or needles. two will do for this first experiment, a fine one and a coarse one. for the fine one you may use a sewing-needle, for the coarser one a medium embroidery needle, both set in wood so that the points project about a quarter of an inch. if you are going to use rat-tail files, grind the handle-ends on your oil-stone until they attain the requisite fineness. hold the file flat on the stone, so as to get a gradually tapering point, and turn continually. see to it that even the point of your finest needle is not too sharp. if it scratches when you draw it lightly over a piece of card-board, describe circles with it on the board until it simply makes a mark without scratching. the coarse needle must be evenly rounded, as otherwise it may have a cutting point somewhere. [illustration: plate a.] . =drawing on the plate.=--as the purpose of your experiment is simply to familiarize yourself with the _technicalities_ of etching, that is to say, with the preparation of the plate, the management of the points, and the action of the acid, it will be well to confine yourself to the drawing of lines something like those on pl. a. it is the office of the point simply to _remove_ the ground, and _lay bare the copper_. but this it must do thoroughly, for the slightest covering left on the plate will prevent the acid from attacking the copper. you must therefore use sufficient pressure to accomplish this end, but at the same time you must avoid cutting into the copper by using too much pressure. wherever the point has cut the copper the acid acts more rapidly, as the polished coating of the surface of the plate has been removed. it is evident from this that an even pressure is necessary to produce an evenly bitten line. do not touch the ground with your hands while drawing. rest your hand on three or four thicknesses of soft blotting-paper. when you desire to shift the paper, _lift it_, and _never draw it_ over the ground. hold the point, not slantingly like a pencil, but as near as possible perpendicularly. the point is a hard instrument, with which you cannot produce a swelling line, as with a pencil or a pen. therefore your only aim must be an _even_ line, produced by _even pressure_. the minute threads of ground thrown up by the point you must remove with your largest camel's-hair brush; otherwise they may clog your lines. before commencing to draw read the description of pl. a given under the heading "description of plates." . =preparing the plate for the bath.=--if you were to put the plate into the acid bath in the state in which it is at present, the acid would corrode the unprotected parts. to prevent this paint the back, and the corner by which you held the plate while grounding it, and the edges with stopping-out varnish. if you are not in a hurry (_and it is always best not to be in a hurry_), let the varnish dry over night; if you cannot wait so long an hour will be sufficient for drying. while the plate is drying you may lay it, face downward, on a little pile of soft paper, made up of pieces smaller than the plate, so that the paper may not touch the varnished edges. . =the bath.=--the preparation of the bath is next in order. ascertain the capacity of the dish or tray you are going to use by pouring water into it to fill it to half its height, and then measuring the water. pour _one half_ of this quantity of water back into the tray, and add to it the same quantity of nitric acid, stirring the mixture well with a glass rod, or a bit of glass, or a bird's feather, if you happen to have one, or in default of all these with a bit of stick. the mixing of water and acid induces chemical action, and this produces heat. the bath must therefore be allowed to cool half an hour or so, before the plate is put into it. nitric acid being a corrosive and poisonous fluid, it is well to use some care in handling it. otherwise it may bite holes into your clothing, and disfigure your hands, as before noted. by the side of your bath have a large vessel filled with clean water, in which to wash the plate when it is withdrawn from the bath, and your fingers in case you should soil them with acid. . =biting and stopping out.=--the bath having been prepared, and the varnish on the back and edges of the plate having dried sufficiently, lay the plate on the plate-lifter, face upward, and lift it into the bath. in a few minutes, in hot weather in a few seconds, the acid will begin to act on the copper. this is made evident to the eye by the bubbles which collect in the lines, and to the nose by the fumes of nitrous acid which the bath exhales. the bubbles must be removed by gently brushing them out of the lines with a brush or the vane of a feather; the fumes it is best not to inhale, as they irritate the throat. after the biting has gone on for three minutes in warm, or for five minutes in cold weather, lift the plate out of the bath into the vessel filled with water. having washed it well, so as to remove all traces of the acid, lay it on a piece of blotting-paper, and take up the moisture from the face by gently pressing another piece of the same paper against it. then fan the plate for some minutes to make sure that it is absolutely dry. if you have a pair of bellows you may dispense with the blotting-paper as well as with the fanning. the lines on the plate, having all bitten for the same length of time, are now all of about the same depth, and if the plate were cleaned and an impression taken from it, they would all appear of about the same strength, the only difference being that produced by difference in spacing and in the size of the needles. this is the point where the stopping-out varnish comes in. with a fine camel's-hair brush _stop out_, that is to say, paint over with stopping-out varnish, those lines or parts of lines which are to remain as they are. if the varnish should be too thick to flow easily from the brush, mix a small quantity of it in a paint saucer, or on a porcelain slab, or a piece of glass, with a few drops of benzine. the varnish, however, must not be too thin, as in that case it will run in the lines, and will fill them where you do not wish them to be filled. if it is of the right consistency, you can draw a clean and sharp line across the etched lines without danger of running. when you have laid on your stopping-out varnish, fan it for some minutes until it has dried sufficiently not to adhere to the finger when lightly touched. then introduce the plate into the bath again, and let the biting continue another five minutes. remove again, stop out as before, and continue these operations as often as you wish. but it would be useless to let your accumulated bitings on this experimental plate exceed more than thirty minutes. having finished your last biting, clean the plate with benzine. then apply the same process to your hands, and follow it up with a vigorous application of soap and nail-brush. this will leave your hands as beautiful as they were before. it is hardly worth while to bother with taking an impression from this trial plate, unless you happen to have a printer near by. the plate itself will show you how the acid has enlarged the lines at each successive biting, and it stands to reason that the broader and deeper lines should give a darker impression than the finer and shallower ones. if, however, you have no printer at hand, and still desire to see how your work looks in black and white, you may consult the chapter on "proving and printing," p. of m. lalanne's "treatise." * * * * * you have now gained some idea of the theory of etching, have acquainted yourself with the use of tools and materials, and have mastered the most elementary technical difficulties of the process. you are therefore in a position to profit by the teachings of m. lalanne which follow. in conclusion, let me assure you that the home-made appliances described in the foregoing paragraphs are quite sufficient, technically, for the purposes of the etcher. plate b, mr. walter f. lansil's first essay in etching, was executed according to the directions here given, and the artist has kindly consented to let me use it for the special purpose of illustrating this point. [illustration: plate b.] description of the plates. plate a. _a trial plate._ this plate is given to show the effect of difference in length of biting. the lines in the eight upper rectangles were all drawn before the first immersion of the plate, those on the left with a fine point, those on the right with a somewhat coarser one. after the plate had been in the bath for three minutes, it was withdrawn, and the upper rectangle on the left stopped out. the upper rectangle on the right, however, had hardly been attacked by the acid, as the lines had been drawn with a blunter point, which had not scratched the copper, while the fine point had. it was therefore allowed to bite another three minutes before it was stopped out. the other rectangles were allowed to bite ten, twenty, and thirty minutes respectively, by which means the difference in value was produced. the figures _a_, _b_, _c_ perhaps show the results of partial biting still better. the three were simply lined with the same point. after the first biting they all looked like _a_. this was then stopped out, together with the corners of _b_ and _c_. after the second biting _b_ and _c_ were both as _b_ now is. the whole of _b_ was now stopped out, and part of _c_, allowing only the inner lozenge to remain exposed to the acid. it is evident that the difference in color in these figures is not due to the drawing, but is entirely the result of biting. plate b. _vessels in boston harbor._ a first essay in etching by mr. walter f. lansil, marine painter, of boston. the artist has kindly given me permission to use this plate, for the purpose of showing that the home-made tools and materials described in the introductory chapter are quite sufficient for all the technical purposes of the etcher. it is eminently "home-made." the ground was prepared according to the recipe given; the points used were a sewing-needle and a knitting-needle; the tray in which it was etched was made of paper covered with stopping-out varnish; even the plate (a zink plate by the way) did not come from the plate-maker, but was ground and polished at home. plate i_a_. _etching after claude lorrain._ _unfinished plate_, or "first state" (see pp. and ). this, however, is not the etching itself; it is a photo-engraving from the unfinished etching. but it does well enough to show the imperfections alluded to by m. lalanne in the text. plate i. _etching after claude lorrain._ _finished plate_, or "second state" (see pp. and ). clean wiped. plate ii. _etching after claude lorrain._ printed from the same plate as pl. i, but treated as described on p. . the difference between the two plates shows what the art of the printer can do for an etching. the difference would be still greater if pl. ii. were better printed; for it is not printed as well as it might be, although it was done in paris. plate iii. _À plat, une pointe_--flat biting, drawn with one point; that is to say, the plate was immersed only once, and the lines are all the result of the same needle, so that the effect is only produced by placing the lines close together in the foreground, and farther apart as the distance recedes (see p. ). _À plat, plusieurs pointes_--flat biting, several points, that is to say, one immersion only, but the work of finer and coarser points is intermingled in the drawing. _par couvertures, plusieurs pointes_--stopping out and the work of several points combined. plate iv. _fig. ._ see p. . _fig. ._ see p. . _figs. , and ._ see p. . plate v. _fig. ._ worked with one point; effect produced by stopping out (see p. ). _fig. ._ mottled tint in the building, &c., in the foreground; stopping out before biting, in the sky (see p. ). plate vi. _soft-ground etchings._ see p. . plate vii. _dry-point etching._ see p. . plate viii. _À seville._ a sketch, given as a specimen of printing (see p. ). plate ix. _À anvers._ _le haag, amsterdam._ sketches from nature, to serve as examples. plate x. (frontispiece). _souvenir de bordeaux._ to be consulted in regard to the manner of using the points and partial bitings. my dear monsieur lalanne,[b] [b] this letter preceded also the first edition of . if there is any one living who can write about etching, it must certainly be you, as you possess all the secrets of the art, and are versed in all its refinements, its resources, and its effects. nevertheless, when i was told that you intended to publish a book on the subject, i feared that you were about to attempt the impossible; for it seemed as if abraham bosse had exhausted the theme two hundred years ago, and that you would be condemned to repeat all that this excellent man had said in his treatise, in which, with charming _naïveté_, he teaches _the art of engraving to perfection_. i must confess, however, that the reading of your manuscript very quickly undeceived me. i find in it numberless useful and interesting things not to be found anywhere else, and i comprehend that abraham bosse wrote for those who know, while you write for those who do not know. i was quite young, and had just left college, when accident threw into my hands the _traité des manières de graver en taille douce sur l'airain par le moyen des eaux fortes et des vernis durs et mols_. perhaps i might have paid no attention to this book, if i had not previously noticed on the stands on the _quai voltaire_ some etchings by rembrandt, which had opened to me an entirely new world of poetry and of dreams. these prints had taken such hold upon my imagination that i desired to learn, from bosse's "treatise," how the dutch painter had managed to produce his strange and startling effects and his mysterious tones, the fantastic play of his lights and the silence of his shadows. rembrandt's etchings on the one hand, and bosse's book on the other, were the causes of my resolution to learn the art of engraving, and of my subsequent entry into the studio of calamatta and mercuri. as soon as i knew how to hold the burin and the point, these grave and illustrious masters placed before me an allegorical figure engraved by edelinck, whose drapery was executed in waving and winding lines, incomparable in their correctness and beauty. to break my hand to the work, it was necessary to copy on my plate these solemnly classical and majestically disposed lines. but while i cut into the copper with restrained impatience, my attention was secretly turned towards rembrandt's celebrated portrait of janus lutma, a good impression of which i owned, and which i thought of copying. to make my _début_ in this severe school--in which we were allowed to admire only marc antonio, the ghisis, the audrans, and nanteuil--with an etching by rembrandt, would have been a heresy of the worst sort. hence to be able to risk this infraction of discipline, i took very good care to keep my project to myself. secretly i bought ground, wax, and a plate, and profited of the absence of my teachers to attempt, with fevered hands, to make a fac-simile of the lutma. i had followed the instructions of abraham bosse with regard to the ground, and i proceeded to bite in my plate with the assistance of a comrade, charles nördlinger, at present engraver to the king of wurtemburg, at stuttgart, whom i had admitted as my accomplice in this delightful expedition. you may well imagine, my dear monsieur lalanne, that i met with all sorts of accidents, such as are likely to befall a novice, and all of which you describe so carefully, while at the same time you indicate fully and lucidly the remedies that may be applied. the ground cracked in several places,--happily in the dark parts. my wax border had been hastily constructed, and i did not know then, although bosse says so, that it is the rule to pass a heated key along the lower line of the border, so as to melt the wax, and thus render all escape impossible. consequently the acid filtered through under the wax, and in trying to arrest the flow, i burned my fingers. furthermore, when it came to the biting in of the shadows in the portrait of lutma, the greenish and then whitish ebullition produced by the long-continued biting so frightened me, that i hastened to empty the acid into a pail, not, however, without having spattered a few drops on a proof of the _vow of louis xiii._, which had been scratched in the printing, and which we were about to repair. at last i removed the ground, and, trembling all over, went to have a proof taken, but not to the printer regularly employed by calamatta. what a disappointment! i believed my etching to have been sufficiently, nay, even over-bitten, and in reality i had stopped half-way. the color of the copper had deceived me. i had seen my portrait on the fine red ground of the metal, and now i saw it on the crude white of the paper. i hardly knew it again. it lacked the profundity, the mystery, the harmony in the shadows, which were precisely what i had striven for. the plate was only roughly cut up by lines crossing in all directions, through the network of which shone the ground which rembrandt had subdued, so as to give all the more brilliancy to the window with its leaded panes, to the lights in the foreground, and to the cheek of the pensive head of lutma. as luck would have it, all the light part in the upper half of the print came out pretty well; the expression of the face was satisfactory, and the grimaces of the two small heads of monsters which surmount the back of the chair were perfectly imitated. i had to strengthen the shadows by means of the roulette, and to go over the most prominent folds of the coat with the graver; for i had not the knowledge necessary to enable me to undertake a second biting. bosse says a few words on this subject, which, as they are wanting in clearness, are apt to lead a beginner into error. he speaks of smoked ground, while, as you have so admirably shown, white ground must be used for retouching. i therefore finished my plate by patching and cross-hatching and stippling, and finally obtained a passable copy, which, at a little distance, looked something like the original, although, to a practised eye, it was really nothing but a very rude imitation. it is needless to say that we carefully obliterated all evidence of our proceedings, and that, my teachers having returned, i went to work again, with hypocritical compunction, upon what i called the _military_ lines of gerard edelinck. but we were betrayed by some incautious words of the chamber-woman, and m. calamatta, having discovered "the rose-pot," scolded charles nördlinger and myself roundly for this romantic escapade. if my plate had been worse,----the good lord only knows what might have happened! all this, my dear m. lalanne, is simply intended to show to you how greatly i esteem the excellent advice which you give to the young etcher, or _aqua-fortiste_ (as the phrase goes now-a-days, according to a neologism which is hardly less barbaric than the word _artistic_). when i recall the efforts of my youth, the ardor with which i deceived myself, the hot haste with which i fell into the very errors which you point out, i understand that your book is an absolute necessity; and that the artist or the amateur, who, hidden away in some obscure province, desires to enjoy the agreeable pastime of etching, need only follow, step by step, the intelligent and methodical order of your precepts, to be enabled to carry the most complicated plate to a satisfactory end, whether he chooses to employ the soft ground used by decamps, masson, and marvy, or whether he confines himself to the ordinary processes which you make sensible even to the touch with a lucidity, a familiarity with details, and a certainty of judgment, not to be sufficiently commended. having read your "treatise," i admit, not only that you have surpassed your worthy predecessor, abraham bosse, but that you have absolutely superseded his book by making your own indispensable. if only the amateurs, whose time hangs heavily upon them; if the artists, who wish to fix a fleeting impression; if the rich, who are sated with the pleasures of photography,--had an idea of the great charm inherent in etching, your little work would have a marvellous success! even our elegant ladies and literary women, tired of their do-nothing lives and their nick-nacks, might find a relaxation full of attractions in the art of drawing on the ground and biting-in their passing fancies. madame de pompadour, when she had ceased to govern, although she continued to reign, took upon herself a colossal enterprise,--to amuse the king and to divert herself. you know the sixty-three pieces executed by this charming engraver (note, if you please, that i do not say _engraveress_!). her etchings after eisen and boucher are exquisite. the pulsation of life, the fulness of the carnations, are expressed in them by delicately trembling lines; and i do think that madame de pompadour could not have done better, even if she had been your pupil. at present, moreover, etching has, in some measure, become the fashion again as a substitute for lithography, an art which developed charm as well as strength under the crayon of charlet, of géricault, of gigoux, and of gavarni. the _société des aqua-fortistes_ is the fruit of this renaissance. the art, which, in our own day, has been rendered illustrious by the inimitable jacque, now has its adepts in all countries, and in all imaginable spheres of society. etchings come to us from all points of the compass: the hague sends those of m. cornet, conservator of the museum; poland, those which form the interesting album of m. bronislas zaleski, the _life of the kirghise steppes_; london, those of m. seymour haden, so original and full of life, and so well described in the catalogue of our friend burty; lisbon, those of king ferdinand of portugal, who etches as grandville drew, but with more suppleness and freedom. but after all paris is the place where the best etchings appear, more especially in the _gazette des beaux-arts_, and in the publications of the _société des aqua-fortistes_. do you desire to press this capricious process into your service for the translation of the old or modern masters? hédouin, flameng, bracquemont, will do wonders for you. you have told me yourself that, in my _oeuvre de rembrandt_, flameng has so well imitated this great man, that he himself would be deceived if he should come to life again. as to jules jacquemart, he is perfectly unique of his kind; he compels etching to say what it never before was able to say. with the point of his needle he expresses the density of porphyry; the coldness of porcelain; the insinuating surface of chinese lacquer; the transparent and imponderable _finesse_ of venetian glassware; the reliefs and the chased lines of the most delicate works of the goldsmith, almost imperceptible in their slightness; the polish of iron and steel; the glitter, the reflections, and even the sonority of bronze; the color of silver and of gold, as well as all the lustre of the diamond and all the appreciable shades of the emerald, the turquoise, and the ruby. i shall not speak of you, my dear monsieur, nor of your etchings, in which the style of claude is so well united to the grace of karel dujardin. you preach by practising; and if one had only seen the plates with which you have illustrated your excellent lessons, one would recognize not only the instructor but the master. hence, be without fear or hesitation; put forth confidently your little book; it is just in time to help regenerate the art of etching, and to direct its renaissance. for these reasons--mark my prediction!--its success will be brilliant and lasting. charles blanc. introduction. since the year , when the first edition of this treatise appeared, the art of etching, which was then in full course of regeneration, has gained considerably in extent. the tendencies of modern art must necessarily favor the soaring flight of this method of engraving, which has been left in oblivion quite too long. it remained for our contemporary school to accord to it those honors which the school of the first empire had denied to it, and which that of had given but timidly. at the period last named some of our illustrious masters, by applying their talent to occasional essays in etching, set an example which our own generation, expansive in its aspirations, and anxiously desirous of guarding the rights of individuality, was quick to follow. the _gazette des beaux arts_ comprehended this movement, and contributed to its extension by attracting to itself the artists who rendered themselves illustrious by the work done for its pages, while, by a sort of natural reciprocity, they shed around it the prestige of their talents. the _société des aqua-fortistes_ (etching club), founded in by alfred cadart, has also, by the united efforts of many eminent etchers, done its share towards bringing the practice of this art into notice, and has popularized it in the world of amateurs, whose numbers it has been instrumental in augmenting; while at the same time, owing to the nature of its constitution, it has given material support to the artists. private collections have been formed, and are growing in richness from day to day. two royal artists, king ferdinand of portugal and king charles xv. of sweden, have, through their works, taken an active part in the renewal of etching; they were the happy sponsors of a publication which, under the name of _l'illustration nouvelle_, follows in the footsteps, and continues the traditions, of the _société des aqua-fortistes_. similar societies, organized in england and in belgium,[ ] are prospering. on the other hand, a great number of art journals, of books, and of albums, owe their success to the use made in them of etchings. this is true also of those special editions which are sumptuously printed in small numbers, and are the delight of lovers of books. etching has thus taken a position in modern art which cannot fail to become still more important. "everything has been said," wrote la bruyère, concerning the works of the pen, "and we can only glean after the poets." the literature of two centuries has given the lie to the assertion of the celebrated moralist, and it may also be affirmed that etching has not yet spoken its last word. not only has it no need of gleaning after the old masters, but it may rather seek for precious models in the works of our contemporary etchers. in their experience may be found fruit for the present as well as useful information for the future. [illustration: an etcher's studio. from the third edition of abraham bosse's "treatise," paris, .] a treatise on etching. chapter i. definition and character of etching. . =definition.=--an etching is a design fixed on metal by the action of an acid. the art of etching consists, in the first place, in drawing, with a _point_ or _needle_, upon a metal plate, which is perfectly polished, and covered with a layer of varnish, or ground, blackened by smoke; and, secondly, in exposing the plate, when the drawing is finished, to the action of nitric acid. the acid, which does not affect fatty substances but corrodes metal, eats into the lines which have been laid bare by the needle, and thus the drawing is _bitten in_. the varnish is then removed by washing the plate with spirits of turpentine,[ ] and the design will be found to be engraved, as it were, on the plate. but, as the color of the copper is misleading, it is impossible to judge properly of the quality of the work done until a _proof_ has been taken. . =knowledge needed by the etcher.=--the aspirant in the art of etching, having familiarized himself by a few trials with the appearance of the bright lines produced by the needle on the dark ground of smoked varnish, will soon go to work on his plate confidently and unhesitatingly; and, without troubling himself much about the uniform appearance of his work, he will gradually learn to calculate in advance the conversion of his lines into lines more or less deeply bitten, and the change in appearance which these lines undergo when transferred to paper by means of ink and press. it follows from this that the etcher must, from the very beginning of his work, have a clear conception of the idea he intends to realize on his plate, as the work of the needle must harmonize with the character of the subject, and as the effect produced is finally determined by the combination of this work with that of the acid. the knowledge needed to bring about these intimate relations between the needle, which produces the _drawing_, and the biting-in, which supplies the _color_, constitutes the whole science of the etcher. . =manner of using the needle.--character of lines.=--the needle or point must be allowed to play lightly on the varnish, so as to permit the hand to move with that unconcern which is necessary to great freedom of execution. the use of a moderately sharp needle will insure lines which are full and nourished in the delicate as well as in the vigorous parts of the work. we shall thus secure the means of being simple. nor will it be necessary to depart from this character even in plates requiring the most minute execution; all that is required will be a finer point, and lines of a more delicate kind. but the spaces left between the latter will be proportionately the same, or perhaps even somewhat wider, so as to prevent the acid from confusing the lines by eating away the ridges of metal which are left standing between the furrows. freshness and neatness depend on these conditions in small as well as in large plates. . =freedom of execution.=--it is a well-known fact that the engraver who employs the burin (or graver), produces lines on the naked copper or steel which cross one another, and are measured and regular. it is a necessary consequence of the importance of line-engraving, growing out of its application to classical works of high style, that it should always show the severity and coldness of positive and almost mathematical workmanship. with etching this is not the case: the point must be free and capricious; it must accentuate the forms of objects without stiffness or dryness, and must delicately bring out the various distances, without following any other law than that of a picturesque harmony in the execution. it may be made to work with precision, whenever that is needed, but only to be abandoned afterwards to its natural grace. it will be well, however, to avoid over-excitement and violence in execution, which give an air of slovenliness to that which ought to be simply a revery. . =how to produce difference in texture.=--the manner of execution to be selected must conform to the nature of the objects. this is essential, as we have at our disposition only a point, the play of which on the varnish is always the same. it follows that we must vary its strokes, so as to make it express difference in texture. if we examine the etchings of the old masters, we shall find that they had a special way of expressing foliage, earth, rocks, water, the sky, figures, architecture, &c., without, however, making themselves the slaves of too constraining a tradition. . =the work of the acid.=--after the subject has been drawn on the ground, the acid steps in to give variety to the forms which were laid out for it by the needle, to impart vibration to this work of uniform aspect, and to inform it with the all-pervading warmth of life. in principle, a single biting ought to be sufficient; but if the artist desires to secure greater variety in the result by a succession of partial bitings, the different distances may be made to detach themselves from one another by covering up with varnish the parts sufficiently bitten each time the plate is withdrawn from the bath. the different parts which the mordant is to play must be regulated by the feeling: discreet and prudent, it will impart delicacy to the tender values; controlled in its subtle functions, it will carefully mark the relative tones of the various distances; less restrained and used more incisively, it will dig into the accentuated parts and will give them force. . =the use of the dry point.=--if harmony has not been sufficiently attained, the _dry point_ is used on the bare metal, to modify the values incompletely rendered, or expressed too harshly. its office is to cover such insufficient passages with a delicate tint, and to serve, as charles blanc has very well expressed it, as a _glaze_ in engraving. . =spirit in which the etcher must work.=--follow your feeling, combine your modes of expression, establish points of comparison, and adopt from among the practical means at command (which depend on the effect, and on which the effect depends) those which will best render the effect desired: this is the course to be followed by the etcher. there is plenty of the instinctive which practice will develop in him, and in this he will find a growing charm and an irresistible attraction. what happy effects, what surprises, what unforeseen discoveries, when the varnish is removed from the plate! a bit of good luck and of inspiration often does more than a methodical rule, whether we are engaged on subjects of our own invention,--_capricci_, as the italians call them,--or whether we are drawing from nature directly on the copper. the great aim is to arrive at the first onset at the realization of our ideas as they are present in our mind. an etching must be virginal, like an improvisation. . =expression of individuality in etching.=--having once mastered the processes, the designer or painter need only carry his own individuality into a species of work which will no longer be strange to him, there to find again the expression of the talent which he displayed in another field of art. he will comprehend that etching has this essentially vital element,--and in it lies the strength of its past and the guaranty of its future,--that, more than any other kind of engraving on metal, it bears the imprint of the character of the artist. it personifies and represents him so well, it identifies itself so closely with his idea, that it often seems on the point of annihilating itself as a process in favor of this idea. rembrandt furnishes a striking example of this: by the intermixture and diversity of the methods employed by him, he arrived at a suavity of expression which may be called magical; he diffused grace and depth throughout his work. in some of his plates the processes lend themselves so marvellously to the severest requirements of modelling, and attain such an extreme limit of delicacy, that the eye can no longer follow them, thus leaving the completest enjoyment to the intellect alone. claude lorrain, on the other hand, knew how to conciliate freedom of execution with majesty of style. . =value of etching to artists.=--speaking of this subordination of processes in etching to feeling, i am induced to point out how many of the masters of our time, judging by the character of their work, might have added to their merits had they but substituted the etcher's needle for the crayon. was not decamps, who handled the point but little, an etcher in his drawings and his lithographs? ingres only executed one solitary etching, and yet, simply by virtue of his great knowledge, it seems as if in it he had given a presentiment of all the secrets of the craft. and did not gigoux give us a foretaste of the work of the acid, when he produced the illustrations to his "gil blas," conceived in the spirit of an etcher, which, after thirty years of innumerable similar productions, are still the _chef-d'oeuvre_ and the model of engraving on wood. and would mouilleron have been inferior, if from the stone he had passed to the copper plate? it would be an easy matter to multiply examples chosen from among the artists who have boldly handled the needle, or from among those who might have taken it up with equal advantage, to prove that etching is not, as it has been called, a secondary method. there are no secondary methods for the manifestation of genius. . =versatility of etching.=--the needle is the crayon; the acid adds color. the needle is sometimes all the more eloquent because its means of expression are confined within more restricted limits. it is familiar and lively in the sketch, which by a very little must say a great deal; the sketch is the spontaneous letter. it all but reaches the highest expression when it is called in to translate a grand spectacle, or one of those fugitive effects of light which nature seems to produce but sparingly, so as to leave to art the merit of fixing them. . =etching compared to other styles of engraving.=--by its very character of freedom, by the intimate and rapid connection which it establishes between the hand and the thoughts of the artist, etching becomes the frankest and most natural of interpreters. these are the qualities which make it an honor to art, of which it is a glorious branch. all other styles of engraving can never be any thing but a means of reproduction. we must admire the knowledge, the intelligence, and the self-denial which the line-engraver devotes to the service of his art. but, after all, it is merely the art of assimilating an idea which is foreign to him, and of which he is the slave. by him the _chefs-d'oeuvre_ of the masters are multiplied and disseminated, and sometimes, in giving eternity to an original work, he immortalizes his own name; but the part he has assumed inevitably excludes him from all creative activity. . =etching as a reproductive art.=--these reserves having been made in regard to the engraver, whose instrument is the burin, justice requires that the reproductive etcher should come in for his proportional share, and that his functions should be defined. some years ago, a school of etchers arose among us, whose mission it is to interpret those works of the brush which, by the delicacy and elegance of their character, cannot be harmonized with the severity of the burin. this school, to which mr. gaucherel gave a great impulse, has been called in to fill a regrettable void in the collections of amateurs. every one knows those remarkable publications, _les artistes contemporains_, and _les peintres vivants_, which, for the last twenty years, have reproduced in lithography the _chefs-d'oeuvre_ of our exhibitions of paintings. to-day etching takes the place of lithography; it excels in the reproduction of modern landscapes, and of the _genre_ subjects which we owe to our most esteemed painters. it is not less happy in the interpretation of certain of the old masters, whose works make it impossible to approach them with the burin. the catalogues of celebrated galleries which have lately been sold also testify to the important services rendered to art by the reproductive etcher. his methods are free and rapid; they are not subjected to a severe convention of form. he may rest his own work on the genius of others, so as to attain a success like that of the painter-etcher; but the latter, as he bathes his inspiration in the acid and triumphantly withdraws it, finds his power and his resources within himself alone. he is at once the translator and the poet. chapter ii. tools and materials.--preparing the plate.--drawing on the plate with the needle. . =method of using this manual.=--as the general theory given in the preceding chapter may seem too brief, and may convey but an incomplete idea of the different operations involved in etching, i shall now endeavor to formulate, in as concise a manner as possible, such practical directions as i have had occasion to give to a young designer, and to different other persons, in my own studio. i shall provide successively for all the accidents which usually, or which may possibly, occur. but the beginner need not trouble himself too much about the apparent complication of detail which the following pages present. they are intended, rather, to be consulted, like a dictionary, as occasion arises. in all cases, however, it will be well, on reading the book, to make immediate application of the various directions given, so as to avoid all confusion of detail in the memory, and to escape the tedium of what would otherwise be rather dry reading. a. tools and materials. . =list of tools and materials needed.=--to begin with, we must provide ourselves with the following requisites:[ ]-- copper plates. a hand-vice. ordinary etching-ground and transparent ground in balls. liquid stopping-out varnish. brushes of different sizes. two dabbers,--one for the ordinary varnish, the other for the white or transparent varnish. a wax taper. a needle-holder. needles of various sizes. a dry point. a burnisher. a scraper. an oil-stone of best quality. a lens or magnifying-glass. bordering-wax. an etching-trough made of gutta-percha or of porcelain. india-rubber finger-gloves. nitric acid of forty degrees. tracing-paper. gelatine in sheets. chalk or sanguine. emery paper, no. or . blotting-paper. a roller for revarnishing, with its accessories. to these things we must add a supply of _old_ rags. . =quality and condition of tools and materials.=--too much care cannot be taken as regards the quality of the copper, which metal is used by preference for etching. soft copper bites slowly, while on hard copper the acid acts more quickly and bites more deeply. it is to be regretted that nowadays plates are generally rolled, which does not give density enough to the metal. formerly they were hammered, and the copper was of a better quality. thus hammered, the metal becomes hard, and is less porous; its molecular condition is most favorable to the action of the acid, the lines are purer, and even when the work is carried to the extreme of delicacy, it is sure to be preserved in the biting. english copper plates, and plates that have been replaned, are excellent. it is a good plan to buy thick plates, of a dimension smaller than that of the designs to be made, and to have them hammered out to the required size. the plates thus obtained will not fail to be very good. the vice must have a wooden handle, so as to prevent burning the fingers. to meet all possible emergencies, lamp-black may be mixed with the liquid stopping-out varnish (_petit vernis liquide_). some engravers find that it dries too quickly, and therefore, fearing that it may chip off under the needle, use it only for stopping out; for retouching, they employ a special retouching varnish (_vernis au pinceau_).[ ] for brushes, select such as are used in water-color painting. the silk with which the dabbers are covered must be very fine in the thread. in order to protect his fingers, an engraver conceived the idea of smoking his plates by means of the ends of several candles or wax tapers placed together in the bottom of a little vessel: they furnish an abundance of smoke, and can be extinguished by covering up the vessel. the smoke of a wax taper is the best; it is excellent for small plates. the needle-holder holds short points of various thicknesses, down to the fineness of sewing-needles. to sharpen an etching-needle, pass it over the oil-stone, holding it down flat, and turning it continually. when it has attained a high degree of sharpness, describe a large circle with it on a piece of card-board, holding it fixed between the fingers this time, and go on describing circles of a continually decreasing size. the nearer you approach to the centre, the more vertical must be the position of the needle. the fineness or the coarseness of the point is regulated by keeping the needle away from, or bringing it nearer to, the central point. the dry point must be ground with flat faces rather than round, so as to cut the copper, and penetrate it with ease. if the burnisher is not sufficiently polished, it scratches the copper, and produces black spots in the proofs. to keep it in good condition, cut two grooves, the size of the burnisher, in a piece of pine board. rub it up and down the first of these grooves, containing emery powder; and then, to give it its final lustre, repeat the same process, with tripoli and oil, in the second groove. the stones which are too hard for razors are excellent for the scrapers. having sharpened the scraper with a little oil, during which operation you must hold it down flat on the stone, pass it over your finger-nail. if the touch discloses the presence of the least bit of tooth, and if the tool does not glide along with the greatest ease, the grinding must be continued, as otherwise the scraper will scratch the copper. you are at liberty to use two troughs,--one for the acid bath; the other, filled with water, for washing the plate. a glass funnel, and a bottle with a ground-glass stopper, will be necessary for filling in and keeping the etching liquid. various substances are used for finishing off the copper plates; the most natural is the paste obtained by rubbing charcoal on the oil-stone with oil. then comes the fine emery paper nos. or , rotten-stone, tripoli, english red, and, finally, slate. powdered slate, produced by simply scraping with a knife, is excellent, used with oil and a fine rag, the same as other substances. the varnish for revarnishing is nothing but ordinary etching-ground, dissolved in oil of lavender. it must be about as stiff as honey in winter. the rollers for revarnishing, which can be had of different sizes, are cylindrical in form, and are terminated by two handles, which revolve in the hands. the roller ought, if possible, to cover the whole surface of the copper.[ ] as soon as it has been used, it must be put out of the way of the dust. these various recommendations are by no means unnecessary, as the least material obstacle may sometimes hinder the flight of the imagination. it is well to be armed against all the troublesome vexations of the handicraft; for the difficulties of the art are in themselves sufficient to occupy our attention. b. preparing the plate. i shall now proceed to give the various talks which i had with my young pupil. . =laying the ground, or varnishing.=--you have here a plate, i say to him; i clean it with turpentine; then, having well wiped it with a piece of fine linen, and having still further cleaned it by rubbing it with spanish white (or whiting), i fasten it into the vice by one of its edges, taking care to place a tolerably thick piece of paper under the teeth of the vice, so as to protect the copper against injury. i now hold the plate with its back over this chafing-dish; but a piece of burning paper, or the flame of a spirit-lamp, will do equally well. as soon as the plate is sufficiently heated, i place upon its polished surface this ball of ordinary etching-ground, wrapped up in a piece of plain taffeta; the heat causes the ground to melt. if the plate is too hot, the varnish commences to boil while melting; in that case, we must allow the plate to cool somewhat, as otherwise the ground will be burned. i pass the ball over the whole surface of the copper, taking care not to overcharge the plate with the ground. then, with the dabber, i dab it in all directions; at first, vigorously and quickly, so as to spread and equalize the layer of varnish; and finally, as the varnish cools, i apply the dabber more delicately. the appearance of inequalities, and of little protruding points in the ground, indicates that it is laid on too thick, and the dabbing must be continued, until we have obtained a perfectly homogeneous layer. this must be very thin,--sufficient to resist strong biting, and yet allowing the point to draw the very finest lines, which it will be difficult to do with too much varnish. . =smoking.=--without waiting for the plate to cool, i turn it over, and present its varnished side to the smoke of a torch or a wax taper, which i hold at a distance of about two centimetres from the plate, so as not to injure the varnish. i keep moving the flame about in all directions, to avoid burning the varnish (which latter would take place if the flame remained too long at the same point), and thus i obtain a brilliant black surface. all the transparency is gone; we see neither copper nor varnish, and this is a sign that our operation has succeeded. all we need do now is to allow the plate to cool and the varnish to harden, and then you can commence making your drawing. you call my attention to the fact that the varnish, in cooling, loses the brilliancy which it had in its liquid state. this is always the case. and see the perfect neatness and evenness of the varnished and smoked surface! here is a plate which was spoiled in the smoking. the first thing that strikes us is that we see the marks left by the passage of the taper. at a pinch, these marks might, perhaps, be no inconvenience to us in working; but here the brilliant black is broken by very dull spots. these are places in which the varnish was burned; it will scale off under the needle, and has lost the power of resisting the acid. we must therefore clean this plate with spirits of turpentine, and commence operations afresh. the ground is blackened, because its natural transparency does not permit us to see the work of the point. this work produces what might be called a negative design; that is to say, a design in bright lines on a black ground. this is rather perplexing at first, but you will soon become accustomed to it. c. drawing on the plate with the needle. . =the transparent screen.=--you must place yourself so as to face this window, and between you and it we must introduce, in an inclined position, a transparent screen made of tracing paper stretched on a wooden frame, which will prevent your seeing the window. this screen will soften and strain the light; it will reduce the reflection of the copper, and will allow you to see what you are doing. in designing on the plate out of doors, the screen is unnecessary, since, as the light falls equally upon the copper from all directions, the reflection is done away with, and the copper does not dazzle the eye as it does when the light emanates from a single source. . =needles or points.=--you may use a single needle, or you may use several of different degrees of sharpness, even down to sewing-needles, as you will see later on; but your work on the plate will always look uniform, without distance and without relief. the modelling and coloring of the design must be left to the acid. the point must be held on the plate as perpendicularly as possible, as the purity of the line depends on the angle of incidence which the point makes with the copper; furthermore, it must be possible to direct it freely and easily in all directions, and it is, therefore, necessary that the needle should not be too sharp. to make sure of this, draw a number of eights on the margin of your plate, or simply an oblique line from below upwards in the direction of the needle. if it does not glide along easily, if it attacks the copper and catches in it, you must regrind it. this is important, as in principle the function of the needle is to trace the design by removing the varnish from the copper, while it must avoid scratching it. by scratching the metal we encroach on the domain of the acid, and inequality of work is the result, since the acid acts more vigorously on those parts which have been scratched than on those which have simply been laid bare. we must feel the copper under the point, without, however, penetrating into it. the opposite effect is produced if we operate too timidly. in this case we do not reach the copper. we remove the blackened surface, and it seems as if we had also removed the varnish, since we see the copper shining through it. but we shall find later, from the fact that the acid does not bite, that we did not bear heavily enough on the needle. at first there is a tendency to proceed as in drawing on paper, giving greater lightness to the touch of the point in the distances, and bearing on it more vigorously in the foregrounds. but this is useless. there are certain artists, nevertheless, who prefer to attack the copper with cutting points in the finer as well as in the more vigorous parts of their work, and to bite in with strong acid; others, again, dig resolutely into the copper wherever they desire to produce a powerful tone. abraham bosse, in applying etching to line-engraving, advises his readers to cut the copper slightly in the lines which are to appear fine, and to dig vigorously into the plate for those lines which are to be very heavy, so that delicate as well as strong work may be obtained at one and the same biting. as it is necessary in this sort of engraving to retouch the heavy lines with the burin, we can understand that in the way shown the work of the instrument named may be facilitated. . =temperature of the room.=--in summer the temperature softens the varnish, and the needle works pliantly and easily; in winter the cold hardens the varnish, so that it is apt to scale off under the point, especially at the crossing of the lines. it is advisable, therefore, to have your room well heated, or to supply yourself with two cast-metal plates or two lithographic stones, or even two bricks, if you please, which must be warmed and placed under your plate alternately, so as to keep it at a soft and uniform temperature. practice has shown that work done at the right temperature is softer than that executed when the varnish is too cold, even if it is not sufficiently so to scale off. . =the tracing.