WOOD-ENGRAVING. 



external chafafters of the various objefts which may enter 

 into the compofition, may be very well reprefented. 



Another mode of proceeding is occaiionally reforted to 

 in cafes where engravings of a fuperior and more elaborate 

 charafter are required, and which we have reafon to believe 

 was firft praftifed in England by our countryman, Mr. 

 John Thurdon. In thefe cafes, all the light and curious 

 part of the defign are hatched in, line by line, by the draftf- 

 man or defigner himfelf, on the block, and which is per- 

 formed either with a pen and Indian ink, after the manner of 

 thofe ancient artifts of the German fchool of whom we have 

 treated, or elfe with the more modern and elegant indrument, a 

 black-lead pencil. In fome inftances we have known the 

 whole compofition in all its details, both of light and obfcu- 

 rity, thus finilhed upon the wood in the moft elaborate 

 manner, before the engraver began his work of incifion and 

 fcooping ; but in moft inftances, the (hadows and parts re- 

 quiring lefs definition, and where the engraver may with 

 more lafety be left to the guidance of his own judgment, 

 are merely waftied in with a camel's-hair pencil and Indian 

 ink, as in the foregoing method. Or elfe the defigner ufes 

 a black-lead pencil, with which he rubs or fcumbles in the 

 lefs important tints. And the drawing on the wood being 

 thus prepared, the engraver proceeds with the manual and 

 linear portion of it, by cutting away the interftices between 

 the pencilled or penned lines, as in the ancient manner, and 

 the wafhed portion is treated in the modern method which 

 we have defcribed above. 



Confiderable flcill on the part of the engraver is fometimes 

 requifite in finiftiing the work, in order to unite and harmo- 

 nize the whole, in which the defigner's aid is not unfrequent- 

 ly required, who on a proof impreflion taken for the pur- 

 pofe hatches and works, with a fine camel's-hair pencil and 

 white paint, over the diffonant parts, regulating at the fame 

 time the general effeft, the drawing of the parts, and the 

 ftyle of execution. This touched-proof, viewed in the re- 

 vcrfing glafs, is carefully copied by the engraver on his 

 block, which concludes the procefs. 



There is, however, in the nature of things, no reafon 

 whatever why thefe two charafters of engraver and defigner 

 may not exift united in the fame individual ; nor are the in- 

 ftances of fiich union unfrequent in faft. Mr. Bewick, of 

 Newcaftle, — whofe highly-enriched volumes of engravings of 

 birds and quadrupeds, adorned with delightful vignettes, 

 are mafter-pieces of the art, and have merited and found a 

 place in almoft every library, — poflefles, with his xylographic 

 powers, a fund of exquifite humour, an originality of 

 thought, and an accuracy of obfervation of the details of 

 nature ; together with an adequate talent of exprefling thofe 

 obfervations, which are really as furprifing as they are di- 

 irerting and inftruftive. 



We believe that this artift, or his deceafed brother, was 

 the firft who adopted an expedient which the prefent writer 

 has been informed was originally fuggefted by Mr. Bulmer, 

 proprietor of the Shakfpeare printing-office, — that of low- 

 ering a little the furface of his engraving, by means of a very 

 broad flat fcraper, in thofe parts where tendernefs and deli- 

 cacy of impreflion were more peculiarly defirable ; a thing 

 trivial in ilfelf, yet of fufficient importance in works that 

 have pretenfions to be regarded as highly finifhed, to have 

 been fubfequently imitated by moft of the other engravers 

 in wood. Among thofe who in modern times have united 

 in themfelves the charafters of defigners and wood-en- 

 gravers, fliould alfo be mentioned Mr. Clennell, who has exe- 

 cuted fome of his own energetic compofitions in a vigorous 

 and mafterly ftyle, which few have been able to furpafs. 



Mr. Thurfton,— more verfed in all the technic varieties of 

 linear prafticability, and more accompliflied in his academic 

 powers of delineating the human form through all its grada- 

 tions of aftion, charafter, and expreflion, than any of his 

 predeceflbrs in the xylographic art,— in his habits of thought 

 and ftyle of defign, is poetical, didaftic, profound, alle- 

 goric, recondite, ideal. Of the profeflbrs of imitative art, 

 who have wifely employed their talent to a moral purpofe, 

 few have improved and delighted us fo mutfh, or caufed us 

 to refleft fo varioufly or fo deeply. But though Mr. 

 Thurfton has engraved very fuccefsfuUy on copper, we be- 

 lieve that he has always entrufted his defigns on wood to 

 be executed by others, (fome of them latterly by a fon of 

 promifing talents,) and from the black-lead drawings orthis 

 artift, performed on the blocks thqmfelves, have been pro- 

 duced the beft engravings of the London and Liverpool 

 fchools. We fubjoin the names and monograms of the 

 principal of thofe artifts who have been engaged in their 

 execution :— T. Clennell, C. Nefljit <f\fC , R. Branfton^, 

 J. Thompfon -J-, H. F. P. Hole, W. Hughes. 



By the two latter of thefe we have feen landfcape fub- 

 jefts of recent execution, which have excited in us no fmall 

 degree of admiration of their profeflional powers. In a 

 park-fcene after Cuitt, engraved by Mr. Hughes, (who pro- 

 fefles to have ftudied under Mr. Hole,) the trees more efpe- 

 dally, — which have been generally and juftly regarded as ob- 

 jefts more difficult to exprefs in this mode of art, than 

 almoft any other fpeciesof objefts whatever, — are treated with 

 a degree of loofenefs, freedom, and local knowledge of the 

 charafters of their various foliage, and modes of branching 

 and ramification, that we beheve is quite unprecedented, and 

 much more refembling an etching on copper from the needle 

 of Waterloo or Middiman, than any former produftion of 

 the wood-engravers' art. And there has alfo very lately 

 appeared a book, entitled " The Club," after the defigns of 

 Thurfton, which is not lefs excellent in its way. It confifts 

 of twenty-four charafteriftic head-pieces of the feveral mem- 

 bers of the club, a title-page reprefenting the club col- 

 leftively, befide various tail-piece vignettes, and imprefles 

 us with a depth of philofophical penetration into the human 

 charafter in all its varieties both natural and afl'umed ; for 

 here the nicer phyfiognomical traits which mark the leffer 

 difcrlminations between wit, humour, and ridicule, in their 

 various modifications, are faithfully rendered : indeed with a 

 degree of dehcacy and fidelity which until now we had not 

 conceived to lie within this province of art. 



In wood-engravings, like the beft of thefe modern pro- 

 duftions which we have mentioned, there is more orio-inal 

 feeling, more of the truth of nature, and the blandifti- 

 ments of art, than in all the dry, monkirti, legendary 

 rubbifh put together, toward which the dealers in and 

 writers on fuch rarities (who are frequently the fame per- 

 fons) are fo very anxious to attraft and retain the public 

 attention, and which are fo ardently fought after by the 

 wooden and would-be connoifteurs of the day. 



Some few connoiifeurs there are, neverthelefs, that with 

 great fenfibihty to the beauties of meritorious works of this 

 kind, colleft alfo the early rarities of the art as >uriofities, 

 and as interefting fteps in tracing the march ■ t European 

 xylography, from its rude outfet towards its prefent attain- 

 ments : but the idle occupation which fo many expenfive 

 books have ridiculoudy promoted, the affeded exquifitenels 

 of regard for what is merely fcarce, and which, if it were 

 plentiful, would be juftly efteemed as mere rubbifh, can 

 fcarcely be too feverely reprehended, when we obferve that 

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