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WOOD WOOD ENGRAVING. 



WOOD, ANTHONY, an eminent English anti- 

 quary and biographer, born at Oxford, in 103*2, en- 

 tered of Merton college, Oxford, in 1647. Having 

 graduated M. A., he set himself to transcribe the 

 monumental inscriptions and arms of the parishes 

 of Oxford, and, in 1660, obtained permission to 

 consult the registers and other records of the uni- 

 versity in the Schools' Tower. These researches, 

 added to others in the Tower of London and the 

 Cotton library, produced the materials for his His- 

 tory and Antiquities of the University of Oxford. 

 The copy of this work, which he had compiled with 

 greater industry than skill, was purchased of him 

 by the university for 100 pounds. It was written 

 in English ; but as it was thought proper that it 

 should appear in Latin for the information of for- 

 eigners, it was translated into that language, under 

 the inspection of doctor Fell, and published at the 

 Oxford press, under the title of Historia et Anti- 

 quitates Universitatis Oxoniensis (2 vols., folio.) 

 Of this version he often complained, as exhibiting 

 various mistakes and omissions. In 1691, appeared 

 his more popular and important work, Athena Ox- 

 onienses, or an account in English, of almost all 

 the writers educated at Oxford, and many of those 

 at the university of Cambridge. A prosecution 

 was soon after instituted against him in the vice- 

 chancellor's court, for an imputation, in this work, 

 affecting the character of the deceased earl of 

 Clarendon ; and he was sentenced to expulsion un- 

 til he should formally recant it. His work affords 

 valuable materials for biography. He died in 1695, 

 and left his books and papers to the university of 

 Oxford. A third edition of his Athena Oxonienses, 

 corrected from the author's manuscripts, and con- 

 tinued, appeared under the superintendence of doctor 

 Bliss (18131817, 3 vols., 4to.) 



WOOD, ROBERT, an accomplished scholar and 

 statesman, was born at Riverstown, in the county 

 of Meath, in 1716. In 1751, he made the tour of 

 Greece, Egypt, and Palestine, in company with 

 Bouverie, and Dawkins, and, at his return, pub- 

 lished a splendid work in folio, entitled the Ruins 

 of Palmyra, otherwise Tadmor in the Desert (fol., 

 1753), being an account of the ancient and present 

 state of that place, with fifty-seven elegant engrav- 

 ings; republished in Paris in 1819 (4to.) This 

 was followed by a similar Description of the Ruins 

 of Balbec, with forty-six plates (1757). In 1759, he 

 was appointed under secretary of state by the earl of 

 Chatham, at which time he was preparing for the press 

 his Essay on the Life and Writings of Homer, which 

 did not appear until after his death, which took 

 place at Putney, in 1771. This work has been 

 translated into French, Italian, Spanish and Ger- 

 man ; the latter by Heyne, with a preliminary 

 essay. 



WOOD ENGRAVING. Some account of this 

 may be found in the article Engraving ; subdivi- 

 sion, Engraving on Wood. See also the article 

 Printing. We add here, that one of the chief ad- 

 vantages of wood-cuts is, that they may be printed 

 by the same process as common letter-press. In a 

 copperplate, as may be known to most of our readers, 

 the parts which are intended to leave an impres- 

 sion upon the paper are cut into copper, so that, 

 after the ink is spread over the engraving, it has 

 to be rubbed from all the prominent or uncut por- 

 tion of the surface, in order that it may remain 

 only in these hollows. Several disadvantages re- 

 pult from this. In the first place, the plate is very 

 soon worn, or the fineness of the lines impaired by 



this continual abrasion,* Secondly, from the me- 

 thod of inking being so different from that which i 

 used in printing letter-press", where the parts of 

 the type that make the impression, are the promi- 

 nences and not the hollows, and the ink, there- 

 fore, is allowed to remain where it naturally adheres 

 on being applied by the ball or roller, the copper- 

 plate engraving must always be printed by itself, 

 and generally on a separate page from the letter- 

 press. The only way of giving both on the same 

 page, is to subject' the paper to two successive im- 

 pressions, which, besides the inconvenience of the 

 operation, almost always produces an unpleasant 

 effect from the difference of colour in the two ink- 

 ings, and the difficulty of adjustment. A wood- 

 cut has none of these disadvantages. As the im- 

 pression is to be made by the prominent parts of 

 the wood, these, which receive the ink directly 

 from the roller, are allowed to retain it, just as in 

 the case of ordinary types ; and there is, therefore, 

 nothing of that process of rubbing at every impres- 

 sion, which so soon wears out a copper-plate. The 

 consequence is, that while rarely more than two 

 thousand impressions can be taken from a copper 

 engraving before it requires to be retouched, a 

 wood-cut will yield, perhaps, fifty thousand. Then 

 the latter, from the manner in which it is to be 

 inked, admits of being set up, if necessary, just like 

 any of the other types, in the midst of a common 

 page, and so of being printed both in the most con- 

 venient place, and without any separate process. 

 The block must, of course, for this purpose, be 

 made very exactly of the same thickness or depth 

 as the other types, along with which it is placed. 



In a " Book of Trades," published at Frankfort, in 

 1654, which was illustrated by a number of spirited 

 wood-cuts from the designs of Jost. Ammon, there 

 is a representation of the formschneider or wood- 

 cutter. He sits at a table holding the block in his 

 left hand, upon which he is cutting with a small 

 graver in his right. Another graver, and a sort of 

 googe or chisel lies upon the table. If we enter 

 the work-room of a wood-engraver of the present 

 day, we shall find the instruments by which he is 

 surrounded, nearly as few and as simple. His 

 block rests upon a flat circular leather cushion filled 

 with sand ; and this so completely answers the 

 purpose of holding the block firmly, and yet allow- 

 ing it to be moved in every direction, that it is 

 expressively called the wood-cutter's third hand. 

 His cutting instruments are of three sorts : the 

 first, which is called a graver, is a lozenge-shaped 

 tool, used for outlines and fine tints ; the second, 

 called a scauper, which presents a triangular point 

 and edges, is used for deeper and bolder work: 

 and the third, which is a fiat tool or chisel, is em- 

 ployed in cutting away those parts of the block 

 which are" to be left entirely light. There are 

 several varieties of size in these tools, but it is 

 understood that the best artists employ the fewest 

 tools. Upon the block, which presents a perfectly 

 smooth surface, the design has previously been 

 drawn, in most cases with a black-lead pencil, by a 

 draughtsman, who is generally an artist distinct 

 from the wood-engraver. It is the business of the 

 cutter, as we have before mentioned, to leave all 

 the lines upon the block which the draughtsman 

 has traced with his pencil; and to do this, he of 

 course cuts away all the parts which form the 



* Engraving on steel is, in a great measure, free from this 

 disadvantage. 