=--according to the kind of work to be done, we shall either draw directly on the plate, or, in the case of a drawing which is to be copied of its own size, we shall make use of a tracing. many engravers emancipate themselves from the tracing, and accustom themselves to reversing the original while they copy it. the manner of using a tracing is well known. we shall need tracing-paper, paper rubbed with sanguine on one side, and a pencil. the tracing is made on the tracing-paper, and this is afterwards placed on the prepared plate; between the tracing and the plate we introduce the paper rubbed with sanguine; then, with a very fine lead-pencil, or with a somewhat blunt needle, we go carefully over the lines of the design, which, under the gentle pressure of the tool, is thus transferred in red to the black ground. it is unnecessary to use much pressure, as otherwise your tracing will be obscured by the sanguine and you will find neither precision nor delicacy in it. furthermore, you run the risk of injuring the ground. the tracing is used simply to indicate the places where the lines are to be, and it must be left to the needle to define them. . =reversing the design.=--whenever your task is the interpretation of an object of fixed aspect, such as a monument, or some well-known scene, or human beings in a given attitude, you will be obliged to reverse the drawing on your plate, as otherwise it will appear reversed in the proof. you must, therefore, reverse your tracing, which is a very easy matter, as the design is equally visible on both sides of the tracing-paper. gelatine in sheets, however, offers still greater advantages when a design is to be reversed. place the gelatine on the design, and, as it is easily scratched, make your tracing with a very fine-pointed and sharp needle, occasionally slipping a piece of black paper underneath the gelatine to assure yourself that you have omitted nothing. the point, in scratching the gelatine, raises a bur, and this must be removed gently with a paper stump, or with the scraper, after which operation the tracing is rubbed in with powdered sanguine. having now thoroughly cleaned the sheet, so that no powder is left anywhere but in the furrows, we turn the sheet over and lay it down on the plate, and finally rub it on its back in all directions, for which purpose we use the burnisher dipped in oil. the design, reversed, will be found traced on the varnish in extremely fine lines. . =use of the mirror.=--the tracing finished, place a mirror before your plate on the table, and as close by as possible; between the plate and the mirror fix the design to be reproduced, and then draw the reflected image. for the sake of greater convenience, take your position at right angles to the window instead of facing it, so that the light passing through the transparent screen on your left falls on the mirror and the design, as well as on your work. when drawing on the copper from nature, if the design is to be reversed, you must place yourself with your back to the object to be drawn, and so that you can easily see it in a small mirror set up before your plate. this is the way méryon proceeded: standing, and holding in the same hand his plate and a little mirror, which he always carried in his pocket, he guided his point with the most absolute surety, without any further support. . =precautions to be observed while drawing.=--before you begin to draw you must trace the margin of your design, for the guidance of the printer. to protect your plate, it will be necessary to cover it with very soft paper; the pressure of the hand does no harm, provided you avoid rubbing the varnish. if you should happen to damage it, you must close up the brilliant little dots which you will observe, by touching them up, very lightly and with a very fine brush, with stopping-out varnish. . =directions for drawing with the needle.=--i might now let you copy some very simple etching; but your knowledge of drawing will, i believe, enable you to try your hand at a somewhat more important exercise. let us suppose, then, that you are to draw a landscape, although the practice you are about to acquire applies to all other subjects equally well. will you reproduce this design by claude lorrain? (pl. ii.) it is a composition full of charm and color, and very harmonious in effect. use only one needle, and keep your work close together in the distance and more open in the foreground. (see pl. i^_a_.) that appears paradoxical to you; but the nitric acid will soon tell you why this is so. i shall indicate to you, after your plate has been bitten, those cases in which you will have to proceed differently, or, in other words, in which you will have to draw your lines nearer together or farther apart without regard to the different distances. i cannot explain this subject more fully before you have become acquainted with the process of biting in, as without this knowledge it must remain unintelligible to you. this remark holds good, also, of what i have told you on the subject of the needles of different degrees of sharpness. "it is curious, my dear sir, to notice how at one and the same time the point combines a certain degree of softness and of precision; those who draw with the pen ought also to be admirers of etching. it seems to me, however, that my lines are too thick; i have already laid several of them, and the varnish is no longer visible; i am afraid i have taken it up altogether." you need not feel any uneasiness about that; it is simply owing to the irradiation of the copper, the brilliancy of which the screen does not completely subdue. the bright line is made to look broader than it really is by the brilliant gloss of the metal. but if you lay a piece of tracing-paper on the plate you will see the lines as they really are; that is to say, with plenty of space between them. by the aid of a lens you can convince yourself still more easily; you will often have occasion to avail yourself of this instrument to enable you to do fine work with greater facility, or to give you a better insight into what you have already done. as the irradiation of which we have just spoken is apt to deceive us in regard to the quantity of the work done, we may happen to find less of it than we expected when the plate has been bitten. plates which to the beginner seem to be quite elaborately worked, present to the acid lines widely spaced and insufficient in number, thus necessitating retouches. it is essential, therefore, in principle (except in the special cases to be pointed out hereafter), to give to our work, in its first stages, all the development that is necessary. i forgot to tell you that you must provide yourself with a very soft brush, say a badger, which, from time to time, you must pass lightly over your plate so as to remove the small particles of varnish raised by the needle. otherwise you will not be able to see properly what you have been doing. continue, and follow your own feeling; work away without fear of going wrong; some of your errors you will be able to remedy. thus, if you have made a mistake, you can lay a thin coat of liquid varnish over the spoiled part by means of a brush; in a few seconds the varnish will have dried, and you can make your correction. you can employ this method for the correction of a faulty line, or to restore a place which should have remained white, but which you have inadvertently shaded. here i shall stop for the present, and shall close by saying, may good luck attend your point, as well as your acid! there is nothing more to be said to you until after your plate has been bitten. chapter iii. biting. . =bordering the plate.=--this work took some time. our young student, impatient to see the transformation wrought by the acid, came back without keeping me waiting for him. "hurry up! a tray, acid, and all the accessories!" instead of using a tray, i tell him, we can avail ourselves of another method, which is used by many engravers, and which consists in bordering the plate with wax. this wax,[ ] having been softened in warm water, is flattened out into long strips, and is fastened hermetically and vertically around the edges of the plate, so that, when hardened, it forms the walls of a vessel, the bottom of which is represented by the design drawn with the point. to avoid dangerous leaks, heat a key, and pass it along the wax where it adheres to the plate; the wax melts, and, on rehardening, offers all possible guarantees of solidity. we now pour the acid on the plate thus converted into a tray, and as we have taken care to form a lip in one of the angles made by the bordering wax, it is an easy matter to pour off the liquid after each biting. this proceeding is useful in the case of plates which are too large for the tray. otherwise, however, i prefer a tray made of gutta-percha or porcelain. . =the tray.=--let us now install ourselves at this table, and let us cover the margin and the back of the plate with a thick coat of stopping-out varnish. as soon as the varnish is perfectly dry, we place the plate into the tray standing horizontally on the table, and pour on acid enough to cover it to the height of about a centimetre. this depth, which is sufficient for biting, allows the eye to follow the process in its various stages. . =strength of the acid.=--this acid is fresh, and has not yet been used; bought at forty degrees, i mix it with an equal quantity of water, which reduces it to twenty degrees. this is the strength generally adopted for ordinary biting. its color is clear, and slightly yellow; but as soon as it takes up the copper it becomes blue, and then green. as, in its present state, it would act too impetuously, i add to it a small quantity of acid which has been used before. you may also throw a few scraps of copper into it the day before using it; the old etchers used for this purpose a copper coin, larger or smaller, according to the volume of the bath.[ ] . =label your bottles!=--one day, one of my pupils, having a bad cold, did not notice the difference between the smell of the acid and that of the turpentine, and so plunged a plate which he desired to bite, into a bath of the latter fluid. "it's queer," he said, "this won't bite, and yet the varnish scales off.... the lines keep enlarging, and run into one another! what does this curious medley mean, which appears on the plate?" it was simple enough. the spirits of turpentine had dissolved the ground, and consequently the plate developed a shining and radiating surface before the eyes of our wondering student, as if it had just left the hands of the plate-maker. advice to those who are absent-minded, and who are liable to mistake fluids which look alike for one another,--label your bottles! . =the first biting.=--let us make haste now, i say to my pupil, to do our biting. as the heat of the day abates, the acid becomes less active; and besides, to judge by the delicate character of the original we are to render, we shall need at least two or three hours, all told, for this operation. the task before us consists in the reproduction of a given work, the merit of which lies in the gradation in the various distances. it needs time and attention to be able to carry all the necessary processes successfully into practice. it will be plain to you, from what i have just said, that the operation you are about to engage in is one of the most delicate in the etcher's practice. there is the plate in the acid; the liquid has taken hold of the copper; but your sky must be light, and a prolonged corrosion would therefore be hurtful to it. hence we take the plate out of the bath, pass it through pure water, so that no acid is left in the lines, and cover it with several sheets of blotting-paper, which, being pressed against it by the hand, dries the plate. we shall have to go through the same process after each partial biting, because if the plate were moist, the stopping-out varnish which we are going to apply to it would not adhere. . =the use of the feather.=--you noticed the lively ebullitions on the plate, which took place twice in succession. after the first, i passed this feather lightly over the copper, to show you its use. its vane removed the bubbles which adhered to the lines. this precaution is necessary, especially when the ebullitions acquire some intensity and are prolonged, to facilitate the biting, as the gas by which the bubbles are formed keeps the acid out of the lines. if these bubbles are not destroyed, the absence of biting in the lines is shown in the proofs by a series of little white points. such points are noticeable in some of the plates etched by perelle, who, it seems, ignored this precaution. . =stopping out.=--the two rapid ebullitions which you saw may serve you as a standard of measurement; the biting produced by them must be very light, and sufficient for the tone of the sky. you may, therefore, cover the entire sky with stopping-out varnish by means of a brush, taking care to stop short just this side of the outlines of the other distances. the importance of mixing lamp-black with your stopping-out varnish to thicken it, comes in just here; because if it remained in its liquid state, it might be drawn by capillary attraction into the lines of those parts which you desire to reserve, and thus, by obstructing them, might stop the biting in places where it ought to continue. wait till the varnish has become perfectly dry; you can assure yourself of this by breathing upon it; if it remains brilliant, it is still soft, and the acid will eat into it; but as soon as it is dry it will assume a dull surface under your breath.[ ] . =effect of temperature on biting.=--let us now return the plate to the bath, to obtain the values of the other distances. the temperature has a great effect on the intensity of the ebullitions, and it is hardly possible to depend on it absolutely as a fixed basis on which to rest a calculation of the time necessary for each biting, as its own variability renders it difficult to appreciate the aid to be received from it. in winter, for instance, with the same strength of acid, it needs four or five times as much time to reach the same result as in summer, so that on very hot days the biting progresses so rapidly that the plate cannot be lost sight of for a single moment without risk of over-biting. [illustration: pl. i_a_.] . =biting continued.=--we have now obtained several moderate ebullitions, and as it would not do to exaggerate the tone of the mountain in the background, it is time to withdraw the plate once more. uncover a single line by removing the ground, either with the nail of your finger or with a very small brush dipped into spirits of turpentine, to examine whether it is deeply enough bitten for the distance which it is to represent. if the depth is not sufficient, cover it with stopping-out varnish, and bite again. this is not necessary, however, in our present case, and you may therefore stop out the whole background. remember, if you please, that the line must look _less_ heavy than it is to show in the proof; for you must take into account the black color of the printing-ink. with your brush go over the edges of the trees which are to be relieved rather lightly against the sky, as well as over that part of the shadow in this tower which blends with the light. there are also some delicate passages in the figure of the woman in the foreground, in the details of the plants, and in the folds of this tent (pl. i_a_). stop out all these, and do not lose sight of the values of the original (pl. ii.). make use of the brush to revarnish several places which are scaling off on the margin and the back of the plate. the temperature is favorable; the ebullitions come on without letting us wait long, and the plate is bluing rapidly. i do not like to see these operations drag on; in winter, therefore, i do my biting near the fire. we soon acquire a passion for biting, and take an ever-growing interest in it, which is incessantly sharpened by thinking of the result to which we aspire. hence the desire of constant observation, and that assiduity in following all the phases of the biting-in. i notice that the acid does not act on certain parts of your work; you will find out soon enough what that means. . =treatment of the various distances.=--"i am thinking just now of what you told me in regard to the background:--that more work ought to be put into it than into the foreground." nothing, indeed, is simpler. you understand that the background, which is bitten in quite lightly, must show very delicate lines, while in the middle distance and in the foreground the lines are enlarged by the action of successive bitings. when it comes to the printing, the quantity of ink received by these various lines will be in proportion to the values which you desired to obtain, and in the proofs you will have a variety of lighter or stronger tones, giving you the needed gradations in the various distances. it follows from this that, if you had worked too sparingly on the distances which receive only a light biting, you could not have reached the value of the tone which you strove to get, and if you had worked too closely on those parts which require continued biting, you would have had a black and indistinct tone, because the lines, which are enlarged by the acid, and consequently keep approaching one another, would finally have run together into one confused mass, producing what in french is called a _crevé_ (blotch). in an etching the space between the lines must be made to serve a purpose; for the paper seen between the black strokes gives delicacy, lightness, and transparency of tone. . =the crevé.--its advantages and disadvantages.=--in very skilled hands the _crevé_ is a means of effect. if you wish to obtain great depth in a group of trees, in a wall, in very deep shadows, you will risk nothing by intermingling your lines picturesquely and biting them vigorously. in this way you can produce tones of velvety softness, and at the same time of extraordinary vigor. similarly, you may strike a fine note by means of running together several lines which, if sufficiently bitten, will form but a single broad one of great solidity and power. it is, indeed, only the exaggeration of this expedient, which, by unduly enlarging the limits of the broad line just spoken of, and thus producing a large and deep surface between them, constitutes the _crevé_ properly so called; the printing ink has no hold in this flat hollow, and a gray spot in the proof is the result. i have warned you of the accident; later on you shall hear something of the remedy. we will now continue our biting. plunge your plate into the bath again, if you please. . =means of ascertaining the depth of the lines.=--"my dear sir, i see that my drawing turns black; it disappears almost entirely, and is lost in the color of the ground.[ ] i am quite perplexed. my mind endeavors to penetrate beneath this varnish, so as to be able to witness the mysterious birth of my _oeuvre_. see these violent ebullitions! what do you think of them?" let them go on a moment longer, and then withdraw your plate. we have now arrived at a point where the eye cannot judge of the work of the acid as easily as before; henceforth we must, therefore, examine the depth of our bitings by uncovering a single line, as, for instance, this one here in the ground. or we may even lay bare, by the aid of spirits of turpentine, a part of the foreground, provided, however, that we must not forget to cover it again with the brush. this will give us an idea of the total effect so far produced by the biting, and we can then regulate the partial bitings which are still to follow, either by a comparison of the time employed on those that have gone before, or by the intensity of the ebullitions, the action of which on the copper we have already studied. you perceive that, while it is difficult to fix a standard of time for the bitings at the beginning of the operation, it is yet possible to calculate those to come by what we have so far done. . =the rules which govern the biting are subordinated to various causes.=--in reality, it is impossible to establish fixed rules for the biting, for the following reasons:-- . owing to the varying intensity of the stroke of the needle. the etcher who confines himself to gently baring his copper must bite longer than he who attacks his plate more vigorously, and therefore exposes it more to the action of the acid. . owing to the different quality of the plates. . owing to the difference in temperature of the surrounding air:--of this we have before spoken. . owing to difference of strength in the acid, as it is impossible always to have it of absolutely the same number of degrees. at ° to ° the biting is gentle and slow; at ° it is moderate; at ° to ° it becomes more rapid. it would be dangerous to employ a still higher degree for the complete biting-in of a plate, especially in the lighter parts. . =strong acid and weak acid.=--it is, nevertheless, possible to put such strong acid to good service. a fine gray tint may, for instance, be imparted to a well-worked sky by passing a broad brush over it, charged with acid at °. but the operation must be performed with lightning speed, and the plate must instantly be plunged into pure water. as a corollary of the fourth cause, it is well to know that an acid overcharged with copper loses much of its force, although it remains at the same degree. thus an acid taken at °, but heavily charged with copper from having been used, will be found to be materially enfeebled, and to bite more slowly than fresh acid at ° to °. to continue to use it in this condition would be dangerous, because there is no longer any affinity between the liquid and the copper, and if, under such circumstances, you were to trust to the appearance of biting (which would be interminable, besides), you would find, on removing the varnish, that the plate had merely lost its polish where the lines ought to be, without having been bitten. it is best, therefore, always to do your biting with fresh acid, constantly renewed, as the results will be more equal, and you will become habituated to certain fixed conditions. some engravers, of impetuous spirit and impatient of results, do their biting with acid of a high degree, while others, more prudent, prefer slow biting, which eats into the copper uniformly and regularly, and hence they employ a lower degree. in this way the varnish remains intact, and there is not that risk of losing the purity of line which always attends the employment of a stronger acid. . =strength of acid in relation to certain kinds of work.=--experience has also shown that, with the same proportion in the time employed, the values are accentuated more quickly and more completely by a strong than by a mild acid; this manifests itself at the confluence of the lines, where the acid would play mischief if the limit of time were overstepped. another effect of biting which follows from the preceding, is noticeable in lines drawn far apart. of isolated lines the acid takes hold very slowly, and they may therefore be executed with a cutting point and bitten in with tolerably strong acid. the reverse takes place when the lines are drawn very closely together; the biting is very lively. work of this kind, therefore, demands a needle of moderate sharpness and a mild acid. hence, interweaving lines and very close lines are bitten more deeply by the same acid than lines drawn parallel to each other, and widely spaced, although they may all have been executed with the same needle. if, in an architectural subject, you have drawn the lines with the same instrument, but far apart on one side, and closely and crossing each other on the other, you must not let them all bite the same length of time, if you wish them to hold the same distance. it will be necessary to stop out the latter before the former, otherwise you will have a discordant difference in tone. there will be inequality in the biting, but it will not be perceptible to the eye, as the general harmony has been preserved. (see pl. iv. fig. .) in short, strong acid rather widens than deepens the lines; mild acid, on the contrary, eats into the depth of the copper, and produces lines which are shown in relief on the paper, and are astonishingly powerful in color. this is especially noticeable in the etchings of piranesi, who used hard varnish. . =last stages of biting.=--but let us return to our operation. you noticed that i allowed your plate to bite quite a while; this was necessary to detach your foreground and middle-ground vigorously from the sky and the background. you may now stop out the trees, the tower, and the tent in the middle-ground, and the vertical part of the bridge, which is in half-tint, and then proceed. note that the number of bitings is not fixed, but depends on the effect to be reached. "in that case it is to be hoped, for the sake of my apprentice hands, that i shall never have many bitings to do. just look at my fingers! they are in a nice state. the prettiest yellow skin you ever saw!" oh, don't let that color trouble you; it will be all black by to-morrow. "much obliged to you for this bit of consolation!" besides, it will take you a week to grow a new skin. in future you must soak your fingers in pure water whenever you have got them into the acid. you might have used india-rubber finger-gloves; they are excellent to keep the hands clean, but it is not worth while to trouble about them for the present, as we are almost done.[ ] i think you may now stop out all that remains, with the exception of the darkest places in the foreground, to which we must give a final biting. there! now we've got it! withdraw your plate for the last time, and as there are some very widely spaced lines in this tree in the foreground, you will risk nothing by giving them a final touch with pure acid. the strongest accent in the landscape rests on this spot; it determines the color of the whole. by this application of pure acid we shall get a vigorous tone, a powerful effect. i may as well tell you here that it is sometimes advisable to add a small quantity of pure acid to the bath towards the end of the operation, so as to increase the activity of the biting on certain parts of the plate without running into excess. but as the place now under consideration is restricted, we shall adopt another means, so as to limit the action of the acid to the given point. see here: i let fall a few drops; the pure acid eats into the copper with great vehemence; the metal turns green, and the ebullition subsides. now take up the exhausted liquid with a piece of blotting-paper, and let us commence again. under these newly added drops of fresh acid, the varnish is ready to scale off, the lines sputter, and assume a strange yellow color; these golden vapors announce that the operation is finished. what follows, is the task of the printer; his press will tell us whether we have won, or whether we have been mated. clean the plate with spirits of turpentine, using your fingers, or with a very clean old rag (calico, if possible), if you are afraid to soil your hands. be sure to have the plate well cleaned, but take care not to scratch it. the acid, which may be of use hereafter, we will turn into a glass bottle with a ground stopper, and will store it in some safe place. chapter iv. finishing the plate. . =omissions.--insufficiency of the work so far done.=--the result you have obtained, i tell my pupil, as he shows a proof of the _first state_ of his plate to me, is not final. your work needs a few retouches and slight modifications, not counting the little irregularities which i had foreseen, and which it will be easy enough to repair. we will proceed in order. (see pl. i^_a_). to commence with, here are certain parts which are sufficiently bitten, and which, nevertheless, are indecisive in tone, and do not hold their place. i allude to the columns and to the trees in the further distance; one feels that there is something wanting there, which must be added. you must, therefore, re-cover your plate, in the manner already known to you, either with transparent ground, or with ordinary etching-ground, just as if the plate had never yet been touched by the needle. . =transparent ground for retouching.=--the white or transparent ground or varnish[ ] admirably allows all previous work to show through. it is preferred to the ordinary ground for working over parts that have been insufficiently bitten, on account of its transparency, which leaves even the finest lines visible, while under the ordinary ground these lines might be lost entirely. it will be an easy matter for you to combine the new work with the old; the very slight shadow thrown on the copper by the transparent ground will give a blackish appearance to your lines, which may serve as a guide to you, and, with your proof before your eyes, you will readily succeed in finding the places which need retouching. to make assurance doubly sure, you can indicate the retouches on your proof with a lead-pencil. the transparent ground has occasionally been found to crack and scale off, when left in the bath for a long while, or when strong acid is used. but as you are only going to use it for light and, consequently, short biting, you need not fear this danger. another inconvenience, which may easily be prevented, consists in the presence of small bubbles of air, which appear on the varnish as soon as it begins to melt. heat the plate just to the proper point of melting, and dab it vigorously for some length of time, until the varnish cools; then hold the back of the plate flat to the fire; the varnish melts again, and the rest of the bubbles disappear. if some of them should prove to be obstinate, cover them very lightly with the brush, as otherwise the acid will penetrate through the passages thus left open, and will make little holes in the copper, which, on removing the varnish, will cause an unpleasant surprise. you shall hear more of this further on. . =ordinary ground used for retouching.--biting the retouches.=--ordinary etching-ground, such as we used in the first instance, does not show the work previously done as well as the transparent ground, but the later additions are seen all the better on it. it may be used in its natural state, or it may be smoked. it is preferable to the transparent varnish, whenever the work already achieved is deeply bitten, and hence easily seen. in the present case my advice is that you use the ordinary ground. having made your retouches, introduce your plate into the bath, and proceed as before, by partial biting, endeavoring, as much as possible, to obtain the same intensity of tone. these additions, thus bitten by themselves, will mingle with the lines previously drawn, and now protected by the varnish. it is hardly possible to judge of the additions, especially on transparent varnish, until they have been bitten in. but, if you should then find that you have not yet reached your point, you can revarnish the plate once more, and complete the parts that appear to be unfinished. i must also call your attention to the fact, that all lines drawn on transparent ground seem to thicken most singularly, as soon as the acid begins to work. but do not let that deceive you. now look at this spot in the immediate foreground (pl. i^_a_), which has a somewhat coarse appearance. it is much softer in the original (represented by pl. ii.). you must add a few lines, and must bite them rather lightly; they will mingle agreeably with the energetic lines of the first state. you may put the large trees through the same process, and you will find that they gain in lightness by it. later on, when you have acquired more experience, you will occasionally find it handy to make these additions between two bitings. you will thus reach the desired result without the necessity of regrounding your plate. sometimes, when using strong acid for these retouches, the lines first drawn are also attacked by the liquid. in that case, stop the biting immediately, and rest contented with what you have got. it is not difficult to understand why these revarnished lines should commence to bite again, more especially if they are deep: the acid, finding the edges of the lines (which are sharp and angular, and therefore do not offer much hold to the varnish) but indifferently protected, attacks them, without going into their depths. the ravages thus committed along the edges of the lines may be quite disastrous; and it is well, therefore, whenever you revarnish a plate, to give additional protection to those parts which are not to be retouched, by going over them with stopping-out varnish. . =revarnishing with the brush.=--instead of revarnishing with the dabber, the ground may also be laid with the brush. for this purpose you can use the stopping-out varnish mixed with lamp-black. spread a coat of varnish all over the plate, using a very soft brush; if the copper should not be perfectly covered on the edges of the deeply etched lines, add a second coat of varnish. do not wait till the varnish has become too dry before you execute the retouches, which, of course, must also be bitten in as usual. mixed with lamp-black, the stopping-out varnish allows even the finest lines to be seen, which would not show as well if the varnish were used in its natural state. many engravers use this varnish instead of the transparent ground. . =partial retouches.--patching.=--for partial retouches and for patching the stopping-out varnish is also used, but in a simpler and more expeditious way. cover the part in question with a tolerably thick coat of varnish, and when you have finished your retouch, slightly moisten the lines with saliva, to prevent the few drops of acid which you supply from your bath with the brush from running beyond the spot on which they are to act. if pure acid is used,--which is still more expeditious,--the effervescence is stopped by dabbing with a piece of blotting-paper, and the operation is repeated as long as the biting does not appear to be sufficient. for very delicate corrections it is advisable not to wait until the first ebullition is over; but it must be left to the feeling to indicate the most opportune moment for the application of the blotting-paper. if you proceed rapidly and cautiously, you can obtain extremely fine lines in this way, as you have had occasion to see under other circumstances (see paragraph , p. ). you may recollect that i spoke of lines which had not bitten: i alluded to this spot in the middle of the bridge (see pl. i^_a_). you did not bear on your needle sufficiently, and hence it did not penetrate clear down to the copper; consequently, after having compared the proof of the first state with the original (pl. ii.), you must do the necessary patching according to the instructions just given to you. . =dry point.=--whenever it is necessary to retouch, or to add to very delicate parts of the plate, such as the extreme distance, or any other part very lightly bitten, it is safer to use the _dry point_, as in such cases retouching by acid is a most difficult thing to do. the tone must be hit exactly, and without exaggeration. your plate offers an opportunity for the use of the dry point: the sky and the mountain are partly etched; you can improve them by a few touches of the dry point. the dry point is held in a perpendicular position, and is used on the bare copper. it must be ground with a cutting edge, and very sharp, so that it may freely penetrate into the copper, and not merely scratch it. you cut the line yourself, regulating its depth by the amount of pressure used, and according to the tone of the particular passage on which you are working. for patching, it is more frequently used in delicate passages than in others, as, even with great pressure, the strength of a dry point line will always be below that of a line deeply bitten. in printing, the dry point line has less depth of color than the bitten line, as the acid bites into the copper perpendicularly at right angles; while the furrow produced by the dry point, which offers only acute angles, takes up less ink, although it appears equally broad. this inequality disappears if a plate in which etched lines and dry point work are intermingled is re-bitten; the difference in tone is then equalized. on the other hand, the difference in the appearance of etched lines and dry point work produces curious effects. thus, if a passage which is too strong and appears to stand out is to be corrected, a few touches of the dry point will be sufficient to soften it, and to push it back to another distance. the dry point is not only used for retouching; it is sometimes employed, without any etching, to put in the whole background. . =use of the scraper for removing the bur thrown up by the dry point.=--the dry point work being finished, the _bur_ thrown up by the instrument must be removed. the bur is the ridge raised on the edge of the line, as the point ploughs through the metal; you can satisfy yourself of its existence by the touch. in printing, the ink catches in this ridge, and produces blots. the bur is removed by means of the _scraper_, an instrument with a triangular blade, one of the sides of which, held flat, is passed over the plate in the opposite direction to that of the stroke of the point, and so as to take the line obliquely. you need not feel any anxiety about injuring the plate; the touch will tell you when the bur has disappeared. in the case of dry point lines crossing one another, each set running in a different direction must be drawn as well as scraped separately, in the manner just described; otherwise you will run the risk of closing the lines which cross the path of the scraper, by turning the bur down into the furrows. . =reducing over-bitten passages.=--so much for the additions. we will now pass on to the very opposite: the shadow thrown by the parapet, and the ground between the man and the woman, have been _over-bitten_. these parts do not harmonize with the neighboring parts, and are stronger in tone than the corresponding parts of the original. to remedy this, there are four means at your command:-- the burnisher. charcoal. the scraper. hammering out. . =the burnisher.=--as these passages are limited in extent, and not very deeply bitten, you may use the burnisher to reduce them. moisten it with saliva, and take only a small spot at a time, holding the instrument down flat. if you were to use only the end, you might make a cavity in the copper. the burnisher flattens and enlarges the surface of the copper, and consequently diminishes the width of the line. the tone, therefore, is reduced. on fine, close, and equal work the burnisher does excellent service, the effect being analogous to that of the crumb of bread on a design on paper. it is less efficacious on deeply bitten work, because it rounds off the edges of the lines as it penetrates into the furrows, and thus detracts somewhat from the freshness of tone,--an unpleasant result, which, in very fine work, is beyond the power of the eye to see. you may use the burnisher to get rid of certain spots produced in the foliage by lines placed too closely together, and by the same means you can reduce those exaggerated passages in the stone-work of the right-hand column. you can also burnish these useless little blotches in the mountains. . =charcoal.=--whenever it is necessary to reduce the whole of a distance, the use of charcoal is to be preferred. charcoal made of willow, or of other soft woods, which can be had of the plate-makers, is used flat, impregnated with oil or water; it must be freed from its bark, as this would scratch the plate. it wears the metal away uniformly, and does not injure the crispness of the lines. rub the passage to be reduced with the charcoal, regulating the length of time by the degree of delicacy you desire to attain. at the beginning soak your charcoal in water, so as leave it more tooth; then clean it, and continue with oil, which reduces the wear on the copper. the eye is sufficient to judge of the wear; the way in which the charcoal takes hold of the copper, and the copper-colored spots which it shows, may serve as guides. as the effectiveness of the different kinds of charcoal varies, these divers qualities of softness and coarseness are utilized according to the nature of the correction to be made. it is well to know, also, that it takes hold much more actively if used in the direction of the grain, than transversely. you may, according to circumstances, commence with a piece of coal having considerable tooth, continue with another that is less aggressive, and wind up with a somewhat soft piece. the heavier the charcoal the coarser its tooth, the lightest being the softest. the plate must be washed, so as to keep the charcoal always clean; as otherwise the dust produced, which forms a paste, will wear down the bottom of the furrows, and the result, in the proof, will be dull and reddish lines. charcoal is also used to remove the traces of the needle in those parts of the plate in which changes were made while the drawing was still in progress. . =the scraper.=--the scraper is more efficacious than the burnisher in the case of small places that have been deeply bitten. if the scraper is sufficiently sharp, it leaves no trace whatever on the lowered surface of the copper. to sum up:-- _charcoal_ and _scraper_ are used to remove part of the surface of the copper. the furrows, having been reduced in depth, receive less ink in printing; the lines gain in delicacy in the impressions. the _burnisher_ simply displaces the copper; _charcoal_ and _scraper_ wear it away. it follows that they must be used with discernment. . =hammering out (repoussage).=--these three means are employed when a moderate lowering of the plate is required. when it becomes necessary to go down to half the thickness of the plate or more, the result will be a hollow, which will show as a spot in printing. in that case recourse is had to the fourth means; that is to say, to hammer and anvil. get a pair of compasses with curved legs (_calipers_); let one of the legs rest on the spot to be hammered out; the other leg will then indicate the place on the back of the plate which must be struck with the hammer on the anvil. in this way places which have been reduced with charcoal or scraper may be brought up to the level of the plate; but if the lines should be found to have been flattened, which would result in a dull tone in the proofs, it will be best to have the part in question planed out entirely, and to do it over. . =finishing the surface of the plate.=--the charcoal occasionally leaves traces on the plate, which show in the proof as rather too strong a tint. you can get rid of them, by rubbing with a piece of very soft linen, and the paste obtained by grinding charcoal with oil on a fine stone. by the same process the whole plate is tidied. it is likely to need it, as it has undoubtedly lost some of its freshness, owing to the abuse to which it was subjected in passing through all these processes. our young pupil, having executed these several operations, and bitten his retouched plate, submits a proof to my inspection, which i compare with that of the first state (pls. i^_a_ and i.). now you see, i say to him, how one state leads to another. you have come up to the harmony of the original; your _second state_ is satisfactory, and so there is no need of having recourse to varnishing the plate a third time. [illustration: plate i.] [illustration: plate ii.] chapter v. accidents. . =stopping-out varnish dropped on a plate while biting.=--you are just in time, i continued, to profit by an accident which has happened to me. i dropped some stopping-out varnish on a plate while it was biting; it has spread over some parts which are not yet sufficiently bitten, and of course it is impossible to go on now. i took the ground off the plate, and had this proof pulled. it is unequal in tone, and does not give the modelling which i worked for. "what are you going to do about it? is the plate lost?" . =revarnishing with the roller for rebiting.=--oh, no, indeed, thanks to the _roller for revarnishing_! my first precaution will be to clean the plate very carefully, first with spirits of turpentine, until the linen does not show the least sign of soiling, and then with bread. or, having used the turpentine, i might continue the cleaning process with a solution of potash, after which the plate must be washed in pure water. i then put a little ground, specially prepared for the purpose, on a second plate, which must be scrupulously clean, and not heated; or, better still, i apply the ground directly to the roller itself by means of a palette-knife. i divide this second plate into three parts. by passing the roller over the first part, i spread the ground roughly over it; on the second part i equalize and distribute it more regularly; on the third, finally, i finish the operation. by these repeated rollings a very thin layer of ground is evenly spread over all parts of the surface of the roller, and we may now apply it to the plate which is to be rebitten. to effect this purpose, i pass the roller over the cold plate carefully and with very slight pressure, repeating the process a number of times and in various directions. this is an operation requiring skill. the ground adheres only to the surface of the plate, without penetrating into the furrows, although it is next to impossible to prevent the filling up of the very finest lines. having thus spread the ground, and having assured myself that the lines are all right by the brilliancy of their reflection as i hold the plate against the light, i rapidly pass a burning paper under the plate. the ground is slightly heated, and solidifies as it cools. the varnish used in this operation is the ordinary etching-ground in balls, dissolved in oil of lavender in a bath of warm water. it must have the consistency of liquid cream; if it is too thick, add a little oil of lavender.[ ] both the plate and the roller must be well protected against dust. it is not necessary to clean the roller after the operation; only take care to wipe its ends with the palm of your hand, turning it the while, so as to remove the rings of varnish which may have formed there. if the lines are found closed, too much pressure has been used on the roller; if the ground is full of little holes, the plate has not been cleaned well, and wherever the surface of the copper is exposed the acid will act on it. there is nothing to be done, in both cases, but to wash off the ground with spirits of turpentine, and commence anew. my plate is now in the same state in which it was when i withdrew it from the bath. i stop out those parts which are sufficiently bitten, and, guided by my proof, i can proceed to continue the biting which was interrupted by the accident. . =revarnishing with the roller in cases of partial rebiting.=--you will find this method especially valuable whenever you desire to strengthen passages that are weak in tone. and furthermore, having thus revarnished your plate, you may avail yourself of the opportunity of giving additional finish. but if, before revarnishing, you should have burnished down some over-bitten lines in a passage which needs rebiting, you will find that the shallow cavity produced by the burnisher does not take the ground from the roller; such places are easily detected by the brilliant aspect of the copper, and good care must be taken to cover them with ground. again, if, before proceeding to rebite, you should notice certain passages which are strong enough as they are, either because the copper was cut by the point, or because the lines in them are very close, you must cover them up with the brush. the same thing is necessary in the case of the excessively black spots which sometimes manifest themselves in places covered by irregularly crossing lines, and the intensity of which it would be useless to increase still further. this recommendation is valuable for work requiring precision. . =revarnishing with the dabber for rebiting.=--for partial rebiting the same result may be reached by applying the ground with the dabber. heat your plate, and surround the part to be rebitten with a thick coat of ordinary etching-ground. now heat your dabber, and pass it over the ground. finally, when the dabber is thoroughly impregnated with the ground, carry it cautiously and little by little over the part in question, dabbing continually.[ ] . =revarnishing with the brush for rebiting.=--let me also call your attention to an analogous case which may arise. if you desire to increase the depth of the biting in a part of the plate in which the lines are rather widely apart, you may cover the plate with the brush and stopping-out varnish, and may pass the needle through the lines so as to open them again. you can then rebite in the tray, or by using pure acid, or by allowing acid at ° to stand on the part in question, just as you please. . =rebiting a remedy only.=--etchers who are entitled to be considered authorities will advise you to avoid as much as possible all rebiting by means of revarnishing, as it results in heaviness, and never has the freshness of a first biting obtained with the same ground. a practised eye can easily detect the difference. never let the rebiting be more than a quarter of the first biting. use the process as a remedy, but never count on it as a part of your regular work. . =holes in the ground.=--having once taken up the consideration of the little mishaps which may befall the etcher, i shall now show you another plate in which the sky is dotted by a number of minute holes of no great depth (_piqués_). this plate has, no doubt, been retouched, and the ground having been badly laid, the acid played mischief with it. it is very lucky that the lines in the sky are widely separated, as otherwise these holes would be inextricably mixed up with them. we can rid ourselves of them by a few strokes of the burnisher, and by rubbing with charcoal-paste and a bit of fine linen. the burnisher alone would give too much polish to the copper; in printing the ink would leave no tint on the plate in these spots, and the traces of the burnisher would show as white marks in the proofs. to avoid this, the copper must be restored to its natural state.[ ] "what would happen," asks another of my pupils, "if these little holes occurred in a sky or in some other closely worked passage? here is a plate in which this accident has befallen some clouds and part of the ground. what shall i do?" to begin with, let me tell you for your future guidance that this accident would not have happened if you had waited for the drying of the ground with which you covered this sky after you had bitten it. the acid, which never loses an opportunity given it by mismanagement or inattention, worked its way unbeknown to you through the soft varnish in the clouds as well as in the ground, and went on a spree at your expense. remember that nitric acid is very selfish; it insists that it shall always be uppermost in your mind, and all your calculations must take this demand into account; its powers, creative as well as destructive, are to be continually dreaded; it likes to see you occupy yourself with it continually, watchfully, and with fear. if you turn your back to it, it plays you a trick, and thus it has punished you for neglecting it for a moment. "thank you. but you are acting the part of la fontaine's schoolmaster, who moralized with the pupil when he had fallen into the water." . =planing out faulty passages.=--and that did not help him out. you are right. well, you must go to some skilful copper-planer,[ ] who will work away at the spoiled part of your plate with scraper and burnisher and charcoal, until he has restored the copper to its virgin state; then all you've got to do will be to do your work over again. "that is rather a blunt way of settling the question. seeing that we are about to cut into the flesh after this fashion, might it not be as well to have the whole of the sky taken out altogether? i am not satisfied with it, any way." certainly. by the same process the planer can remove every thing, up to the outlines of the trees and the figures in your plate; he will cut out any thing you want, and yet respect all the outlines, if you will only indicate your wishes on a proof. in this passage, where you see deep holes, scraper and charcoal will be insufficient; the planer must, therefore, hammer them out before he goes at the other parts. as regards the little holes in the foreground, since they are not as deep as the lines among which they appear, you can remove them, or at least reduce them, by means of charcoal, without injury to the deeply bitten parts. you may follow this plan whenever you are convinced that a lowering of tone will do no harm to your first work. in the opposite case, you must either have recourse to the planer, or put up with the accident. if you are not too much of a purist, you will occasionally find these _piqués_ productive of a _piquant_ effect, and then you will take good care not to touch them. "that's a 'point' which you did not mention among the utensils! you have ingenious ways of getting out of a scrape." we cut out, or cut down, or dig away, whole passages, according to necessity. i have seen the half of a plate planed off, because the design was faulty. . =acid spots on clothing.