Figure 3. — Late 15TH-CENTURY White-Line En- 

 graving "The crowning of ihe Virgin," in the "dotted 

 manner" executed on metal for relief printing. Parts 

 were hand colored. 



out wood in delicate ribbon.s (see fig. 2). Since ilu- 

 surface was to receive ink, the procediuc inovccl from 

 black to while: the more lines taken away, the lighter 

 the tones would appear, and, conversely, where fewest 

 or finest lines were removed the tones would he 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 en- 

 graving 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 tnnc^ could 

 be produced. 



For purposes of realism, this was an enormous im- 

 proNcmcnt over the old black-line woodcut. Natural 

 tones and textures could be imitated. The engraver 

 was no lonsjer a inerc mechanical craftsman cutting 

 ai-otmd existing lines: special skill was needed to trans- 

 late tones in terms of while lines of varying thickness 

 and spacing. The opportunity also existed for each 

 engra\er to work his own tones in his own manner, to 

 (le\i-l()p a personal systcni. In short, the mediimi 

 served the same purpose as copper plate line engrav- 

 ing, with the added \-irtue that it could be jjrinted to- 

 gether 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 ol the pi)|uilar re[)rodiuti\'e ends which it almost 

 in\ariablv served. 



.Actually, white-line engra\ing lor relief printing 

 dates hom the 15th centurv. Ihe most conspicuous 

 early examples are the so-called "dotted prims" or 

 "gravures en maniere criblee," in which the designs 

 were brought out by dots |)un(hed in the plates, and 

 by occasional engraved lines (see fig. 3). Until 

 Koehler's '" study made this fact plain, 19th-century 

 critics could hardly belie\e that these were merely 

 white-line metal relief prints, inked on the surface 

 like woodcuts. But a number of other examples of 

 the saine ])eriod exist which were also made directly 

 on copper or type metal — the method, although rudi- 

 mentary, being similar in intent to 19th-century wood 

 engraving. One of these examples (fig. 4). in the col- 

 lection of the U. S. National Museum, is typical. 

 I'his was not simply an ordinary line engra\ing printed 

 in relief rather than in iht' usual way; the manage- 

 ment of the lights shows that it was planned as a 

 white-line engra\ing. The rea.son for this treatment, 

 ob\'iously, was to permit the picture and the type to 

 be printed in one operation. 



The well-known wood engravings of soldiers with 

 standards, executed Ijy Urs Graf in the early 1500's, 

 are probably the only white-line ]')rints in this medium 

 l)y an accomplished artist until the 18th century. 

 But these are mainly in (uulinr. with little attempt 

 to achieve tones. No acKantage was gained by hav- 

 ing the lines white rather than black other than an 

 engaging roughness in spots: the prints were sim])ly 

 whitusical excursions bv an in\enti\e artist. 



'" Sylvester R. Koehlcr, "White-line engraving for relief- 

 printing in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries," in Annual 

 report of the . . . Smithsonian Institution . . . for the year ending 

 June 30, 1890, report oj the U. S. National Museum, Washington, 

 1892, pp. 385-389. 



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BULLETIN 218: CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE .\IUSKU.M Ol HISTORY .\ND TECH.NOLOGY 



