LITHOGRAPH Y. 



491 



of gaining an honest subsistence in the military 

 career." 



On Senefelder's return to Munich, chance threw in 

 his way Mr Gleissner, a musician of the Elector's 

 baud, to whom he had formerly been known, and who 

 was about to publish some music. Senefelder com- 

 municated to him his invention of printing from stone, 

 and it was soon determined that by this new method 

 tileissiier's music should be given to the world. The 

 composing, writing on stone, and printing of twelve 

 songs was accomplished in less than a fortnight, and 

 one hundred and twenty copies taken at the expense 

 of about thirty florins. In a short time the entire 

 impression was sold for one hundred florins, thus 

 leaving a profit of seventy florins, or rather more than 

 two hundred per cent. 



In addition to this prosperous commencement, count 

 Torring having laid a copy of the work before the 

 Elector Charles Theodore, Mr Gleissner received a 

 present of one hundred florins, with the promise of 

 an exclusive privilege for this method of printing. 

 Two or three other publications, one of which was 

 Cannabick's " Ode on the death of Mozart," respec- 

 tively yielded some profit, and Senefelder saw his 

 invention established with every appearance of suc- 

 cessful results. But, amidst these bright prospects, 

 his ardour seems to have been damped at the recep- 

 tion of a communication which lie made to the 

 Electoral Academy of Sciences, explanatory of his 

 mode of printing from stone. In this he stated its 

 peculiar advantages, and dwelt at some length on the 

 cheapness of the means by which it was performed, 

 and instanced his own printing-press which had not 

 cost more than six florins. Von Vachiery, the vice- 

 president, presented him with twelve florins, intimat- 

 ing that his " Memoir" had been very favourably 

 received ; and adding, that as the expenses of the 

 press, according to his own statement, did not exceed 

 six, he hoped that a double compensation would satisfy 

 his expectations. " I, indeed," says Senefelder, 

 " expected a very different treatment from the guar- 

 dians of science and art, whose duty it is to investi- 

 gate the value of every new invention, and if approved 

 to submit it to the notice of their government." 



This was in 1796. As employment increased, 

 Senefelder set himself to work to construct an im- 

 proved press ; but a defect, apparently of the most 

 obvious kind, occasioned a variety of embarrassments. 

 A clumsy manual operation was substituted for a 

 press, and by this means Senefelder hoped to be able 

 to fulfil the engagements which he and Mr Gleissner 

 were under. 



Mr Falter, a music-seller at Munich, employed 

 Senefelder to write and superintend the printing from 

 stone an arrangement of Mozart's " Zauberflaute," 

 but this effort was unfortunate. 



It would be tedious to follow the various struggles 

 of the ingenious Senefelder, or to enumerate his 

 lithographic labours ; so far, his personal history is 

 that of the art, which having made certain advances, 

 was of too much importance to continue long a secret. 



In 1799, when Senefelder received from the king of 

 Bavaria an exclusive privilege to practise his new art 

 for fifteen years, his two brothers were employed by 

 him, as well as two apprentices ; and on this act of 

 justice, he no longer made a mystery of the process. 

 In 1800, a circumstantial description of it was lodged 

 at the patent office in London, and, in 1803 with the 

 government of Lower Austria. 



Amongst the strangers, who from motives of 

 curiosity visited Senefelder's establishment, was Mr 

 Andre, an extensive music publisher ; he admired 

 the facility of lithographic printing, and his reason- 

 ing respecting the invention induced him to make 

 Senefelder the offer of 2000 florins for an unreserved 



communication of all the particulars of his art, and 

 the establishment of a press at Offenbach. If Andre's 

 views had been confined to his immediate trade, his 

 anticipations of the value of lithography would pro 

 bably have been realized, but feeling a confidence in 

 the vast power of the art, his views became ambitious; 

 he proposed obtaining patents for the exclusive exer- 

 cise of it in Vienna, London, Paris, and Berlin, 

 simultaneously : he came over to England on the 

 speculation of its application to cotton printing, 

 without much previous knowledge of either art ; and 

 to this point the attention of Senefelder was, in con- 

 sequence, for a considerable time, almost exclusively 

 devoted. 



On the return of Mr Andre to Germany, he pre- 

 vailed on Senefelder to visit London, for the purpose 

 of superintending the formation of a lithographic 

 establishment. After nearly a year's absence, Sene- 

 felder arrived at Offenbach, where he found his family 

 involved in a fierce dispute with Mr Andre respect- 

 ing their claim to the exclusive right of practising his 

 invention, and this led to a separation between Sene- 

 felder and Andre. His next patron (if indeed the 

 name of patron can be applied to a connexion 

 avowedly formed on mercenary motives) was Mr Von 

 Hartl, imperial court agent at Vienna ; and he ap- 

 pears also to have entertained sanguine expectations 

 from the application of lithography to cotton printing. 

 During the next three or four years various partner- 

 ships were formed, and successively broken up, 

 whenever it was discovered that immediate and exten- 

 sive profits did not follow their formation. 



But the art was no longer a secret, and in defiance 

 of Senefelder's privilege, it was practised by several 

 individuals and public establishments. " I rather 

 suspect," says Senefelder, "that the opinion of my 

 art having been long kept secret, arose from the cir- 

 cumstance that several of my former workmen or 

 other persons who had by accident heard something 

 of lithography, treated it as a great secret, in order 

 to obtain greater consequence ; some of them even 

 went so far as to travel about and to sell their secrets 

 and prescriptions to credulous persons, in some cases, 

 for considerable sums." 



In 1809 there were, besides Senefelder's, six litho- 

 graphic printing-houses at Munich ; and several 

 amateurs and artists had presses erected for their 

 own use. To trace further the gradual diffusion of 

 lithography in Germany is unnecessary, and would 

 be tedious ; we, therefore, turn our attention to its 

 introduction into Britain and France. 



Senefelder, about the year 1802, as has been stated, 

 joined Mr Philip H. Andre in London, where his art 

 was announced, under the name Polyautography. A 

 caveat had been entered in the patent office to secure, 

 if necessary, the exclusive exercise of the invention 

 in England; but we believe no patent for it was ever 

 taken out, although the specimens published by Andre 

 in 1803, bear the legend " By his majesty's royal 

 letters patent." Senefelder complains of the seclu- 

 sion in which Mr Philip Andre kept him, under the 

 idea that he might divulge the process ; but in justice 

 to Mr Andre it must be mentioned, whatever his con- 

 duct towards Senefelder may have been, that he not 

 only readily communicated the* general principles of 

 lithography to several artists in London, but admitted 

 them freely into his printing room. This fac simile 

 method of multiplying drawings from the hand of the 

 original designer alarmed the engravers, who, on the 

 supposition that their craft was in danger, exerted 

 themselves to cause lithography to be received as a 

 whimsical invention, of no real importance, and one 

 which could never be brought to any degree of per- 

 fection. The artists also, at this period, after one or 

 two careless trial sketches, and without due attention 