=--here comes one of my friends, who is also an etcher. i wonder what he brings us! his clothing is covered all over with spots of the most beautiful garnet; he ought to have washed them with volatile alkali, which neutralizes the effect of the acid. but he does not mind it. . =reducing over-bitten passages and crevés.=--"oh, gentlemen, that is not worth while speaking of! but you must see my plate. i drew a horse from nature, which a whole swamp-ful of leeches might have disputed with me. but i do believe it escaped the _biting_ of these animals only to succumb to mine. judge for yourselves!" the fact of the matter is, that you have killed it with acid. there is nothing left of it, but an informal mass, ten times over-bitten. fortunately there is no lack of black ink at the printer's! it is a veritable chinese shadow, and looks as if the horse had gone into mourning for itself. however, although the carcass is lost, i hope you may be able to save some of the members. the wounds are deep and broad; but we can try a remedy _in extremis_: first of all, your horse will have to stand an attack of _charcoal_; if it survives this, we shall subject it to renewed and ferocious _bitings_. all this puzzles you. therefore, having treated your beast to the charcoal, and having had a last proof taken, you place the latter before you, and re-cover your plate with a solid coat of varnish. with a somewhat coarse point you patch those places which show white in the proof, taking care to harmonize your patches with the surrounding parts. in this way you replace the lines which have disappeared, and then proceed to bite in, doing your best to come as near as possible to the strength of the first biting. the result may not be very marvellous, but it will be an improvement, at all events. if i were in your place, i should not hesitate to begin again. the process which i have just described is best suited to isolated passages. in closely worked and lightly bitten passages, blotches (or _crevés_) are more easily remedied, as they are less deep. rub them down with charcoal, very cautiously and delicately, and let the dry point do the rest. there, now! there's our friend, again, using acid instead of spirits of turpentine to clean his plate! that'll be the end of the animal. it is against the law, sir, to murder a poor, inoffensive beast this wise! fortunately we can help him out with several sheets of blotting-paper, in default of water, which we do not happen to have at hand. we were in time! the copper has only lost its polish; a little more charcoal,--and rosinante still lives. [illustration: plate iii.] chapter vi. difference between flat biting, and biting with stopping-out. . =two kinds of biting.=--now that you have become familiar with the secrets of biting, i say to my pupil, and are therefore prepared to be on your guard against the accidents to be avoided when you go to work again, i can make clear to you, better than if i had endeavored to do so at the outset, the difference between the two kinds of biting on which rests the whole system of the art of etching, and the distinctive characteristics of which are often confounded. the work thus far done will help you to a more intelligent understanding of this distinction. as it was impossible to explain to you, at one and the same time, all the resources of the needle as well as those of biting, between which, as i told you before, there exist very intimate relations, i had to choose a general example by which to demonstrate the processes employed, and which would allow me to explain the reasons for these processes. there are two kinds of biting,--_flat biting_ and _biting with stopping-out_. (see pl. iii.) these two kinds of biting resemble one another in this, that they involve only one grounding or varnishing, and consequently only one bath; they differ most markedly in this, that in _flat biting_ the work of the acid is accomplished all over the plate at one and the same time, and with only one immersion in the bath, while in _biting with stopping-out_ there are several successive, or, if you prefer the term, partial bitings, between each of which the plate is withdrawn from the bath, and the parts to be reserved are stopped out with varnish as often as it is thought necessary. it follows from this, that, with flat biting, the modelling must be done by the needle, using either only one needle, or else several of different thicknesses. . =flat biting.--one point.=--with a single needle the values are obtained by drawing the lines closely together in the foreground and nearer distances, or for passages requiring strength, and by keeping them apart in the off distances, and in the lighter passages of the near distances; furthermore, to obtain a play of light in the same distance, the lines must be drawn farther apart in the lights, and more closely together in the shadows. a single point gives a hint of what we desire to do, but it does not express it. it is undoubtedly sufficient for a sketch intended to represent a drawing executed with pen and ink or with the pencil; but it cannot be successfully employed in a plate which, by the variety of color and the vigor of the biting, is meant to convey the idea of a painting. . =flat biting.--several points.=--when several points of different thickness are used, the coarser serve for the foreground and near distances, the finer in gradual succession for the receding distances. they are used alternately in the different distances, and the lines are drawn more closely together here, or kept farther apart there, according to the necessities of the effect to be obtained; the depth of the biting is the same throughout, but the difference in thickness of the lines makes it an easy matter, by more elaborate modelling, to give to the etching the appearance of a finished design. with a single point, as well as with several, the pressure used in drawing must remain the same throughout, so that the acid may act simultaneously, and with equal intensity on all parts of the plate. if there has been any inequality of attack, the values will be unequal in their turn, and different from what they were intended to be. [illustration: plate iv.] . =biting with stopping-out.--one point.=--in biting with stopping-out, it is the biting itself, and not the needle, which gives modelling to the etching. in this case, also, one or several points may be used. the simplest manner is that in which only one point is used. the stopping-out, and consequently the biting, is done in large masses. (see pl. v. fig. .) . =biting with stopping-out.--several points.=--as a very simple example let us take a case in which it is necessary to have certain very closely lined passages in a foreground alongside of very coarse ones. in that case the first, or close, lines must be etched very delicately, while the whole force of the biting must be brought to bear on the latter (see pl. iv. fig. ). in the same way the values of two different objects may be equilibrated; by employing close lines slightly bitten in the one case, and spaced lines more deeply bitten in the other. biting with stopping-out, combined with the work of several points, requires more attention and discernment than any other. if the first biting is not successful, the plate is revarnished, and the work of repairing and correcting commences. summing up the advantages offered by these various means, you will see what results the combination of the work of one or of several points with partial biting may be made to yield, either in giving to objects their various values, their natural color, and their modelling, or in disposing them in space, and thus producing the harmonious gradation of the several distances. . =necessity of experimenting.=--if you will now call to mind our preceding operations, and will hold them together with the explanations just given, you will be able to appreciate them in their totality. the necessity of arriving at truth of expression, with nothing to guide you but these rules, which are influenced by a variety of conditions, will compel you to experiment for yourself, with special reference to the combination of _the surrounding temperature, the strength of the acid, the number of partial bitings, the pressure of the point, the different thicknesses of the points_, and _the various kinds of work that can be done with them_, on the one hand; and on the other, with regard to _the length of the bitings_. if you are called upon to imitate a given object very closely, you must proceed rationally, and your work must be accompanied by continual reflection. to familiarize yourself with these delicate operations, you must experiment for yourself; don't complain if you spoil a few plates; you will learn something by your failures, as your experience in one case will teach you what to do in others. self-acquired experience is of all teachers the best. . =various other methods of biting.=--the two preceding methods, which, in a general way, comprehend the rules of biting, do not exclude other particular methods of a similar nature. thus, it may be well sometimes to etch at first only the simple outline, biting it in more or less vigorously, according to the nature of the case (see pl. iv. fig. ); and then, having revarnished and resmoked the plate, to elaborate the drawing by going over it either in some parts only or throughout the whole. rembrandt often pursued this course; and we may follow the several stages of his work by studying the various states of his plates. we see that he took great pains to work out some part of his subject very carefully, without touching the other parts; he then took a proof, and afterwards went over the same part with finer lines, and passed on to the other parts, treating them according to the effect which he desired to reach. this method is often imitated; it is employed when it is necessary to lay a shadow over a passage full of detail, as, for instance, in architectural subjects, in the execution of which it is easier, and tends to avoid confusion, to fix the lines of the design first, and then, having laid the ground a second time, to add the shadows. (see pl. iv. fig. .) "pardon me! but might not this result be obtained by the same biting, if the lines of the design were drawn with a coarse point, and the shading were added with a finer one?" certainly; and in that case we should have an instance of work executed with several needles, such as i pointed out to you before. from the explanations previously given, it will be clear, also, that, the nature of the subject permitting, it may be advantageous sometimes to execute a plate by drawing and biting each distance by itself. thus you may commence with the foreground, and may bite it in; having had a proof taken, revarnish your plate, and proceed in the same fashion to the execution of the other distances, and of the sky, always having a proof taken after each biting to serve you as a guide. this mode of operation--essentially that of the engraver--is of special advantage in putting in a sky or a background behind complicated foliage. you can draw and bite your sky or your background all by itself (see pl. iv. fig. ), and then, having revarnished your plate, you can execute your trees on the background. as the trees are bitten by themselves, it is evident that we have avoided a difficulty which is almost insurmountable,--that, namely, of stopping out with the brush the lines of the sky between intricate masses of foliage. but we can also proceed differently. we can commence with the trees, drawing them and biting them in, and can finish with the sky, having revarnished the plate as usual: the sky will thus fall into its place behind the trees. you need not trouble yourself because the lines of the sky pass across the lines of the trees. the biting of the sky must be so delicate that it will not affect the value of the foliage, and you may therefore carry your point in all directions, and use it as freely as you please. some etchers find it more convenient to commence with the sky and the background, on account of the points of resistance encountered by the needle in the more deeply bitten lines of the trees, which destroys their freedom of execution. they are correct, whenever the sky to be executed is very complicated; but if only a few lines are involved, it will be better to introduce them afterwards. it is, besides, an easy matter to get accustomed to the jumping of the point when it is working on a ground that has previously been bitten. what i have just told you applies also to the masts and the rigging of vessels, &c., and, indeed, to all lines which cut clearly and strongly across a delicately bitten distance. an etcher of great merit has conceived the original idea of executing an etching in the bath itself, commencing with the passages which need a vigorous biting, then successively passing on to the more delicate parts, and finally ending with the sky.[c] the various distances thus receive their due proportion of biting; but it is necessary to work very quickly, as the biting of a plate etched in the bath in this manner proceeds five to six times more rapidly than if done in the ordinary manner. every etcher ought to be curious to try this bold method of working, so that he may see how it is possible to ally the inspiration of the moment with the uncertain duration of the biting, which in this process has emancipated itself from all methodical rule, and follows no law but that imposed upon it by the caprice of the artist.[ ] [c] the bath, in this case, is composed as follows:-- gr. water. " pure hydrochloric (muriatic) acid. " potassium chlorate. all this goes to show you that there is ample liberty of choice as to processes in etching. it is well to try them all, as it is well to try every thing that may give new and unknown results, may inspire ideas, or may lead to progress, neither of which is likely to happen in the pursuit of mere routine work. chapter vii. recommendations and auxiliary processes.--zink and steel plates.--various theories. a. recommendations and auxiliary processes. . =the roulette.=--the latitude which i gave you does not extend to the point of approving of all material resources without any exception. there is one which i shall not permit you to make use of, as the needle has enough resources of its own to be able to do without it. i allude to the _roulette_, which finds its natural application in other species of engraving. . =the flat point.=--employ the _flat point_ with judgment; it takes up a great deal of varnish, but gives lines of little depth, and of less strength than those which can be obtained by prolonged biting, with an ordinary needle. . =the graver or burin.=--"and the graver: what do you say to that?" the graver is the customary and fundamental tool of what is properly called "line-engraving." although it is not absolutely necessary in the species of etching which we are studying, there are cases, nevertheless, in which it can be used to advantage, but always as an auxiliary only. if, for instance, you desire to give force to a deeply bitten but grayish and dull passage, or to a flat tint which looks monotonous, a few resolute and irregular touches with the graver will do wonders, and will add warmth and color. a few isolated lines with the graver give freshness to a muddy, broken, or foxy tint, without increasing its value. the graver may also be employed in patching deeply bitten passages. the graver, of a rectangular form, with an angular cutting edge, is applied almost horizontally on the bare copper; its handle, rounded above, flat below, is held in the palm of the hand; the index finger presses on the steel bar; it is pushed forward, and easily enters the metal: the degree of pressure applied, and the angle which it makes with the plate, produces the difference in the engraved lines. the color obtained by the burin is deeper than that obtained by biting, as it cuts more deeply into the copper. if extensively used in an etching, the work executed by the graver contrasts rather unpleasantly with the quality of the etched work, as its lines are extremely clear cut. to get rid of this inequality, it is sufficient to rebite the passages in question very slightly, which gives to the burin-lines the appearance of etched lines. in short: use the graver with great circumspection, as its application to works of the needle is a very delicate matter, and gives to an etching a character different from that which we are striving for. it seems to me that to employ it on a free etching, done on the spur of the moment, would be like throwing a phrase from bossuet into the midst of a lively conversation.[ ] . =sandpaper.=--as regards other mechanical means, be distrustful of tints obtained by rubbing the copper with sandpaper; these tints generally show in the proof as muddy spots, and are wanting in freshness. avoid the process, because of its difficulty of application. only a very skilful engraver can put it to good uses. . =sulphur tints.=--i shall be less afraid to see you make use of _flowers of sulphur_ for the purpose of harmonizing or increasing the weight of a tint. the sulphur is mixed with oil, so as to form a homogeneous paste thick enough to be laid on with a brush. by the action of these two substances the polish on the plate is destroyed, and the result in printing is a fresh and soft tint, which blends agreeably with the work of the needle. differences in value are easily obtained by allowing the sulphur to remain on the plate for a greater or less period of time. this species of biting acts more readily in hot weather; a few minutes are sufficient to produce a firm tint. in cold weather relatively more time is needed. the corrosions produced in this way have quite a dark appearance on the plate, but they produce much lighter tints in printing. if you are not satisfied with the result obtained, you can rub it out with charcoal, as the copper is corroded only quite superficially. owing to this extreme slightness of biting, the burnisher may also be used to reduce any parts which are to stand out white. this process, as you see, is very accommodating; but it is too much like mezzotint or aquatint, and, furthermore, it can only be applied in flat tints, without modelling. i have, nevertheless, explained it to you, so that you may be able to use it, if you should have a notion to do so, as a matter of curiosity, but with reserve. it is better to use the dry point, which has more affinity to the processes natural to etching. [illustration: plate v.] . =mottled tints.=--you may also make use of the following process (but with the same restrictions) in the representation of parts of old walls, of rocks and earth, or of passages to which you desire to impart the character of a sort of artistic disorder:--distribute a quantity of ordinary etching-ground on a copper plate sufficiently heated; then take your dabber, and, having charged it unequally with varnish, and having also heated your etched plate, press the dabber on the passages which are to receive the tint; the varnish adheres to the plate in an irregular manner, leaving the copper bare here and there. now stop out with the brush those parts which you desire to protect, and bite in with pure acid; the result will be a curiously mottled irregular tint (see pl. v. fig. ). properly used in the representation of subjects on which you are at liberty to exercise your fancy, this process will give you unexpected and often happy results. . =stopping-out before all biting.=--before we proceed, i must show you an easy method of representing a thunder-storm (see pl. v. fig. ):--work the sky with the needle, very closely, so as to get the sombre tints of the clouds; and, before biting, trace the streaks of lightning on the etched work with a brush and stopping-out varnish; being thus protected against the acid, these streaks will show white in the printing, and the effect will be neater and more natural than if you had attempted to obtain it by the needle itself, as you will avoid the somewhat hard outlines on either side of the lightning, which would otherwise have been necessary to indicate it. you can employ the same process for effects of moonlight, for reflected lights on water, and, in fact, for all light lines which it is difficult to pick out on a dark ground. b. zink plates and steel plates. . =zink plates.=--so far i have spoken to you of copper plates only; but etchings are also executed on zink and on steel. zink bites rapidly, and needs only one quarter of the time necessary for copper, with the same strength of acid; or, with the same length of time, an acid of ten degrees is sufficient. the biting is coarse, and without either delicacy or depth. a zink plate prints only a small edition.[ ] . =steel plates.=--steel also bites with great rapidity. one part of acid to seven of water is sufficient; and the biting is accomplished, on the average, in from one to five minutes, from the faintest distance to the strongest foreground. free, artistic etchings are very rarely executed on steel, which is more particularly used in other kinds of engraving. c. various other processes. . =soft ground etching.=--there is a kind of etching known as _soft-ground etching_, and but little practised at present, which was successfully cultivated about thirty years ago by louis marvy and masson. the engravers of the last century used to call it _gravure en manière de crayon_.[ ] [illustration: plate vi.] take a ball of common etching-ground, and melt it in the water-bath in a small vessel, adding to it, in winter, an equal volume, and in summer only one-third of the same volume, of tallow. let the mixture cool, form it into a ball, and wrap it up in a piece of very fine silk. ground your plate in the usual way, and smoke lightly. on this soft ground fix a piece of very thin paper having a grain, and on the paper thus attached to the plate, execute your design with a lead-pencil. wherever the pencil passes, the varnish sticks to the paper in proportion to the pressure of the hand; and, on carefully removing the sheet, it takes up the varnish that adheres to it. bite the plate, and the result will be a facsimile of the design executed on the paper. (see pl. vi.) if the proofs are too soft, or wanting in decision, the plate may be worked over with the needle, by regrounding, and then rebiting it. the first state can thus be elaborated like an ordinary etching, and the necessary precision can be given to it whenever the idea to be expressed is vaguely or insufficiently rendered; or the same end may be reached by the dry point. in either case, however, all the retouches must be executed by irregular stippling, so that they may harmonize with the result of the first biting. otherwise there will be a lack of homogeneity in the appearance of etchings of this sort, in which the grain of the paper plays an important part. smooth paper gives no result whatever. the paper used may have a coarse grain or a fine grain, at the pleasure of the etcher, or papers of different grain may be used in the same design. this style of etching requires great care in handling the plate, on account of the tenderness of the ground. in drawing, a _hand-rest_ must be used, so that the hand may not touch the plate. [illustration: plate vii.] . =dry point etching.=--the _dry point_ is also used for etching, without the intervention of the acid-bath. the design is executed with the dry point on the bare copper; the difference in values is obtained by the greater or less amount of pressure used, and by the difference in the distance between the lines. (see plate vii.) the brilliancy of effect which etchings of this kind may or may not possess, depends on the use made of the _scraper_ (see paragraph , p. ). you will find it convenient to varnish and smoke your plate, to begin with, and to trace the leading lines of your design on the ground, taking care to cut lightly into the copper with the point. then remove the varnish, and continue your drawing, guided by these general outlines. it is best to commence with the sky, or other delicate passages, and to remove the bur from them, if there are other stronger lines to be drawn over them. you can see perfectly well what you are doing, by rubbing a little lamp-black mixed with tallow into the lines as you proceed, and cleaning the plate with the flat of your hand; in this way you can control your work, and can carry it forward until it is finished, either by removing more or less of the bur, or by allowing all of it to stand, or by the elaboration of those passages which seem to need it. the lines show on the plate as they are intended to show on the paper. you can therefore bring out your subject by shading; you can lay vigorous lines over lines from which the bur has been removed; you can take out, and you can put in. the effect produced in the printing is velvety and strong, similar to that produced by the stump on paper. rembrandt employed the dry point, without scraping, in some of his principal etchings. . =the pen process.=--i must now speak to you of a process which offers certain advantages. clean your plate thoroughly, first with turpentine, and then with whiting, and take care not to touch the polished surface with your fingers. execute a design on the bare copper with the pen and ordinary ink. you must not, of course, expect to find in the pen the same delicacy as in the needle. the design having been finished and thoroughly dried, ground and smoke your plate without, for the present, taking any further notice of the design; but be sure to see to it that the coat of varnish is not too thick; then lay the plate into water, and let it stay there for a quarter of an hour. having withdrawn the plate, rub it lightly with a piece of flannel; the ink, having been softened by the water, comes off, together with the varnish which covers it, and leaves the design in well-defined lines on the copper, which you may now bite. you may work either with one pen and several bitings, or with several pens of various degrees of fineness and one biting. as in the case of soft ground etching, you may make additions with the needle to give delicacy. it is necessary to ground the plate and to soak it in water as soon as may be after the finishing of the design. at the end of two days, the ink refuses to rub off. chapter viii. proving and printing. . =wax proofs.=--our first desire, after the ground has been removed from the plate, is to see a proof. if you have no press, and yet desire to take proofs of your work after each biting, you may employ the following process to good advantage:-- take a sheet of very thin paper, a little larger than your plate, and cover it with a thin layer of melted wax. the latter must be real white wax. then sprinkle a little lamp-black on your engraved plate, and distribute it with your finger, so as to rub it into the lines; clean the surface of the plate by carefully passing the palm of your hand over it. now lay the sheet of paper on the plate, with its waxed surface down, and be sure to turn the edges of the paper over on the back of the plate, so as to prevent its moving; then rub with the burnisher in all directions. the lamp-black sticks to the wax, and is sure to give an approximate image, sufficient to guide you in the further prosecution of your work, if that should be necessary.[ ] . =the printing-press.=--these proofs, however, as well as those which were hurriedly printed for you so far, give only a mere idea of your work, without conveying its full meaning. if you desire to become acquainted with all the resources of the printing-press, you will have to go to a plate printer. it is well worth your while to acquire this knowledge, also, after you have familiarized yourself with the various processes at the command of the etcher. here, then, is the printer at his press: at his side there is a box made of sheet-iron, enclosing a chafing-dish; there are also printing-ink, a ball for inking, rags, and paper.[ ] he is about to explain the use made of these things to our young student, who delivers his plate to him, and is anxious to be instructed in all that relates to the taking of impressions. . =natural printing.=--the printer now begins his explanations as follows:-- i place the plate on the sheet-iron box (the plate-warmer); it there acquires the necessary degree of heat, and i then spread the printing ink over it by means of this ball; the ink penetrates into the lines, and completely covers the whole surface of the plate; i remove the excess of ink with a coarse muslin rag, precisely as this is done in all other kinds of plate printing; i now clean the plate with the palm of my hand, so that no ink is left on it anywhere but in the lines; i finally wipe the margins of the plate evenly, so as to leave a delicate tint on the etched part only, and then i put the plate into the press. the plate is laid on the travelling-board or bed of the press, which runs between two cylinders of iron or hard wood; on the plate i lay a piece of paper, slightly moistened, and i cover the whole with several thicknesses of flannel; i turn the wheel of the press, and the cylinders, turning on themselves, carry along the travelling-board, which, in passing between them, is subjected to great pressure. the paper is thus pressed into the lines on the plate, and this process is facilitated by the elasticity of the flannel. you see now that your plate has come out on the other side of the rollers (or cylinders): we have given the press only one turn, although, as a rule, the plate is passed through the press twice, by making it travel back again under the rollers. this imparts strength to the impression; but occasionally the lines are not rendered as delicately and with as much precision, as with only one turn. i remove the flannel, and very carefully lift the paper; it has absorbed the ink: we have before us a _natural proof_, which shows the exact state of the plate (see pl. i.). line-engravings are printed in the same manner; with this difference, however, that the tint, more or less apparent, which is preserved on an etching, is not allowed to remain on a plate engraved with the burin. . =artificial printing.=--the printing of etchings very frequently differs from the simple method just described. it must be varied according to the style of execution adopted by the etcher; and, as much of the harmony of the plate may depend upon it, it sometimes rises to the dignity of an art, in which the artist and the printer are merged into each other,--the printer losing himself in the artist, as he is compelled to enter into the latter's ideas; and the artist giving way to the printer, to avail himself of his practical experience. the proof from your plate, for instance, has a dry look (see pl. i.); it needs more softness, and this can be given to it by the printer.[d] (see pl. ii.) [d] it would be a great advantage if every etcher could print his own proofs. rembrandt is the most striking example, as he was the author of many of the devices in use even to-day. a press can easily be procured. the firm of ve. cadart, paris, has had a little portable press constructed, especially for the use of artists and amateurs. all the necessary accessories for printing can also be obtained of this firm. (see note .) i will now explain to you some of the various artifices which are employed in printing. . =handwiping with retroussage.=--having _wiped the plate with the palm of the hand_, we might _bring it up again (la retrousser)_ by playing over it very lightly with a piece of soft muslin rag rolled together. the muslin draws the ink out of the lines, and spreads it along their edges, so that, in the proof, the space between the lines is filled up by a vigorous tint. but this process can only be used on plates in which the lines are evenly disposed throughout, and, more especially, scattered. to produce the proper effect the _retroussage_ must be general; because, if the rag passes over one passage only, and not over the others, or, if it is brought into play only on the dark parts, and not in the lights, there will be discordance of tone, and consequently want of harmony. in the present case, therefore, _retroussage_ would be unsatisfactory, because the work on your plate, while it is broadly treated in some parts, is so close in others that there is no room left between the furrows. it follows that there is no place for the ink, drawn out of the lines, to spread on; the result would be a muddy tint,--one of those overcharged impressions which bring criticism upon the printer, because he has applied _retroussage_ to a plate which did not need it. . =tinting with a stiff rag.=--let us now try another means. the proof will gain in freshness if we soften the lines by going over the plate, _after it has been wiped with the hand_, somewhat more heavily with _stiff muslin_. owing to the pressure used, the rag, instead of carrying away the ink which it has taken up out of the lines, retains it; a tint like that produced by the stump is spread over the plate, and envelops the lines without obscuring them; the proof is supple and velvety. (see pl. ii.) . =wiping with the rag only.=--here is another variety. i am just printing a number of original plates by different artists. being true painter's etchings, some of these plates are boldly accentuated and heavily bitten; the lines are widely apart, and significant. if these plates were printed _naturally_, they would yield bare and poor-looking proofs. wiping with the hand would be useless. i therefore go over the plate with _stiff_ muslin. in the same manner i continue and finish, so as to give the greatest amount of cleaning to the luminous passages, while a tolerably strong tint is left on the dark and deeply bitten ones. or i might have wiped the plate energetically with soft muslin, and then might have brought up again certain passages with a soft and somewhat cleaner rag. this method of wiping, which leaves on the surface of the plate a tint of more or less depth, must not be confounded with _retroussage_. here is a proof of one of the plates of which i spoke to you: it is well sustained at all points; the lines are full and nourished; the general aspect is harmonious and energetic; the lights are softened; the strongly marked passages are enveloped in a warm tint. one might almost say that the effect of painting has been carried into etching. this method is employed for plates which have been deeply bitten, but upon which stopping-out has been used but sparingly, for works in which there is sobriety of expression, or for sketches (see pl. viii.). it is all the more necessary, sometimes, for the printer to take the initiative, the simpler the plate has been etched; it is left to him, in short, to complete the intention merely indicated by the artist. [illustration: plate viii.] . =limits of artificial printing.=--these examples have shown to you that difference in tone depends on the amount of pressure, and the variety of texture in the muslin. it is oftentimes necessary--and this is an affair of tact--to make use of these diverse qualities of the muslin on the same plate,--now reducing an over-strong tint by more vigorous wiping; now giving renewed force to it, in case it has become too soft. these various means constitute the art of printing etchings. but, while fully recognizing their efficiency when they are used to the purpose, we must also keep in mind the dangers which arise from their being applied without discernment. plates produced by an intelligent combination of bitings, must be printed naturally, if they are not to lose the absolute character given to them by the needle and the acid. if they are at all wiped with the rag, so as to impart more softness to them, it must, at least, be done with the greatest of care. the artist has every thing to gain, therefore, by watching over the printing of his plates, and instructing the printer as to the manner in which he desires to be interpreted. some etchers prefer the simplicity of the natural state; but the great majority favor the other method of printing, which, for the very reason that it is difficult, and on account of the many variations in its application, ought always to be an object of interest to the printer, and the aim of his studies. it is, moreover, the method which is generally understood and adopted by our first etchers.[ ] . =printing inks.=--the quality and the shade of the ink, as well as the way in which it is ground, are of great importance in the beauty of a proof. inks are made of pure black, slightly tempered with bistre or burnt sienna, and the shade can be varied according to taste. a plate like yours needs a delicate black, composed of frankfort black and lamp-black; the bistre-tint, which, in the course of time, loses its freshness and strength, would not answer. this tint is always best suited to strongly bitten work, but in your case it would be insufficient. a very strong black, on the other hand, would make your etching look hard. this last shade--pure, or very slightly broken with bistre--is preferable for strongly accented plates.[ ] . =paper.=--_laid paper_ is the most suitable paper for printing etchings; its sparkle produces a marvellous effect; its strength defies time itself. some artists and amateurs ransack the shops for old paper with brown and dingy edges, which, to certain plates, imparts the appearance of old etchings. _india paper (chinese paper)_ promotes purity of line; but, as its surface is dull, it furnishes somewhat dry and dim proofs. _japanese paper_, of a warm yellowish tint, silky and transparent, is excellent, especially for plates which need more of mystery than of brilliancy, for heavy and deep tones, and for concentration of effect. japanese paper absorbs the ink, and it is necessary, therefore, to bring up (_retrousser_) the plate strongly, and to wipe it with the rag. this paper is less favorable to sketches, the precise, free, and widely spaced lines of which accommodate themselves better to the tint of the laid paper. _parchment_ may also be used for proofs; nothing equals the beauty of such proofs, printed either naturally, or wiped with the rag; they are the treasures of collectors.[ ] . =Épreuves volantes.=--on chinese and japanese paper, as well as on parchment, so-called _épreuves volantes_ (flying proofs) are printed; that is to say, loose proofs, which are not pasted down on white paper. they are simply attached to bristol board by the two upper corners, which brings them out perfectly. . =proofs before lettering.=--all of these various kinds of paper, each of which has its own claim for excellence, and especially japanese paper, are by preference used for artists' proofs and proofs before lettering, which are printed before the title is engraved on the plate. it is customary to print a greater or less number of such proofs, which, being struck off when the plate is still quite fresh, show it at its best. after that, the plate is lettered, and an ordinary edition is printed from it. it follows from this that the possessor of a proof without title has the best the plate can afford to give. but, as the pictures by the masters do not stand in need of a signature to be recognized, so the proofs before lettering may well do without the guaranty which is found in the absence of a title; even without this guaranty an amateur knows how to recognize the virgin freshness of an early impression, which is still further augmented by the extreme care bestowed on the printing of these exceptional proofs, but which cannot be kept up through a long edition. . =Épreuves de remarque.=--_Épreuves de remarque_ (marked proofs), showing the different states of the plate, and the various modifications which it underwent, are also sought after. their rarity increases their price.[ ] . =number of impressions which a plate is capable of yielding.=--the number of impressions which a plate can yield is not fixed, as the power of resisting the wear and tear of printing depends largely on the delicacy or the strength of the work. the quality of the copper must also be considered, a soft plate giving way much faster than a hard plate which has been well hammered. the plates prepared to-day do not resist as well as those formerly made; and as the popularity of works of art multiplied by the press has considerably increased, it became necessary to look about for means by which the surface of a copper plate may be hardened, and be made to yield a large edition. this has been accomplished by . =steel-facing.=--_steel-facing_, which was invented by messrs. salmon and garnier, and which m. jacquin undertook to render practicable, consists in depositing a coating of veritable steel, by galvanic action, on the face of the copper plate, or, in other words, by the superposition of a hard metal on a soft metal. this mode of protection, which perfectly preserves the most delicate passages, even down to the almost invisible scratches of the dry point, not only guarantees the copper against the contact of the hand and the rag, which would tell on it more than the pressure of the rollers, but at the same time makes it possible to print a thousand proofs of equal purity. certain plates, owing to the manner of wiping used on them, do not reach this figure; others, more simply printed, may yield three to four thousand proofs, and sometimes even a still larger number. as soon as the plate shows the slightest change, or the copper begins to reappear, the coating of steel is removed by chemical agents, which, acting differently on the two metals, corrode the one, while they leave the other untouched. the plate is thus brought back to its original state, and is therefore in the same condition as before to receive a second steel-facing. in this way plates may be _de-steeled_ and _re-steeled_ a great many times, and the proofs printed from them may be carried up to considerable quantities. as a rule, the plates are not steel-faced until after the proofs before lettering have been printed. soft-ground etchings, the biting of which is quite shallow, must be steel-faced after two to three hundred impressions. the delicacy of the bur thrown up by the dry point hardly permits the printing of more than twenty or thirty proofs on an average; steel-facing carries this number up to a point which cannot be fixed absolutely, but it is certain that the bur takes the steel quite as well and as solidly as an etched line. dry points may, therefore, yield long editions; the steel-facing must in that case be renewed whenever necessary.[ ] . =copper-facing zink plates.=--zink plates cannot be steel-faced, but they can be copper-faced.[ ] steel-facing has been adopted by the chalcographic office of the louvre, and by the _gazette des beaux arts_, that remarkable and unique publication which is an honor to criticism and is found in all art libraries. steel-facing, in fact, is universally employed; it preserves in good condition the beautiful plates of our engravers, and makes it possible to put within reach of a great many people engravings of a choice kind, which but lately were found only in the _salons_ of the rich and the collections of passionate amateurs. [illustration: an etcher's studio. from the third edition of abraham bosse's "treatise," paris, .] [illustration: croquis d'après nature, pour servir de modèles, . le waag, amsterdam.] notes by the translator. [ ] (p. .) to these associations may be added the german etching clubs at düsseldorf and at weimar, which issue yearly portfolios of plates executed by their members, and the american etching clubs at new york and at cincinnati. the new york etching club was organized in april, , with dr. l. m. yale as its first president. at this writing mr. james d. smillie is the presiding officer of the club, which has about twenty-four members, including many of the leading artists of new york. the cincinnati etching club is composed almost entirely of amateurs. its president is mr. george mclaughlin. quite lately an etching club has also been formed in boston, with mr. edmund h. garrett as president. [ ] (p. .) benzine is preferable to turpentine for most of the operations of the etcher, but more especially for cleaning soiled hands. it is advisable to use turpentine only when the benzine proves insufficient to remove the last traces of ground or ink from the lines. [ ] (p. .) something about tools and materials has already been said in the introductory chapter, p. xiv. what is left to be said follows here:-- _copper plates_, from visiting-card size (at $ per dozen), to any required size can be bought of, or ordered through, the firms named on p. xiii, or of mr. geo. b. sharp, gold st., new york. mr. sharp will send price-lists on application. the plates usually sold, at least of the smaller sizes, are made of an alloy, not of pure copper. these alloy plates are cheaper and bite more quickly than those of pure copper, but it happens occasionally that they do not bite evenly, owing to want of homogeneity in the metal. still, they are extensively used, and amateurs will find them preferable to the more expensive copper plates. _etching-ground._ a recipe for a cheap and yet a very good ordinary ground has been given on p. xv. the transparent ground consists of parts, by weight, of white wax. " " gum-mastic. gum-mastic costs about thirty-five cents an ounce. melt the wax first, and add the gum-mastic in powder gradually, stirring all the while with a clean glass or metal rod. _stopping-out varnish._ (see p. xvi.) there is a varnish sold at painters' supply-stores under the name of "asphaltum varnish for sign-writers' use," which does very well. in boston asahel wheeler sells it at fifteen cents a bottle. _needle-holders_ are unnecessary if the points described on p. xvi are used. _burnishers_ are sold at the hardware-stores, or by dealers in watchmakers' materials. they ought not to cost above fifty cents apiece. _scrapers._ same as burnishers. price not above $ . some dealers ask $ , which is exorbitant. _a lens_ can be obtained of any optician. in boston they can also be had of a.j. wilkinson & co., hardware dealers, washington st., at prices varying from $ to $ . . _india-rubber finger-gloves_ are unnecessary if you use the "plate-lifter" described on p. xvii. _nitric acid._ messrs. powers & weightman's "nitric acid, c. p." (i. e. chemically pure), recommended on p. xvii, is degrees, and messrs. p. & w. inform me that the strength is tolerably uniform. if you are an enthusiastic etcher it will be best to buy a seven-pound bottle, which is the next largest to the one-pound bottles. _tracing-paper_, _gelatine_, _chalk_, and _sanguine_ can be obtained at the artists' material stores. _emery-paper._ hardware-stores. price four cents a sheet. _roller for revarnishing._ see note . to the tools and materials mentioned by m. lalanne the following must be added: _whiting_, _benzine_, _turpentine_, _alcohol_, _willow charcoal_. the last-named article can be supplied by mr. geo. b. sharp, of gold st., new york, before mentioned. [ ] (p. .) i wrote to m. lalanne to find out the ingredients of the _petit vernis liquide_ and _vernis au pinceau_, but he says that he does not know, and that the recipes are a secret of the maker of these varnishes. the asphaltum varnish mentioned on p. xvi and in note does excellently well, however, both for stopping out and retouching. after it has been fanned (see p. xxi) until it has thickened sufficiently not to stick to the finger when touched, but before it is quite dry, it can be worked upon with the point. if not dry enough, which will manifest itself readily as soon as you have drawn the first line, fan again. if it were allowed to dry absolutely, it would chip off under the needle. there is a liquid ground, made by mr. louis delnoce of the american bank note company, new york, which--so mr. jas. d. smillie informs me--is used for retouches by the engravers of the company, is applied with the brush, is a very quick dryer, tough, and resists acid perfectly. mr. delnoce sells it in ounce bottles at seventy-five cents each. [ ] (p. .) the roller for revarnishing, spoken of by m. lalanne, and also recommended by mr. hamerton, cannot be bought in this country. nor--with all due deference to the great experience of m. lalanne--is such a large and expensive roller necessary. the rollers used by our most experienced etchers--mr. jas. d. smillie, for instance--are little cylinders of india-rubber, about one inch in diameter and one and one-half inches long. they cost from cents to $ each. _but these rollers cannot be used with etching-paste._ the oil of lavender in the paste attacks the rubber and destroys it. as to the manner of using the india-rubber roller see note . [ ] (p. .) the use of bordering wax is not advisable. but as some etchers still employ it, i add a recipe for making it, which was kindly communicated to me by mr. peter moran of philadelphia:-- lbs. burgundy pitch. lb. yellow beeswax. gill sweet oil. melt together and then form into strips. [ ] (p. .) etching is the most individual of the reproductive arts (or rather of the _multiplying_ arts, the german _vervielfältigende künste_), even in its technical processes. therefore nearly every etcher has his own ways of doing, and few agree on all points. many etchers do not think it necessary to weaken the acid as described in the text. but be sure to let it _cool_ after it has been mixed with water, before you immerse your plate! [ ] (p. .) it would take altogether too long to wait for the _perfect_ drying of the asphaltum varnish, nor is it necessary. fan it, as described in note , and as soon as it ceases to stick you can again immerse your plate. [ ] (p. .) i have never been able to notice this turning dark of the lines, although i have had plates in the bath for several hours, and some of my artist acquaintances whom i have consulted on the point, have confirmed my experience. possibly the phenomenon described by m. lalanne may be caused by impurities in the acid. [ ] (p. .) if the reader will make use of the device for lifting the plate into and out of the bath, which i have described on p. xvii, there will be no necessity of burning his fingers. with a little precaution, and a plentiful use of benzine for washing and cleaning, the daintiest lady's hand need not suffer from etching. [ ] (p. .) for directions for making this ground see note . [ ] (p. .) to make the varnish, or rather etching-paste, recommended in the text, a warm-water bath is not absolutely necessary. take any small porcelain or earthenware vessel (a small gallipot is very convenient, because the etching-paste can be kept in it for use), and set it upon a metal frame, easily made of wire, so that you can introduce a spirit lamp under it. break up a ball, or part of a ball, of ordinary etching-ground, and throw it into the pot. heat the pot carefully, so as just to allow the ground to melt. when it has melted, add oil of lavender (worth thirty-five cents an ounce at the druggist's), drop by drop, and keep stirring the mixture with a clean glass rod. from time to time allow a drop of the mixture to fall on a cold glass or metal plate. if, on cooling, it assumes the consistency of pomatum, the paste is finished. as i have said before, this paste cannot be used with the india-rubber rollers recommended in note . with these rollers the regrounding must be done with the ordinary etching-ground with the aid of heat. warm your plate so that you can just bear to touch it with the hand, and allow some of the ground to melt on a second, unused copper plate. also warm the roller slightly. then proceed as m. lalanne directs in his fifty-seventh paragraph. the slight changes in the proceeding, which grow out of the differences between cold and warm ground, are self-evident. it is hardly necessary to say that the roller can also be used for laying the first ground. _but it is of no use on any but perfectly smooth, straight plates, as it cannot penetrate into hollows._ when it is not available the dabber must be employed in the old manner. [ ] (p. .) some engravers prefer the dabber to the roller even for regrounding entire plates. in that case the ground is spread on the margin of the plate, if that be wide enough, or on a separate plate, and is taken up by the dabber. the plate to be regrounded must of course be warmed as for laying a ground with the roller, and care must be taken not to have the dabber