Drawing and Engraving; A Brief Exposition of Technical Principles and Practice

This historic book may have numerous typos, missing text or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1892. Not illustrated. Excerpt: ... iv copper and steel plate-engraving Engraving on plates of copper and steel is the converse of wood-engraving in method. In lineengraving it is the line itself which is hollowed, whereas in the woodcut, as we have seen, when the line is to print black it is left in relief, and only white spaces and white lines are hollowed. There was no difficulty about discovering the art of lineengraving, which has been practised from the Prehistoric earliest ages. The prehistoric Aztec hatchet given to Humboldt in Mexico was just as really and truly engraved as a modern copper-plate with outlines after Flaxman or Thorwaldsen; the Aztec engraving is of course ruder than the European, but it is the same art. The important discovery which made line-engraving one of the multiplying arts was the discovery how to print an incised line, which would not occur to every one, and which in fact was hit upon at last by accident, and known for some time before its real utility was suspected. Line-engraving in Europe does not owe its origin to the woodcut, but to the chasing on goldsmiths' work. If the reader will look at any article of jewellery in which the metal is ornamented with incised designs, he will there see the true origin of our precious Diirers and Marcantonios. The history of the first plate-printing is as follows. The Hate printing goldsmiths of Florence in the middle of the fifteenth century were in the habit of ornamenting their works by means of engraving, after which they filled up the hollows produced by the burin with a black enamel made of silver, lead, and sulphur, the result being that the design was rendered much more visible by the opposition of the enamel and the metal. An engraved design filled up in this manner was called a niello, and our modern doorplates are ...