ENGRAVING 



20.VS 



ENGRAVING 



and Romans, were of this character. So, too, 

 the Chinese and the Japanese worked elab- 

 orate designs on bronze and copper, and prob- 

 ably every reader of this article has seen silver- 

 ware engraved in more or less elaborate de- 

 signs. This latter engraving is done solely for 

 the beauty of the design. 



Engraving, however, may also be employed 

 for the sake of reproductions which may be 

 printed from it. If an engraved surface is 

 covered with ink and then laid on a piece of 

 paper, the paper will show an impression of 

 the engraving. Such a reproduction is not 

 itself an engraving, but is a print. If the ink 

 is spread lightly over the surface of the en- 

 graving the lines which have been cut will 

 appear white in the print; this is called relief 

 engraving. On the other hand, if the ink is 

 forced into the lines of the design and the 

 surface of the plate is wiped clean, the design 

 will appear in black or colored lines on a 

 white ground; this is properly called line en- 

 graving, .and is represented in these volumes 

 by thousands of black and white illustrations. 

 Relief engraving is usually done on wood; line 

 engraving is usually on copper or steel. If 

 the lines are eaten or bitten into a plate by 

 means of an acid, the process is etching, and 

 if the surface is merely roughened, without 

 actually cutting lines, it is called mezzotint. 

 Until the discovery of the various processes of 

 photo-engraving, these were the chief means 

 of reproducing designs of any kind; they are 

 discussed briefly here in the order in which they 

 became important. 



Wood Engraving. The earliest engraving for 

 the purpose of printing seems to have been by 

 the Chinese, who, from the most ancient times, 

 carved figures on wood blocks. It seems to 

 have had an independent origin in Europe 

 after the introduction of paper in the twelfth 

 century, but the oldest existing print whose date 

 is certain was printed in 1423. The great mas- 

 ter of wood engraving is Albrecht Durer, whose 

 work has been unsurpassed even to the pres- 

 ent time. Other great engravers on wood were 

 Hans Holbein (1497-1543), Lucas Cranach 

 (1472-1553), Thomas Bewick (1753-1828), and 

 Timothy Cole (1852- ). 



Line Engraving. As the name indicates, the 

 design or pattern is cut in lines, usually on 

 plates of copper or steel. The instrument used 

 for this purpose is the burin, or graver, a 

 short steel bar, with a sharp, triangular point. 

 The burin is held in the palm of the hand and 

 is pushed forward along the plate, in which it 



cuts a groove. Usually the lines are first 

 drawn lightly on the steel or copper, and then 

 cut by the graver. The artist first makes a 

 narrow, shallow groove and afterwards cuts 

 it again and again until it has the desired 

 width and depth. The peculiar appearance of 

 a line engraving, with the design slightly raised 

 above the rest of the paper, is due to the 

 method of printing. The surface of the plate 

 is wiped clean, ink being left only in the 

 grooves. The paper, usually dampened, is 

 then pressed so tightly against the plate that 

 the edges of the grooves show on the paper. 

 In fine prints every line of the engraving will 

 appear slightly raised. 



The earliest line-engravers, men like Durer, 

 Schongauer and Lucas van Leyden, did orig- 

 inal work, but in the seventeenth and eight- 

 eenth centuries line-engraving was used chiefly 

 for the reproduction of paintings. A few 

 names Nanteuil, Edelinck, Eisen, Cochin 

 stand out as those of great artists, but most 

 line-engravers, down to the present, have 

 copied the work of others. For this reason 

 line-engraving fell into disfavor among cre- 

 ative artists; the development of photo-engrav- 

 ing processes in the nineteenth century prac- 

 tically ended its career. The new mechanical 

 processes are cheaper, quicker and for most 

 purposes equally satisfactory. Only for print- 

 ing bank notes and a high grade of portraits 

 is line-engraving still in common use. 



Etching. Etching, on the contrary, has al- 

 ways been regarded as one of the proper means 

 of artistic expression. It has a less formal 

 technique, is more quickly done and gives 

 wider opportunities for individuality. Rem- 

 brandt, the father of etching, and probably the 

 greatest etcher who has ever lived, was also 

 one of the world's greatest painters. The etch- 

 ing process is similar to that of line-engraving, 

 except that the lines are bitten out by an acid. 

 Mezzotint. This is a special form of engrav- 

 ing on copper or steel. The plate is first re- 

 duced to a mass of small, prickly points by 

 means of a rocker. The rocker cuts the metal 

 into ridges, and as it is rocked and turned 

 leaves hundreds of tiny projecting points. 

 These points must be smoothed down or cut 

 away entirely to produce a design. For fur- 

 ther details see MEZZOTINT. W.F.Z. 



Related Subject*. The reader is referred to 

 the following articles in these volumes : 

 Diirer, Albrecht Photo-Engraving 



Etching Rembrandt 



Mezzotint Wood Engra%'ing 