overcharged with ground. [ ] (p. .) in default of the charcoal-paste, rubbing with the finest emery-paper will do to remove the polish. [ ] (p. .) i cannot direct the reader to a copper-planer, and therefore it will be best to give some directions for removing faulty passages. the following paragraphs are copied bodily from mr. hamerton:-- "the most rapid way is to use sandpapers of different degrees of coarseness, the coarsest first, and then the scraper, and, finally, willow charcoal with olive oil. the charcoal will leave the surface in a fit state to etch upon. "this scraping and rubbing hollows out the surface of the copper, and if it hollows it too much the printing will not be quite satisfactory in that part of the plate. in that case you have nothing to do but mark the spot on the back of the plate with a pair of calipers, then lay the plate on its face upon a block of polished steel, and give it two or three blows with a hammer (mind that the hammer is rounded so as not to indent the copper)." [ ] (p. .) the process here alluded to is the one used by mr. haden. the mordant is the so-called dutch mordant, and the manner of making it is thus described by mr. hamerton:-- "first heat the water by putting the bottle containing it into a pan also containing water, and keep it on the fire till that in the pan boils. now add the chlorate of potash, and see that every crystal of it is dissolved. shake the bottle to help the solution. when no more crystals are to be seen, you may add the hydrochloric acid. make a good quantity of this mordant at once, so as always to have a plentiful supply by you." for a full account of the haden process see mr. hamerton's "etcher's handbook," or the second edition of his "etching and etchers." this dutch mordant is preferred to nitric acid by many etchers,--even when working, not in the bath, but in the ordinary way, as taught by m. lalanne,--because it bites down into the copper, and hardly widens the lines. "from my experience," writes mr. jas. d. smillie, in a letter now before me, "i unhesitatingly prefer the dutch mordant for copper; it bites a very fine black line, it is not so severe a trial to the ground, and it does not need constant watching." mr. smillie, however, uses the mordant much stronger than mr. haden. he has, in fact, invented a process of his own, which, in a letter to me, he describes as follows:-- "i draw and bite as i progress; that is, i draw in the darkest parts first, give them a good nip with the mordant, wash the plate and dry it, and then draw the next stage. i can thus, by drawing lines over a part that has already been exposed to the mordant, interlace heavy and light lines in a way that i could not by any other process. i etch upon an unsmoked ground, and as the dutch mordant bites a _black_ line, i see my etching clearly as it advances, by holding the head well over the plate, the lines can be very distinctly seen as they are drawn. after a little experimenting, the etcher will find the angle at which he can see his unbitten work upon an unsmoked ground without trouble. mr. hamerton's formula seemed to me too weak, so i am experimenting with muriatic acid, ounce. chlorate of potash, - " water, ounces. "this is the mordant i am now using, and i have found it to work well. still, as i am not a scientific chemist, and my knowledge is entirely empiric, i am prepared to believe any chemist who may tell me that i might do as well, or better, with more water. "generally i do not get all the color i wish by the first process, as i can see without removing the ground; so, when my etching is finished, i reverse the engine and begin stopping out and biting upon the original ground, as it is ordinarily done. i do not use the black asphaltum varnish for stopping out, but a transparent varnish that is simply white resin dissolved in alcohol. if applied very carefully, and allowed time to dry, it is perfectly clear and transparent, and the relations of all parts of the plate can be seen,--the stopped out as well as the bitten lines,--but to a careless worker it presents many troubles. it is so transparent that it is hard to see what is stopped out and what is not, and if washed with very warm water, or before it is thoroughly dry, it turns cloudy and semi-opaque. i have no trouble with it, and could not get along without it. i make it myself,--have no formula,--adding alcohol until it is thin enough to flow readily from the brush. it has a great advantage over asphaltum varnish, as it does not flow along a line. it is viscid enough to remain just where it is put, and is as perfect a protection as any asphaltum varnish." mr. smillie heats his bath on the plate-warmer, but not to exceed °, or at most °. such a bath of hot mordant acts much more quickly than a cold acid bath, less than two minutes being sufficient for the lightest lines. [ ] (p. .) gravers are of different shapes, according to the nature of the line which they are intended to produce. they are sometimes kept at the hardware-stores, as, for instance, by a. j. wilkinson & co., washington st., boston. this house also issues an illustrated catalogue of engravers' tools. [ ] (p. .) m. lalanne, it seems to me, does not do full justice to zinc plates. very delicate lines can be bitten on zinc if the acid is sufficiently weakened. i have found that one part of nitric acid to eight parts of water, used on zinc, is about equal to one-half acid and one-half water, used on copper for about the same length of time. zinc plates can also be bought of mr. geo. b. sharp, gold st., new york. as to the length of edition that can be printed from a zinc plate, see note . [ ] (p. .) this is not strictly correct. the "manière de crayon," as practised by demarteau and others, differs materially from soft-ground etching. a ground was laid and smoked as usual, and on it the drawing was produced, by a variety of instruments, such as points, some of them multiple, the roulette, the mattoir, etc. [ ] (p. .) there is another method of getting what may be called a proof, i. e. by taking a cast in plaster. ink your plate and wipe it clean, as described in note , and then pour over it plaster-of-paris mixed with water. when the plaster has hardened it can easily be separated from the plate, and the ink in the lines will adhere to it. to make such a cast you must manage a rim around your plate, or you may lay it into a paper box, face upward. mix about half a tumbler full of water (or more, according to the size of the plate) with double the quantity of plaster, adding the plaster, little by little, and stirring continually. when the mixture begins to thicken pour it on the plate, and if necessary spread it over the whole of the surface by means of a piece of wood or anything else that will answer. then allow it to harden. [ ] (p. .) the chafing-dish and the ball (or dabber) are now replaced by the gas flame and the inking-roller in most printing establishments. but if you desire to do your own proving, you will have to use a dabber, the manner of making which is described in the next note. [ ] (p. .) if there is no plate-printer near you, but you have access to a lithographic printing establishment, you can have your proofs taken there. "lithographic presses," says a. potémont, "give perfectly good and satisfactory proofs of etchings." not every printer can print an etching as it ought to be printed. a man may be an excellent printer of line engravings and mezzotints, and yet may be totally unfit to print an etching. i would recommend the following printing establishments:-- new york: kimmel & voigt, canal street. boston: j. h. daniels, washington street. if you desire to establish an amateur printing-office of your own you will need, in addition to the tools and materials already in your possession:-- a press, a plate-warmer, an ink-slab, a muller, a dabber or ball, rags for wiping, printing-ink, paper. _the press._ the presses used by professional plate-printers will be thought too large and too costly by most etchers. there is a small press sold by madame ve. a. cadart, boulevard haussmann, paris, of which a representation is given on the next page. this press, accompanied by all the necessary accessories,--rags, ink, paper, plate-warmer, dabber, etc.,--sells in paris at the price of francs (about $ ). there is an extra charge for boxing; and freight, duties, etc., must also be paid for, extra, on presses imported to this country. the publishers of this book are ready to take orders for these presses, but i cannot inform the reader what the charges will amount to, as no importations have yet been made by messrs. estes & lauriat. there is also a small press invented by mr. hamerton and made in london by mr. charles roberson, long acre, which sells on the other side, for the press only, at two guineas for the smallest, and four guineas for a larger size. these presses are smaller than the cadart presses, and, according to mr. hamerton, are "very portable affairs, which an etcher might put in his box when travelling, and use anywhere, in an inn, in a friend's house, or even out of doors when etching from nature." a small press has also quite lately been introduced by messrs. janentzky & co., of philadelphia, which costs only $ . (without accessories), and is well recommended by those who have used it. [illustration] the press is not complete without the flannels spoken of in the text (p. , § ). there is a kind of very thick flannel specially made for printers' use. but if this cannot be had (of some plate-printer) any good flannel with a piece of thick soft cloth over it will do well enough. in adjusting the press care must be taken that the pressure is neither too great nor too small. this is a matter of experience. _the plate-warmer_ is a box made of strong sheet-iron, into which either a gas-jet or a small kerosene lamp can be introduced. if you happen to have a gas-stove, and can get an iron plate of some kind to lay across the top, you will have an excellent plate-warmer. _the ink-slab._ any _smooth_ slab of marble, slate, or lithographic stone, about a foot square, will do. _a muller._ this is a pestle of stone, flat at the bottom, used for grinding colors or ink. _a dabber or ball._ take strips of thick cloth or flannel, about four or five inches wide; roll them together as tightly as possible, until you have a cylinder of two or three inches in diameter; bind firmly by strong twine wound all around the cylinder; then cut one end with a large sharp knife, so as to get a smooth surface. after the dabber has been used for some time, and the ink has hardened in it, cut off another slice so as to get a fresh surface. _rags for wiping._ fine swiss muslin and the fabric known as cheese cloth make good rags for wiping. they can be bought at the dry-goods stores. as they are charged with some material to make them stiff and increase the weight, they must be washed before they are used. when they have become too much charged with ink they may be boiled out in a solution of potash or soda in water. the swiss muslin costs about twelve cents a yard, the cheese cloth about five. i had a lot of rags specially sent to me from paris, as i wished to see the difference between the soft and the stiff muslin. the parcel contained a collection of pieces of a sort of swiss muslin, evidently old curtains, and some pieces of old cotton shirting, some of which had done duty at the hôtel des invalides, still bearing its stamp! _printing-ink and paper._ (see notes and .) to _ink the plate_, place it on the plate-warmer and allow it to become as hot as your hand can bear. then take up the ink from the ink-slab with the dabber and spread it all over the surface, moving the dabber along with a rocking motion, but not striking the plate with it. take care that the lines are well filled. sometimes, in the first inking of the plate, it is necessary to use the finger to force the ink into the lines. in _wiping the plate_ the first operation is to remove all the superfluous ink from the surface by means of a rag. what follows depends on the kind of impression you desire to get. if you want a _natural_, _clean_, or _dry_ proof, as these impressions are variously called (i. e. an impression which shows only black lines on a perfectly clear white ground), charge the palm of your hand with a _very little_ whiting or spanish white, and with it finish the wiping of the plate. this operation will leave the surface of the plate perfectly clean and bright, while the ink remains in the lines. if you desire to have an even tint left all over the plate, avoid the use of the hand, and wipe with the rag only. plate-printers use their rags moist, but for printing etchings a dry rag is preferable, as it leaves more of a tint on the plate. note, also, that the rag must be tolerably well charged with ink to enable you to wipe a good tint with it. the margin of the plate, even if a tint is left over it, must always be wiped clean. this is best accomplished by a bit of cotton cloth charged with whiting. for the rest, nothing is left but to experiment according to the hints given in the text by m. lalanne. [ ] (p. .) if you can, buy your ink of a plate-printer or of a lithographer. that used by book-printers will _not_ do! the trouble is that the ink used by ordinary plate-printers is of a disagreeably cold cast, as it is mixed with blue. etchings ought to be printed with a warm black, and sometimes, especially in the case of somewhat over-bitten plates, with an ink of a decidedly brownish hue. inks are made of linseed-oil varnish (i. e. linseed oil that has been boiled down or burned), and the blacks mentioned in the text. there are various qualities of varnish according to its consistency, varying from thin through medium to stiff. if you wish to mix your own ink, you must try to procure the materials of some plate-printer or lithographer. for varnish use the medium, for black the francfort. the burnt sienna (which you can buy at any paint-shop) is used only to warm up the black. lay some of the dry color on your ink-slab, add a very little of the varnish, and mix with the muller. then add more varnish until the ink forms a tolerably stiff paste. the grinding must be carefully done, so as to avoid grittiness. besides, if the color is not thoroughly well incorporated with the varnish, the ink will not stand. to preserve the ink for future use, put it into some vessel with a cover, and pour water over it. the water standing on top of the ink keeps it soft. otherwise the varnish would harden. [ ] (p. .) the heavy dutch hand-made papers are still preferred by most people for etchings; but it is very difficult, if not impossible, to procure them in this country. the paper known as lalanne charcoal paper, which is likewise a hand-made paper, can be bought at the artist's material stores. good drawing-paper will also answer. the worst, because most inartistic, of all, is the plain white plate paper. the paper used for the etchings in the american art review, first made especially for this journal according to my suggestions, has excellent printing qualities, although, being a machine-made, unglued paper, it lacks some of the characteristics of the dutch hand-made paper. but its texture is very good, and it takes up the ink even _better_ than the dutch papers. japanese paper can be procured of the firms named on page xiii. dry paper will not take a decent impression, and the sheets to be used for printing must therefore be moistened. to prepare the ordinary paper, take three or four sheets at a time, and pass them slowly through clean water contained in a pail or other vessel. wet as many sheets as you may need, lay them on top of one another, place the pile between two boards, and allow them to lie thus under tolerably heavy pressure for at least twelve, or, better still, for twenty-four hours. the paper will then be ready for use. to prepare japanese paper, lay each sheet between two wet sheets of ordinary paper, and let it lie as before. [ ] (p. .) _Épreuves de remarque._ the _remarque_ usually consists in leaving unfinished some little detail in an out-of-the-way corner of the plate. after the _épreuves de remarque_ have been printed, this detail is finished. a person who cannot tell a good impression from a bad one, or does not know whether a plate is spoiled or still in good condition, without some such extraneous sign, has slight claim to be considered a connoisseur. [ ] (p. .) new york is, for the present, i believe, the only place where steel-facing is done in america. i can recommend mr. f. a. ringler, and barclay street, new york. [ ] (p. .) zinc plates _can_ be steel-faced, but the facing cannot be renewed, as it cannot be removed. the zinc plate on which mr. lansil's little etching, given in this volume, is executed, was steel-faced. it is feasible also, the electrotypers tell me, to deposit a thin coating of copper on the zinc first, and then to superimpose a coating of steel. in that case the steel-facing can be renewed as long as the copper-facing under it remains intact. list of works on the practice and history of etching.[e] [e] this list is very far from being complete, especially in the last section, "individual artists." i have made a few additions, which have been marked by an asterisk. those who desire to pursue the subject will find a very full bibliographical list in j. e. wessely's _anleitung zur kenntniss und zum sammeln der werke des kunstdruckes_, leipzig, weigel, , p. et seq.--_translator._ a. technical treatises. _de la gravure en taille-douce, à l'eau-forte et au burin_, ensemble la manière d'en imprimer les planches et d'en construire la presse, par abraham bosse. paris, . _traité des manières de graver en taille-douce sur l'airain_ par le moyen des eaux-fortes et des vernis durs et mols, par le s. abraham bosse, augmenté de la nouvelle manière dont se sert m. leclerc, graveur du roi. paris, . * _de la manière de graver à l'eau-forte_ et au burin, et de la gravure en manière noir ... par abraham bosse. nouvelle édition.... paris, . small vo. ill. * _die kunst in kupfer zu stechen_ sowohl mittelst des aetzwassers als mit dem grabstichel ... durch abraham bosse.... aus dem französischen ins deutsche übersetzt. dresden, . small vo. ill. _the art of graveing and etching_, wherein is exprest the true way of graveing in copper; allso the manner and method of that famous callot, and m. bosse, in their several ways of etching. published by william faithorne. london, . vo. ill. _idée de la gravure_, par m. de m * * *. without place or date. mo. (this essay appeared originally in the "mercure" for april, , and was afterwards printed separately. see, also, in the "mercure" for , a notice, announcing the publication of a print by de marcenay de ghuy after the elder parrocel. this notice was also printed separately.) _idée de la gravure_ ... par m. de marcenay de ghuy. paris, . in- de et pag. (this is a second edition of the work last mentioned.) * _anleitung zur aetzkunst_ ... nach eigenen praktischen erfahrungen herausgegeben von johann heinrich meynier. hof, . vo. ill. _lectures on the art of engraving_, delivered at the royal institute of great britain, by john landseer, engraver to the king. london, . vo. _three lectures on engraving_, delivered at the surrey institution in the year , by robert mitchell meadows. london, . vo. _manuel du graveur_, ou traité complet de la gravure en tous genres, d'après les renseignements fournis par plusieurs artistes. par a. m. perrot. paris, . in- . _des mordants, des vernis et des planches dans l'art du graveur_, ou traité complet de la gravure. par pierre deleschamps. paris, . in- . * _vollständiges handbuch der gravirkunst_, enthaltend gründliche belehrungen über die aetzwässer, die aetzgründe, die platten und die gravir-maschinen.... von pet. deleschamps. deutsch, mit zusätzen, von dr. chr. h. schmidt. quedlinburg und leipzig, basse, . ill. _the art of engraving_, with the various modes of operation.... by t. h. fielding. london, . vo. ill. _lettre de martial_ sur les éléments de la gravure à l'eau-forte. paris, . (etched on fol. plates, illustrated.) _nouveau traité de la gravure à l'eau-forte_ à l'usage des peintres et des dessinateurs, par a. p. martial. paris, a. cadart. . ill. * _the etcher's handbook_: giving an account of the old processes, and of processes recently discovered. by philip gilbert hamerton. london, roberson, . ill. (see also mr. hamerton's _etching and etchers_, d edition.) * _mr. seymour haden on etching._ lectures delivered at the royal institution, reports of which were published in "the magazine of art," , and in the london "building news," . * _the etcher's guide._ by thomas bishop. philadelphia, janentzky, . ill. _grammaire des arts du dessin_, par charles blanc. in this work (of which there is also an english translation), there is a special chapter on etching. _charles jacque._ articles by him on etching in the "magasin pittoresque." _gravure._--article extrait de l'encyclopédie des arts et métiers. in-fol, de pag., fig. b. historical and theoretical. * _anleitung zur kupferstichkunde._ von adam von bartsch. wien, . vols. vo. plates. _des types et des manières des maîtres graveurs_, pour servir à l'histoire de la gravure en italie, en allemagne, dans les pays-bas et en france, par jules renouvier. montpellier, - . parties in- . _la gravure depuis son origine_, par henri delaborde. . (these articles appeared in the _revue des deux mondes_ for dec. and , , and jan. , .) _histoire de la gravure en france_, par georges duplessis. paris, . in- . (this work was crowned by the french institute [académie des beaux-arts].) _etching and etchers._ by philip gilbert hamerton. london, macmillan, . to. ill. * _etching and etchers._ by philip gilbert hamerton. (second edition.) . london, macmillan. boston, roberts bros. * _the origin and antiquity of engraving_.... by w. s. baker. boston, osgood, . to. (second edition. ill.) _la gravure à l'eau-forte_, essai historique par raoul de saint-arroman.--_comment je devins graveur à l'eau-forte_, par le comte lepic. paris, cadart, . * _anleitung zur kenntniss und zum sammeln der werke des kunstdruckes_, von j. e. wessely. leipzig, weigel, . vo. * _about etching._ part i. notes by mr. seymour haden on a collection of etchings by the great masters.... part ii. an annotated catalogue of the etchings exhibited. new bond street (london), . (second edition, which has some additions.) * _about etching._ by seymour haden. illustrated with an original etching by mr. haden, and fourteen facsimiles from his collection. imperial to. london, the fine art society, . c. catalogues of the works of the artists. (_a._) dictionaries. _le peintre-graveur_, par adam bartsch. vienne, - . vol. in- et un atlas in- . * _le peintre-graveur._ par j. d. passavant. leipzig, . vols. vo. (continuation of bartsch's work.) _le peintre-graveur français_, ... par robert dumesnil. paris, - . vol. in- . _le peintre-graveur français continué_, par prosper de beaudicour. paris, . vol. in- . * _le peintre-graveur hollandais et flamand._ par j. p. van der kellen. utrecht, . to. (continuation of bartsch's work.) * _le peintre-graveur hollandais et belge du xix^e siècle._ par t. hippert et jos. linnig. bruxelles, (first vol.) et seq. vo. * _der deutsche peintre-graveur._ von a. andresen. leipzig, , et seq. vols. vo. * _die malerradirer des . jahrhunderts._ von a. andresen. leipzig, - . vols. vo. * _die malerradirer des . jahrhunderts._ von j. e. wessely. leipzig, . vo. (continuation of andresen's work.) (_b._) individual artists. _beredeneerde catalogus_ van alle de prenten van nicolaas berghem ... beschreven door hendrick de winter. amsterdam, . _catalogue de l'oeuvre d'abraham bosse_, par georges duplessis. paris, . in- . (from the "revue universelle des arts.") _Éloge historique de callot_, par le p. husson. bruxelles, . in- . _a catalogue and description_ of the whole of the works of the celebrated jacques callot ... by j. h. green (attributed to claussin). . mo. _Éloge historique de callot_, par m. desmaretz. nancy, . in- . _recherches_ sur la vie et les ouvrages de j. callot, par e. meaume. paris, . vol. in- . _oeuvre de claude gelée_, dit le lorrain, par le comte guillaume de l. (leppel). dresde, . in- , fig. (for the engraved works of claude lorrain, see also the "peintre-graveur" of m. robert dumesnil, vol. i., and the "cabinet de l'amateur et de l'antiquaire," by eugene piot, vol. ii. pp. - .) _Éloge historique de claude gelée_, dit le lorrain, par j. p. voiart. nancy, . in- . _a description_ of the works of the ingenious delineator and engraver, wenceslaus hollar, disposed into classes of different sorts; with some account of his life. by g. vertue. london, . to, portr. _de la gravure à l'eau-forte et des eaux-fortes de charles jacque._ by charles blanc. in the "gazette des beaux arts," vol. ix. p. et seq. _les johannot_, par m. ch. lenormant. paris ( ). in- . (from michaud's "biographie universelle.") * _essay on méryon, and a catalogue of his works_, by frederic wedmore. london, thibaudeau, . (announced as about to be published.) see also _méryon and méryon's paris_, by f. wedmore, in the "nineteenth century," for may, . * _p. burty's catalogue of the etchings of méryon_, revised from the catalogue in the "gazette des beaux arts," and translated by mr. m. b. huish, is announced to be published by the london fine-art society. _m^e. o'connell, meissonier, millet, méryon, seymour haden._ articles on these etchers by philippe burty in the "gazette des beaux arts." _catalogue raisonné_ des estampes gravées à l'eau-forte par guido reni, par adam bartsch. vienne, . in- . _catalogue raisonné_ de toutes les estampes qui forment l'oeuvre de _rembrandt_, ... par adam bartsch. vienne, . vol. in- . _a descriptive catalogue of the prints of rembrandt_, by an amateur (wilson). london, . in- . _rembrandt and his works_, ... by john burnet. london, . to. ill. _rembrandt._ discours sur sa vie et son génie, avec un grand nombre de documents historiques, par le dr. p. scheltema, traduit par a. willems. revu et annoté par w. burger. bruxelles, . in- . (from the "revue universelle des arts.") _l'oeuvre complet de rembrandt_, remarquablement décrit et commenté par charles blanc. paris, . vol. in- . * _rembrandt harmens van rijn._ ses précurseurs et ses années d'apprentissage. par c. vosmaer. la haye, nijhoff, . * _rembrandt harmens van rijn._ sa vie et ses oeuvres. par c. vosmaer. la haye, nijhoff, . (a second, revised edition appeared some years ago.) * _the etched works of rembrandt._ a monograph. by francis seymour haden. with three plates and appendix. london, macmillan, . medium vo. * _descriptive catalogue_ of the etched works of _rembrandt van rhyn_. with life and introduction. by c. h. middleton. royal vo. london, . _pictorial notices_; consisting of a memoir of _sir anthony van dyck_, with a descriptive catalogue of the etchings executed by him.... by william hookham carpenter. london, . to. portrait. * _the works of the american etchers._ in the "american art review." transcriber's notes: obvious typos and inconsistencies corrected/standardised: bruxelle to bruxelles, nitrid acid to nitric acid, i.e. to i. e., société des aqua-fortistes to société des aqua-fortistes (as elsewhere in text), epreuves to Épreuves (as elsewhere in text), cardboard to card-board, overbitten and over bitten to over-bitten, travelling board to travelling-board (as elsewhere in text). other inconsistencies generally left as in original: zinc/zinc v zink/zink, facsimile v fac-simile, nowadays v now-a-days, india-rubber v india-rubber, rembrandt van rhyn v rembrandt van rijn. the oe-ligature (as in oeuvre) is represented as oe. passages in italics are surrounded by _underscores_. likewise passages in bold are indicated by =bold=. the carat character ^ is used to indicate superscripts (as in fig. ^a). table of contents: expanded (compared to original book) by including all sections in the list of works. note that the section headed my dear m. lalanne in the text is called letter by m. charles leblanc in the table of contents. plate ix and page xxiv: the writing on the plate is not very clear, but the building is actually called the waag, this has been used in the text. footnotes (a, b, ...) moved to end of paragraph, endnotes (notes from the translator, , , ...) left together in separate chapter, as in original. transcriber's note: a carat character is used to denote superscription. a single character following the carat is superscripted (example: cccc^o). the original page numbers are enclosed by curly brackets and embedded in the text to facilitate the use of the index (examples: {vii} and { }). [illustration: henry viii. in council (_from holinshed's 'chronicles of england,'_ ) _page _] a brief history of wood-engraving from its invention by joseph cundall author of 'holbein and his works' etc. london sampson low, marston, & company limited st. dunstan's house fetter lane, fleet street, e.c. {vii} contents chapter i page on pictures of saints--the print of _the virgin with the holy child in her lap_ in the bibliothèque royale de belgique--on the print of _st. christopher_ in the spencer library at manchester--the _annunciation_ and the _st. bridget_ of sweden chapter ii on the block books of the fifteenth century--biblia pauperum; apocalypsis sancti johannis, &c. chapter iii the block books of the fifteenth century--ars moriendi-- _temptacio diaboli_--canticum canticorum, and others chapter iv block book--speculum humanae salvationis--_casus luciferi_--the mentz psalter of --book of fables--the cologne bible--nürnberg chronicle--breydenbach's travels chapter v on wood-engraving in italy in the fifteenth century--the venice _kalendario_ of --the _triumph of petrarch_--the _hypnerotomachia poliphili_--aldo manuzio--portrait of aldus {viii} chapter vi on wood-engraving in france in the fifteenth century-- engraving on metal blocks--'books of hours'--famous french publishers: pierre le rouge, simon vostre, antoine verard, thielman kerver, guyot marchant, philippe pigouchet, jean dupré, and others chapter vii wood-engraving in england in the fifteenth century--william caxton, _recuyell of the historyes of troye_--_dictes and sayings of philosophers_--_game and playe of the chesse_, &c.--wynkyn de worde--richard pynson chapter viii wood-engraving in germany in the sixteenth century--albrecht dürer--_coronation of the virgin_--the apocalypse--the little passion--his engravings on copper--the triumphs of maximilian--the _triumphal arch_--the _triumphal car_--the _triumphal procession_ chapter ix hans holbein--_dance of death_--bible cuts--hans lützelburger--_dance of death alphabet_--the little masters--altdorfer--beham--brosamer--aldegrever--cranach chapter x wood-engraving in italy and france in the sixteenth century--giuseppe porta of venice--geoffroy tory and robert estienne of paris--borluyt's _figures from the new testament_--christophe plantin of antwerp {ix} chapter xi wood-engraving in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries in italy and england--printing in chiaro-oscuro in venice--printing in colour in germany--_habiti antichi e moderni_ by vecellio--wood-engraving in england--foxe's _acts and monuments_--holinshed's _chronicles_--_a booke of christian prayers_--dr. cuningham's _cosmographical glasse_--_Æsop's fables_--the french engraver papillon chapter xii thomas bewick and his pupils--_select fables_--_history of quadrupeds_--_history of british birds_--_Æsop's fables_-- prices at which these books were published--death of bewick chapter xiii bewick's successors--john bewick (his brother)--_looking-glass for the mind_--_goldsmith's poems_--_somerville's chase_--robert johnson--charlton nesbit--robert elliot r. bewick--_history of fishes_--luke clennell--william harvey--george bonner--w. h. powis--john jackson--ebenezer landells--robert branston--f. w. branston--john thompson--j. orrin smith--john and mary byfield--samuel williams--w. t. green--o. jewitt--c. gray--s. slader--j. greenaway--w. j. palmer--german engravers--modern english engravers index {x} [illustration: the wood-engraver _by jost amman_ ( )] { } a brief history of wood-engraving ------ chapter i _on the early pictures of saints_ many volumes have been written on the subject of wood-engraving, especially in germany, holland, and belgium, where the art first flourished; as well as in italy, france, and england; and some of the best of these books have been published during the present century. the most important of them are, dr. dibdin's celebrated bibliographical works; 'a treatise on wood-engraving,' by w. a. chatto, of which a new edition has lately been issued; 'wood-engraving in italy in the th century,' by dr. lippmann; and, above all, 'the masters of wood-engraving,' a magnificent folio volume written by mr. w. j. linton--himself a master--who, besides giving us the benefit of his technical knowledge obtained by the practice of the art for fifty years, presents us with copies, from blocks engraved by himself, of the most celebrated woodcuts of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. many writers have asserted that the first wood-engravings are to be found on playing-cards; others maintain that { } the very rough prints on the playing-cards of the early fifteenth century were taken from stencil-plates. it is impossible to decide the point, nor is it of much importance; there is no evidence whatever as to the method of their production. they appeared in europe about the year : they came from the east, but their positive history, according to dr. willshire, begins in the year .[ ] it has been asserted that many prints of images of saints produced by means of wood-engraving preceded even playing-cards. the first undoubted fact that we can arrive at in the history of wood-engraving is that early in the fifteenth century there were to be found, in many of the monasteries and convents in various parts of europe, prints of the virgin with the holy infant, the most popular saints, and subjects from the bible, which were certainly taken from engravings on wood; and we have now to describe some typical examples of primitive devotional pictures, printed by the xylographic process. the earliest of these woodcuts may date from , and there are many which are assigned to the first half of the fifteenth century; they were all intended to be coloured by hand, and are therefore simply in outline, without shading. the designs are usually good, but the execution is not always so meritorious. in the royal library at brussels there is a coloured print of _the virgin with the holy child in her lap_, surrounded by four saints in an inclosed garden. on the virgin's right hand sits st. catherine, with a royal crown on her head, the sword in her left hand, and, leaning against her feet, a broken wheel. beneath is st. dorothea crowned with roses, with a branch of a rose-tree in her right hand and the handle of a basket of apples in her left; on the other side are st. barbara holding her tower, and, under her, st. margaret with a book in her left hand; her right hand clasps a laidly dragon, and a cross leans upon her arm. { } [illustration: the virgin with four saints _in the bibliothèque royale de belgique_] { } outside the palings a rabbit is feeding; a bird sits on the rail behind st. catherine, two others are flying, and, above all, three angels are offering chaplets of roses to the virgin; a palm-tree is growing on each side of her. but the most important part of the print is the very solid three-barred gate at the entrance to the garden, for on the uppermost of the bars we distinctly read m: cccc^o xviii^o. the print itself measures ½ inches in height by inches in width, without reckoning the border lines. it was found pasted at the bottom of an old coffer in the possession of an innkeeper at malines in by a well-known architect, m. de noter, who, recognising its great importance, offered it to the royal library at brussels. it has been reproduced in scrupulously exact facsimile and fully described in the work entitled 'documents iconographiques et typographiques de la bibliothèque royale de belgique,' published by mm. muquardt of brussels. the small letters ^o are supposed to represent nails in the gate. m. georges duplessis tells us that he has examined the print minutely several times, and that he does not believe this date has been tampered with in any way. some collectors and would-be critics maintain that the drawing of the figures and the folds of the garments are of a later date than ; if they were to examine the works of hubert and jan van eyck, and the paintings of meister stephan lochner of cologne, rogier van der weyden, and other artists who lived about this time, they would be sufficiently answered. mr. linton is of opinion (and there can be no better judge) that the _style_ of the engraving does not compel him to attribute it to a later date than , yet both he and mr. chatto express their doubts as to its authenticity--it appears to us, without sufficient reason. about the middle of the eighteenth century herr heinecken, a german collector of engravings, discovered, pasted { } inside the binding of a manuscript in the library of the convent of buxheim in suabia, a folio print brightly coloured of _st. christopher bearing the infant christ_. the outlines are printed in black ink, not by any kind of press, but in much the same way as that used by wood-engravers of the present day in taking their proofs, who first ink the engraved surface with a printer's ball, then lay the paper carefully over the cut, waxed at the edges to hold the paper firmly, and rub the back of the paper with a burnisher. in the fifteenth century a roller called a _frotton_ was used, as being more expeditious. our illustration gives an idea of the original, which is still in the cover of the book in which it was discovered, and now in the spencer library at manchester. the cut measures ½ inches in height by ½ inches in width, and is coloured after the manner of the time; that is, the saint's robe is tinted with red and the lining with yellow ochre, the nimbuses are of the same kind of yellow; the robes of christ and the monk are light blue, of the same tint as the water; the grass and foliage are bright green; the faces, hands, and legs are in a pale flesh-tint; there are but five or six colours used, and they may have been either washed in by hand or brushed in through a stencil-plate. as hand colouring would be quicker and less troublesome, one does not see the advantage of the stencil. the inscription beneath the cut reads thus:-- cristofori faciem die quacumque tueris millesimo cccc^o illa nempe die morte mala non morieris xx^o tercio which may be rendered: on whatever day the face of christopher thou shalt see, on that day no evil form of death shall visit thee. { } [illustration: st. christopher _the original ( ½ in. by ½ in.) is pasted inside the cover of an old manuscript book in the spencer library now at manchester._] { } mr. linton is enthusiastic in praise of this cut. 'i am well content,' he says, 'to give some words of unstinted praise to our st. christopher for the design. i mind not the disproportionate space he occupies in the picture. is not he famous as a giant? the perspective also is good enough for me, as doubtless it was to those in whose interest the print was issued. it is certain he is crossing a stream; we see a fish beneath the waves. he supports his colossal frame and helps his steady course with a full-grown fruit-bearing palm-tree--fit staff for saintly son of anak; no heathen he; the nimbus is round his head. as on his shoulders he bears the lord of the world, can we fail to remark his upturned glance, inquiring why he is thus bowed down by a little child? the blessing hand of the blessed plainly gives reply. look again, and see on one side of the stream the merely secular life; is it not all expressed by the mill and the miller and his ass, and far up the steep road (what need for diminishing distance?) the peasant with the sack of flour toiling towards his humble home. and on the other side is the spiritual life--the hermit, by his windowless hut, the warning bell above; he kneels in front, with his lantern of faith lifted high in his hand, a beacon for whatever wayfarer the ferryman may bring. rank grasses and the fearless rabbit mark the quiet solitude in which the hermit dwells. i can forgive all shortcomings. these old-century men were in earnest.' in the spencer collection are two other prints which may be attributed to the same period as the st. christopher. one is a picture of _the annunciation_, which was found pasted on the end cover of the book (_laus virginis_) in which the st. christopher was discovered. it is of similar size, and is printed with a dark-coloured pigment, probably by means of a _frotton_. the angel gabriel is kneeling before the virgin, who also is kneeling; she holds a book in her hand, and is represented in a kind of gothic chapel; a vase with flowers in it stands under one of the diamond-paned windows. the holy dove is descending in a flood of rays; unfortunately the figure of the almighty has been torn from the top left-hand corner of the print. on one of the pillars of the chapel is a small scroll with the legend ave gracia plena dominus tecum. { } [illustration: the annunciation _the original ( ½ in. by ½ in.) is pasted inside the cover of an old manuscript book in the spencer library._] { } the wood-engraver may produce his design in two ways, either by means of black lines on a white ground, or by white designs on a black ground. the two methods are here united, while in the st. christopher one only (the first) is used. notice the discreet use of masses of black to give force to the design, and to contrast with the lightness of the other part of the picture. the annunciation belongs to quite a different school to the st. christopher. the other print is of st. bridget of sweden (who died in ). she is seated at a sloping desk, writing with a stylus in a book. the motto above her head is o brigita bit got für uns ('o bridget, pray to god for us'). in the left upper corner is a small representation of the virgin with the holy infant in her arms, opposite is a shield with the letters s.p.q.r. on it, referring to her journey to rome. in the lower corners are, on the left, the palm and crown of martyrdom; and on the right is a shield with the _lion rampant_ of sweden. a pilgrim's hat and scrip hang on a staff behind the virgin's seat. the print is roughly coloured, evidently by hand. many other woodcuts of the same character have been discovered, which are believed to have been engraved in the first half of the fifteenth century. in the imperial library at vienna there is a print of _st. sebastian_, bearing the date , which was found in the monastery of st. blaise in the black forest. 'having visited,' says herr heinecken, 'in my last tour a great many convents in franconia, suabia, bavaria, and in the austrian states, i everywhere discovered in their libraries many of these kinds of figures engraved on wood. they were usually pasted either at the beginning or the end of old volumes of the fifteenth century. these facts have confirmed me in my opinion that the next step of the { } engraver on wood, after playing-cards, was to engrave figures of saints, which, being distributed and lost among the laity, were in part preserved by the monks, who pasted them into the earliest printed books with which their libraries were furnished.' herr heinecken possessed more than a hundred of these pictures of saints. there can be little doubt they were produced in the monasteries and convents, and distributed to the people, especially in the processions of the church, as aids to devotion. among the thousands of monks who lived in the fifteenth century there must have been many men who, like fra angelico, were gifted with sufficient artistic taste to enable them to draw and engrave such a picture as the st. christopher. * * * * * { } chapter ii _on the block books of the fifteenth century_ in the first half of the fifteenth century, before the invention of printing by means of movable type, many books were produced in which the woodcuts and the text were engraved on the same page, or sometimes the text was on one page and the woodcut opposite. they were impressed on one side only of the paper, and the two blank pages were often pasted together. they are usually called block books. many of the cuts are more than ten inches in height by eight inches in width, and were probably cut with a knife upon smoothly planed planks of the pear-tree, or other fine-grained wood, or possibly some were engraved upon soft metal. the most celebrated of them are: i. biblia pauperum.--bible of the poor. ii. apocalypsis sancti johnannis.--visions of st. john. iii. ars moriendi.--the art of dying. iv. canticum canticorum.--solomon's song. v. ars memorandi.--the art of remembering. vi. liber regum.--book of kings. vii. temptationes daemonis.--temptations of a demon. viii. endkrist (only known copy in the spencer library). ix. quindecim signa.--the fifteen signs. x. de generatione christi.--of the genealogy of christ. xi. mirabilia romae.--the wonders of rome. xii. speculum humanae salvationis.--mirror of salvation. xiii. die kunst ciromantia.--the art of chiromancy. xiv. confessionale.--of the confessional. xv. symbolum apostolicum.--symbols of the apostles. { } and are supposed to have been issued between the years and . there is no title-page to any of them, and the dates are generally only a matter of conjecture. probably they were copies of illuminated manuscripts, and were drawn, engraved, and coloured by the monks in their _scriptoria_. doubtless other books of a similar character may be existing in some of the old monasteries on the continent at the present day. the block books appear to have been made in germany and holland, and the most popular volumes passed through many editions. the earliest specimens are printed in a brown ink similar to that used for distemper drawings. it sometimes happened that the blocks used for a book were afterwards cut up and used over again in a different combination (as noticed by bradshaw in his 'memoranda,' no. , pp. and , and by william blades, in his 'pentateuch of printing,' pp. and .) a block-book edition of the 'biblia pauperum,' printed at zwolle, was cut up, and the pieces used afterwards in a different combination. the same was done with the blocks of the 'speculum nostrae salvationis,' which were cut up, and the pieces used again for an edition printed at utrecht in . this was a step in the development of the art of printing. biblia pauperum.--in the print room of the british museum there is a very fine copy of this work, probably the first edition. it is a small folio consisting of forty leaves impressed on one side only of the paper, in pale-brown ink or distemper, by means of friction, probably by a _frotton_ or roller, as we can tell by the glazed surface on the back. the right order of the pages is indicated by the letters a, b, c, &c., on the face of the prints, each of which is about ten inches in height by seven and a-half in breadth. on the upper part of each page are frequently two half-length figures and two on the lower, intended for portraits of the prophets and other holy men whose writings are cited in the latin text. { } [illustration: biblia pauperum--tenth page (_reduced from in. by ½ in._)] { } the middle part of the page consists of three compartments, each of which is occupied by a subject from the old or new testament. the greater part of the text is at the sides of the upper portraits. on each side of those below is frequently a rhyming latin verse. texts of scripture also appear on scrolls. the illustration, which is a much reduced copy of the tenth page (k), will afford a better idea of the arrangement of the subject and of the texts than any more lengthened description. the picture in the middle represents the temptation of christ by the devil; that on the right, the temptation of adam by eve; and that on the left, esau selling his birthright for a mess of pottage, which his brother jacob has evidently just cooked in the iron pot suspended over the fire on a ratchet in the chimney-breast. the ham and goat's flesh or venison hanging on the kitchen wall remind us of the dutch paintings of two centuries later. esau's bow and quiver will be seen to be of a very primitive character. on the thirty-second page (to give another example) we find in the middle compartment christ appearing to his disciples; on the left, joseph discovering himself to his brethren; and on the right, the return of the prodigal son. at the bottom of the page are these rhyming latin verses:-- _under joseph and his brethren._ quos vex(av)it pridem blanditur fratribus idem. _under the return of the prodigal son._ flens amplexatur natum pater ac recreatur. hic ihesus apparet: surgentis gloria claret. which have been roughly translated: whom he so lately vexed he charms as brother next. the wept-one is embraced and as a son replaced, here doth christ appear, in rising glory clear. { } [illustration: jacob and esau--biblia pauperum _facsimile of the original cut_] { } the 'biblia pauperum,' although it could not be read by the laity, was evidently issued for their especial benefit, and, with the help of the priests, it afforded excellent lessons in bible history. it is believed that the first copies were printed at haarlem about a.d. to . five editions of the 'biblia pauperum' are known as block books with the text in latin; two with the text in german; and several others were printed about with the text in movable type. at least three editions were printed in holland, and seven or eight others appear to be of german origin; the earlier are of the dutch school. there are four copies, differing editions, in the british museum, one in the bodleian library, and one in the spencer library. some of the copies are coloured in a very simple manner. apocalypsis sancti johannis.--this work consists of forty-eight pages of woodcuts about ten and a-half inches high by seven and a-half broad, printed in ink or distemper of a greyish-brown tint on thick paper on one side only. each page is equally divided into two subjects, taken from the apocalypse, one above the other. the cuts are engraved in the simplest manner, without any attempt at shading, as will be seen on examination of our print, which forms the first page of the book. in the upper half st. john is addressing three men and one woman. the words in the label conversi ab idolis per predicationem beati johannis drusiana et ceteri are literally 'drusiana and the others are converted from idols by the preaching of the blessed john.' the letter a indicates page . in the lower half we see st. john baptizing drusiana in a very small font in a small chapel; outside are six ill-looking men trying to peep in through the chinks of the door. over the chapel are the words sanctus johannes baptisans, and over the men cultores ydolorum explorantes facta ejus, literally, 'worshippers of idols spying on his acts.' two of the idolaters are armed with hatchets, as if they intended to break open the door. [the latin words, in accordance with the usual practice of the monks, are contracted in a manner very puzzling to those unused to these mediæval writings.] there are several editions of the apocalypsis, all apparently of german origin. { } [illustration: apocalypsis sancti johannis _one of the earliest of the block books_] { } many bibliographers, treating of block books and arguing from the very simple style of the drawings and engravings, consider that the 'apocalypsis' was the first that was produced. many worse woodcuts were issued in the eighteenth century. it would be very hazardous indeed to fix a date by the quality of woodcut illustrations. in order to assist our readers in reading the text printed with the early woodcuts, we give them a key to the most usual abbreviations of monkish latin. ************************************************************************* ** transcriber's note: in paragraph . [-e] denotes a letter with a ** ** straight line over (or through the riser), [~e] the same with a ** ** tilde-like curve. ** ************************************************************************* . a right line, thus (-), and a curve, thus (~), placed horizontally over a letter, denote: (-) st, over a vowel in the middle or end of a word, that _one letter_ is wanting, _e.g._ v[-e]d[-a]t=_vendant_, bon[-u]=_bonum_, terr[-a]=_terram_. (~) nd, above or through a letter=the omission of _more than one letter_, e.g. a[~i]a=_anima_, a[~l]r=_aliter_, a[~l]ia=_animalia_, abla[~c]o=_ablatio_, winto[~n]=wintonia, no[~b]=_nobis_, &c. a straight line through a consonant also denotes the omission of one or more letters, _e.g._ vo[-b]=_vobis_, q[-d]=_quod_, &c. ************************************************************************* ** transcriber's note: in paragraph . ? denotes a backward curl ** ** attached to the top of a letter. ** ************************************************************************* . [?]