Illustration Processes to 1900 (July 2013)

Illustration Processes to 1900 (I-20), Rare Book School, taught by Terry Belanger, 22-27 July 2013

Relief

can't tell if a relief print is printed from wood or from metal (eletrotype)

if sheet is printed on both sides, 90% certain it's relief

don't get large areas of dead black in intaglio the way you do with relief

Hand press period

Woodcuts

fast to print

don't wear out

ink is such in, so you can stack sheets while wet

done on plank side of wood

C19

Wood engravings

done on endgrain, which is much harder; you an use a burin

advantage over intaglio: can be printed with the text

Bewick manner -- popularized wood engraving

• vignette: no edges -- not rectangle or oval
• Bewick known for his vignetes; see pg 13 in workbook for a passage from Jane Eyre that mentions Bewick
• many imitators
• large Bewick block collection at the Newberry
• Bewick manner uses white lines when you can, since it's easier

Facsimile -- copy what an artist gives you

Interpretive -- interpret what an artist gives you

White-line

Stereotype/electrotypes

stereotype begins around 1810; eletrotypes in 1840s

copper-faced woodblock made from original wood engraving; can't tell the different between a printing done from copper face or from original woodblock

plaster in wood engraving means its a stereotype

Intaglio

Hand-press period

Etchings

Etchings on an ungrounded plate

Photographically assisted

letter press -- ~200 sq in of printing space, about 200lb of pressure, so ~1lb per sq in (not much at all)

copperplate: under pressure of rolling press, lines squash together