WHITE-LINE ENGRAVING FOR RELIEF-PRINTING IN THE FIFTEENTH 

 AND SIXTEENTH CENTURIES. 



(DOTTED PRINTS, GRA.VURES EN" MANTERE URIBLEE, SOU ROT BLATTER.) 



By S. R. Koehleii, Curator of Graphic Arts. 



The U. S. National Museum lias lately come into the possession of a 

 few impressions from relief-blocks of the fifteenth or early sixteenth 

 century which bear upon the much-discussed question as to the nature 

 and origin of the so-called "dotted prints" (French: " gravures en 

 maniere cribleV' ; German: "Schrotblatter "). The acquisition of these 

 interesting specimens affords an opportunity for the re-publication in 

 amplified form of an article on this subject, written by me for a European 

 journal.* 



It is the aim of this article to show that the prints in question are 

 simply white-line engravings for relief-printing, and that, as such, they are 

 identical, in the technical principle involved, with modern wood-en- 

 graving, which also is white-line engraving for relief-printing, the whites 

 and the tints intermediate between black and white being produced in 

 both cases by white lines and dots cut iuto the block, while the black 

 is supplied by those parts of the wood (or metal) left standing in relief 

 and carrying the ink. The conclusion embodied in this statement, 

 which places these primitive and rude performances technically on a 

 level with the delicate and refined work of men like King, Cole, Clossou, 

 Juengling, Miller, etc., may seem strange to absurdity to those who are 

 not accustomed to consider processes without regard to the artistic 

 character of the result reached. It is, nevertheless, unavoidable, as the 

 following investigation will demonstrate. 



The "dotted prints" form a group quite by themselves among the 

 products of the reproductive or multiplying arts at the close of the 

 fifteenth and the beginning of the sixteenth century. The " Coronation 

 of the Virgin," here reproduced (PI. xlvit) from one of the specimens in 



* See " Chronik fiir vervielfilltigendo Kuust," Vienna, 1889, vol. n, No. 9. 



H. Mis. 129, pt. 2 '25 385 