=_er_, or _re_, as the sense requires, _e.g._ [?t]ra=_terra_, [?p]dictus=predictus, _i.e._ _prædictus_. ************************************************************************* ** transcriber's note: in paragraph . the first [?e] has an oblique ** ** line attached below the letter, the second a lightning bolt. ** ************************************************************************* . the diphthong is sometimes represented thus, terr[?e] or terr[?e]=_terræ_. ************************************************************************* ** transcriber's note: in paragraph . the first [-p] has a straight ** ** line & the second a wavy one (like a tilde) through the ** * descender. in the third a line continues the bottom of the loop ** ** and bends down to cut the descender. ** ************************************************************************* . a straight or curved line through the letter p, thus, [-p] [-p]=_per_, _por_, and _par_. a curved line, thus [-p]=_pro_. ************************************************************************* ** transcriber's note: in paragraph . the sign [ ] resembles the ** ** type of with an angled top, or a drachm sign. ** ************************************************************************* . the character [ ] at the end of a word=_us_, omnib[ ]=_omnibus_, also _et_, deb[ ]=_debet_. { } ************************************************************************* ** transcriber's note: in paragraph . the sign [zs] resembles a z ** ** with a reversed s drawn through the bottom stroke. ** ************************************************************************* . the figure [zs] at the end of a word=rum, ras, res, ris, and ram; eo[zs]=_eorum_, lib[zs]=_libras_ or _libris_, windeso[zs]=_windesores_, alieno[zs]=_alienoram_, &c. ************************************************************************* ** transcriber's note: in paragraph . the sign [-&] is an ampersand ** ** with a straight line over; [q ] a q with a mark like a small ** ** on the right; [ ] a raised spiral rather like a , [c)] has a ** ** long bracket-shaped mark descending below the baseline. ** ************************************************************************* . [-&]=_etiam_, [q ]=_que_, _quia_, and _quod_; [ ] at commencement of a word=_com_ or _con_; [ ]mitto=_committo_, [ ]victo=_convicto_. this contraction is also printed thus, [c)]. [c)]=_concordia_ or _concessio_. in the middle or end of a word [ ]=_us_, de[ ]=_deus_, reb[ ]=_rebus_, aug[ ]ti=_augusti_; also for os, p[ ]=_post_, p[ ]t=_post_. ************************************************************************* ** transcriber's note: in paragraph . - and ~ are as in paragraph . ** ** ^ denotes the next letter is raised (so also in . below). ** ************************************************************************* . in domesday book =_et_, [-e]=_est_, [~s]t=_sunt_, [-m]=_manerium_, m^o=_modo_, di[~m]=_dimidius_, &c. ************************************************************************* ** transcriber's note: in paragraph . [-;] is like a semicolon with ** ** a straight line through the middle. ** ************************************************************************* . _est_ is sometimes written [-;] ÷. . points or dots after letters often denote contractions, _e.g._ di. et fi.=_dilectus et fidelis_, e. for _est_, plurib.=_pluribus_. ************************************************************************* ** transcriber's note: in paragraph . [?t] has a sort of streamer to ** ** the left and curling down. ** ************************************************************************* . [?t]=_et_ in later times. . a small letter placed over a word denotes an omission--p^ius=_prius_, t^i=_tibi_, q^os=_quos_, q^i=_qui_, &c. ************************************************************************* ** transcriber's note: in paragraph . ~ is as in paragraph . ** ************************************************************************* . x[~p]s, x[~p]c, x[~p]o, stand for _christus_ and its different cases. m[~e]= _marie_. these are the most common contractions. there are many more, including numerous technical terms, which it would be useless for us to give for our present purpose. * * * * * { } chapter iii _the block books of the fifteenth century_ (_continued_). ars moriendi.--of all the block books known to us, this bears the palm for artistic merit. it is probable that the 'ars moriendi' is of later date than the block books already described. mr. george bullen (holbein society, 'ars moriendi,' , p. ) was of opinion that the first edition was printed at cologne in germany about the middle of the fifteenth century. others say that the quarto edition is the earlier. the illustrations belong to the lower rhenish school, which, about the middle of the fifteenth century, was influenced by the style of roger van der weyde, and probably also by the work of some of the pupils of the van eycks. there are eleven woodcuts, about eight and a-half inches, by five and a-half inches, without including the frame-lines, printed on separate pages, and thirteen pages of text, all impressed on one side only of the paper. five of the pictures represent a sick man in bed tempted by devils--i. to unbelief; ii. to despair and suicide; iii. to impatience of good advice; iv. to vainglory; and v. to avarice. in the five opposite pictures the sick man is attended by good angels, who refute the arguments of the demons. in the eleventh print we witness the death of the sick man. the drawings are somewhat similar in manner to the works of roger van der weyde, who lived in the early part of the fifteenth century. { } it was a time when art was beginning to awake from its long sleep, and such works as the 'ars moriendi' were far in advance of any we know of belonging to the previous century. one of the best of the illustrations is from the last temptation: _temptacio diaboli de avaricia_, and is probably intended to be the presentation of a dream. the sick man's bed is on the roof of his house! a diabolus, as tall as the house, points to a youth--possibly the heir, who is leading a very flemish-looking horse into a doorway--and says, intende thesauro--take care of your treasures. the figures by the bedside must represent the father and mother, wife, sisters, and young son of the dying man. the diabolus on his right says provideas amicis--'you may provide for your friends.' the heads of the diaboli in this print are more laughable than terrible, and suggest the make-up of a pantomime rather than the demons who are messengers of the evil one. on the next page an angel gives good counsel to the dying man, a figure of christ on the cross is at his bed's head, and the mother of christ blesses him. a group of relations and friends still attend him, and beside them are sheep and oxen. in the foreground an angel is driving away a man and woman, who are evidently in great grief, and a crouching demon says, quid faciam--'what can i do?' pictures like this appealed forcibly to the minds of the laity in the middle ages, and were doubtless fully explained to the uneducated by the religious dwellers in the monasteries and convents which at that time abounded throughout europe. a reproduction of this book was issued a few years since by the holbein society. the designs were copied in careful pen-and-ink drawings by mr. f. price, and the text was translated and the pictures described by mr. george bullen, who also wrote a learned preface, enumerating the various editions of the book which are known to have been printed in different languages. weigel printed a photographic reproduction of this book in . { } the 'ars moriendi' was the most popular of all the block books. before the end of the fifteenth century eight different editions had been issued, seven of them in latin and one in french. m. passavant states that he had met with thirty different imitations of it issued in germany and holland. there is but one quite perfect copy of the first edition of this book known, and this fortunately is in the british museum. it was bought at the weigel sale in leipsic in for the large sum of £ , s., exclusive of commission. canticum canticorum.--the church's love unto christ prefigured in 'the song of songs which is solomon's.' this is a much more pleasing book than the 'apocalypsis.' the figures are more gracefully designed and the engraver has shown much more knowledge of his art; the indications of shading are in many instances very happily given. it consists of only sixteen leaves with two subjects, one above the other on each leaf; each picture is five inches high by seven wide, and is printed by means of friction in dark-brown ink or distemper, on thick paper. our illustration is from the second leaf. in the upper subject we see the bride and bridegroom conversing, two maidens attending. the words on the scroll on the left are trahe me: post te curremus in odorem unguentorum tuorum, 'draw me, we will run after thee: because of the savour of thy good ointments' (song of solomon, ch. i., v. and ). on the scroll to the right, sonet vox tua in auribus meis, vox enim tua dulcis et facies tua decora, 'let me hear thy voice, for sweet is thy voice and thy countenance is comely' (song of solomon, ch. ii., verse ). in the lower subject, in which the bride is seen seated by her maidens and the bridegroom is standing near, on the left-hand scroll we read, en dilectus meus loquitur mihi, surge, propera, amica mea, 'my beloved spake and said unto me, rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away' (ch. ii., verse ); and on the right, quam pulchra es amica mea, quam pulchra es! oculi tui columbarum, absque eo quod intrinsecus latet, 'how beautiful art thou, my love, how beautiful art thou! thy eyes are doves' eyes, besides what is hid within' (ch. iv. ). { } [illustration: canticum canticorum--second leaf (_much reduced_)] { } on the sixth leaf, the bride and bridegroom are eating grapes in a vineyard, three maidens attending, all seated. in the cut below, the bridegroom is standing outside a garden wall over which the bride is watching him. an angel is entering the gate, other angels with drawn swords are on the wall. it is supposed that these engravings were executed in the netherlands: the female figures are said to be in the costume of the court of burgundy! there are several shields of arms to be found in three of the subjects, and these have given rise to long dissertations by writers on heraldry. mr. chatto's book has engravings of eighteen of them with descriptions. one is the shield of alsace, another of the house of würtemberg, a third of the city of ratisbon; and the cross-keys, the _fleur-de-lis_, the black spread-eagle, and a rose (much like our tudor rose), may be seen on others. several copies of the 'canticum' have been found, coloured and uncoloured. two editions of the canticum canticorum are known; both appear to have emanated from holland and the low countries, and both bear clear traces of the influence of the school of the van eycks. the figure alphabet.--in the print room of the british museum there is a curious little book (six inches by four inches in size) in which nearly all the letters of the alphabet are formed by grotesque figures of men. except that it was bequeathed to the museum by sir george beaumont, no one knows anything of its history; but internal evidence warrants us in attributing it to the work of an engraver of the first half of the fifteenth century. the cuts are printed in a kind of sepia-coloured distemper which can be easily wiped off by means of moisture. there is one very curious thing connected with this work. in the cut forming the { } letter l a young man is leaning on a sword, on the blade of which is plainly written london, and on the cloak of the youth lying below we read, in a current hand usual at that date, the word _bethemsted_. the figures, grotesque as they are, were drawn by a better artist than those who designed the block books. we know that the art of engraving was in a very low state in england at the time we are speaking of; we should therefore rejoice if we could anyhow prove that these very early specimens of wood-cutting were done in this country. [illustration] in the letter f, which we have given as an illustration, very much reduced from the original, a tall man is blowing a very long trumpet; a youth, bending down to form the crotch of the letter, is beating a tabor; while a nondescript animal lies couched at his feet. many other block books exist in the british museum, the bodleian library, oxford, the spencer library, manchester, and in the large libraries on the continent besides those we have mentioned. some were printed, long after the introduction of printing, in venice and in the cities of lower germany. before the beginning of the fifteenth century we have no record of any examples of wood-engraving of an artistic kind, except, as we have said, the designs on playing-cards, and the workmanship of these, whether it was by woodcuts or by a stencil-plate, was very crude. the art really came into existence in the first quarter of that famous fifteenth century. there were scores of men at that time who could carve excellently well in stone or wood, or who could design { } and make beautiful jewels, and some of these men, probably monks in their monasteries, as well as secular craftsmen, drew and cut the first wood-engraving. no one knows who they were. up to the year the original method of wood-cutting changed very little; nearly every print was in outline with a thick and a thin line. a few, such as those in the 'ars moriendi,' had a little shading of the most primitive kind. they were intended to be coloured, and, among the prints that have been preserved, experts say they can detect the manner of colouring prevalent in upper or lower germany, the rhine provinces, or the netherlands. towards the end of the century came a transition. shading was introduced and even cross-hatching was executed by the best wood-engravers of the time. the art took, as it were, a sudden bound, and in a few years attained a height which we at the end of the nineteenth century find it hard to excel. but of this we must speak in a future chapter. ars memorandi.--this very curious book--much more curious than beautiful--contains fifteen designs and the same number of pages of engraved text. the designs are intended to assist the memory in reading the gospels, and perhaps to assist the friars in preaching to the people. to the gospel of st. john, with which the book begins, there are three cuts allotted, and as many pages of text; to st. matthew five cuts and five pages of text; to st. mark, three cuts and three pages of text; and to st. luke, four cuts and four pages of text. in every print an allegorical figure is represented; an eagle symbolical of st. john, an angel of st. matthew, a lion of st. mark, and an ox of st. luke. the first cut is intended to represent, figuratively, the first six chapters of st. john's gospel. an upright eagle, with spread wings and claws, has three human heads--that of the saint with a dove above it is in the middle, the head { } of christ is on its right, and that of moses on its left. a lute, from which three bells depend, lies across the eagle's breast; this is supposed to refer to the marriage in cana, and a little numeral tells us that the account of it is in the second chapter. between the outspread claws is a bucket surmounted by a crown. these are symbolical of the well of samaria and the nobleman's son at capernaum in chapter iv. on the bend of the eagle's outspread right wing is a fish and the numeral , referring to the pool of bethesda in chapter v., and on the left wing are five barley loaves and two small fishes, and a small , referring to the parable of the loaves and fishes in the sixth chapter. this very singular book must have been a great favourite with the priests, and perhaps with the laity, for it was reprinted over and over again. it appears to have been of german origin. of the other block books mentioned in chapter ii. it would be tedious to give an account; they are very similar to those we have just described. * * * * * { } chapter iv _speculum humanÆ salvationis_ historians tell us that in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries the cities of the netherlands were the most populous and the richest in all western europe. bruges, ghent, liège and brussels by their manufactures, and antwerp by her commerce, in which she rivalled venice, had become celebrated for their great wealth, the grandeur of their rulers, and the magnificence of their great guilds. the more northern towns, too, amsterdam, haarlem, and utrecht, and many cities of germany, such as mentz, cologne, strasburg, nürnberg, augsburg, and basel, were rich and prosperous. it was among these cities that the sister arts of printing and wood-engraving first flourished. from undoubted evidence accumulated by the patience and labour of many bibliographers, it appears that the art of printing by means of movable type was not invented by any one man, but was the result of a gradual development of the art of engraving. in the fifteenth century, as in the nineteenth, there was an ever-growing demand for school books. one of the most popular of these in the fifteenth century was the 'donatus,' a grammar so called from the name of the author. there was also a latin delectus called a 'catho.' these were cheap books and were usually printed from engraved wood blocks. these and the block books already described were contemporary, and the immediate forerunners of separate types. (see blades, 'pentateuch of printing,' p. .) { } in certain editions of the 'speculum' there are to be seen woodcuts printed in ink of one colour and text in ink of another colour, from metal movable types. these types are rude in the extreme, far more so than the german indulgence of , the very earliest known dated piece of printing. there is no doubt that the donatuses were at first printed from wood blocks, both in germany and the low countries, but there is not a single dutch block-book donatus known, while there are some nineteen or twenty early type-printed dutch donatuses already catalogued. therefore it appears likely that gutenberg simply developed the process which had already been for some time in use in the low countries for donatuses and similar books. [illustration: first page of the speculum humanÆ salvationis] the first book of importance that was printed at a press { } and from movable type was the celebrated bible[ ] which gutenberg produced at mentz about the year . about the same time it is asserted that laurent janszoon coster of haarlem issued the _speculum humanæ salvationis_, and much discussion has risen as to which book has the prior claim. the dutch insist on coster as being the proto-printer; the germans not only assert the claim of gutenberg but say that coster is a myth! the controversy is still carried on and there is little likelihood that it will ever be decided. in the year there was a small revolution in mentz, owing to the rival claims of two archbishops, and the city was sacked. the printers in the employment of gutenberg and his partners, fust and peter schoeffer, were scattered in every direction. fifteen years afterwards printing-presses were to be found in every large city of germany and the netherlands, as well as in italy and france; and about , caxton set up his first press in the precincts of westminster abbey. _speculum humanae salvationis_--'the mirror of man's salvation.'--this was the first book, printed from type, that had wood engravings. it is a small folio containing fifty-eight cuts, each of which is divided into two subjects, inclosed in an architectural frame, in which is the title in latin. the cuts are placed at the head of the pages, of which they occupy one-third. it is to be noticed that, though the cuts are all printed in brown ink, the text beneath them is printed in black: probably because the prints were to be coloured. the arrangement and scope of this work are much like those of the 'biblia pauperum'; the subjects are taken from the old and new testaments, including the apocrypha, and a few are from classic history. the illustrations are from the first page: casus { } luciferi--'the fall of lucifer'--and deus creavit hominem ad ymaginem et similitudinem suam--'god created man after his own image and likeness.' [illustration: speculum: the fall of lucifer (_size of the original cut_)] { } we see that the arts of drawing and engraving had improved since the time of the 'biblia pauperum.' the figures are in better proportion: in many of the designs the folds of the dress fall more gracefully and the shading is more artistically done. there are four fifteenth-century editions of this work known, two with the text in dutch, and two in latin. three editions are printed entirely with movable type, while part of the fourth--the second latin edition--is certainly from engraved blocks. no one can tell the reason of this curious anomaly--we can only conjecture. experts tell the various editions by the state of the cuts; when these are unblemished, it is assumed that they are of the first edition; when a few of the lines of the cuts are broken, it is supposed that they belong to the second edition; when many are broken, to the third edition, and so on. mr. woodbery[ ] has so graphically described the 'speculum' that we cannot do better than quote his words: 'a whole series needs to be looked at before one can appreciate the interest which these designs have in indicating the subjects on which imagination and thought were then exercised, and the modes in which they were exercised. symbolism and mysticism pervade the whole. all nature and history seem to have existed only to prefigure the life of the saviour: imagination and thought hover about him, and take colour, shape, and light only from that central form; the stories of the old testament, the histories of david, samson, and jonah, the massacres, victories, and miracles there recorded, foreshadow, as it were in parables, the narrative of the gospels; the temple, the altar, and the ark of the covenant, all the furnishings and observances of the jewish ritual, reveal occult meanings; the garden of solomon's song, and the sentiment of the bridegroom and the bride who wander in it, are interpreted, sometimes in graceful or even poetic feeling, under the inspiration of mystical devotion; old kings of pagan athens are transformed into witnesses of christ, and, with the sibyl of rome, attest spiritual truth. { } [illustration: the grief of hannah (_from the cologne bible_)] { } this book and others like it are mirrors of the ecclesiastical mind; they picture the principal intellectual life of the middle ages; they show the sources of that deep feeling in the earlier dutch artists which gave dignity and sweetness to their works. even in the rudeness of these books, in the texts as well as in the designs, there is a _naïveté_, an openness and freshness of nature, a confidence in limited experience and contracted vision, which make the sight of these cuts as charming as conversation with one who had never heard of america or dreamed of luther, and who would have found modern life a puzzle and an offence. the author of the _speculum_ laments the evils which fell upon man in consequence of adam's sin, and recounts them: blindness, deafness, lameness, floods, fire, pestilence, wild beasts, and law-suits (in such order he arranges them); and he ends the long list with this last and heaviest evil, that men should presume to ask "why god willed to create man, whose fall he foresaw; why he willed to create the angels, whose ruin he foreknew; wherefore he hardened the heart of pharaoh, and softened the heart of mary magdalene unto repentance; wherefore he made peter contrite, who had denied him thrice, but allowed judas to despair in his sin; wherefore he gave grace to one thief, and cared not to give grace to his companion." what modern man can fully realise the mental condition of this poet, who thus weeps over the temptation to ask these questions, as the supreme and direst curse which divine vengeance allows to overtake the perverse children of this world?' by far the most excellent book issued about this time is the psalter, printed by gutenberg's former partners, fust and schoeffer, at mentz in . the initial letters, which are printed in red and blue and the gothic type, all of which are in exact imitation of the best manuscripts, could not be excelled at the present day. the book belongs more to the history of printing, but on account of its beautiful initial letters, which, it is said, were drawn and engraved by schoeffer, we feel constrained to notice it. { } [illustration: frontispiece to breydenbach's travels (_much reduced_)] { } a _book of fables_ issued from the press of albrecht pfister, of bamberg, in , may be mentioned as a very early work in which woodcuts and type were printed together; it is a small folio of twenty-eight leaves, containing eighty-five fables in rhyme in the old german language, illustrated with a hundred and one cuts. they are of little merit and show no advancement in the art of wood-engraving. the only known copy of this book, which is in the wolfenbüttel library, was taken away by the french under napoleon's orders and added to the bibliothèque nationale; it was restored at the surrender of paris in . we cannot give a list of all the books containing woodcuts that were issued in germany at the end of the fifteenth century; their name is legion. we must, however, mention two or three of the most important. in the cologne bible, printed about the year , there are one hundred and nine cuts, one of which we give as an example; they are about equal in merit to those in the 'biblia pauperum,' but show no improvement. the subject of the cut is 'the grief of hannah.' we see elkanah and his two wives, hannah and peninnah, in a room from which the artist has obligingly taken away one of the sides. in the nürnberg bible, printed in , we find the same set of cuts. the nürnberg chronicle, often quoted as an example of early german wood-engraving, is a folio volume containing more than two thousand cuts, which include views of cities, portraits of saints and other holy men, scenes from biblical and profane history, and a great many other subjects, produced, we are told, under the superintendence of michael wolgemuth and william pleydenwurff, 'mathematical men skilled in the art of painting.' the same head does duty for the portrait of a dozen or more historians or poets--the { } same portrait is given to many military heroes--the saints are treated in the same way, and even the same view serves for several different cities. the cuts are bolder and more full of colour than any we have had before, and so far may be said to be in advance, and this we must put down to the superintendence of wolgemuth, who was an artist of repute. chatto says they are the most tasteless and worthless things that are to be found in any book, ancient or modern--but this is too sweeping an assertion. the work was compiled by hartman schedel, a physician of nürnberg, and printed in that city by anthony koburger in . the most important book of this time, so far as the woodcuts are concerned, is a latin edition of breydenbach's travels, which was printed in folio by erhard reuwich in mentz in . we give a much reduced copy of the frontispiece, which is without doubt the best example of wood-engraving of the fifteenth century. in this cut we see for the first time cross-hatching used in the shadows, in the folds of the drapery of the principal figure--saint catherine, who is the patroness of learned men--in the upper parts of the shields and beneath the top part of the frame. bernard de breydenbach, who was a canon of the cathedral of mentz, was accompanied in his travels to the holy sepulchre at jerusalem and the shrine of st. catherine on mount sinai by john, count of solms and lord of mintzenberg, and philip de bicken, knight. the arms of the three travellers are given in the cut with the names beneath them. besides the frontispiece there are many other good engravings in this volume--a picture of venice, five feet long and ten inches high; views of corfu, modon, in southern greece, and the country round jerusalem. there are also many pictures of animals, such as a giraffe, a unicorn, a salamander, a camel, and a creature something like an ouran-outang. travellers saw wonderful things in those days! it is a great pity that we do not know the names of the artists { } who drew and engraved the cuts in this most interesting book. [illustration: the bibliomaniac _from 'navis stultifera' (the ship of fools)_] just at the close of the century we find the first humorous conception of german artists in the illustrations of the navis stultifera (ship of fools), written by sebastian brandt and printed at basel in . this very bold and original work had an immense success and was frequently reprinted. every page is adorned with the antics of clowns and men in fools' caps and bells, in caricature of some absurdity, and the bibliomaniac is not spared: 'i have the first place among fools,' he is made to say; 'i have heaps of books which i { } rarely open. if i read them i forget them and am no wiser.' as will be seen by the cut, though the perspective of the draughtsman is not to be praised, the work of the engraver is excellent; the fineness of the lines is new to us and the shadows are well treated. notice also the bindings of the books, with their bosses, hinges, and clasps; nearly all are folios, and four or five are ornamented with the same pattern. the decoration at the side is evidently copied from an illuminated manuscript. with this book we may fitly close our notice of german wood-engraving of the fifteenth century. * * * * * { } chapter v _on wood-engraving in italy in the fifteenth century_ although at this time germany took the lead of all european countries so far as the illustrations of printed books are concerned, the transition from german to italian art is like the change from the strong bleak winds of the north to the balmy air and sunny skies of the south. we are aware of the difference both of climate and of art in a moment: the very first picture presented to us reveals it. the italians of the fifteenth century could not take up a handicraft without making it a fine art. here is a title-page of a folio kalendario produced in venice in the year . this is the first title-page on which the contents of the book, the name of the author, the imprint of the publishers, who were also the printers, and the date of the issue of the book, were ever given. mark the decoration. though the publishers were germans, the artist who drew this border must have been an italian; and probably the engraver was an italian also, for the book was produced at venice. the character of the design suggests the work of an illuminator. the introduction of the printing-press must have interfered sadly with the writer of manuscripts and his brother the illuminator, and both were doubtless glad to avail themselves of the new art. the manuscript writer may have turned compositor, and the illuminator may have been transformed into a book decorator. { } [illustration: title-page of a folio kalendario by joanne de monte regio, printed at venice in (_much reduced_)] we have before us a facsimile of a cut called 'the triumph of love,' which appeared as one of the illustrations of triumphi del petrarca, a book printed in venice, in . a man, seated with his hands bound behind him, is tied with a rope to a triumphal car which is drawn by four horses; on a ball of fire, which rises from the car, a blindfolded cupid is shooting an arrow (apparently at the near leader); a great crowd of men and women, among whom we see a king and a mitred bishop, follow and surround the car, and on a distant hill we behold petrarch conversing with his friend. there are two rabbits feeding calmly in the { } foreground, notwithstanding the danger of the horses' hoofs, and the usual conventional designs for grass and flowers. the groundwork of the border of this curious print is black, with an italian design carefully cut out in white, with but little shadow. from the waviness of many of the lines which should be straight, we think this print must be from an engraving on metal. of all the wood-engravings executed in italy in the fifteenth century, none can compare in excellence with those in the hypnerotomachia poliphili (dream of poliphilo) printed in venice, by aldus, in .[ ] there are, in all, one hundred and ninety-two subjects, of which eighty-six relate to mythology and ancient history, fifty-four are pictures of processions and emblematic figures, thirty-six are architectural and ornamental, and sixteen vases and statues. they have been attributed to many different artists, the most probable of whom is carpaccio. the subject of the 'hypnerotomachia' has been described as a 'contest between imagination and love'; it is a curious medley of all kinds of fable, history, architecture, mathematics, and other matters, seasoned with suggestions which do not reflect credit on the moral perceptions of its author, a dominican monk, named francesco colonna. an enthusiastic admirer of this book thus poetically describes it: 'there is, perhaps, no volume where the exuberant vigour of that age is more clearly shown, or where the objects for which that age was impassioned are more glowingly described. { } [illustration: poliphilo in the garden _from 'hypnerotomachia poliphili,' printed by aldus at venice in _] the romantic and fantastic rhapsody mirrors every aspect of nature and art in which the italians then took delight--peaceful landscape, where rivers flow by flower-starred banks and through bird-haunted woods; noble architecture and exquisite sculpture, { } the music of soft instruments, the ruins of antiquity, the legends of old mythology, the motions of the dance, the elegance of the banquet, splendour of apparel, courtesy of manners, even the manuscript, with its cover of purple velvet sown with eastern pearls--everything that was cared for and sought in that time when the gloom of asceticism lifted and disclosed the wide prospect of the world lying, as it were, in the loveliness of daybreak.' but it is more on account of the beauty of the cuts than the poetry of the author that this book has been so much admired and so frequently reprinted. our illustration shows us where poliphilo in his dream visits a bevy of fair maidens in a garden. these nymphs are not very beautiful, but, though they have such high waists, remark how gracefully their figures are drawn, and look at the action and the drapery of the damsel running away. the engraving is, without doubt, an exact facsimile of the artist's drawing; the lines are clear and crisp, and are evidently the work of a practised hand. the drawing of the gateway and trees is simply conventional. we are sorry that we have not room for more of the illustrations of this remarkable work. in these early books it seems to have been nobody's business to record the name of the engraver who produced the illustrations, and, although the printer's name is generally very conspicuous in the colophon, the artist's name rarely, if ever, appears. but the work of certain masters of certain schools is generally recognised with ease, either by some peculiarity of manner, or by some particular mark. thus one artist, who, towards the end of the fifteenth century, illustrated a few books printed in italy, is known as 'the master of the dolphin,' because in most of his work this fish appears among the decorations. another is known to us only by the name of 'the illustrator of the "poliphilus,"' that quaint romance of colonna which has taken a proud place in literature, not for its own intrinsic merits, but { } rather on account of the beauty of its woodcuts, the name of whose author is still a matter of conjecture. we may here say a few words about aldo manuzio, better known in england by his latinised name, aldus manutius, the celebrated printer, and some of the other early printers of venice. one of the first to set up a press in venice was nicolas jenson, a frenchman, who had worked at mentz, and who was the first to cut and introduce roman type such as is now in use. at his death his business and plant were bought by a rich man, andrea torresano, of asola, and the work was carried on successfully. aldo manuzio, who was born at sermoneta, a village near velletri, in , received an excellent education, especially in greek; and the celebrated pico da mirandola made him tutor to his nephews, alberto and leonardo pio, lords of carpi. alberto pio, under his master's training, became a great lover of literature; and when aldo conceived the idea of starting a printing-press, the young lord advanced him the necessary funds, and gave him a house in venice near the church of sant' agostino. aldo then married a daughter of torresano, and the two printing businesses were joined and carried on together under aldo's direction. his house, we are told, was a veritable colony; besides the compositors' rooms and the press-rooms, he had closets for press-readers and studios for the special use of learned authors. the first 'printer's devil' was a little negro boy who had been brought by one of the men from greece. at the beginning of the sixteenth century the wood-engravers of florence were celebrated for beautiful book illustrations in a distinct style. those in the quatro reggie, florence, , are typical examples; their chief characteristics are, great breadth; masses of white and black { } evenly balanced; and the frequent use of white lines out of masses of black. [illustration: teobaldo manuzio--known as aldus, printer at venice] some of the fine borders to these early italian wood-engravings owe their distinctive character to earlier work of { } engravers on metal. thus the borders round the illustrations of the venice folio of of the triumphs of petrarch seem to be direct copies of engravings in metal by filippo lippi. the masses of white on a black background are very effective, and the strength of the colour increases the effect of the picture which the border surrounds. between and aldus printed for the first time the works of thirty-three greek authors. the works of aristotle, brought out in four volumes, occupied three years. a learned greek, musurus of crete, corrected the proofs, in which aldus himself assisted. the workmen were nearly all greeks. the greek type was copied from the handwriting of musurus, and the italian, known as the aldine, from the writings of petrarch; this was cut by the celebrated artist-goldsmith, francia of bologna. the aldine edition of virgil ( ), now exceedingly rare, was the first book printed in this italic type. notwithstanding all his learning, energy, and philanthropy, aldus did not succeed in his business. many of his books were pirated, wars and insurrections interrupted him, the league of cambray caused him to close his works from to , and he sold his books at a rate too cheap to be remunerative. the first printed edition of Æsop's fables, which appeared at verona as early as , and was reprinted at venice in , contains many excellent engravings inclosed in ornamental borders, thoroughly italian in character. the figures are not unlike those in the 'hypnerotomachia,' and we can readily imagine that they were drawn by the same artist, who has given us little more than outlines, which the engraver has well cut in facsimile. the fable of 'the jackdaw and the peacock' is particularly well done. an edition of ovid's metamorphoses appeared also at this time with tolerably good illustrations not so well engraved. there are some curious little cuts in the epistole di san hieronymo volgare, published in ferrara in , which { } are more valuable for their originality than their beauty, either of drawing or engraving. the book was evidently intended for the use of the illiterate, to whom the quality of the pictures laid before them was of little consequence if they told the story that was meant for them to read with their eyes. the homely scene of christ appearing like a gardener with a hoe on his shoulder, addressing mary magdalene in an italian _pergola_, would appeal to their feelings much more directly than the transfiguration of raphael. [illustration: a bootmaker's shop _from the 'decameron,' printed in venice in _] we do not find record of any other important wood-engravings in the history of printing in italy at the end of the fifteenth century. presses abounded everywhere, chiefly managed by germans; there was scarcely an important town in italy without a printer; few illustrated books, however, were issued at this time. an edition of boccaccio's { } 'decameron,' with many excellent cuts, one of which, representing a bootmaker's shop, we give as an illustration, was printed by the brothers gregorio at venice in . and there are some illustrations in a book called 'fiore di virtÙ,' which appeared in venice in the same year, that may be praised for the work of the wood-engraver, though the designer shows a sad ignorance of the laws of perspective and proportion. and we have before us an illustration to a poem by poliziano, in which giuliano dei medici is kneeling before the altar of the goddess minerva, where we see graceful drawing by the artist and fairly good engraving. it { } was printed in florence, but the type bears no comparison with the beauty of the aldine books. [illustration: frontispiece to a 'terence,' printed at lyons in ] the love of colour, which is born in all italians, led them to develop a process of making pictures in chiaroscuro--by printing several wood-blocks one upon another, each block giving a separate tint. in fact, it was the beginning of the modern colour-printing. the invention of the new process was claimed by ugo da carpi, who reproduced several of the designs of raphael. in the beginning of the next century we find pictures printed in four different colours--trying to imitate water-colour, or, rather, distemper drawings. (see p. .) at lyons, about the same time, there was an illustrated edition of 'terence' published, with well-executed woodcuts, from which we are able to give only the frontispiece, 'the author writing his book.' it is sufficient to show that the engraving is the work of a practised hand. * * * * * { } chapter vi _in france in the fifteenth century_ before we begin our brief history of wood-engraving in france it will be well to speak of the technical part of the new art in the fifteenth century. we have already stated that the engraving of the 'st. christopher' and other large prints were cut with a knife on planks of apple or pear or other close-grained wood; but there has always been much doubt about the small book illustrations which appeared in various countries quite at the end of the century. the discovery, however, of some engraved blocks of metal solved the difficulty. in those days workers in metal were to be found in all large towns; the age of moulding and casting everything that could be cast had not then arrived: of course, coins and medals were made in the foundry; but handwork of the most perfect kind on metal was as common as wood-carving for the churches. experts have discovered twisted lines in some of the old prints; a line in a woodcut may easily be broken but it can hardly be bent, and it is now asserted that many of the woodcuts, including the beautiful initial letters in fust and schoeffer's 'psalter,' were really engraved on metal. the view of london at the head of the first page of the _illustrated london news_ is, we are told, cut in brass; mulready's well-known envelope, engraved on brass by the celebrated wood-engraver, john thompson, may be seen in the south kensington museum; and scores of other examples of metalwork of this kind might be cited. { } [illustration: ornaments from 'heures a l'usaige de chartre' (_published by vostre_)] and there is no doubt that the famous illustrations of the missal, or 'book of hours,' issued in paris between and , were engraved on metal of some kind, perhaps on copper or some amalgam of tin and copper. there was a metal known as 'latten' in those days, and probably the engraving was done on some material of this kind, not too hard to cut, not too soft to wear away. it will be noticed that the groundwork of many borders in the french books is filled with little white dots, _criblé_ it was called; these dots are, in the first place, to imitate similar work in the gold grounds of the borders of illustrated missals, and, in the second place, to save the labour of cutting away so much of the metal as would be required for a white ground. these dots were evidently { } made by means of a sharp and finely-pointed tool driven by a blow into the metal. (see page .) france was not early in the field with illustrated books, but she quickly made up for the delay by the excellence of her work, more especially in ornament. in , pierre le rouge, a printer and publisher, sent forth a book, 'la mer des histoires,' which contains many charming designs, from which beautiful wall-papers we know of have been borrowed; they are as well engraved as similar work at the present day, and only needed better 'over-laying' by the pressman, an art but little practised at that time. this book contains the first decorative work by wood-engraving we have met with, and shows the great excellence of art in france at this period. there is a good example, though much reduced in size, among the illustrations of mr. william morris's paper 'on the woodcuts of gothic books,' that he read before a meeting of the society of arts in january : it is printed in the journal of the society for february th. besides le rouge, there were in paris at the end of the fifteenth and beginning of the sixteenth centuries four celebrated printers, who were also publishers, whose books command our attention. their names are simon vostre, antoine verard, thielman kerver, a german, and guyot marchant; they all published the 'book of hours,' illustrated and decorated by the best artists and engravers of their time. there was likewise a printer named philippe pigouchet, who was also an engraver on wood, and who began by cutting blocks for simon vostre, and afterwards turned publisher on his own account. an important point to notice in connection with the illustrations of french 'books of hours' at this time is that they are nearly all inspired by german artists and nearly all copied from illuminated mss. { } [illustration: the death of the virgin (_from a missal published by simon vostre_)] { } at the end of the fifteenth century the art of illumination was at its height in paris. no one excelled the exquisite work of jean foucquet, servant to the king, and jean perreal, painter to anne of brittany. manuscripts containing their miniature paintings command a large sum whenever they are offered for sale at the present day. these artists, it is said, gave their aid to the publishers of the 'book of hours' (_heures à l'usage de rome_), which had such an enormous sale that each publisher produced an edition for himself. mr. noel humphreys asserts, in his 'history of the art of printing,' that no fewer than sixty editions were published between and . in his 'introduction to the study and collection of ancient prints,' dr. willshire says: 'towards the end of the fifteenth and beginning of the sixteenth centuries some well-known french printers--pigouchet, jean dupré, antoine verard, and simon vostre--published some beautiful "books of hours," ornamented with engravings having some peculiar characters. the chief of these were that the ground and often the dark portions of the print were finely _criblé_ or dotted white, serving as a means of "killing black"--a practice then prevalent among french engravers; secondly, each page of text was surrounded by a border of little subjects engraved in the same manner, and often repeated at every third page.... not unfrequently they were printed in brilliant ink on fine vellum, that they might compete with the illuminated ms. "books of hours" then in fashion. the prints decorating these books have been generally considered to be impressions from wood.' but mr. linton says they are from engraved blocks of metal; and every practical man will, we are sure, agree with the great living master of wood-engraving. our first illustration is from a 'book of hours,' or missal, published by simon vostre in . it represents 'the death of the virgin,' a subject that was always chosen by the illustrator of religious books in those days; in our account of wood-engraving in the next two centuries we shall frequently meet with it among the works of the great artists. { } [illustration: the passion of our lord (_after a painting by martin schongauer. from a missal by simon vostre_)] { } the gothic framework of the cut is evidently borrowed from church ornament. the expression of the faces in the crowd of visitors is far in advance of anything we have seen hitherto in the german cuts; and the engraving, which was probably on metal, is evidently facsimile of the drawing and is remarkably well executed. the narrow border on the right of the cut is from an illuminated manuscript. in another of vostre's missals we find a copy of an engraving after the german painter, martin schongauer, 'christ bearing the cross,' enclosed in a french renaissance frame. in the sky there is a good example of the _criblé_ work of which we have spoken. the towers of jerusalem in the background must have been evolved from the artist's inner consciousness: he certainly never saw the holy city. antoine verard also published many 'livres d'heures,'[ ] very much like vostre's. we are told that he frequently printed a few copies on the finest vellum and had them coloured in exact imitation of the illuminated missals. one of verard's patrons was the duc d'angoulême, a noted bibliophile, who commissioned him to print on vellum the romance of 'tristan,' the 'book of consolation' of boethius, the 'ordinaire du chrétien,' and the 'heures en françois,' all with illuminated borders and handsome bindings. for this great amount of work verard received about l., then equivalent perhaps to , l. of the present day. we give an outline copy of one of the pages of the romance of 'tristan,' which will repay much attention both for the principal subject, the king's banquet, and the tapestry on the wall, which ought to be coloured to be properly appreciated. this famous publisher issued also a huge chronicle in five folio volumes, the 'miroir historical,' profusely illustrated with good wood engravings; the first volume in , the last in . { } [illustration: the king's banquet (_from the romance of 'tristan,' published by antoine verard_)] thielman kerver, the german, also brought out many 'books of hours,' copying those issued by simon vostre in a most barefaced way; indeed, piracy of this kind was rampant all over europe, and but little regarded. we give { } a reduced copy of kerver's book-mark; in the original it will be seen that the background is _criblé_, thus suggesting that it was cut on metal. [illustration: mark of thielman kerver] it was guyot marchant who produced, in , the first edition of the 'dance of death,' which contained seventeen engravings on ten folio leaves, with the text printed in the old gothic characters. this awe-inspiring but highly popular subject had been painted on the walls of many public buildings in germany and france, and in past ages it had always been a great favourite with the lower classes (many of our readers will remember a version of it on the walls of the curious old wooden bridge at lucerne, the designs of which have doubtless been handed down by tradition)--but { } marchant was the first who printed the story in a series of woodcuts, well drawn and admirably engraved, and he had his reward, for the work was reprinted over and over again. the pope, the emperor, the bishop, the duke and the duchess are given with much spirit, and are evidently the work of a clever draughtsman, who might, however, have made his death a little less hideous. but there was a great love of the horrible in those days. a special chapter might well be devoted to the beautiful marks used by french printers. guyot marchant's mark represents leather-workers engaged at their trade, and above are a few musical notes. there are two varieties of this device. the mark of jehan du pré is an elaborate piece of work, in which heraldry plays a conspicuous part, while that of antoine caillaut is pictorial. the le noirs used devices in which the heads of negroes figured prominently. the well-known mark of badius ascensius represents printers at work. jehan petit used several beautiful cuts, in which his mark forms part of an elaborate design. * * * * * { } chapter vii _in england in the fifteenth century_ in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries many of the finest churches in england were built by architects so celebrated that some of them were sent for to erect similar buildings in france. the beautiful carvings and highly decorated monuments still existing in our cathedrals prove that the art of sculpture in england was at that time little inferior to that of other countries. and in the british museum and bodleian library, and many private collections, there is plentiful evidence that the miniature painters and illuminators were but little behind their brethren in italy and france; even the binders, as we see by existing work, used excellent ornament in the decoration of the covers of their books. why is it, then, that we find the art of wood-engraving, when it was flourishing in all the chief countries on the continent, almost at its earliest state of infancy in england? this is a question very difficult to answer. certainly our great printers, william caxton, and his successors, wynkyn de worde and richard pynson, did not follow the example of the great typographers of venice or the yet more-to-be-praised booksellers of paris, who devoted so much energy and taste in the decoration of their books. of the few cuts printed in the fifteenth century, such as they are, we must say a few words. the earliest are all { } small devotional pictures, representing scriptural subjects, as 'the image of pity,' a figure of christ on the cross surrounded by emblems of the passion; four or five only of these early cuts have been found. william caxton, the first english printer, who was born in the weald of kent about the year , was apprenticed to robert large, a rich mercer of london, who was lord mayor in . in the following year the master died and caxton went to bruges, where he prospered in business, and in was made governor of a company of english merchants who traded in flanders, then the foremost mercantile country in the world. in caxton gave up commerce and attached himself to the court of margaret, duchess of burgundy, the sister of edward iv. at the request of the duchess, he then translated the _le recueil des histoires de troye_, written by raoul lefevre, and employed colard mansion of bruges to produce it. this was the first book printed in the english language. in passing his book through the press caxton learned the new art, and with type bought of colard mansion he set up the first printing-press in england, at the sign of 'the red pale' in the almonry at westminster, at the end of the year . 