Relief engraving on type metal and end-grain wood 

 really got under way as a consistent process in England 

 at the beginning of the 18th century. Chatto " gives 

 this date as conjecture, without actual evidence, but 

 a first-hand account can he found in the rare and 

 litilc-known book, published in 1752, in which the 

 combination of anonymous authorship and a mis- 

 leading title obscured the fact that it is a digest of 

 John Ba])tist Jackson's manuscript journal. This 

 eminent woodcutter, who was born about 1700 and 

 worked in England durina; the early years of the 

 century, must be considered an important and re- 

 liable witness. Tlie unknown editor paraphrases 

 Jackson on the subject of engravinij for relief pur- 

 poses: '- 



... I shall give a brief Accoum of tlu- Siaic of Cutting 

 on Wood in England for the Type Press before he [Jackson] 

 went to France in 1725. 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 dis|)atched 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 \'ogue, 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 ac- 

 company 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. 



This is important evidence that end-grain wood 

 engraving was not only known in England in the 

 early 18th century but was actually the prevailing 

 style. In that country, where a woodcut tradition did 



" Chatto, op. cil. (footnote 6), p. 446. 



'- An enquiry into the origins of printing in Europe, by a lover oj 

 art, London, 1752, pp. 25, 26. 



Figure 5. — Example of the Wood- 

 cut Style that Created Facsimile 

 Drawings. Woodcut (actual size) by 

 Hans Lutzelburger. after a drawing 

 by Holbein for his "Dance of Death,"' 

 ■538. 



not exist, the new method sained 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 I'.uropean countries with 

 long art and printing traditions, this substitute method 

 was coitsidered beneath contempt. Jackson" de- 

 scribes the aversion of French woodcutters for the 

 newer and cheaper process: 



From this Account it is evideiu that there was litUe 

 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. .\l his arrival there he found the French engravers 

 on Wood all working in the old Manner; no Metal engravers, 

 or an\- of the same performance on the end of the Wood, 

 was ever used or countenanced by the Printers or Booksellers 

 in that City. 



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 (typo£;raphical) presswork: 

 they would be lost in printint; because the rilibed 

 paper received ink une\enK . F.\en the simple black 



" Ibid., p. 27. 



192 



BULLETIN 218: CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE Ml'SEUM OF IIISTOR\- AND TECHNOLOGY 



