1336 ARBORETUM AND FRUTICETUM. PART III. 



impressions were taken off by friction, without the aid of a press. The earliest 

 specimen of wood engraving now extant in England is in the collection 

 of Earl Spencer, and represents St. Christopher carrying the infant Saviour : 

 the date is 1423. A very curious work was published between 1430 and 

 1450, entitled B'lblia Paitperum, the Bible of the Poor. This work consisted 

 of about 40 plates, illustrated by texts of scripture, all cut in wood (see 

 Penny Magazine, vol. ii. p. 419.) ; and it is supposed to have given the first 

 idea of the art of printing with movable types, which was invented soon after 

 by Guttemburg. Wohlgemuth, a wood-engraver at Nuremberg in 1480, was 

 the first who attempted to introduce shade into wood engravings ; and his 

 pupil, Albert Durer, carried the art to a very high degree of perfection ; 

 in his time the wood-cutters, or formschneiders, of Germany became so nume- 

 rous as to be incorporated into a body distinct from that of the briefmahlers, 

 letter-painters or writers. Holbein succeeded Albert Durer ; but soon after- 

 wards the art of engraving on copper having been discovered, wood engraving 

 was comparatively neglected; and it fell into disuse till the time of Bewick, 

 who displayed in it such extraordinary force, and delicacy of execution, 

 as to revive a taste for the art. The first engravers on wood, and up to the 

 time of Bewick, or nearly so, were accustomed to have the trunks of the trees 

 on which they were to engrave sawn up into planks, and to cut out the en- 

 graving with a knife, or other tools, on the side of the grain ; but, about 

 Bewick's time, or before, the practice of cutting the trunk across into sections 

 about 1 in. in thickness was adopted ; and the engravings were cut on the 

 wood, across the grain, with tools which will be hereafter described. The 

 advantages of this mode are, that much finer lines can be produced ; that the 

 engraved block will give a much greater number of impressions ; and that it 

 will be far more durable. The followers of Bewick produced some beautiful 

 engravings ; but, from the mode of printing them, though they were mixed 

 \vith the type, they were almost as expensive as if they had been worked, like 

 the metal engravings, from separate plates. By the modern practice, however, 

 woodcuts are printed from with the same ease as the movable types. The 

 mode in which the operation of cutting on wood is still performed differs but 

 little, according to the Penny Magazine, from that described and illustrated 

 by a plate in a work called the Book of Trades, published at. Frankfort in 

 1654. In this plate, the formschneider, or wood-cutter, is represented sitting 

 " 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 a gouge, or chisel, 

 lie 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 allowing 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 tool with a lozenge- 

 shaped point, used for outlines and fine tints ; the second, called a scauper, 

 presents a triangular point and edges, and is used for deeper and bolder 

 work ; and the third, which is a flat tool, or chisel, is employed in cutting 

 away those parts of the block that are-to be left entirely light." (Penny Ma- 

 gazine.) The design is previously drawn upon the block with a black-lead 

 pencil ; the block, which is always cut directly across the grain, and polished 

 so as to present a perfectly smooth surface, being previously prepared with 

 powdered white lead mixed with a little water, to make it receive the pencil. 

 The drawing is generally made by one artist, and the engraving executed by 

 another. It is the business of the wood-cutter " to leave all the lines which 

 the draughtsman has traced with his pencil ; and to do this, he, of course, cuts 

 away all the parts which form the spaces between the various lines of the 

 drawing. The lines thus stand up, as it is called, in relief; and, when ink is 

 applied to them by the printer, in the same way as he applies it to his metal 

 types, they transfer the ink to the paper placed over them upon being subjected 