'the dictes and sayings of philosophers,' which appeared in , is believed to be the first book printed in england; this was followed by 'the morale prouerbes of cristyne,' and several other books, all without illustration. in he printed 'the mirrour of the world,' the first book printed in england with cuts, one of which we give as an example; and the more famous 'game and playe of the chesse,' from the second edition of which we have taken as a specimen 'the knight,' which caxton thus describes: 'the knyght ought to be maad al armed upon a hors in such wise that he have an helme on his heed and a spere in his right hond, and coverid with his shelde, a swerde and a mace on his left syde, clad with an halberke and plates tofore his breste, legge harnoys on his legges, spores on his heelis, on hys handes hys gauntelettes, hys hors wel broken and taught, and apte to bataylle, and coveryd with hys armes.' { } [illustration: music (_from caxton's 'mirrour of the world'_)] (orthography was not much regarded in those days.) this book is so rare and so keenly sought for that at the sale at osterley park in a perfect copy was bought for the enormous sum of , l. in appeared 'the golden legende,' considered to be his _magnum opus_, on account of the beauty of the typography; and about 'the talis of cauntyrburye' with cuts representing individual pilgrims, and one with all the pilgrims seated round a large table. it is { } said that caxton printed ninety-nine different works, of which sixty-four survive either in perfect books or in fragments, which may be consulted at the british museum. he produced the first printed edition of chaucer, lydgate, gower, and sir thomas malory's 'king arthur.' he was an accomplished linguist, and translated and published cicero's orations 'de senectute' and 'de amicitia,' virgil's 'Æneid' and many other classical works. [illustration: the knight (_from caxton's 'game and playe of the chesse'_)] with one exception none of his books has a title-page, though some have prologues and colophons; and the pages are not numbered. they are all printed in the gothic { } character known as 'black letter,' and nearly all are in small folio size. caxton, we are assured, received the patronage and friendship of all the great men of his time and was much esteemed throughout europe; and from a miniature painting in a beautiful manuscript in the library of lambeth palace we know that earl rivers presented him with his first book in his hand to the king, edward iv. it is supposed that he died at the end of in his sixty-ninth year. [illustration: wynkyn de worde's mark _with caxton's initials_] wynkyn de worde, caxton's pupil and successor, was a native of lorraine. he probably came over with him from bruges, and so attached was he to his master, and so highly did he esteem him, that in all the nine book-marks that de worde used, he always included the initials w. c. the mark we have given is of rare occurrence, and is one of the best pieces of engraving of the time. bibliographers have found four hundred books printed by him; among them is 'the golden legende,' with woodcuts ( ); a translation of 'huon de bordeaux,' from which shakespeare borrowed the plot of his 'midsummer night's dream'; and his best-known { } work, often reprinted, 'treatyses perteynynge to hawkynge and huntynge, and fyshynge with an angle,' by dame juliana berners ( ), which contains many woodcuts, one of which, a man fishing, is very quaint (_see engraving_). a book which was 'imprynted at london in flete street in ,' called 'pilgrymage of perfeccyon, a devoute treatyse in englysshe,' is illustrated by three curiously folded woodcuts. de worde was the first printer in england who used the roman type. several of his books have a woodcut on the title-page. in his 'history of wood-engraving,' mr. chatto gives his opinion about the cuts of this period:--'although i am inclined to believe that within the fifteenth century there were no persons who practised wood-engraving in this country as a distinct profession, yet it by no means follows from such an admission that caxton's and de worde's cuts must have been engraved by foreign artists. the manner in which they are executed is so coarse that they might have been cut by any person who could handle a graver. looking at them merely as specimens of wood-engraving, they are not generally superior to the practice-blocks cut by a modern wood-engraver's apprentice within the first month of his novitiate.' soon there were other printers in london. richard pynson began to publish books from his own press in fleet street. his first book illustrated with woodcuts appears to have been 'the canterbury tales,' printed before . in the following year pynson issued lydgate's 'falle of princis' with numerous small woodcuts by a master-hand, which appear too good to be english. { } [illustration: 'fyshynge wyth an angle' (_from 'the book of st. albans,' printed by wynkyn de worde in _)] for a 'sarum missal' of , he used some beautifully engraved borders and ornaments, as well as a large cut of archbishop morton's coat of arms. another of his important works was lord berners' translation of syr john froissart's 'cronycles of englande, fraunce, spayne, &c.' we give a { } copy of pynson's 'mark,' but we fear both this and de worde's were engraved on the continent. [illustration: richard pynson's mark] in , julian notary established an office from which twenty-three books have been traced. many of them have curious woodcuts, some of which seem to have descended to him from caxton and wynkyn de worde. we find the decoration of the covers of notary's works mentioned with approval in the early history of book-binding, which arrived at a much greater perfection than wood-engraving in this country at the close of the fifteenth century. * * * * * { } chapter viii _in germany in the sixteenth century_ we must now retrace our brief history to germany, where, under the immediate direction and control of such well-known artists as albrecht dürer of nürnberg (_b._ , d. ) and hans burgkmair of augsburg (_b._ , d. ), as well as of lucas cranach, a franconian (_b._ , d. ), and, afterwards, of hans holbein of augsburg (_b._ , d. ), the art of wood-engraving in its grandest and purest form arrived at its first culmination. this was in a great measure due to the liberal patronage of the emperor maximilian, who, possessing a great love of art, esteemed all painters, architects, designers, and engravers as highly as his warriors. he was fond of magnificence in a truly imperial way, and the superb series of wood-engravings--the noblest the world has ever seen--known as 'the triumphs of maximilian,' were the outcome of this generous tendency. of these celebrated works, which were not completed when the emperor died in , we must speak in their proper place. it was to the genius of albrecht dürer and the engravers who translated his drawings into woodcuts that the art received its new vigour. up to this time wood-engraving in germany had been the work of craftsmen who were little better than mechanics; but when dürer and burgkmair, who knew the capabilities of the art, made drawings on the wood expressly for the engravers to reproduce in exact lines, there { } was a quick improvement which went on increasing in excellence for more than half a century. after the death of holbein and his immediate successors, the art faded into insignificance in germany for many years. the first important work of the early life of albrecht dürer was a series of fifteen large drawings on wood representing allegorical scenes from the apocalypse. they are mystical, indeed almost incomprehensible; at the same time we are obliged to notice the tremendous vigour and the wonderful power of invention in the man who designed them. but his attempt to embody the supernatural led him into the most extravagant conceptions. 'in attempting to bring such themes within the power of expression which art possesses,' writes mr. woodbery, 'he strove to give speech to the unutterable.' yet the genius of the true artist was apparent through all his work. the most celebrated of the apocalypse designs is the fourth in the book, 'the opening of the first four seals,' a wonderfully grand conception of the four horsemen going forth to conquer; death on the pale horse below, and 'hell following him.' (revelation vi. .) king, burgher, peasant and priest, have all fallen beneath him. although we are expressly told that dürer himself printed this work in , it by no means follows that he engraved the woodcuts; they are greatly in advance of any previous work of the kind, and this may be attributed to the fact that the artist who designed them knew the best capabilities of the art. if he and the unknown engraver had learned the advantages of lowering the face of the wood when delicate lines were required, and the present methods of overlaying the cuts to produce greater intensity of colour, some of the engravings of dürer's time would be models of excellence. the series of the apocalypse was succeeded by three others in which the human interest is far greater. these were what the artist himself called 'the larger passion of { } our lord,' a series of eleven large cuts, with a vignette on the title-page; 'the life of the virgin,' a series of twenty cuts; and 'the smaller passion of our lord,' a series of thirty-six cuts of less size, with a well-known vignette of 'christ mocked' on the title-page. these works mark an important era in the history of wood-engraving and clearly led onwards to its future development. they were all published between and , and so great was their popularity that the celebrated italian engraver, marc antonio raimondi, reproduced the whole of 'the smaller passion' in copper-plate--much, as may be imagined, to dürer's annoyance. in the 'larger passion of our lord' we find representations of the last supper, christ on the mount of olives, the betrayal, the scourging, christ mocked, christ bearing his cross, the crucifixion, the resurrection, and other subjects from the new testament; and so deeply did the highly-wrought artist feel the awful importance of his subject that he repeated some of these events in at least five different series. in all of them his characters are dressed in the uncouth habiliments of german peasants, and we see bits of german villages; but in this respect he only followed the example of the great italian painters, who clothed the most sacred figures in the costumes of their own towns, and, when possible, gave an italian landscape for a background to their pictures of the holy land. the series of twenty large engravings called 'the life of the virgin' was published and sold by dürer himself in book form at about the same time ( ), and was equally well received by the german people, who were at that time in a state of religious ferment consequent on the preachings of martin luther, and dürer was one of his prominent disciples. { } [illustration: the virgin crowned by two angels. by albrecht dÜrer _engraved by jerome andre_ (_?_)] { } but it was the series of thirty-seven smaller woodcuts, known as 'the lesser passion,' that was most popular; in some measure, perhaps, because the prints are of a more handy size. all the subjects of 'the larger passion' are repeated, with variations, in this series, and twenty-five others from the life of christ are added. by a happy chance, thirty-five of the original woodcuts of this series are preserved in the british museum. in the year they were reprinted, by permission of the trustees, under the care of mr. henry cole. the wood was found to be much worm-eaten, but all injury was deftly repaired by mr. thurston thompson, and a small edition of the work was issued[ ] with an exhaustive introduction by mr. cole. the most admired of all the works of dürer are the large plates known as 'the knight, death, and the devil,' 'the conversion of st. eustace,' 'melencolia,' 'st. jerome in his chamber,' and several others which he engraved or etched on copper with his own hands and which he himself published. fine impressions of these marvellous works are now as eagerly sought for as celebrated rembrandt etchings. dürer made also many drawings on wood which were engraved and printed under his immediate supervision, and issued in separate sheets. of one of the most beautiful, of these, 'the virgin crowned by two angels,' we are able to give an impression which is an exact facsimile (reduced) of a print of the year . nothing of its kind can exceed the brilliancy of the original, the engraving is as nearly perfect as possible, and were it not for the hardness of the lines in the faces and other objects where softness is required, no craftsman of the present day could surpass its excellence as a product of the printing-press. many other separate large wood-engravings, after dürer's drawings, appeared between the years and , such as 'the holy family with the three rabbits,' 'st. jerome in his chamber,' 'the flight into egypt,' 'beheading of st. john the baptist,' and, among other strange subjects, a representation of a rhinoceros. { } dürer also designed a frontispiece to his own book of poems, published in . three magnificent books illustrated with woodcuts of great size, the 'theuerdank,' the 'werskunig,' and the 'freydal,' appeared in germany early in the sixteenth century. the first is an epic relating to the emperor maximilian's journey to burgundy on matrimonial affairs; it was published in . hans schaufelein drew the designs for a hundred and eighteen cuts, measuring ½ inches by ½ inches each. the second is in honour of the emperor's journeys in distant lands, and the third to celebrate his deeds of prowess. there are designs, chiefly by hans burgkmair of augsburg, in the 'werskunig'; the blocks are still preserved; they remained unused till long after the emperor's death, and were not published till . the 'freydal' has never been completed, though the designs are still in existence. _the triumphs of maximilian_ but we have yet to speak of 'the triumphs of maximilian.' this imperial work, the most important production of the art of wood-engraving the world has ever seen, was executed by command of the emperor maximilian to convey to posterity a pictorial representation of the magnificence of his court, the splendour of his victories, and the extent of his dominions. it consists of three distinct sets of designs: (i.) the 'triumphal arch,' (ii.) the 'triumphal car,' both from the hand of albrecht dürer, and (iii.) the 'triumphal procession,' by hans burgkmair. the size of the work is immense; if the whole series were laid out side by side it would cover about one hundred and ninety-two feet ( yards!) the drawings were made on pear-wood and were cut by about eleven different engravers, of whom the most famous was jerome of nürnberg. many of the original blocks are happily preserved in the imperial library at vienna, and on the backs of them are written the names or { } initials of the various engravers. it is evident, therefore, that at the beginning of the sixteenth century there was a recognised school of wood-engravers in germany of considerable importance. one of them, jobst de neger, or dienecker, came from antwerp; a few lived at nürnberg, others at augsburg. some idea of the 'triumphal arch' is conveyed to our mind when we learn that it was drawn on ninety-two separate blocks of wood, and that when properly joined it is ten and a half feet high and nine and a half feet wide! it was designed 'after the manner of those erected in honour of the roman emperors at rome;' there are three gateways or entrances--that in the centre is called the gate of honour and power, on the right is the gate of nobility, on the left the gate of fame, a part of which is seen in the illustration. the arch itself is decorated with portraits of the roman emperors from the time of julius cæsar, shields of arms showing the descent of the emperor and his alliances, representations of his most famous exploits, including his adventures while chamois-hunting in the tyrol, with explanatory verses in the german language cut in the wood. above the central entrance is a grand tower surmounted by a figure of fortune holding the imperial crown. the whole is a kind of epitome of the history of the german empire. the 'projector of the design' was hans stabius, who calls himself the historiographer and poet of the emperor. the work was begun in --four years before the emperor's death--and was not quite finished at the time of the death of the artist in . although we do not see the greatest excellence of dürer's peculiar genius in this immense production executed to order, for it is too full of german fantasies and very unlike the classic simplicity of the old roman arches, it will be found to contain the finest work of the wood-engraver at that period. some parts of it are of a marvellous delicacy that can hardly be surpassed. { } [illustration: the gate of fame (_from the 'triumphal arch' by albrecht dürer. engraved by jerome andre._)] { } the 'triumphal car,' also designed by dürer at the suggestion of stabius, is a richly decorated chariot drawn by six pairs of horses. in it the emperor in his imperial robes is seated under a canopy amid allegorical figures representing justice, truth, clemency, temperance, and the like, who offer to him triumphal wreaths. over the canopy is an inscription: quod . in . celis . sol . hoc . in . terra . caesar . est. the car is driven by reason with reins of nobility and power, and the horses are guided by female figures of swiftness, prudence, boldness, and similar equine virtues. the whole of the design is seven feet four inches in length and about a foot and a half in height. to modern eyes the car is not prepossessing, the figures of the attendant damsels are by no means elegant, and the horses would not, we fear, meet with the approval of english critics. it brings to us a reminiscence of the funeral car of the duke of wellington, which, we remember, was designed by a german artist. some parts of the decorations are excellent and the whole is well engraved. the 'triumphal procession' is still more important. it consists of a series of one hundred and thirty-five large cuts, which, joined together, would cover in length one hundred and seventy-five feet (upwards of yards!) a herald, mounted on a fantastic, four-footed winged gryphon, leads the procession; next follow two led horses bearing a tablet with these words, doubtless by stabius: 'this triumph has been made for the praise and everlasting memory of the noble pleasures and glorious victories of the most serene and illustrious prince and lord, maximilian, roman emperor elect, and head of christendom, king and heir of seven christian kingdoms, archduke of austria, duke of burgundy and of other grand principalities and provinces of europe.' more horses follow, then come falconers with hawks on their wrists, hunters of the chamois and the bear, behind them are elks and buffaloes, richly caparisoned stags four abreast, and camels drawing decorated chariots in which ride the musicians. { } [illustration: horsemen, three abreast, with banners (_from 'the triumphal procession' by burgkmair. cut by dienecker and other engravers_)] the emperor's favourite jester, conrad von der rosen, follows on horseback, bearing an immense flag; then come fools, fencing-masters, and soldiers of all kinds armed for every service, horsemen three abreast, with banners inscribed with the names of the great battles which the emperor had won, cars filled with trophies taken from conquered nations, among them the 'savages of calicut'--natives of india--one of them riding a huge elephant, and numerous other figures filled up the immense length of the engraving. { } [illustration: the savages of calicut (_from 'the triumphal procession' by burgkmair. cut by dienecker and other engravers_)] the whole work, though evidently intended to be a glorification of the great emperor, is much { } more valuable to us at the present day as a marvellous record of the barbaric magnificence of the middle ages, and an outward aspect of secular life. 'the ideal of worldly power and splendour, the spirit of pleasure and festival, is shown forth in this marvellously varied march of laurelled horses and horsemen, whose trappings and armour have the beauty and glitter of peaceful parade. there is nowhere else a work which so presents at once the feudal spirit and feudal delights in such exuberance of picturesque and feudal display.' dürer's designs for the 'prayer-book of maximilian' also claim a short notice. only three copies of the work are known to be in existence, one of which is in the british museum. the margins are full of fanciful designs; amid intertwining branches, birds are singing, apes are climbing, snakes creeping, and gnats flying. king david is charming a stork with his harp; a fox is playing a flute to poultry. it is a curious mixture of the sacred and profane, for which dürer has often been censured. the engraving of the subjects, which are in outline, is excellent. * * * * * { } chapter ix _hans holbein and hans lÜtzelburger_ hans holbein, who first saw the light at augsburg in the year , was the greatest artist ever born in germany, and as he passed half of his artistic life in england we may claim some little share in the glory of his undisputed eminence. the son of a worthy painter of sacred pictures for the church, he was brought up amidst all the paraphernalia of the studio, and at a very early age began to design title-pages, initial letters, and ornaments for numerous important books published by johann froben, valentine curio, and other printers of basel, and christoph froschover, of zürich. some of these folio title-pages, most of which are of an architectural character, are veritable works of art, and are greatly treasured at the present day. next we find him making illustrations for the new testament, some of which were engraved on wood and some on metal, probably by dienecker or lützelburger, though of this we have no direct evidence. but holbein's greatest fame, as a designer of book-illustrations, is derived from his well-known series of the 'dance of death,' which was first given to the world in the year , though from some proofs still in existence they are known to have been engraved before the artist's first visit to london in . it is believed that the original forty-one drawings on wood were all cut by hans lützelburger, who has been very properly called the 'true prince of wood-engravers,' for, in the opinion of our foremost critics, these 'dance of death' cuts are the masterpieces of the art at that period, excelling even the work of jerome andre of nürnberg on dürer's 'triumphal arch.' { } [illustration: holbein's dance of death the king] seventeen other designs were added to the 'dance of death' afterwards, making the complete series fifty-eight. the original blocks are lost; they have been copied on the continent many times, and were reproduced in england in perfect facsimile and in the very best manner under the superintending care of francis douce, a celebrated antiquary, by john and mary byfield and george bonner, all excellent engravers. accompanied by a learned dissertation by mr. douce, the work { } was published by william pickering[ ] in the year . it is from electrotypes of these blocks that we are enabled to present to our readers the designs of 'the king,' 'the queen,' 'the astrologer,' and 'the pedlar,' four of the best of the series. [illustration: holbein's dance of death the queen] wall-pictures of 'the dance of death,' with but little artistic merit, existed at a much earlier period, and some of them may still be traced in the cloisters of old cathedrals. the subject was a great favourite with both priest and people in the middle ages; it appealed to the feelings of rich and poor, old and young, and holbein's 'fearful' pictures, as soon as they appeared, met with immense popularity, which, to this day, has never ceased. { } [illustration: holbein's dance of death the astrologer] almost every class is represented in them--the king at his well-spread board is served by his fellow king, who fills his bowl; the queen, walking with her ladies, is led into an open grave; in a landscape, in which we see a flock of sheep, death appears to an aged bishop; here we see death running away with the abbot's mitre and crozier; there he visits the physician and the astrologer. in the church is a preacher who holds the people in awe, behind him is a preacher more dread still; the miser with his bags, the merchant with his bales, are alike surprised by death; the knight's armour is defenceless, the pedlar with his basket cannot escape, the waggoner with { } his wine-cart is overthrown. all are represented in their turn--the duchess in her bed, the poor woman in her hovel, the child who is ruthlessly taken from his mother. we can imagine the sensation which such a work would create among a very impressionable people at that season of religious ferment, the greatest the world has ever known. thirteen editions from the original blocks are known to have been printed between the years and . [illustration: holbein's dance of death the pedlar] about the same time another series of wood-engravings appeared, consisting of eighty-six designs by holbein, drawn on wood larger than the 'dance of death' blocks and just as well engraved, probably by lützelburger; these were 'scenes from old testament history,' generally known as 'holbein's bible cuts'; they were issued separately with descriptions in verse and were also used to illustrate bibles. { } [illustration: the happiness of the godly.--holbein's bible cuts _engraved by lützelburger_] this series was also reproduced by the same artists who cut the 'dance of death,' under the superintendence of mr. douce; and it is from electrotypes of these blocks that we are enabled to give our two bible illustrations, 'the happiness of the godly' (psalm i.), and 'joab's artifice' ( samuel xiv. ). they copy the original prints in exact facsimile, and, looking at them, one cannot but wonder at the high state of perfection to which the art of wood-engraving had attained nearly four hundred years ago. at that time, germany stood alone in its excellence; france, and even italy, were far behind her; and england and spain were nowhere. we ought to add that both the 'dance of death' and the 'bible cuts' were { } issued, with text, by the brothers trechsel, the celebrated publishers of lyons, in , when holbein must have been in england. a wonderful alphabet, with 'dance of death' figures, evidently designed by holbein, has hanns lützelburger (formschnider) genant franck printed at the foot of the page. these letters were probably engraved on metal. a 'peasant's dance' and 'children's sports,' designed as headings of chapters by the same artist, are well known, as they have been frequently reproduced. [illustration: joab's artifice.--holbein's bible cuts _engraved by lützelburger_] in the works of 'the little masters' who succeeded dürer and holbein we are not much concerned. albrecht altdorfer (d. ) was a designer as well as an engraver on wood. hans beham (d. ?) is best known by his { } twentysix designs from the apocalypse which mr. linton praises as of 'supremest excellence.' he says, moreover, that they were probably engraved on metal (perhaps copper), by beham himself, as well as his little bible cuts which were used to illustrate the first english bible. he also designed and perhaps engraved several large cuts, one of which, 'the fountain of youth,' is four feet long; another is 'the dance of the daughter of herodias,' reproduced by dr. lippmann. hans brosamer (d. ) designed and engraved pictures for books. heinrich aldegrever (d. ) is well known for his portraits of luther, melanchthon, and the notorious john of leyden. virgil solis (d. ) was a prolific book-illustrator; he designed a series of bible pictures, all of small size, as well as cuts for ovid's 'metamorphoses,' and for Æsop's fables; he also designed and probably engraved much ornament, especially for title-pages of books, some of which was very good. jost amman (d. ) is celebrated for his book of 'all ranks, arts, and trades,' with one hundred and thirty-two figures. (see page ). the religious books printed in germany at the end of the sixteenth century were altogether inferior as regards their illustrations, though a few are fairly designed and executed. ornamental borders, especially on title pages, were usual, and those designed by lucas cranach are of considerable merit. many of the german printers' marks or devices, which are very well engraved, were the work of some of the best artists of the times. these were but expiring efforts, and by the end of the century, owing to continual warfare and internal disturbances, the art of wood-engraving in germany was almost forgotten. * * * * * { } chapter x _in italy and france in the sixteenth century_ in the early years of the sixteenth century, the printers of florence issued many cheap popular books, chiefly _rappresentazioni_, i.e. plays, sacred or secular. these plays are generally badly printed in double columns, but they are illustrated with numerous cuts, some of which are of peculiar merit. the earliest known printer of them was francesco benvenuto (c. - ), but the majority appear to have been issued between and , anonymously, though we know that giovanni baleni of florence was the printer of some of these. there were also many quaint little tracts, metrical _novelle_ and _istorie_, of which a collection has been found at the university library, erlangen; a valuable description of them was published by dr. varnhagen. the poems are, as a rule, illustrated with small cuts, inclosed within a neat border, the subjects are usually well chosen, and the drawing very good; the treatment of some of the domestic scenes is worthy of bewick. { } [illustration: frontispiece of 'le sorti di marcolini' _by giuseppe porta venice _] [illustration: le pot-cassÉ (_device of geoffroy tory_)] in striking contrast to the simplicity of these popular wood-engravings are the elaborate engravings which appeared in the more expensive books issued in the latter half of the same century, when illustrated editions of dante, boccaccio, ovid, Æsop's fables, and alciat's 'emblems,' appeared, one after the other, but not one of these calls for { } special notice; nor did the best of their wood-engravings equal the work of lützelburger. the frontispiece of a curious book, _le sorti di marcolini da forli_, printed at venice in , of which we offer a reduced copy, gives us a good idea of the prevailing art of the period. it is said to be taken from a design by raphael for his celebrated picture 'the school of athens,' and we see by the tablet in the foreground that it was either drawn on the wood or engraved by joseph (giuseppe) porta, known as salviati, after his more celebrated master whom he accompanied to venice. in paris, in the first half of the sixteenth century, there lived a very celebrated printer, 'geoffroy tory, peintre et graveur, premier imprimeur royal, reformateur de l'orthographe, et de la typographie,' as he is described by his biographer, m. a. bernard (paris, ). he was born at bourges in , and in early life went to paris, where he not only wrote books and printed them, but designed ornamental borders and engraved them. he also studied his profession in italy, and brought back with him new ideas about printing and illustrating books. such a man had great influence at that time, for he had much inborn taste and excellent skill, and publishers should all be proud of him as one of their most praiseworthy ancestors. he adopted the singular design the _pot-cassé_, of which we give a copy, as his somewhat enigmatical device; and some writers maintain that the little 'cross of lorraine' (++) found on many of the cuts of this period is also his mark. { } [illustration: from 'les heures' printed by simon de colines _engraved by geoffroy tory_] { } in our illustration, taken from the _heures_, printed by simon de colines, this cross of lorraine will be seen under the kneeling priest. he made antique letters, he himself tells us, for monseigneur the treasurer for war, master jehan grolier, whom we know as one of the best patrons of book-binding; and wrote a book which he called '_champfleury, auquel est contenu l'art et science de la deue proportion des lettres ... selon le corps et le visage humain_,' a very learned and amusing treatise. some of the initial letters in this book are very cleverly designed and engraved--probably by the ingenious author. the picture of 'antoine macault reading his translation of diodorus siculus to the king' is said to have been engraved by tory; it is evidently either from a design by hans holbein or by an artist who copied his style. all the figures in this excellent engraving are portraits--the king (francis i.), his three sons, and his favourite nobles. it is the best cut that was issued at paris at this time. geoffroy tory died in , though his workshop was carried on for many years afterwards. among other woodcuts of this period we find a small portrait of the poet nicholas bourbon, dated . as this is a direct copy of the portrait of the same individual, undoubtedly by holbein, which is now at windsor castle, and as the ornamentation is quite in holbein's style, we cannot doubt that this celebrated painter had frequent relations with the publishers on the continent in the first half of the sixteenth century. { } [illustration: antoine macault reading his translation of diodorus siculus to king francis i. _designed by holbein. engraved by geoffroy tory?_] { } another celebrated printer who enjoyed the patronage of the king was robert estienne, who, by some curious perversity, is frequently spoken of by english scholars and biographers as robert stephens, simply because, following the fashion of the day, he often latinised his name and signed robertus stephanus. estienne was, next to aldo manuzio of venice, the most learned of printers, and deserves to be held in due reverence. the most important illustrated book he published was 'the lives of the dukes of milan,' by paulus jovius (paris, ). this work has sixteen portraits of the dukes, well engraved, some say by geoffroy tory himself, but this is a matter of dispute, though they certainly were cut in his workshop. among the most characteristic works of the wood-engraver in the middle of the century were two large processions, 'the triumphal entry of king henri ii. into paris,' published by roville of lyons, in , and 'the triumphal entry into lyons,' issued in the following year. these prints were designed either by jean cousin or cornelis de la haye, but the name of the engraver is nowhere mentioned. they are somewhat similar to 'the triumph of maximilian,' by burgkmair, but are not nearly so important as works of art, and did nothing to raise the character of wood-engraving. in the books published in the second half of the century we frequently meet with the name of bernhard salomon (born at lyons in ), generally called le petit bernard, who made designs for alciat's 'emblems' (a.d. ) and ovid's 'metamorphoses' (a.d. ), which were engraved in the workshop of geoffroy tory, and published by jean (or hans) de tournes, of lyons. bernard's style was much influenced by the italian painters rosso and primaticcio, who had been invited by the king to decorate fontainebleau, and may be easily recognised by the extreme height and tenuity of his figures, and by the peculiar ornament which he used as framework for his drawings. another book containing equally good illustrations is _ghesneden figuera wyten niewen testamente_ ('engraved figures from the new testament'), adorned with ninety-two small cuts besides the title-page and initial letters; these were drawn and probably engraved by guilliame borluyt, { } citizen of ghent, and published by jean de tournes of lyons in . from the fineness of the lines and other indications we suspect these designs were cut on metal, which was much used at this time instead of wood. through the kindness of messrs. h. s. nichols & co., of soho square, who possess an excellent copy of this very rare book, we are enabled to offer our readers two cuts, 'the woman of samaria' and 'christ scourged,' of the same size as the originals. the publishers of lyons were celebrated from the end of the fourteenth to the middle of the fifteenth century for their dainty little books, which were very prettily illustrated. [illustration: christ and the woman of samaria _by guilliame borluyt_] we must not conclude this chapter without mentioning another celebrated publisher, christophe plantin of antwerp. he was born at saint-avertin, near tours, in , and at an early age apprenticed to a printer and book-binder, robert macé, at caen; thence he went to paris, whence wars soon drove him away. he next took refuge at antwerp, where he employed himself in binding books and making leather boxes, _coffrets_, curiously inlaid and gilt. { } [illustration: the scourging of christ _by guilliame borluyt_] by mistake he was, one dark evening, stabbed with a sword, and he afterwards suffered so much pain from the wound that he could not stoop without feeling it: consequently he turned to the business of a printer, and soon became the most celebrated man of the day in that craft. philip ii. of spain made him his chief printer, and under royal orders plantin produced the well-known polyglot bible in eight folio volumes ( - ). he had previously printed some smaller books of emblems ( ), and _devises héroïques_ ( ), and had employed pierre huys, lucas de heere, godefroid ballain, and other artists, to illustrate them. he died in . his second daughter married jean moret, one of the overseers of { } the printing-office, and the business known as 'plantin-moretus' continued to prosper up to the present century. a few years since the offices were bought by the city authorities, and the plantin museum is now one of the principal attractions of antwerp. in his various works plantin used many woodcuts, but most of his title-pages have borders executed by wierix, pass, and other celebrated copperplate engravers. his device was a hand with a pair of compasses, and his motto _labore et constantia_. the history of wood-engraving and wood-engravers in holland forms the subject of a monograph from the pen of mr. w. m. conway ('the woodcutters of the netherlands,' cambridge, ). the list commences with a louvain engraver, who worked for veldener in , and about the same time for john and conrad de westphalia. most of the greater dutch towns had wood-engravers, and the work of these artists appears in many of the books printed in the low countries. as in france, many of the printers' marks are very good. it was in this century that publishers began to illustrate their books with copperplate engravings, which soon came into general use, and these plates for many years, to a very great extent, superseded engraving on wood. etchings by the artist's own hands are also frequently met with, and to these causes we may in a great measure attribute the decay of the formschneider's art for at least two centuries. * * * * * { } chapter xi _in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries in germany, italy and england_ in the portfolios of collectors of works of art of the sixteenth century we frequently meet with very interesting examples of printing in _chiaro-oscuro_, as it was called, by means of successive impressions of engraved wood-blocks. sometimes two or three blocks were used, sometimes six or eight, in all cases with the intention of reproducing the appearance of a tinted water-colour drawing or an oil-painting. those prints which were the least ambitious were the most successful, they were generally printed in various shades of grey and brown--from light sepia to deep umber--and sometimes the effects are admirable. a well-known designer and engraver on wood, ugo da carpi (c. ), introduced this new style of printing into venice, and other artists, antonio da trento, andrea andreani, bartolomeo coriolano, and others made many successful efforts in a similar direction; their best works are much prized. at the same time a group of venetian artists, who were also engravers on wood, distinguished themselves by copying the works of titian and other italian painters. the most celebrated of these engravers were nicolo boldrini, francesco da nanto, giovanni battista del porto, and giuseppe scolari, who all flourished between the years and . their { } productions, which are on a large scale, are greatly valued by artists. near the end of the century a book of costume entitled _habiti antichi e moderni di tutto il mondo_ was designed and published at venice by cesare vecellio, who is said to have been a nephew of the great titian. this work contains nearly six hundred figures in the costume of every age and country, admirably drawn and engraved; indeed, they are the best examples of the art of wood-engraving in italy at the time. this excellent work was reproduced in their well-known style by messrs. firmin, didot & cie in two volumes (paris, ). an edition of 'dante' published by the brothers sessa at venice in is well illustrated with good woodcuts. german artists were also bitten at this time with a mania for reproducing pictures by means of colour blocks. the results, however, were much more curious than beautiful. we have before us a copy of a painting designed by altdorfer, one of the 'little masters,' of 'the virgin with the holy infant on her lap,' set in an elaborate architectural frame. in this print at least eight different colour-blocks were used, among them a deep red and a vivid green. the printer's register has been fairly well kept, and the mechanical part of the work is worthy of all praise; but we fear the effect on most of our readers would be to produce anything but admiration. a saint christopher, designed and probably engraved by lucas cranach, printed in black and deep umber, only with the high lights carefully cut out of the latter block, is much more satisfactory. in the middle and towards the end of the sixteenth century there were several excellent wood-engravings published in london in illustration of foxe's 'book of martyrs' ( ), holinshed's 'chronicles of england, scotland, and ireland' ( ), 'a booke of christian prayers' ( ), and other works, chiefly from the press of the celebrated john daye. { } [illustration: portrait of john daye, the celebrated printer of foxe's 'book of martyrs,' a.d. ] { } as an example we give one of the illustrations of holinshed's chronicles as a frontispiece. there can be no doubt that holbein designed it; the ornamentation alone would almost prove it to be from his hand. the title-page of the 'bishops' bible,' printed about the same time, has a finely engraved border, representing the king handing the volume to the bishops, who in turn present it to the people. there are many woodcuts in the text, but they are of very low merit. we give an illustration of 'a booke of christian prayers,' known as queen elizabeth's prayer-book, from a fine portrait of her majesty kneeling on a handsome cushion, with clasped hands before a kind of altar. the queen's dress is magnificent, and the ornamentation of the whole design is of a similar character. it is an excellent piece of engraving, and we are able to give a facsimile of it, cut about sixty years ago by george bonner. mr. linton thinks the original was on metal; who engraved it is at present unknown. we fear there was no one in england who could produce such work, nor can anyone tell who made the design. it is printed on the back of the title-page, which is decorated with a border of a 'jesse-tree,' with a figure of jesse at the foot and the virgin with the holy infant on her lap at the head. there are woodcut borders to each of the pages, all betraying german origin, and evidently by different hands. a few floral designs and single figures of 'temperance,' 'charity,' and the like are the best. among the rest is a series of 'dance of death' pictures, but _not_ by holbein. another edition of this work was printed in at london, 'by richard yardley and peter short for the assignes of richard day dwelling in bred-street hill at the signe of the starre.' [doubtless this was on the site of the present printing office of richard clay & sons.] richard day was a son of john day or daye, as we often find the name printed. { } [illustration: elizabetha regina (_from 'a booke of christian prayers.' printed by john daye, london, ._)] { } another illustrated book, 'the cosmographical glasse, conteinyng the pleasant principles of cosmographie, geographie, hydrographie or navigation. compiled by william cuningham, doctor in physicke' (of norwich), was printed by john day in , with many cuts. in the ornamental title-page there is a large bird's-eye view of the city of norwich, with a mark of the engraver, i. b. there is also a large and well-engraved portrait of the author, 'ætatis ,' a rather sad-looking young man; and many initial letters, some of which have a small i. d. at the foot, which probably tell us that john day himself engraved them. others have a small i inside a larger c, and this monogram appears frequently on the small cuts in the border of queen elizabeth's book of prayers. john day tells us in a work published in that the saxon type in which it is printed was _cut_ by himself. john day was a great friend of john foxe, and assisted him in producing his celebrated 'acts and monuments of the church,' generally known as his 'booke of martyrs.' in the 'acts and monuments,' printed in , there is a large initial c, evidently drawn and engraved by the artists who produced the queen's portrait. in this initial, elizabetha regina is seen seated in state, with her feet resting on the same cushion that appears in the larger print, attended by three of her privy councillors standing at her right hand. a figure of the pope with two _broken_ keys in his hands forms part of the decoration of the base; an immense cornucopia reaches over the top. early in the seventeenth century we meet with the name of an excellent wood-engraver at antwerp, christoph jegher, who worked for many years with peter paul rubens, and produced many large woodcuts. we are enabled to give a much-reduced copy of a 'flight into egypt,' which in the original is nearly twenty-four inches in length. underneath appears the inscription, _p. p. rub. delin. & excud._, from which we learn that rubens himself superintended the { } printing, for _c. jegher sculp._ appears on the other side. some of this series of cuts were printed with a tint of sepia over them in imitation of the italian chiaro-oscuro prints of the previous century. christoph jegher was born in germany in (?) and died at antwerp in . he lived through many tempestuous years and did much good work. a contemporary wood-engraver named cornelius van sichem, living at amsterdam, produced a few excellent cuts from drawings by heinrich goltzius (d. ), who copied the italian school. [illustration: the flight into egypt. by rubens _reduced copy of the engraving by c. jegher_] at the end of the seventeenth century the art of wood-engraving reached its lowest ebb. there were a few tolerably good mechanical engravers on the continent, who were { } chiefly employed in the manufacture of ornaments for cards, and head and tail pieces for books and ballads, but nearly all the woodcuts we meet with in english books are of the most childish character. the rage for copper-plate engravings had set in with so much vigour among all the printers and publishers that the poor wood-engraver was well-nigh forgotten. in london a new edition of 'Æsop's fables,' edited by dr. samuel croxall, and illustrated with many woodcuts much better engraved than was customary at the time, was published by jacob tonson at the shakespear's head, in the strand, in . we do not learn the names of the artists. in elisha kirkall engraved and published seventeen views of shipping, from designs by w. vandevelde, which he printed in a greenish kind of ink; and in a portfolio full of woodcuts in the print room of the british museum mr. w. j. linton recently discovered a large card of invitation (query--to a wedding?) from mr. elisha and _mrs._ elizabeth kirkall, dated '_august_ the st, . printed at his majesty's printing office in _blackfryers_,' which is very firmly and boldly engraved, probably in soft metal. on the left of the royal arms, fame, blowing a trumpet, holds up a circular medallion portrait of guttenburgh (we follow the spelling); a similar figure on the right holds the portrait of w. caxton and a scroll; at the foot, in the middle, is a view of london bridge over the thames, with the monument and st. paul's cathedral, and on either side is a cupid--one with a torch and a dove, with masonic emblems at his feet, the other with attributes of painting, sculpture, and music. the cupids are very like the fat-faced little cherubim we so constantly meet with on seventeenth-century monuments, though mr. linton has nothing but praise to give to the engraving, which he says is the first example of the use of the 'white line' in english work. in paris there was a family of three generations of { } engravers named papillon, who illustrated hundreds of books with small and very fine cuts, in evident imitation of the copper-plates then so much in vogue. jean michel papillon, the youngest of them, published a _traité historique et pratique de la gravure en bois_, in two volumes with a supplement, which, though full of credulous errors, has been of inestimable service to all writers on the history of wood-engraving. this papillon was probably in england at one time, for he received a prize from the society of arts. he was born in the year , began to engrave blocks when only eight years old, and lived till the year . * * * * * { } chapter xii _thomas bewick and his pupils_ in the year , the society for the encouragement of arts offered a series of small money premiums for the best engravings on wood. these prizes were won by thomas hodgson, william coleman, both then living in london, and thomas bewick, of newcastle, who sent up for competition five engravings intended to illustrate a new edition of 'gay's fables.' it is of the last of these three--who received an award of seven guineas, which he immediately gave over to his mother--that we have now to write. he was born at cherryburn, a farmhouse on the south bank of the tyne, in the parish of ovingham, about twelve miles from newcastle, in august . this we learn from an inscription now over the door of the 'byre,' or cowshed, which is still standing. his father was a farmer, who also rented a small coal-pit at mickley, close by. after having received a fair education at local schools and at ovingham parsonage, young thomas, who had shown a great love of drawing, was in october apprenticed to ralph beilby, a general engraver, in st. nicholas' churchyard, newcastle. here the boy learned to cut diagrams in wood, engrave copper-plates for books, tradesmen's cards, etch ornament on sword-blades, and other work of the kind, much as hogarth had done some fifty years before him; and, as luck would have it, his master received an { } order to engrave a series of wood-blocks to illustrate a 'treatise on mensuration' written by mr. charles hutton, a schoolmaster in newcastle--afterwards dr. hutton, a fellow of the royal society. this work was issued in fifty sixpenny numbers, and published in a quarto volume in . it was on this book that thomas bewick trained his 'prentice hand in the art in which he was afterwards to become so famous. at the end of his apprenticeship in , he worked with his old master for a short time at a guinea a week; then he went to live for a time at cherryburn, and in , with three guineas sewed in his waist-band, he walked to edinburgh, glasgow, and northwards to the highlands, always staying at farm-houses on the road. he returned to newcastle in a leith sloop, and, after working till he had earned sufficient money, took a berth in a collier for london, where he arrived in october and soon found several newcastle friends. but london life did not suit this child of the country-side. 