On Liihographij. 2S3 



offer to the public the original production of his pencil, without 

 havins recourse to engravers. The repeated failures I met with 

 when I first began the work entitled " Twenty-four Views ot 

 Italv " determined me to have a press and materials of my own; 

 and after several failures and renewed attempts, during the space 

 of fourteen months, I am at last enabled to offer some drawings, 

 which show, I hope, a decided progress in the art. I must beg 

 leave to observe, that the twelve last of the twenty-four views ot 

 Italy, and the five drawings marked 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5, are printed 

 entirely under my direction, and that the preparation ot the 

 stones, the chalk, the ink, &c. is entirely done by myself. 

 With regard to the drawings marked 6, 7, S, 9, the whole pro- 

 cess, from the first preparation of the stones, as well as the 

 printing, is done also by myself. . 



It is much to be regretted, that no good stones have hitherto 

 been found in England. The only sort which answers to erably 

 well the purposes of lithography, is the white has of Bath ; but 

 it is of too sof- and porous a nature, and gives but few impressions 

 compared with what one can oi)tain from German stones. Ibe 

 Bath stones, however, answer very well for transiers, and other 

 inferior productions. The decided superiority ot German stones 

 over any other, added to the difHculties I met with m obtaining 

 a pure Bath stone of sufficient dimensions, has hindered me 

 from producing a drawing done upon an English stone. All 

 those I have the honour of offering, are printed from German 

 stones, from the quarries of Solnhofen in Bavana. 



The art of lithography admits of many different styles ; such 

 as ink drawings, cither by lines or dots, etchings or engravings, 

 chalk, and imitations of wood-cuts, and of aqua-tmta. 1 he 

 only style, however, which has a decided superiority is thatot 

 chalk, as I think no style of coj)per-i)late engravings can give 

 so perfect an imitation of original pencil drawings ; whereas, 

 from the natural tendency the stone has to imbibe the lithogra- 

 phic ink, it is impossible to obtain very fine lines, or any drawings 

 which might not be executed with more ease by etching on cop- 

 per. Very fine, lines, and good imitations of copper-plate en- 

 graving, may be produced by engraving upon stone ; but as it 

 requires almost as much practice as engraving upon copper, the 

 chief advantage of lithography, viz. enabling an artist to execute 

 his own drawings, is lost; to which must be added, the disad- 

 vantage of the great bulk and weight of the stones, which must 

 always hinder a person from laying by engravings already exe- 

 cuted, as can be done with copper-plates. Transfers upon stones, 

 however, with regard to writing, are extremely useful ; it has 

 also been attempted with copper-plate prints, but they are but 

 i,oor imitations of the yriginal. The art of transferring wnting 

 N n 2 "P"'' 