'i would rather be herding sheep on mickley bank top,' he writes to a friend, 'than remain in london, although for so doing i was to be made premier of england.' soon after his return to newcastle he joined his old master in partnership, and took his younger brother, john, as an apprentice, and for eight years the brothers made a weekly visit to cherryburn, often fishing by the way. in the year , their mother, father, and eldest sister all died, and in the following year thomas bewick married isabella elliot, of ovingham, one of the companions of his childhood. he was at that time living in the 'fine, low, old-fashioned house'--with a long garden behind it, in which he cultivated roses--formerly occupied by dr. hutton; and going daily to work in the old house overlooking st. nicholas' churchyard. we have previously said that the early wood-engravings were cut with a knife, held like a pen and drawn towards the craftsman, on 'planks' of the soft wood of the pear or { } apple-tree, or some similar tree. it is believed that bewick was the first who used the wood of the box-tree, which is very hard, and who made his drawings on the butt-ends of the blocks, and cut his lines with the graver pushed from him. he brought into practice what is known as the 'white line' in wood-engraving; that is, he produced his effects more by means of many white lines wide apart to give an appearance of lightness, and by giving closer lines to produce a grey effect, as in our cut of 'the yellowhammer.' he gave up the old method of obtaining 'colour,' as it is termed, by means of cross-hatching, and used a much simpler and more expeditious way of giving depth of shadow by leaving solid masses of the block, which of course printed black--and he constantly adopted the plan of lowering the wood in the background, and such parts of the block as were required to be printed lightly. [illustration: the yellowhammer (_from_ '_the land birds_')] { } the first book of real importance that was illustrated by thomas bewick was the 'select fables' published by saint of newcastle in ; this is now very rare; there is, however, a copy in the british museum (press-mark g ) which can at all times be consulted. most of the designs are derived from 'croxall's fables,' and many of these were copied from the copper-plates by francis barlow in his edition of Æsop, published 'at his house, the golden eagle, in new street, near shoo lane, .' though bewick improved the drawings, there was little originality in them, but the engravings were far in advance of any other work of the kind done at that period. the success of this book induced him to carry out an idea he had long entertained of producing a series of illustrations for a 'general history of quadrupeds,' on which he was engaged for six years, making the drawings and engraving them mostly in the evening. he tells us he had much difficulty in finding models, and was delighted when a travelling menagerie visited newcastle and enabled him to depict many wild animals from nature. it was while he was employed on this work that he received a commission to make an engraving of a 'chillingham bull,' one of those famous wild cattle to which sir walter scott refers in his ballad, 'cadyow castle': 'mightiest of all the beasts of chase that roam in woody caledon.' he made the drawing on a block ¾ inches by ½ inches, and used his highest powers in rendering it as true to nature as he could; it is said that he always considered it to be his best work. after a few impressions had been taken off on paper and parchment, the block, which had been carelessly left by the printers in the direct rays of the sun, was split by the heat; and, though it was in after years clamped in gun-metal, no impressions could be taken which did not show { } a trace of the accident. happily, one of the original impressions on parchment may be seen in the townsend collection in the south kensington museum. meanwhile the 'quadrupeds' were going on bravely: ralph beilby compiled the necessary text, which bewick revised where he could, and in the book was published. it sold so well that a second edition was issued in , and a third in . since then it has been frequently reprinted. [the first edition consisted of , copies in demy octavo at s., and in royal octavo at s. the price of the eighth edition, with additional cuts, published in , was one guinea.] [illustration: tail-piece (_from 'the quadrupeds'_)] besides the engravings of quadrupeds, the best that had appeared up to that time, the numerous tail-pieces which bewick drew from nature charmed the public immensely. we give an example, one of them in which a small boy, said to be a young brother of the artist, is pulling a colt's tail, while the mother is rushing to his rescue. this little cut gives an admirable idea of their style. many of them are humorous, many very pathetic, many grimly sarcastic, and all perfectly original. { } [illustration: the woodcock (_from 'the water birds'_)] as soon as the success of the 'quadrupeds' was assured, bewick commenced without delay his still more celebrated book, the 'history of british birds.' in making the drawings for this work he was much more at home, for he knew every feathered creature that flew within twenty miles of ovingham, and it was all 'labour of love.' he worked with all his soul first at the 'land birds' and afterwards at the 'water birds,' and it is on these two books that bewick's fame both as a draughtsman and an engraver principally rests. we give a copy of the 'yellowhammer,' which the artist himself considered to be one of his best works, and the 'woodcock,' in which all the excellences of his peculiar style may readily be traced. the first volume, the 'land birds,' appeared in , and was received with rapture by all lovers of nature. again, { } the tail-pieces, pictures in miniature, were applauded to the skies, and the gratified author was beset on all sides with congratulations. mr. beilby wrote the descriptions as before, and performed his work very creditably. [illustration: a farmyard (_from 'the land birds'_)] the partnership between ralph beilby and thomas bewick was dissolved in , and the descriptions to the second volume, 'the water birds,' which did not appear till , were written by bewick himself, and revised by the rev. h. cotes, vicar of bedlington. it is known that bewick was assisted in the tail-pieces by his pupils, robert johnson as a draughtsman, and luke clennell as an engraver, but it is certain that every line was done under his immediate superintendence, and no doubt the originator of these excellent works was beginning to feel that he was no longer young. { } [of the first edition of the 'land birds' , were printed in demy octavo at s. d., on thin and thick royal octavo, at s. and s., and twenty-four on imperial octavo at £ s. the first edition of the 'water birds' in consisted of the same number of copies as that of the 'land birds,' but the prices were increased respectively to s., s., s., and £ s.] the only book of importance on which bewick was engaged after was an edition of 'Æsop's fables,' which was published in . mr. chatto says: 'whatever may be the merits or defects of the cuts in the fables, bewick certainly had little to do with them--for by far the greater number were designed by robert johnson and engraved by w. w. temple and william harvey, while yet in their apprenticeship.' bewick amused himself by re-writing the fables, to which he contributed a few of his own, but he was in no sense a literary man, and several of his greatest admirers openly expressed their disappointment at the book; even his supreme advocate, dr. dibdin, said: 'i will fearlessly and honestly aver that his "Æsop" disappointed me.' in bewick lost his wife, who left to his care one son and three daughters. in the summer of he visited london alone; he was not in good health, took but little interest in what was going on, and soon longed to return home. there he was busy as ever on a large cut of an old horse 'waiting for death' (which mr. linton has faithfully copied). early in november he took the block to the printers to be proved, and after a few days' illness, he died on november , . he was buried in ovingham churchyard, where a tablet is erected to his memory. but his books are his true monument, and they will live for ever. * * * * * { } chapter xiii _thomas bewick's successors_ it redounds greatly to the glory of thomas bewick that the important advance in the art of wood-engraving which was due to his talents and his industry did not die with him. he left behind him several eminent successors, whose influence is felt to the present day. his brother john, seven years younger than himself, was his first pupil, and to him we are indebted for the illustrations to a work called 'emblems of mortality,' , copied from holbein's 'dance of death,' the 'looking-glass for the mind,' and 'blossoms of morality,' . of these, the cuts in the 'looking-glass for the mind' are decidedly the best, and after examining them carefully we cannot but regret that the artist was taken away so young. his drawings are very unlike those of his elder brother, and are certainly more graceful--we give one as an example of their style. two other books, 'poems,' by goldsmith and parnell, , and somerville's 'chase,' , also contain some of his best work; they were printed in quarto by bulmer, 'to display the excellence of modern printing and wood-engraving.' for the former of these, john bewick made most of the drawings, in which he was assisted by the clever artist, robert johnson, a fellow-pupil, and nearly all were engraved by thomas and john bewick, and a few by another pupil, charlton nesbit. { } for 'the chase,' john bewick made all the drawings except one, and nearly all were engraved by his brother. for five or six years john bewick lived in london, till ill-health compelled him to return to his native place, where he died in the same year in which somerville's 'chase' was published. he was buried in ovingham churchyard, where a tablet is erected to his memory. [illustration: little anthony. by john bewick _from 'looking-glass for the mind'_] robert elliot bewick, the only son of thomas bewick, was trained to the business of wood-engraver, and at one time, over the window of the house in st. nicholas' churchyard, there was a board with an inscription 'bewick and son, _engravers and copper-plate printers_.' robert suffered much from ill-health and turned his attention to drawing rather than engraving. he died in , leaving fifty beautiful designs for a 'history of fishes,' which he had long in contemplation as a companion volume to his father's works. { } these drawings, the gift of the last of bewick's daughters, are now in the british museum. the most celebrated of bewick's other pupils were charlton nesbit, born at shalwell, near gateshead, in ; luke clennell, born at ulgham, a village near morpeth, in ; and william harvey, born near newcastle in . nesbit engraved a few of the tail-pieces in the 'land birds,' and most of the head and tail pieces in the 'poems' of goldsmith and parnell. he also engraved, from a drawing by robert johnson, a large block, inches by inches, of st. nicholas church, newcastle, which at the time was considered a triumph of art. about the end of the century nesbit migrated to london, where for many years he was employed by rudolph ackermann and other publishers in engraving the drawings of the artist, john thurston, whose work was at that time very popular. in nesbit returned to shalwell, where he continued to reside till , doing but little work besides the engraving of 'rinaldo and armida' for savage's 'hints on decorative printing,' after a design by thurston. this is considered to be his best work. he then went back to london, and was chiefly engaged in engraving drawings by william harvey for the second volume of northcote's 'fables.' he died at queen's elms in november , aged . mr. chatto says: 'nesbit is unquestionably the best wood-engraver that has proceeded from the great northern hive of art--the workshop of thomas bewick.' the story of luke clennell's life is very sad. like many other artists, he showed an early disposition to make sketches on his slate instead of 'doing sums,' and was often reproved; his uncle sympathised with him, and in apprenticed him to thomas bewick for the usual seven years, during which time he engraved many of the tail-pieces to the 'water birds' and learned to make water-colour drawings from nature. when his apprenticeship was over he assisted bewick in the illustrations to a 'history of england,' { } published by wallis and scholey, in which nisbet had also joined, but finding that bewick was paid five pounds for each cut, while he received only two pounds, clennell sent some specimens of his abilities to the publishers, who immediately offered him work in london, where he arrived in the autumn of . two years afterwards he received the gold palette of the society of arts for a wood-engraving of a battle-scene, and soon afterwards he was engaged on illustrations to new editions of beattie's 'minstrel,' , and falconer's 'shipwreck,' . about this time he married the eldest daughter of charles warren, a well-known line engraver, and became intimate with abraham raimbach and other artists whose friendship was of much service to him. his most important work as a wood-engraver was the 'diploma of the highland society,' a large block ½ inches by ½ inches, of which we give a much-reduced copy. benjamin west made the original design on paper, clennell himself drew the highlander and fisherman on the wood, and gave thurston fifteen pounds to fill in the circle with britannia and her attendant groups. after he had worked on the block, which was of boxwood veneered upon beech, for about two months, the same fate befell it that had ruined bewick's 'chillingham bull'; one evening, while he was at tea, the boxwood split with a loud report, and it is said poor clennell threw the tea-things into the fire! this was the sad beginning of a long malady. taking courage, however, he procured a block made of pieces of solid boxwood firmly clamped together, paid thurston again for drawing the central groups, and, after much labour, produced his _chef d'oeuvre_, for which he received guineas from the highland society, and was further rewarded with the gold medal of the society of arts, may , . this second block likewise met with an untimely fate; it was burnt in the fire at bensley's printing-office. john thompson afterwards engraved it in fac-simile. a copy of clennell's original engraving, bequeathed by mr. john { } thompson, may be seen in the art library at south kensington. [illustration: diploma of the highland society _engraved by luke clennell_] among the best wood-engravings by clennell we may rank the illustrations designed by stothard as head and tail pieces for a small edition of rogers's 'pleasures of memory,' . they were drawn in pen and ink, and engraved in facsimile with charming spirit and fidelity. after this time, clennell, who could work beautifully in water-colours, gave up engraving and exhibited drawings and paintings at the academy, the british institution, and the exhibition of painters in water-colours at their room in spring gardens. in march , the british { } institution set aside , guineas for premiums for the best oil-paintings illustrating the career of wellington. one of these premiums was awarded to clennell for his 'charge of the life guards at waterloo,' a picture full of spirit, which was afterwards engraved. in the earl of bridgewater gave him a commission to paint 'the banquet of the allied sovereigns in guildhall.' he experienced great difficulty in obtaining sitters for the necessary portraits, and suffered so much from anxiety that, although in april he had nearly conquered all his troubles, he suddenly lost his reason. this so much affected his wife that she also became insane and soon died. by the advice of his friends poor clennell was sent to live with a relation who resided near newcastle, and there he lingered till february , when he died, leaving three children, who were for a time supported in a great measure by the committee of the artists' fund and by the profits of the engraving of the 'charge of the life guards.' william harvey was apprenticed to bewick in and was his favourite pupil. he frequently made drawings on the wood after the designs of robert johnson, and engraved many of the cuts in 'bewick's fables,' . on new year's day bewick presented him with a copy of his 'history of british birds' in two volumes, which he always showed to his friends with much pride. in september harvey came to london and, to improve his knowledge of drawing, took lessons of an excellent master--b. r. haydon. while under his tuition harvey copied his picture of the 'assassination of dentatus' on a large block, and engraved it with most elaborate care. this cut has always been greatly admired by the profession, who point to the variety of the lines of engraving in the right leg of dentatus as being a triumph of their art. if we can find any fault with this celebrated work, it is that, to use mr. chatto's words, 'more has been attempted than can be efficiently { } represented by means of wood-engraving'--it is, in fact, too much like an attempt to rival copper-plate line-engraving. about the year harvey had so many commissions for designs for both copper-plates and woodcuts that he gave up entirely the practice of engraving, and devoted himself to drawings for the illustration of books. his first successes were his vignettes for dr. henderson's 'history of ancient and modern wines,' , the illustrations to northcote's 'fables,' and , the 'tower menagerie,' , 'gardens and menagerie of the zoological society,' , and 'the children in the wood' and a 'story without an end,' . but perhaps his most characteristic designs were the illustrations to lane's 'thousand and one nights' in - ; these are considered to be his best work. he was at this time at the height of his reputation, and for twenty-six years more he almost monopolised the illustration of books published in london. merely to give a list of them would occupy too much space. during the latter years of his life, harvey lived near the old church of richmond, and there he died in . he was one of the most courteous and amiable of men, and though his designs were 'mannered,' they were always pleasant to look at, and often very poetical. there were other pupils of bewick who obtained some little fame. among them were john anderson, a native of scotland, who assisted thurston in illustrating bloomfield's 'farmer's boy,' published in by vernor and hood; john jackson, who was born at ovingham in , and ebenezer landells, born at newcastle in . jackson for some reason quarrelled with his master, came to london and worked for william harvey, who was much employed about that time in making illustrations for the various works issued by charles knight, including the 'penny magazine,' knight's 'shakspere,' 'pictorial bible,' 'pictorial prayer-book,' and a hundred other books which appeared between and --under the auspices of that enterprising publisher. some of { } jackson's best work will be found in the 'tower menagerie' and other illustrations of animals designed by harvey. he will always be remembered for the share he took in the 'treatise on wood-engraving,' for which mr. chatto wrote the text. this work was undertaken at the sole risk of mr. jackson, who engraved many of the three hundred illustrations. it is a very valuable book and, supplemented by mr. linton's 'masters of wood-engraving,' tells pretty well all that is ever likely to be known of this fascinating art. jackson died in london in the year . at the death of bewick, ebenezer landells came to london, , and soon found employment in engraving designs for the _illustrated london news_, _punch_, and other periodicals. his studio became quite a nursery of art, and many excellent draughtsmen--among them, birket foster--and engravers were educated under his superintendence. he died at brompton in , the last of bewick's pupils. going back to the last century we find that we have omitted to speak of another self-taught wood-engraver, robert branston, who was born in at lynn in norfolk. when he was twenty-one years of age he settled in london and soon found employment in working for the publishers. he engraved the 'cave of despair' from a drawing by thurston for savage's 'hints on decorative printing' in rivalry with nesbit's 'rinaldo and armida'; this is considered to be his best work. he also assisted in engraving the cuts in scholey's 'history of england,' bloomfield's 'wild flowers,' , and a series of 'fables' after thurston's designs which, though beautifully executed, were never published. he died at brompton in . among his pupils were his son, robert branston the younger, who for many years produced excellent work. { } [illustration: haymaking. by w. mulready, r.a. _engraved by john thompson_] john thompson, one of the princes of wood-engravers, was born in manchester in , came to london early in life, and, after practising for some years under robert branston the elder, soon gained great distinction in his art. like all other wood-engravers of the period, he was employed chiefly in rendering the designs of thurston. in he engraved the illustrations to a new edition of butler's 'hudibras,' and about the same time he was engaged by the bank of england to produce a bank-note which could not be imitated. then followed the illustrations to the 'blind beggar of bethnal green,' , shakespeare, , and the 'arabian nights,' , all after designs by william harvey. he also engraved many of the beautiful cuts in the books of natural history published by van voorst. in { } he produced the work for which he will for ever be celebrated, the illustrations to the 'vicar of wakefield' from the drawings by mulready--one of the most charming books ever published. it would take too much time to enumerate even the best of the engravings he executed in his long life. we must not, however, forget to mention that he engraved in gun-metal mulready's design for a postal envelope in , and the figure of britannia which is still printed on bank of england notes. he presented his collection of valuable woodcuts to the art library at south kensington, and died at kensington in , aged . his son, thurston thompton, was also an excellent engraver. among the other celebrated wood-engravers of the latter half of this century were john and mary byfield, who engraved the facsimile cuts of holbein's 'dance of death' and 'scenes from old testament history' for pickering's editions of these celebrated works; w. h. powis, some of whose best work may be seen in 'solace of song'; j. orrin smith, born in colchester in , who placed himself under the tuition of william harvey, and became a very expert craftsman, and whose best work may be seen in wordsworth's 'greece,' 'the solace of song,' lane's 'arabian nights,' and in 'paul et virginie,' published by curmer of paris--orrin smith died in ; samuel williams, also a native of colchester, who designed on the wood most of the works which he engraved--he was famous for his country scenes, the best of which are in thomson's 'seasons' and cowper's 'poems,' published about --he died in in his th year; w. t. green and thomas bolton, both excellent reproducers of landscape, and especially of the drawings of birket foster; charles gray, and samuel v. slader, all of the first repute; orlando jewitt, celebrated both for his beautiful reproductions of architectural work, for parker's 'glossary,' and other important works; and, lately, we have lost j. greenaway, brother of the famous artist, kate { } greenaway, and w. j. palmer, both excellent men and engravers of the very first class. [illustration: o'erarched with oaks that form fantastic bowers] still with us, we can only mention in a few words the modern prince of wood-engravers, w. j. linton, who has for { } many years resided in america; w. l. thomas, the originator of _the graphic_ newspaper, and one of the ablest artists in water-colours in 'the institute'; edmund evans and horace harral, who so successfully rendered birket foster's drawings some years ago; j. w. whymper, the brothers dalziel and james cooper, the producers of thousands of good engravings, and a comparatively new man, w. biscombe gardner, who excels in portraiture. in germany, during the last half-century, wood-engraving met with much encouragement, and reverting to the earlier and purer style of the fifteenth century, many artists and engravers produced work of great merit: e. kretzschmar, of leipsic, the brothers a. and o. vogel, f. unzelmann and h. müller, rendered the drawings of adolf menzel and ludwig richter with careful exactitude. in the atelier of hugo bürkner, of dresden, the much-admired 'death as a friend,' by rethel, was engraved by jungtow, and 'death as an enemy' by steinbrecher: and a. gaber, recently deceased, faithfully reproduced the drawings of overbeck, schnorr von carolsfeld, oscar pletsch, and moritz von schwind. of living engravers we may refer our readers to the excellent examples of skill to be seen in the 'meisterwerke der holzschneidekunst,' a monthly periodical of great merit; and especially to the works of pfnorr of darmstadt; höfel of vienna; flegel and weber of leipsic; mezger and vieweg of brunswick; h. günter, karl oertel, lüttge, and e. krelb. in france no great advance has been made, and most of the engravers have been contented to produce work a little above mediocrity. several french publishers have given commissions to english engravers--orrin smith, henry linton, and others. in america great strides have been made, and, in the estimation of many excellent judges, the best works ever done by wood-engravers have been presented to us in the pages of the illustrated magazines. these publications excite { } our wonder not only at the great energy which is thrown into them, apparently without regard to cost, but at the immense success which they have justly achieved. some critics disapprove of the style to which we have just referred, and say it is in too close an imitation of steel engraving, but it seems hard to censure works which have given unbounded satisfaction to so many thousand lovers of art. owing to the invention of various mechanical processes, and the perfection to which photography has attained, the art of wood-engraving would seem to be in danger of becoming extinct. this is by no means the real case, for the brilliant band of wood-engravers which has arisen in america, of whom we have just spoken, still continue to give us excellent examples of their skill; and especially we may mention the inimitable copies of paintings by the old masters by timothy cole, whose rendering of paul potter's 'young bull' excites our warmest admiration. in england, under the influence of mr. william morris and his followers, a revival of this interesting craft, as practised in the fifteenth century, has been set on foot in some of the schools of art--notably at birmingham, where in the students issued a book of carols illustrated with original designs, some of which were cut by the students themselves. this revival of the earlier and purer methods of engraving, coupled with a careful study of the possibilities of the art, may be taken as a sign that by no means the last chapter on the history of engraving on wood has yet been written. at present, much of the new process work which we find in such over-abundance in newspapers and magazines is slovenly to the last degree. on the other hand, now and then we see beautiful results--the best in the american magazines; let us hope that the facile cheapness of this new craft--art it cannot be called--will in good hands soon achieve something more worthy of our regard. * * * * * { } index _the engravings in this book are referred to in italic type_ abbreviations of latin words, Æsop's fables ( ), Æsop's fables (bewick's), aldegrever, aldus manutius, - _alphabet_, _figure_, xv cent., altdorfer, albrecht, , amman, jost, anderson, john, andre, jerome, andreani, andrea, _annunciation, the_, apocalypse, dürer's, _apocalypsis sancti johannis_, ars memorandi, , ars moriendi, , , battista del porta, beham, hans, beilby, ralph, , berners, dame juliana, bewick, john, bewick, robert, bewick, thomas, - _bible cuts_, holbein's, , _biblia pauperum_, - _bibliomaniac, the_, block books of the xv cent., blossoms of morality, boldrini, nicolo, bolton, thomas, bonner, george, , _booke of christian prayers_ (q. elizabeth), book of fables (pfister, ), book of hours, book of st. albans, borluyt's _figures from new testament_, , bourbon, nicolas, brandt's _navis stultifera_, branston, robert, _breydenbach's travels_, , _british birds_, history of (bewick), - _british quadrupeds_, history of (bewick), , brosamer, hans, bürkner (german engraver), bullen, mr. george, burgkmair, hans, - byfield, john and mary, , caillaut, antoine, canterbury tales, the, _canticum canticorum_, , _casus luciferi_, caxton, william, chatto, w. a., , , , chiar-oscuro, printing in, , chillingham bull (bewick), _christopher, saint_, clennell, luke, - cole, mr. henry, cole, timothy, colines, simon de, _heures_ de, _cologne bible_, , colonna, francesco, colour printing in germany (xvi cent.), conway, w. m. (woodcutters of the netherlands), copperplate-engraving introduced, coriolano, bartolommeo, cranach, lucas, , , croxall's Æsop, , cuningham's cosmographical glasse, curio, valentine, dance of death ( ), _dance of death_ (holbein's), - _daye, john_ (printer), - _death of the virgin_ (missal), _decameron, the_ ( ), dentatus, death of (_engraved by w. harvey_), dibdin's, dr., works, dienecker (engraver), _diploma of highland society_ (clennell), douce, francis, duplessis, m. georges, dupré, jean, , dürer, albrecht, ---- apocalypse, ---- engravings on copper, ---- life of the virgin, ---- passion of our lord, ---- 'smaller' passion, , ---- _virgin crowned by angels_, _elizabetha regina_ ( ), elizabeth's, queen, prayer book, emblems of mortality ( ), estienne, robert, figure alphabet, the, _flight into egypt_ (jegher's), foster, birket, _drawing_ by, foxe's book of martyrs, froben, johann, froschover, christoph, _fyshynge with an angle_ ( ), gaber (german engraver), _game and playe of the chesse_ (caxton's), , german engravers, gray, charles, green, w. t. (engraver), greenaway, j., gutenberg's psalter, harvey, william, , heinecken, herr, , _henry viii in council_, _frontispiece_ _heures à l'usaige de chartres_, _history of british birds_ (bewick), - _history of quadrupeds_ (bewick), , holbein, hans, , - ---- alphabet of dance of death, ---- _bible cuts_ (old testament), , ---- _dance of death_, - ---- society, , holinshed's 'chronicles of england,' &c., humphreys, noel, _hypnerotomachia poliphili_ ( ), - illuminated books of xv century, images of saints, jackson, john, _jegher, christoph_, of antwerp, jewitt, orlando, johnson, robert, jovius, paulus, jungtow, _kalendario_ (venice, ), kerver, thielman, , , _king's banquet, the_, kirkall, elisha ( ), knight, charles, landells, ebenezer, le noir (printers' mark), le rouge, linton, w. j., , , lippmann, dr., little masters, the, livres d'heures, _looking-glass for the mind_, , lützelburger, hans, , _macault reading his translation_, macé, robert, of caen, mansion, colard, of bruges, _manuzio, aldo_, , marchant, guyot, , maximilian, emperor, , - mazarine bible, mer des histoires, la, milan, lives of dukes of, metal blocks, _mirrour of the world_ ( ), morris, william, , mulready: _vicar of wakefield_, nanto, francesco da, _navis stultifera_ ( ), nesbit, charlton, , notary, julian, nürnberg chronicle, palmer, w. j., papillon, j. m. (french engraver), _passion of our lord_ (missal), petit, jehan, pigouchet, philippe, plantin, christophe, antwerp, playing cards, porta, giuseppe, , porto, battista del, powis, w. h. (engraver), printers' marks, ---- _kerver's_, ---- _le noir's_, ---- _plantin's_, ---- _pynson's_, ---- _tory's, geoffroy_, ---- _wynkyn de worde's_, psalter, gutenberg's, pynson, richard, recueil des histoires de troye, saint bridget of sweden, _saint christopher_, saint sebastian, salomon, bernhard (petit bernhard), schaufelein, hans, schongauer, martin, , scolari, giuseppe, select fables (bewick), sessa brothers, of venice, slader, samuel, smith, j. orrin, somerville's chase, _sorti di marcolini_ ( ), , _speculum salvationis_, , _terence_ (lyons, ), theuredank, adventures of, thompson, john, , , thurston, john, tory, geoffroy, , , , tournes, jean de, , trento, antonio da, _tristan, romance of_, triumphs of maximilian, - ---- _triumphal arch_ (dürer), , ---- _triumphal car_ (dürer), ---- _triumphal procession_ (burgkmair), , triumphal entry of henri ii into lyons, triumphal entry of henri ii into paris, triumphi del petrarca ( ), , ugo da carpi, vecellio, cesare, verard, antoine, , virgil solis, _virgin with four saints_ ( ), vostre, simon, , werskunig, williams, samuel, willshire, dr., , woodbery, mr., _wood-engraver, the_, x wood engravers (living), wynkyn de worde, _spottiswoode & co. printers, new-street square, london._ * * * * * notes [ ] w. h. willshire, _playing and other cards in the british museum_, vol. vo. ( ). [ ] it is often called the mazarine bible, because a copy was discovered, with notes written in it by the illuminator, in the library of cardinal mazarin. it is very scarce. in mr. quaritch bought a very fine copy from the library of sir john thorold, for which he paid £ , . [ ] _history of wood-engraving_, . [ ] an english version, neither faithful nor complete, was published in the time of queen elizabeth, '_at london, printed for simon waterson, and are to be sold at his shop in st. paule's churchyard at chepegate, ._' it is extremely scarce. many of the pages, as giving examples of costume, have lately been reprinted by authority of the science and art department. there is a french edition of poliphilo, printed at paris by kerver in , with illustrations in a late florid french style. [ ] in a recent catalogue, mr. quaritch offers no less than seven different editions of the illustrated 'livre d'heures' printed by verard, at prices varying from l. to l. [ ] it was printed, with descriptions in black-letter, at the chiswick press, and published by joseph cundall, old bond street, . [ ] it is now issued by george bell & sons, who also publish holbein's bible pictures. the dance of death by hans holbein, with an introductory note by austin dobson new york scott-thaw company mcmiii copyright, , by scott-thaw company _the heintzemann press, boston_ the dance of death =the book= "_les simulachres & historiées faces de la mort avtant elegamtment pourtraictes, que artificiellement imaginées._" this may be englished as follows: _the images and storied aspects of death, as elegantly delineated as [they are] ingeniously imagined._ such is the literal title of the earliest edition of the famous book now familiarly known as "_holbein's dance of death._" it is a small _quarto_, bearing on its title-page, below the french words above quoted, a nondescript emblem with the legend _vsus me genuit_, and on an open book, _gnothe seauton_. below this comes again, "_a lyon, soubz l'escu de coloigne_: m. d. xxxviii," while at the end of the volume is the imprint "_excvdebant lvgdvni melchoir et gaspar trechsel fratres: _,"--the trechsels being printers of german origin, who had long been established at lyons. there is a verbose "epistre" or preface in french to the "_moult reuerende abbesse du religieux conuent s. pierre de lyon, madame iehanne de touszele_," otherwise the abbess of saint pierre les nonnains, a religious house containing many noble and wealthy ladies, and the words, "_salut d'un vray zèle_," which conclude the dedicatory heading, are supposed to reveal indirectly the author of the "epistre" itself, namely, jean de vauzelles, pastor of st. romain and prior of monrottier, one of three famous literary brothers in the city on the rhone, whose motto was "_d'un vray zelle_." after the preface comes "_diuerses tables de mort, non painctes, mais extraictes de l'escripture saincte, colorées par docteurs ecclesiastiques, & umbragées par philosophes_." then follow the cuts, forty-one in number, each having its text from the latin bible above it, and below, its quatrain in french, this latter being understood to be from the pen of one gilles corozet. to the cuts succeed various makeweight appendices of a didactic and hortatory character, the whole being wound up by a profitable discourse, _de la necessite de la mort qui ne laisse riens estre pardurable_. various editions ensued to this first one of , the next or second of (in which corozet's verses were translated into latin by luther's brother-in-law, george oemmel or aemilius), being put forth by jean and françois frellon, into whose hands the establishment of the trechsels had fallen. there were subsequent issues in , , , , and . to the issues of and a few supplementary designs were added, some of which have no special bearing upon the general theme, although attempts, more or less ingenious, have been made to connect them with the text. after no addition was made to the plates. =the artist= from the date of the _editio princeps_ it might be supposed that the designs were executed at or about --the year of its publication. but this is not the case; and there is good evidence that they were not only designed but actually cut on the wood some eleven years before the book itself was published. there are, in fact, several sets of impressions in the british museum, the berlin museum, the basle museum, the imperial library at paris, and the grand ducal cabinet at carlsruhe, all of which correspond with each other, and are believed to be engraver's proofs from the original blocks. these, which include every cut in the edition of , except "the astrologer," would prove little of themselves as to the date of execution. but, luckily, there exists in the cabinet at berlin a set of coarse enlarged drawings in indian ink, on brownish paper, of twenty-three of the series. these are in circular form; and were apparently intended as sketches for glass painting. that they are copied from the woodcuts is demonstrable, first, because they are not reversed as they would have been if they were the originals; and, secondly, because one of them, no. ("the duchess"), repeats the conjoined "h.l." on the bed, which initials are held to be the monogram of the woodcutter, and not to be part of the original design. the berlin drawings must therefore have been executed subsequently to the woodcuts; and as one of them, that representing the emperor, is dated " ," we get a date before which both the woodcuts, and the designs for the woodcuts, must have been prepared. it is generally held that they were so prepared _circa_ and , the date of the peasants' war, of the state of feeling excited by which they exhibit evident traces. in the preface to this first edition, certain ambiguous expressions, to which we shall presently refer, led some of the earlier writers on the subject to doubt as to the designer of the series. but the later researches of wornum and woltmann, of m. paul mantz and, more recently, of mr. w. j. linton leave no doubt that they were really drawn by the artist to whom they have always been traditionally assigned, to wit, hans holbein the younger. he was resident in basle up to the autumn of , before which time, according to the above argument, the drawings must have been produced; he had already designed an alphabet of death; and, moreover, on the walls of the cemetery of the dominican monastery at basle there was a famous wall-painting of the dance of death, which would be a perpetual stimulus to any resident artist. finally, and this is perhaps the most important consideration of all, the designs are in holbein's manner. =the woodcutter= but besides revealing an inventor of the highest order, the _dance of death_ also discloses an interpreter in wood of signal, and even superlative, ability. the designs are cut--to use the word which implies the employment of the knife as opposed to that of the graver--in a manner which has never yet been excelled. in this matter there could be no better judge than mr. w. j. linton; and he says that nothing, either by knife or by graver, is of higher quality than these woodcuts. yet the woodcutter's very name was for a long time doubtful, and even now the particulars which we possess with regard to him are scanty and inconclusive. that he was dead when the trechsels published the book in , must be inferred from the "epistre" of jean de vauzelles, since that "epistre" expressly refers to "_la mort de celluy, qui nous en a icy imaginé si elegantes figures_"; and without entering into elaborate enquiry as to the exact meaning of "_imaginer_" in sixteenth-century french, it is obvious that, although the deceased is elsewhere loosely called "_painctre_," this title cannot refer to holbein, who was so far from being dead that he survived until . the only indication of the woodcutter's name is supplied by the monogram, "hl" upon the bedstead in no. ("the duchess"); and these initials have been supposed to indicate one hans lutzelburger, or hans of luxemburg, "otherwise franck," a form-cutter ("formschneider"), whose full name is to be found attached to the so-called "little dance of death," an alphabet by holbein, impressions of which are in the british museum. his signature ("h. l. f. ") is also found appended to another alphabet; to a cut of a fight in a forest, dated also ; and to an engraved title-page in a german new testament of the year following. this is all we know with certainty concerning his work, though the investigations of dr. Édouard his have established the fact that a "formschneider" named hans, who had business transactions with the trechsels of lyons, had died at basle before june, ; and it is conjectured, though absolute proof is not forthcoming, that this must have been the "h. l.," or hans of luxemburg, who cut holbein's designs upon the wood. in any case, unless we must assume another woodcutter of equal merit, it is probable that the same man cut the signed alphabet in the british museum and the initialed _dance of death_. but why the cuts of the latter, which, as we have shown above, were printed _circa_ , were not published at lyons until ; and why holbein's name was withheld in the preface to the book of that year, are still unexplained. the generally accepted supposition is that motives of timidity, arising from the satirical and fearlessly unsparing character of the designs, may be answerable both for delay in the publication and mystification in the "preface." and if intentional mystification be admitted, the doors of enquiry, after three hundred and fifty years, are practically sealed to the critical picklock. =other reproductions= the _dance of death_ has been frequently copied. mr. w. j. linton enumerates a venice reproduction of ; and a set (enlarged) by jobst dienecker of augsburg in . then there is the free copy, once popular with our great grandfathers, by bewick's younger brother john, which hodgson of newcastle published in under the title of _emblems of mortality_. wenceslaus hollar etched thirty of the designs in , and in forty-six of them were etched by david deuchar. in they were reproduced upon stone with great care by joseph schlotthauer, professor in the academy of fine arts at munich; and these were reissued in this country in by john russell smith. they have also been rendered in photo-lithography for an edition issued by h. noel humphreys, in ; and for the holbein society in . in , dr. f. lippmann edited for mr. quaritch a set of reproductions of the engraver's proofs in the berlin museum; and the _editio princeps_ has been facsimiled by one of the modern processes for hirth of munich, as vol. x. of the liebhaber-bibliothek, . =the present issue= the copies given in the present issue are impressions from the blocks engraved in for douce's _holbein's dance of death_. they are the best imitations in wood, says mr. linton. it is of course true, as he also points out, that a copy with the graver can never quite faithfully follow an original which has been cut with the knife,--more especially, it may be added, when the cutter is a supreme craftsman like him of luxemburg. but against etched, lithographed, phototyped and otherwise-processed copies, these of messrs. bonner and john byfield have one incontestable advantage: they are honest attempts to repeat by the same method,--that is, in wood,--the original and incomparable woodcuts of hans lutzelburger. the dance of death (chant royal, after holbein)[ ] "_contra vim mortis_ _non est medicamen in hortis._" he is the despots' despot. all must bide, later or soon, the message of his might; princes and potentates their heads must hide, touched by the awful sigil of his right; beside the kaiser he at eve doth wait and pours a potion in his cup of state; the stately queen his bidding must obey; no keen-eyed cardinal shall him affray; and to the dame that wantoneth he saith-- "let be, sweet-heart, to junket and to play." there is no king more terrible than death. the lusty lord, rejoicing in his pride, he draweth down; before the armèd knight with jingling bridle-rein he still doth ride; he crosseth the strong captain in the fight; the burgher grave he beckons from debate; he hales the abbot by his shaven pate, nor for the abbess' wailing will delay; no bawling mendicant shall say him nay; e'en to the pyx the priest he followeth, nor can the leech his chilling finger stay ... there is no king more terrible than death. all things must bow to him. and woe betide the wine-bibber,--the roisterer by night; him the feast-master, many bouts defied, him 'twixt the pledging and the cup shall smite; woe to the lender at usurious rate, the hard rich man, the hireling advocate; woe to the judge that selleth right for pay; woe to the thief that like a beast of prey with creeping tread the traveller harryeth:-- these, in their sin, the sudden sword shall slay ... there is no king more terrible than death. he hath no pity,--nor will be denied. when the low hearth is garnishèd and bright, grimly he flingeth the dim portal wide, and steals the infant in the mother's sight; he hath no pity for the scorned of fate:-- he spares not lazarus lying at the gate, nay, nor the blind that stumbleth as he may; nay, the tired ploughman,--at the sinking ray,-- in the last furrow,--feels an icy breath, and knows a hand hath turned the team astray ... there is no king more terrible than death. he hath no pity. for the new-made bride, blithe with the promise of her life's delight, that wanders gladly by her husband's side, he with the clatter of his drum doth fright; he scares the virgin at the convent grate; the maid half-won, the lover passionate; he hath no grace for weakness and decay: the tender wife, the widow bent and gray, the feeble sire whose footstep faltereth,-- all these he leadeth by the lonely way ... there is no king more terrible than death. envoy. youth, for whose ear and monishing of late, i sang of prodigals and lost estate, have thou thy joy of living and be gay; but know not less that there must come a day,-- aye, and perchance e'en now it hasteneth,-- when thine own heart shall speak to thee and say,-- there is no king more terrible than death. . a. d. [footnote : this chant royal of the king of terrors is--with mr. austin dobson's consent--here reprinted from his _collected poems_, .] list of illustrations n.b.--the german titles are in general modernized from those which appear above the engraver's proofs. the numerals are those of the cuts. the creation i _die schöpfung aller ding._ eve is taken from the side of adam. the temptation ii "_adam eua im paradyss._" eve, having received an apple from the serpent, prompts adam to gather more. the expulsion iii "_vsstribung ade eue._" adam and eve, preceded by death, playing on a beggar's lyre or hurdy-gurdy, are driven by the angel from eden. the consequences of the fall iv _adam baut die erden._ adam, aided by death, tills the earth. eve, with a distaff, suckles cain in the background. a cemetery v _gebein aller menschen._ a crowd of skeletons, playing on horns, trumpets, and the like, summon mankind to the grave. the pope vi _der päpst._ the pope (leo x.) with death at his side, crowns an emperor, who kisses his foot. another death, in a cardinal's hat, is among the assistants. the emperor vii _der kaiser._ the emperor (maximilian i.) rates his minister for injustice to a suitor. but even in the act death discrowns him. the king viii _der könig._ the king (francis i.) sits at feast under a baldachin sprinkled with _fleurs-de-lis_. death, as a cup-bearer, pours his last draught. the cardinal ix _der cardinal._ death lifts off the cardinal's hat as he is handing a letter of indulgence to a rich man. luther's opponent, cardinal cajetan, is supposed to be represented. the empress x _die kaiserinn._ the empress, walking with her women, is intercepted by a female death, who conducts her to an open grave. the queen xi _die königinn._ death, in the guise of a court-jester, drags away the queen as she is leaving her palace. the bishop xii _der bischof._ the sun is setting, and death leads the aged bishop from the sorrowing shepherds of his flock. the duke xiii _der herzog._ the duke turns pitilessly from a beggar-woman and her child. meanwhile death, fantastically crowned, lays hands on him. the abbot xiv _der abt._ death, having despoiled the abbot of mitre and crozier, hales him along unwilling, and threatening his enemy with his breviary. the abbess xv _die abtissin._ death, in a wreath of flags, pulls away the abbess by her scapulary in sight of a shrieking nun. the nobleman xvi _der edelmann._ death drags the resisting nobleman towards a bier in the background. the canon, or prebendary xvii _der domherr._ the canon, with his falconer, page, and jester, enters the church door. death shows him that his sands have run. the judge xviii _der richter._ death withdraws the judge's staff as he takes a bribe from a rich suitor. the advocate xix _der fürsprach._ death comes upon him in the street while he is being feed by a rich client. the counsellor, or senator xx _der rathsherr._ the counsellor, prompted by a devil, is absorbed by a nobleman, and turns unheeding from a poor suppliant. but death, with glass and spade, is waiting at his feet. the preacher xxi _der predicant._ death, in a stole, stands in the pulpit behind the fluent preacher, and prepares to strike him down with a jaw-bone. the priest, or pastor xxii _der pfarrherr._ he carries the host to a sick person. but death precedes him as his sacristan. the mendicant friar xxiii _der mönch._ death seizes him just as his begging box and bag are filled. the nun xxiv _die nonne._ the young nun kneels at the altar, but turns to her lover who plays upon a lute. death meantime, as a hideous old hag, extinguishes the altar candles. the old woman xxv _das altweib._ "_melior est mors quam vita_" to the aged woman who crawls gravewards with her bone rosary while death makes music in the van. the physician xxvi _der arzt._ death brings him a hopeless patient, and bids him cure himself. the astrologer xxvii (_see p. , l. ._) he contemplates a pendent sphere. but death thrusts a skull before his eyes. the rich man xxviii _der reichmann._ death finds him at his pay-table and seizes the money. the merchant xxix _der kaufmann._ death arrests him among his newly-arrived bales. the shipman xxx _der schiffmann._ death breaks the mast of the ship, and the crew are in extremity. the knight xxxi _der ritter._ death, in cuirass and chain-mail, runs him through the body. the count xxxii _der graf._ death, as a peasant with a flail, lifts away his back-piece. the old man xxxiii _der altmann._ death, playing on a dulcimer, leads him into his grave. the countess xxxiv _die grafinn._ death helps her at her tiring by decorating her with a necklet of dead men's bones. the noble lady, or bride xxxv _die edelfrau._ "_me et te sola mors separabit_"--says the motto. and death already dances before her. the duchess xxxvi _die herzoginn._ death seizes her in bed, while his fellow plays the fiddle. the pedlar xxxvii _der kramer._ death stops him on the road with his wares at his back. the ploughman xxxviii _der ackermann._ death runs at the horses' sides as the sun sinks, and the furrows are completed. the young child xxxix _das junge kind._ as the meagre cottage meal is preparing, death steals the youngest child. the last judgment xl _das jüngste gericht._ "_omnes stabimus ante tribunal domini._" the escutcheon of death xli _die wappen des todes._ the supporters represent holbein and his wife. [_added in later editions_] the soldier xlii death, armed only with a bone and shield, fights with the soldier on the field of battle. the gamester xliii death and the devil seize upon the gambler at his cards. the drunkard xliv men and women carouse: down the throat of one bloated fellow death pours the wine. the fool xlv the fool dances along the highway with death, who plays the bagpipes. the robber xlvi death seizes the robber in the act of pillage. the blind man xlvii death leads the blind man by his staff. the waggoner xlviii the waggon is overturned; one death carries off a wheel, the other loosens the fastening of a cask. the beggar xlix the beggar, lying on straw outside the city, cries in vain for death. [two others, not found in the earlier editions, "the young wife," and "the young husband," are not included in the douce reprint for which the foregoing blocks were engraved.] les simulachres & historiees faces de la mort, avtant ele gammêt pourtraictes, que artificiellement imaginées. [illustration: vsus me genuit.] a lyon, soubz l'escu de coloigne, m. d. xxxviii. i. [illustration: the creation.] formauit dominvs devs hominem de limo terræ, ad imagine suam creauit illum, masculum & foeminam creauit eos. genesis i. & ii. diev, ciel, mer, terre, procrea de rien demonstrant sa puissance et puis de la terre crea l'homme, & la femme a sa semblance. ii. [illustration: the temptation.] quia audisti vocem vxoris tuæ, & comedisti de ligno ex quo preceperam tibi ne comederes, &c. genesis iii. adam fut par eve deceu et contre diev mangea la pomme, dont tous deux ont la mort receu, et depuis fut mortel tout homme. iii. [illustration: the expulsion.] emisit eum dominvs devs de paradiso voluptatis, vt operaretur terram de qua sumptus est. genesis iii. diev chassa l'homme de plaisir pour uiure au labeur de ses mains: alors la mort le uint saisir, et consequemment tous humains. iv. [illustration: the consequences of the fall.] maledicta terra in opere tuo, in laboribus comedes cunctis diebus vitæ tuæ, donec reuertaris, &c. genesis iii. mauldicte en ton labeur la terre. en labeur ta uie useras, iusques que la mort te soubterre. toy pouldre en pouldre tourneras. v. [illustration: a cemetery.] væ væ væ habitantibus in terra. apocalypsis viii. cuncta in quibus spiraculum vitæ est, mortua sunt. genesis vii. malheureux qui uiuez au monde tousiours remplis d'aduersitez, pour quelque bien qui uous abonde, serez tous de mort uisitez. vi. [illustration: the pope.] moriatur sacerdos magnus. iosve xx. et episcopatum eius accipiat alter. psalmista cviii. qui te cuydes immortel estre par mort seras tost depesché, et combien que tu soys grand prebstre, vng aultre aura ton euesché. vii. [illustration: the emperor.] dispone domui tuæ, morieris enim tu, & non viues. isaiæ xxxviii. ibi morieris, & ibi erit currus gloriæ tuæ. isaiæ xxii. de ta maison disposeras comme de ton bien transitoire, car là ou mort reposeras, seront les chariotz de ta gloire. viii. [illustration: the king.] sicut & rex hodie est, & cras morietur, nemo enim ex regibus aliud habuit. ecclesiastici x. ainsi qu'auiourdhuy il est roy, demain sera en tombe close. car roy aulcun de son arroy n'a sceu emporter aultre chose. ix. [illustration: the cardinal.] væ qui iustificatis impium pro muneribus, & iustitiam iusti aufertis ab eo. esaiæ v. mal pour uous qui iustifiez l'inhumain, & plain de malice et par dons le sanctifiez, ostant au iuste sa iustice. x. [illustration: the empress.] gradientes in superbia potest deus humiliare. danie iiii. qui marchez en pompe superbe la mort vng iour uous pliera. cõme soubz uoz piedz ployez l'herbe ainsi uous humiliera. xi. [illustration: the queen.] mulieres opulentæ surgite, & audite vocem meam. post dies, & annum, & vos conturbemini. isaiæ xxxii. leuez uous dames opulentes. ouyez la uoix des trespassez. apres maintz ans & iours passez, serez troublées & doulentes. xii. [illustration: the bishop.] percutiam pastorem, & dispergentur oues. xxvi. mar. xiiii. le pasteur aussi frapperay, mitres & crosses renuersées. et lors quand ie l'attrapperay, seront ses brebis dispersées. xiii. [illustration: the duke.] princeps induetur moerore. et quiescere faciam superbiã potentium. ezechie. vii. vien, prince, auec moy, & delaisse honneurs mondains tost finissantz. seule suis qui, certes, abaisse l'orgueil & pompe des puissantz. xiv. [illustration: the abbot.] ipse morietur. quia nõ habuit disciplinam, & in multitudine stultitiæ suæ decipietur. prover. v. il mourra. car il n'a receu en soy aulcune discipline, et au nombre sera deceu de folie qui le domine. xv. [illustration: the abbess.] laudaui magis mortuos quàm viuentes. eccle. iiii. i'ay tousiours les mortz plus loué que les uisz, esquelz mal abonde, toucesfoys la mort ma noué au ranc de ceulx qui sont au monde. xvi. [illustration: the nobleman.] quis est homo qui viuet, & non videbit mortem, eruet animã suam de manu inferi? psal. lxxxviii. qui est celluy, tant soit grande homme, qui puisse uiure sans mourir? et de la mort, qui tout assomme, puisse son ame recourir? xvii. [illustration: the canon.] ecce appropinquat hora. mat. xxvi. tu uas au choeur dire tes heures paiant dieu pour toy, & ton proche. mais il fault ores que tu meures. voy tu pas l'heure qui approche? xviii. [illustration: the judge.] disperdam iudicem de medio eius. amos ii. du mylieu d'eulx uous osteray iuges corrumpus par presentz. point ne serez de mort exemptz. car ailleurs uous transporteray. xix. [illustration: the advocate.] callidus vidit malum, & abscõdit se innocens, pertransijt, & afflictus est damno. prover. xxii. l'homme cault a ueu la malice pour l'innocent faire obliger, et puis par uoye de iustice est uenu le pauure affliger. xx. [illustration: the counsellor.] qui obturat aurem suam ad clamorem pauperis, & ipse clamabit, & non exaudietur. prover. xxi. les riches conseillez tousiours, et aux pauures clouez l'oreille. vous crierez aux derniers iours, mais dieu uous fera la pareille. xxi. [illustration: the preacher.] væ qui dicitis malum bonum, & bonum malu, ponentes tenebras lucem, & lucem tenebras, ponentes amarum dulce, & dulce in amarum. isaiæ xv. mal pour uous qui ainsi osez le mal pour le bien nous blasmer, et le bien pour mal exposez, mettant auec le doulx l'amer. xxii. [illustration: the priest.] sum quidem & ego mortalis homo. sap. vii. ie porte le sainct sacrement cuidant le mourant secourir, qui mortel suis pareillement. et comme luy me fault mourir. xxiii. [illustration: the mendicant friar.] sedentes in tenebris, & in vmbra mortis, vinctos in mendicitate. psal. cvi. toy qui n'as soucy, ny remord sinon de ta mendicité, tu fierras a l'umbre de mort pour t'ouster de necessité. xxiv. [illustration: the nun.] est via quæ videtur homini iusta: nouissima autem eius deducunt hominem ad mortem. prover. iiii. telle uoye aux humains est bonne, et a l'homme tresiuste semble. mais la fin d'elle a l'homme donne, la mort, qui tous pecheurs assemble. xxv. [illustration: the old woman.] melior est mors quàm vita. eccle. xxx. en peine ay uescu longuement tant que nay plus de uiure enuie, mais bien ie croy certainement, meilleure la mort que la uie. xxvi. [illustration: the physician.] medice, cura teipsum. lvcæ iiii. tu congnoys bien la maladie pour le patient secourir, et si ne scais teste estourdie, le mal dont tu deburas mourir. xxvii. [illustration: the astrologer.] indica mihi si nosti omnia. sciebas quòd nasciturus esses, & numerum dierum tuorum noueras? iob xxviii. tu dis par amphibologie ce qu'aux aultres doibt aduenir. dy moy donc par astrologie quand tu deburas a moy uenir? xxviii. [illustration: the rich man.] stulte hac nocte repetunt animam tuam, & quæ parasti cuius erunt? lvcæ xii. ceste nuict la mort te prendra, et demain seras enchassé. mais dy moy, fol, a qui uiendra le bien que tu as amassé? xxix. [illustration: the merchant.] qui congregat thesauros mendacij vanus & excors est, & impingetur ad laqueos mortis. prover. xxi. vain est cil qui amassera grandz biens, & tresors pour mentir, la mort l'en fera repentir. car en ses lacz surpris sera. xxx. [illustration: the shipman.] qui volunt diuites fieri incidunt in laqueum diaboli, & desideria multa, & nociua, quæ mergunt homines in interitum. i. ad timo. vi. pour acquerir des biens mondains vous entrez en tentation, qui uous met es perilz soubdains, et uous maine a perdition. xxxi. [illustration: the knight.] subito morientur, & in media nocte turbabuntur populi, & auferent violentum absque manu. iob xxxiiii. peuples soubdain s'esleuront a lencontre de l'inhumain, et le uiolent osteront d'auec eulx sans force de main. xxxii. [illustration: the count.] quoniam cùm interiet non sumet secum omnia, neque cum eo descendet gloria eius. psal. xlviii. auec soy rien n'emportera, mais qu'une foys la mort le tombe, rien de sa gloire n'ostera, pour mettre auec soy en sa tombe. xxxiii. [illustration: the old man.] spiritus meus attenuabitur, dies mei breuiabuntur, & solum mihi superest sepulchrum. iob xvii. mes esperitz sont attendriz, et ma uie s'en ua tout beau. las mes longziours sont amoindriz, plus ne me reste qu'un tombeau. xxxiv. [illustration: the countess.] ducunt in bonis dies suos, & in puncto ad inferna descendunt. iob xxi. en biens mõdains leurs iours despendet en uoluptez, & en tristesse, puis soubdain aux enfers descendent ou leur ioye passe en tristesse. xxxv. [illustration: the noble lady.] me & te sola mors separabit. rvth. i. amour qui unyz nous faict uiure, en foy noz cueurs preparera, qui long temps ne nous pourra suyure, car la mort nous separera. xxxvi. [illustration: the duchess.] de lectulo super quem ascendisti non descendes, sed morte morieris. iiii. reg. i. du lict sus lequel as monté ne descendras a ton plaisir. car mort t'aura tantost dompté, et en brief te uiendra saisir. xxxvii. [illustration: the pedlar.] venite ad me qui onerati estis. matth. xi. venez, & apres moy marchez vous qui estes par trop charge. cest assez suiuy les marchez: vous serez par moy decharge. xxxviii. [illustration: the ploughman.] in sudore vultus tui vesceris pane tuo. gene. i. a la sueur de ton uisaige tu gaigneras ta pauure uie. apres long trauail, & usaige, voicy la mort qui te conuie. xxxix. [illustration: the young child.] homo natus de muliere, breui viuens tempore repletur multis miserijs, qui quasi flos egreditur, & conteritur, & fugit velut vmbra. iob xiiii. tout homme de la femme yssant remply de misere, & d'encombre, ainsi que fleur tost finissant. sort & puis fuyt comme faict l'umbre. xl. [illustration: the last judgment.] omnes stabimus ante tribunal domini. roma. xiiii. vigilate, & orate, quia nescitis qua hora venturus sit dominus. matt. xxiiii. deuante le trosne du grand iuge chascun de soy compte rendra pourtant ueillez, qu'il ne uous iuge. car ne scauez quand il uiendra. xli. [illustration: the escutcheon of death.] memorare nouissima, & in æternum non peccabis. eccle. vii. si tu ueulx uiure sans peché voy ceste imaige a tous propos, et point ne seras empesché, quand tu t'en iras a repos. [added in later editions] xlii. [illustration: the soldier.] cum fortis armatus custodit atrium suum, &c. si autem fortior eo superueniens vicerit eum, uniuersa eius arma aufert, in quibus confidebat. le sort armé en jeune corps pense auoir seure garnison; mais mort plus forte, le met hors de sa corporelle maison. xliii. [illustration: the gamester.] quid prodest homini, si vniuersum mundum lucretur, animæ autem suæ detrimentum patiatur? matt. xvi. que vault à l'homme tout le monde gaigner d'hazard, & chance experte, s'il recoit de sa uie immonde par mort, irreparable perte? xliv. [illustration: the drunkard.] ne inebriemini vino, in quo est luxuria. ephes. v. de vin (auquel est tout exces) ne vous enyurez pour dormir sommeil de mort qui au deces vous face l'ame, & sang vomir. xlv. [illustration: the fool.] quasi agnus lasciuiens, & ignorans, nescit quòd ad vincula stultus trahatur. proverb vii. le fol vit en ioye, & deduict san scavoir qu'il s'en va mourant, tant qu'à sa fin il est conduict ainsi que l'agneau ignorant. xlvi. [illustration: the robber.] domine, vim patior. isaiæ xxxviii. la foible femme brigandée crie, o seigneur on me fait force. lors de dieu la mort est mandée, qui les estrangle à dure estorce. xlvii. [illustration: the blind man.] cæcus cæcum ducit: & ambo in foueam cadunt. matth. xv. l'aueugle un autre aueugle guide, l'un par l'autre en la fosse tombe: car quand plus oultre aller il cuide, la mort l'homme iecte en la tombe. xlviii. [illustration: the waggoner.] corruit in curru suo. i chron. xxii. au passage de mort peruerse raison, chartier tout esperdu, du corps le char, & cheuaux verse, le vin (sang de vie) espandu. xlix. [illustration: the beggar.] miser ego homo! quis nie liberabit de corpore mortis huius? rom. vii. qui hors la chair veult en christ viure ne craint mort, mais dit un mortel, helas, qui me rendra deliure pouure homme de ce corps mortel? * * * * * _of this edition of holbein's "the dance of death," seven hundred and fifty copies have been printed on japan vellum, for the scott-thaw co., by the heintzemann press, july, mcmiii._ [transcriber's note: in the work used for this digitization, each pair of facing pages has the latin biblical quotation at the top of the left page printed in red, the french quatrain at the bottom of the left page printed in black, and the illustration (numbered above, and captioned below) on the right page, opposite the text. for clarity in the text-only version, the plate numbers and captions have been moved to precede their corresponding verses.] joseph pennell's pictures of the panama canal fourth edition joseph pennell's pictures of the panama canal reproductions of a series of lithographs made by him on the isthmus of panama, january--march, , together with impressions and notes by the artist [illustration: ++ decorative image.] philadelphia and london j. b. lippincott company copyright, , by joseph pennell published, september, printed by j. b. lippincott company at the washington square press philadelphia, u.s.a. to j. b. bishop secretary of the isthmian canal commission who made it possible for me to draw these lithographs and who was also good enough to accede to my request and read and correct the proofs for me introduction--my lithographs of the panama canal the idea of going to panama to make lithographs of the canal was mine. i suggested it, and the _century magazine_ and _illustrated london news_ offered to print some of the drawings i might make. though i suggested the scheme a couple of years ago, it was not until january, , that i was able to go--and then i was afraid it was too late--afraid the work was finished and that there would be nothing to see, for photographs taken a year or eighteen months before, showed some of the locks built and their gates partly in place. still i started, and after nearly three weeks of voyaging found, one january morning, the isthmus of panama ahead of the steamer, a mountainous country, showing deep valleys filled with mist, like snow fields, as i have often seen them from montepulciano looking over lake thrasymene, in italy. beyond were higher peaks, strange yet familiar, japanese prints, and as we came into the harbor the near hills and distant mountains were silhouetted with japanese trees and even the houses were japanese, and when we at length landed, the town was full of character reminiscent of spain, yet the local character came out in the cathedral, the tower of which--a pyramid--was covered with a shimmering, glittering mosaic of pearl oyster shells. the people, not americans, were primitive, and the children, mostly as in spain, were not bothered with clothes. i followed my instinct, which took me at once to the great swamp near the town of mount hope, where so many of de lesseps' plans lie buried. here are locomotives, dredges, lock-gates, huge bulks of iron, great wheels, nameless, shapeless masses--half under water, half covered with vines--the end of a great work. i came back to colon by the side of the french canal, completed and working up to, i believe, gatun lock and dam, and spent the afternoon in the american town, every house japanese in feeling, french or american in construction, screened with black wire gauze, divided by white wood lines--most decorative--and all shaded by a forest of palms. through these wandered well-made roads, and on them were walking and driving well-made americans. there were no mosquitoes, no flies, no smells, none of the usual adjuncts of a tropical town. at the end of the town was a monument, a nondescript columbus, facing nowhere, at his feet an indian; but it seemed to me, if any monument was wanted at colon, it should be a great light-house or a great statue towering aloft in the harbor, a memorial to the men who, french and american, have made the canal. next day i started across the continent to panama, for i learned the government headquarters were there, and, until i had seen the officials, i did not know if i should be allowed to work or even stay on the isthmus. but at gatun i got off the train, determining to do all i could before i was stopped--as i was quite sure i should be. i saw the tops of the locks only a few hundred yards away, and, turning my back on the stunning town piled up on the hillside, walked over to them; from a bridge bearing a sign that all who used it did so at their own risk i looked down into a yawning gulf stretching to right and left, the bottom filled with crowds of tiny men and tiny trains--all in a maze of work; to the right the gulf reached to a lake, to the left to mighty gates which mounted from the bottom to my feet. overhead, huge iron buckets flew to and fro, great cranes raised or lowered huge masses of material. as i looked, a bell rang, the men dropped their tools, and lines of little figures marched away, or climbed wooden stairs and iron ladders to the surface. the engines whistled, the buckets paused, everything stopped instantly, save that from the depths a long chain came quickly up, and clinging to the end of it, as cellini would have grouped them, were a dozen men--a living design--the most decorative motive i have ever seen in the wonder of work. i could not have imagined it, and in all the time i was on the isthmus i never saw it but once again. for a second only they were posed, and then the huge crane swung the group to ground and the design fell to pieces as they dropped off. across the bridge was a telephone station and beyond and below it the great approaches to the locks along which electric locomotives will draw the ships that pass through. there was a subject, and i tackled it at once. in the distance the already filling lake--among islands, but the highland still above the water, dotting it, crowned with palms and strange trees; dredgers slowly moved, native canoes paddled rapidly, over all hovered great birds. to the right was the long line of the french canal, almost submerged, stretching to the distance, against which, blue and misty and flat, were strange-shaped mountains, outlined with strange-shaped trees. bridges like those of hiroshigi connected island with island or with the mainland. it was perfect, the apotheosis of the wonder of work, and as i looked the whole rocked as with an earthquake--and then another. i was dragged into the hut as showers of stones rattled on the roof as blast after blast went off near by. soon people in authority came up--i supposed to stop me; instead it was only to show pleasure that i found their work worth drawing. these men were all americans, all so proud of their part in the canal, and so strong and healthy--most of them trained and educated, i knew as soon as they opened their mouths--the greatest contrast to the crowd on the steamer, who now were all tamely following a guide and listening to what they could neither understand nor see during their only day ashore. these engineers and workmen are the sort of americans worth knowing, and yet i did not see any golf links at gatun. the day was spent in that telephone box and on the spillway of the dam--a semicircle of cyclopean concrete, backed by a bridge finer than hokusai ever imagined, yet built to carry the huge engines that drag the long trains of dirt and rock across it, to make the dam. the dam, to me, was too big and too vague to draw. and all this is the work of my countrymen, and they are so proud of their work. yet the men who have done this great work will tell you that we owe much to the french, and that if the engineers and the commission at panama had not the government, with unlimited men and money, behind them, and the discoveries in sanitary science of which the french were ignorant, we, too, would have failed. they tell you, and show you how, the french worked on the canal right across the isthmus, and we are carrying out the great project they were unable to complete. and we have won the admiration of the world. the sanitary problem is solved, but they tell you under the french, fever carried off a man for every tie that was laid on the panama railroad. this is a legend, but a true story is, that the french cared so little for their lives that with every shipload of machinery came boxes of champagne, and those who received them asked their friends to dinner--finished the bottles--and were buried in the empty box in the morning. now there is no fever in the canal zone, but there is plenty of drink in and outside of it, but, i am told, "indulged in with wonderful moderation." i certainly never saw an american under the influence of it. in the evening a ride of two hours took me over the thirty miles to panama--one of the last passengers over the old line of the panama railway, now buried under the waters of the growing lake. from the railroad i saw for the first time the primeval forest, the tropical jungle, which i had never believed in, never believed that it could not be penetrated save with an axe or a machete; but it is so, and the richness of it, the riot of it, the variety of it, is incredible and endless. the train puffed along, in that time-taking fashion of the tropics i should soon be familiar with, passing points of view i made notes of, for first impressions are for me always the best, and one trip like this gives me more ideas than days of personal pointing out. finally panama was reached in the dark; all i saw was a great hill lit up with rows of lights, one above the other, in the night. the day had not been hot, the sky was not blue or black--it was white, and filled with white clouds, though they were dark against it. there was no glare--and i had forgotten my sketching umbrella; but i never needed it. so far as i know, there is always a breeze--it is never really hot in the day--and as soon as the sun sets the trade wind rises--if it has not been blowing all day--and i could always sleep at night. it is all so unlike other hot countries--but, then, panama is unlike other places: the sun rises and sets in the pacific, and the city of panama, though on the pacific, is east of colon, on the atlantic. there was not a smell, or a mosquito, or a fly on ancon hill, but over it all was the odor of petroleum, with which the streams and marshes of the whole zone are sprayed almost daily; and this has made the canal and saved the workers. next morning i went to the administration building and presented my letters, though i did not know if i should be allowed to draw. but it seemed that everything had been arranged for me by the commission, who, it also seemed, had been doing nothing for weeks but waiting my coming. i was clothed, fed, taken about in motor cars and steam launches, given passes on the railroad, and finally turned loose to go where i wanted and draw what i liked--and if anything happened or did not happen i was just to telephone to headquarters. the following day, donning my khaki, which i wore only once, and pocketing my pass and some oranges, i started for the locks at pedro miguel--pronounced, in american, peter megil, just as miraflores is called millflowers. we were all down, had breakfast, and off in the train--a jim-crow one--before the sun was up, and at pedro miguel station i found myself one of a horde of niggers, greeks, hindoos, slovaks, spaniards, americans and engineers, bound for the lock, half a mile away. here i went down to the bottom to get a drawing of the great walls that lead up to the great gates, now nearly finished. i had come at exactly the right time. these walls are surmounted with great arches and buttresses--the most decorative subject, the most stupendous motive i have ever seen--almost too great to draw. unlike my experiences of a lifetime at other government works, i was asked for no permit. i was allowed to go where i wanted, draw what i liked; when any attention was paid to me, it was to ask what i was working for--give me a glass of ice water--precious, out of the breeze at the bottom of a lock--offer to get me a photograph or make one, to suggest points of view, or tell me to clear out when a blast was to be fired. and the interest of these americans in my work and in their work was something i had never seen before. a man in huge boots, overalls and ragged shirt, an apology for a hat, his sleeves up to his shoulders, proved himself in a minute a graduate of a great school of engineering, and proved as well his understanding of the importance of the work i was trying to do, and his regret that most painters could not see the splendid motives all about; and the greatest compliment i ever received came from one of these men, who told me my drawings "would work." day after day it was the same--everything, including government hotels and labor trains, open to me. the only things to look out for were the blasts, the slips of dirt in the cut, and the trains, which rushed and switched about without any reference to those who might get in front of them. if one got run over, as was not usual; or blown up, which was unusual; or malaria, which few escaped among the workmen, there were plenty of hospitals, lots of nurses and sufficient doctors. each railroad switch was attended by a little darkey with a big flag; of one of whom it was said he was seen to be asleep, with his head on the rails one day. the engineer of an approaching dirt train actually pulled up, and he was kicked awake and asked why he was taking a nap there. the boy replied he was "'termined no train go by, boss, widout me knowin' it"; and of another who, awaking suddenly and seeing half a train past his switch, pulled it open and wrecked all the trains, tracks and switches within a quarter of a mile; or the third, a jamaican, a new hand, who, being told he was not to let a train go by, promptly signalled a locomotive to come on, and when he was hauled up, smilingly said: "dat wan't no train wat yer tole me to stop; dat's a enjine." drawing had other interesting episodes connected with it, as when i sat at work in culebra cut the leading man of a file of niggers, carrying on his head a wooden box, would approach, stop beside me and look at the drawing. as i happened to look up i would notice the box was labelled, _explosives, highly dangerous_. then, with his hands in his pockets, he and the rest of the gang would stumble along over the half-laid ties, slippery boulders and through the mud, trying to avoid the endless trains and balance the boxes on their heads at the same time. i must say, when i read the legend on the box the sensation was peculiar. they tell you, too, that when president taft came down to the cut all dynamiting gangs were ordered out; but one gang of blacks was forgotten, and as the train with the president and colonel goethals in it passed, the leader cheered so hard that he dropped his box, which somehow didn't go off. it was interesting, too, when one had been working steadily for some time, to find oneself surrounded, on getting up, by little flags, to announce that the whole place had been mined and should not be approached; or to find oneself entangled in a network of live wires ready to touch off the blasts from hundreds of yards away, and to remember that i was behind a boulder about to be blown to pieces, and might be overlooked; or to be told i had better get out, as they were ready to blast, after a white man had got done chucking from one rock, to a black man on another, sticks of melanite, as the easiest way of getting them to him; or ramming in, with long poles, charges so big that trains, steam shovels and tracks had to be moved to keep them from being "shot up." i always kept out of the way as far as possible after the day at bas obispo when, standing some hundreds of yards from a blast watching the effect of showers of rocks falling like shells in the river, i heard wild yells, and, looking up, saw a rock as big as a foot-ball sailing toward me. i have heard one can see shells coming and dodge them. i know now that this is so, though i had to drop everything and roll to do it. but i don't like it; and accidents do happen, and there are hospitals all across the isthmus with men, to whom accidents have happened, in them. but nothing happened to me. i did not get malaria or fever, or bitten or run over. i was very well all the time--and i walked in the sun and worked in the sun, and sat in the swamps and the bottoms of locks and at the edge of the dam, and nothing but drawings happened; but i should not advise others to try these things, nor to get too near steam shovels, which "pick up anything, from an elephant to a red-bug," but sometimes drop a ton rock; nor play around near track-lifters and dirt-train emptiers--for the things are small respecters of persons. but most people do not get hurt, and i never met anyone who wanted to leave; and i believe the threat to send the men home broke the only strike on the canal. i did not go to panama to study engineering--which i know nothing about; or social problems--which i had not time to master; or central american politics--which we are in for; but to draw the canal as it is, and the drawings are done. i was there at the psychological moment, and am glad i went. it is not my business to answer the question: when will the canal be opened?--though they say it will be open within a year. will the dam stand? those who have built it say so. which is better, a sea level or a lock? the lock canal is built. i did not bother myself about these things, nor about lengths and breadths and heights and depths. i went to see and draw the canal, and during all the time i was there i was afforded every facility for seeing the construction of the panama canal, and from my point of view it is the most wonderful thing in the world; and i have tried to express this in my drawings at the moment before it was opened, for when it is opened, and the water turned in, half the amazing masses of masonry will be beneath the waters on one side and filled in with earth on the other, and the picturesqueness will have vanished. the culebra cut will be finer, and from great steamers passing through the gorge, worth going , miles, as i have done, to see. but i saw it at the right time, and have tried to show what i saw. and it is american--the work of my countrymen. joseph pennell list of illustrations the illustrations begin with colon and proceed in regular sequence across the isthmus to panama. i colon: the american quarter ii mount hope iii gatun: dinner time iv at the bottom of gatun lock v the guard gate, gatun vi approaches to gatun lock vii end of the day: gatun lock viii the jungle: the old railroad from the new ix the native village x the american village xi the cut at bas obispo xii in the cut at las cascadas xiii the cut from culebra xiv steam shovel at work in the culebra cut xv the cut: looking toward culebra xvi the cut at paraiso xvii the cut looking toward ancon hill xviii laying the floor of pedro miguel lock xix the gates of pedro miguel xx the walls of pedro miguel xxi building miraflores lock xxii cranes: miraflores lock xxiii walls of miraflores lock xxiv official ancon xxv from ancon hill xxvi the cathedral, panama xxvii the city of panama from the tivoli hotel, ancon xxviii the mouth of the canal from the sea i colon: the american quarter the city of colon is divided into two quarters--the native, or panamanian, and the american. the former is picturesque, but has nothing to do with the canal and is some distance from it. the canal cannot be seen from the city. the american quarter, in which the canal employees live, stands on the sea shore, and is made up of bungalows, shops, hotels, hospitals--all that goes to make up a city--save saloons. all are built of wood, painted white, and completely screened with wire gauze, rusted black by the dampness, a protection from mosquitoes and other beasts, bugs and vermin. raised on concrete supports mostly with long, gently sloping roofs, and buried in a forest of palms, the town, the first the visitor will see, seems absolutely japanese, is very pictorial and full of character. the design, i believe, of the houses was made by the american engineers or architects. very few of the higher canal officers live at colon, which is the atlantic seaport of the isthmus, the eastern mouth of the canal, though colon is west of panama--such is the geography of the country. the mouth of the canal will be fortified; breakwaters and light-houses are being built. for authorities on fortification it may be interesting to state that the forts will be so situated that the locks will be completely out of range of an enemy's guns. personally i am not a believer in wars or navies. if my theories were practised there would be no need for fortifications. [illustration] ii mount hope near mount hope, which--for the french--should be called the slough of despond, or the lake of despair, is a huge swamp about a mile or so from colon, on the left bank of the french canal, seen on the right of the lithograph. this swamp is now filled with all sorts of abandoned french machinery. dredges, locomotives, and even what seem to be lock gates, show amid the palms in the distance. huge american cranes for raising this french material--which the american engineers have made use of--and discharging cargo from the ships in the french canal--which is here finished and in use--loom over the swamp, the banks of which are lined with piers and workshops full of life--a curious contrast to the dead swamp in which not a mosquito lives, nor a smell breathes. [illustration] iii gatun: dinner time between mount hope and gatun is much more of the swamp and much more abandoned machinery, but the canal is not to be seen from the railroad, or any evidence of it, till the train stops at the station of old gatun, with its workmen's dwellings crowning the hillside. i regret i made no drawing of these, so picturesquely perched. at the station of gatun--the first time i stopped--i saw the workmen--in decorative fashion--coming to the surface for dinner. the lithograph was made from a temporary bridge spanning the locks and looking toward colon. the great machines on each side of the locks are for mixing and carrying to their place, in huge buckets, the cement and concrete, of which the locks are built. the french canal is in the extreme distance, now used by our engineers. [illustration] iv at the bottom of gatun lock there is a flight of three double locks at gatun by which ships will be raised eighty-five feet to the level of gatun lake. from the gates of the upper lock--the nearest to the pacific--they will sail across the now-forming lake some miles (about twenty, i believe) to the culebra cut; through this, nine miles long, they will pass, and then descend by three other flights of locks, at pedro miguel and miraflores, to the pacific, which is twenty feet higher, i believe, than the atlantic. the great height, eighty-five feet, was agreed upon so as to save excavation in the cut and time in completion--one of those magnificent labor-saving devices of the moment--which i, not being an engineer, see no necessity for--having waited four hundred years for the canal, we might, as an outsider, it seems to me, have waited four more years and got rid of a number of the locks, even if it cost more money. the lithograph made in the middle lock shows the gates towering on either side. these gates were covered, when i made the drawing, with their armor plates. the lower parts, i was told, are to be filled with air, and the gates, worked by electricity, will virtually float. the scaffolding is only temporary, and so is the opening at the bottom and the railroad tracks, which were filled up and discarded while i was there. so huge are the locks--the three, i think, a mile long, each one thousand feet between the gates, and about ninety feet deep--that, until the men knock off, there scarce seems anyone around. [illustration] v the guard gate, gatun there is a safety gate in each lock, to protect, in case of accident, the main lock gate, just suggested, with the figures working at the armor-plate facing, on the extreme right. beyond are the outer walls and approaches of the upper lock, and beyond these, but unseen, the lake. at the bottom is the railroad and the temporary opening shown in the previous drawing. the scale, the immensity of the whole may be judged by the size of the engines and figures. i have never seen such a magnificent arrangement of line, light and mass, and yet those were the last things the engineers thought of. but great work is great art, and always was and will be. this is the wonder of work. [illustration] vi approaches to gatun lock these huge arches, only made as arches to save concrete and to break the waves of the lake, are mightier than any roman aqueduct, and more pictorial, yet soon they will be hidden almost to the top by the waters of the lake. electric locomotives will run out to the farthest point, and from it, tow the ships into the lock. beyond is gatun lake, and to the right the lines of the french canal and chagres river stretch to the horizon. even while i was on the isthmus the river and canal disappeared forever before the waters of the rapidly rising flood. all evidence of the french work beyond gatun has vanished under water. i did not draw the dam or the spillway simply because i could not find a subject to draw, or could not draw it. [illustration] vii end of the day--gatun lock this was another subject i saw as the men stopped work in the evening. on the left is the stairway which most of them use, and on both sides are iron ladders which a few climb. the semicircular openings are for mooring the ships. [illustration] viii the jungle the old railroad from the new while i was on the isthmus the old line from gatun to the culebra cut at bas obispo was abandoned, owing to the rising waters of the lake, which will soon cover towns, and swamps, and hills, and forests. this drawing was made looking across the lake near gatun, with the dam in the distance, and i have tried to show the rich riot of the jungle. below, on the old road, is a steam shovel digging dirt. the little islands, charming in line, are little hills still showing above the waters of the forming lake. [illustration] ix the native village this lithograph was made on the new line, which discovered to the visitor primitive panama, its swamps, jungles and native villages; but, owing to colonel gorgas, native no longer, as they are odorless and clean; but the natives, with their transformation, seem to prefer to the palm-leaf roof, corrugated iron and tin, and abandoned freight cars to live in. the huts are mostly built on piles near the rivers. in the background can be seen the strange-shaped mountains and strange-shaped trees. the white tree--i don't know its name--with the bushy top has no bark, and is not dead, but puts out leaves, mrs. colonel gaillard tells me, in summer; and she also tells me the jungle is full of the most wonderful orchids, birds, snakes, monkeys and natives, and offered to take me to see them. i saw her splendid collection of orchids at culebra, through the luxuriance of which colonel gaillard says he has to hew his way with a machete every morning to breakfast, so fast do plants grow on the isthmus. advantage of this rapidity of jungle growth has been taken to bind together the completed parts of the surface of the dam, which are covered with so much vegetation that i could not tell nature's work from that of the engineers. [illustration] x the american village these are scattered all across the continent, hemmed in by the tropical jungle or placed on the high, cool hill. in all there is, first, the news-stand at the station; then, the hotel--really restaurants--where on one side the americans "gold employees" dine for thirty cents, better than they could for a dollar at home--and more decently; men, women and children. on the other, in a separate building, usually, the "silver employees" foreigners; and there are separate dining and sleeping places and cars for negroes, even on workmen's trains. the indian has the sense and pride to live his own life down there, apart, as at home in india. there are many in the zone. the head men in each of these towns have their own houses; the lesser lights share double ones; and i believe the least of all, bunks; but these matters didn't interest me, nor did sanitary conditions or social evils or advantages. there are also clubs, i believe, social centres, mothers' meetings, churches, art galleries and museums on the isthmus, but i never saw them. i was after picturesqueness. still, it is no wonder, under present conditions, that i never found a man who wanted to "go home"--and some hadn't been home for seven years, and dreaded going--and rightly. the canal zone is the best governed section of the united states. [illustration] xi the cut at bas obispo the culebra cut commences near bas obispo--from this place--where the chagres river enters gatun lake, the cut extends for nine miles, to pedro miguel. all between here and gatun will be under water. the drawing was made at the bottom of the cut, and the various levels on which the excavations are made may be seen. the dirt trains, one above the other, are loading up from the steam shovels on each side of the old river bed in the centre. the machinery for shifting tracks and unloading trains is wonderful, but not very picturesque. [illustration] xii in the cut at las cascadas this drawing shows the cut and gives from above some idea of the different levels on which the work is carried out. it is on some of these levels that slides have occurred and wrecked the work. the slides move slowly, not like avalanches, but have caused endless complications; but colonel gaillard, the engineer in charge, believes he will triumph over all his difficulties--which include even a small volcano--there is a newspaper story--but no earthquakes. [illustration] xiii the cut from culebra at this point the cut is far the deepest at the continental divide, and here the french did their greatest work, and here this is recorded by the united states on a placque high up on the left-hand bare mountain face of gold hill. the drawing was made looking towards pedro miguel. [illustration] xiv steam shovel at work in the culebra cut this beast, as they say down there, "can pick up anything from an elephant to a red-bug"--the smallest thing on the isthmus. they also say the shovel "would look just like teddy if it only had glasses." it does the work of digging the canal and filling the trains, and does it amazingly--under the amazing direction of its amazing crews. [illustration] xv the cut--looking toward culebra this is the most pictorial as well as the most profound part of the cut. culebra, the town, is high above--some of it has fallen in--on the edge in the distance--on the left. the white tower is an observatory from near which the lithograph no. xiii of the cut was made. the drawing is looking toward the atlantic. the engineer of the dirt train--the smoke of which is so black because the engines burn oil--climbed up to see what i was at, and incidentally told me he was paid $ , a year, had a house free and two months' holiday. it is scarcely wonderful he has little interest in home, but the greatest pride in "our canal," and his only hope was to be "kept on the job" and run an electric locomotive for the rest of his life. [illustration] xvi the cut at paraiso at this point the old railroad crosses the canal bed, and there is a splendid view in both directions. this is looking toward the same mountains as in the previous drawing, early in the morning. the mountains are covered with long lines of mist, under which nestles the american-japanese town of paraiso. the new line of railroad never crosses the canal, but passes behind the mountain on the right. the scheme of having it follow the canal through culebra cut has been abandoned, owing to the slides. [illustration] xvii the cut looking toward ancon hill this is the view toward the pacific from the same spot in the full stress of work. the pedro miguel locks are in the distance, beyond is ancon hill, dominating panama, miles farther on; and to the right, between the hills, but miles still farther, beyond miraflores lock, the pacific. [illustration] xviii laying the floor of pedro miguel lock this is the most monumental piece of work on the canal, and the most pictorial. the huge approaches, quite different in form from gatun--for all the locks have character, and the character of their builders--are only arches to save concrete. here were men enough laying the concrete floor--others swarming over the gates not yet covered with their armor plate. beyond is the lock just shown between the gates. [illustration] xix the gates of pedro miguel this is the same lock nearer the gates, and shows the great length of it from gate to gate and something of its building and construction, from my point of view. [illustration] xx the walls of pedro miguel this was drawn from the opposite end of the lock and the great side walls topped with their concrete-making crenellations and cranes are seen. in the foreground, on the left, is one of the side openings for emptying the water from one lock to another--for all the locks are double, side by side, and ships will not have to wait until a lock is empty, as is usual, before they can enter, but, as one empties, the same water partly fills the one beside it, and so steamers will pass without waiting. two or three small vessels can go through at the same time, as well as the largest with room to spare. [illustration] xxi building miraflores lock this lock, the nearest the pacific, is again quite different and is the work of a civil engineer, mr. williamson, and not of army officers, like the rest. between the two forces, i believe, the most fierce harmony exists. the drawing shows the two locks side by side, the great cranes--they are different, too--towering above. all the ground here will be filled by a small lake between this lock and pedro miguel. [illustration] xxii cranes--miraflores lock these great cranes travel to and fro, and as i drew the nearest i found the lines changing, but thought there was something wrong with me. so huge were they, and so silently and solemnly did they move, that i could not believe they were moving. this is the pacific end of the lock--the last on the canal. [illustration] xxiii walls of miraflores lock the only wall in march of the approach to miraflores may be contrasted with the similar subject no. xx--pedro miguel. much as there was to be done in march, the engineer, mr. williamson, had no doubt it would be finished this fall; for as fast as the other locks were completed, men and machines were to be put on this. [illustration] xxiv official ancon amid these royal palm groves work and live many of the members of the isthmian canal commission--the rest are on the high hill at culebra. to the secretary, mr. j. b. bishop, and to his family, i am endlessly indebted for endless help while on the zone. ancon is a perfect japanese town--built by americans--and the interiors of the houses here and at culebra are as delightful as their owners are charming--and i know of what i speak. the large building against the ocean is the administration office of the isthmian canal commission. [illustration] xxv from ancon hill a road winds up ancon hill, passing the official residences and the hospitals, finally reaching a terrace bordered with royal palms. below to the left is the tivoli hotel, and still lower and farther away, the city, while the pacific fills the distance. this is the most beautiful spot i saw on the isthmus. [illustration] xxvi the cathedral, panama the cathedral, one of a number of churches in the city of panama, stands in a large square. the feeling of all these, with their richly decorated façades and long, unbroken side walls, is absolutely spanish--but the interiors are far more bare--much more like italian churches. [illustration] xxvii the city of panama from the tivoli hotel, ancon from the wing of the government hotel in which i stayed i looked out over the city of panama to the pacific. if this city were in spain, or if even a decent description of it were in a european guide-book, the hordes of americans who go to the canal would rave over it. as it is, not many of them (not being told) ever see it, though there are few towns in europe with more character. but i regret to say my countrymen don't know what they are looking at, or what to look at, till they have a guide-book, courier or tout to tell them. the government provides, i am told, a harvard graduate to perform the latter function, and sends out daily an observation car across the continent. the two strange, flat-topped mountains, miles out at sea, are to be fortified, and they are so far from shore, and the locks so far inland, as to be out of range--as well as out of sight--of modern guns and gunners. [illustration] xxviii the mouth of the canal from the sea this drawing was made from the channel which leads out to the pacific ocean. the mouth of the canal is on the left in the flat space between the mountains; on the right of this, the dark mass on the edge of the water is the docks and harbors; then comes the great, towering ancon hill, one side all dug out in terraces for dirt, much of which goes to fill in the outside of locks, which, however, will work before they are filled in. and for what other purposes the war department are going to use this gibraltar they alone know. the other side, a mass of palms shelters the houses of the officials, and at the foot of the hill, to the right, panama--as beautiful as naples or tangier, yet hardly a tourist knows it; and--well, the government is not running a tourist agency. the breakwater, which will connect the fortified islands miles away with the mainland, is just started in the centre. this is the first and last view of panama--and of the greatest work of modern times, the work of the greatest engineers of all time. joseph pennell [illustration] life of james mcneill whistler by elizabeth r. and joseph pennell the pennells have thoroughly revised the material in their authorized life and added much new matter, which for lack of space they were unable to incorporate in the elaborate two-volume edition now out of print. fully illustrated with plates reproduced from whistler's works, more than half reproduced for first time. crown vo., fifth and revised edition. whistler binding, deckle edge. $ . net. three quarters grain levant, $ . net. +----------------------------------------------------------------- + | transcriber's note: | | | | minor typographical errors have been corrected without note. | | | | duplicated section headings have been omitted. | | | | italicized words are surrounded by underline characters, | | _like this_. | | | | [++] indicates a caption added by the transcriber. | +------------------------------------------------------------------+