WHITE-LINE ENGRAVING FOR RELIEF-PRINTING. 391 



as wood cut across the graiu was not yet in vogue, and the graver can 

 not be used on wood cut in the direction of the grain or fiber. It is 

 quite conceivable, however, that the advantages of relief-engraving, 

 the ease and more especially the rapidity of printing, were soon discov- 

 ered by the goldsmiths who wielded the burin, and if this was once the 

 case, it is not to be wondered at that they should have attempted to 

 reach the same end with the meaus to which they were accustomed. 

 As the graver, however, in its application to relief-engraving, most 

 readily produces tvhite lines, they were naturally, and it may indeed be 

 said inevitably, led to the same result as the engravers who first essayed 

 to use the burin for relief work in the eighteenth century ; that is to say, 

 they endeavored to produce their drawings by white lines on a black 

 ground, and used black lines only where they could not do without them, 

 namely, in the high lights. They thus arrived at white-line engraving on 

 metal, and this again led them unconsciously to the first rude begin- 

 nings of tint-engraving. It may be difficult at first, with the modern 

 idea of tint-engraving present to the mind, to detect tints in the "ma- 

 niere criblCe" prints. But a little reflection will show that the white 

 dots produced by punches, even without the white lines with which they 

 are often intermingled, served only to break up the black surface and 

 thus to convert it into tints. These conclusions once established, it will 

 be conceded that the terms dotted prints and maniere criblee are wholly 

 unjustifiable and inadequate, since the dot is merely an incident. The 

 main point is the elaboration of the design by white lines and dots on 

 a black ground, and this constitutes essentially white-line engraving, 

 which in its development is tint- engraving. This being so, it is not to 

 be wondered at that we find " dotted prints " with not a single dot in 

 them. The engraving here reproduced from the impression given by Mr. 

 Hymans (see PL xlviii) is a good illustration of this fact. It is a rude 

 white-line engraving (tint-engraving), withoutany dots whatever, which 

 clearly shows that it owes its origin to the graver, as, for instance, in the 

 dots in the dark space under the right arm of Christ. The identity of 

 the principle involved with that of modern wood-engraving is, however, 

 still more clearly brought out by an examination of the " Crucifixion " 

 (PI. xlix)* here reproduced from the original in the U. S. National 

 Museum. Not only do certain parts, such as the leg of the man at the 

 right and the pieces of wood by which the cross is held in the ground, 

 show well defined tints, but the garments are throughout worked in 

 ichite lines crossing one another. To show that precisely the same method 

 is employed in modern white-line engraving, an enlargement is here 



^Measurement, through the center, 42 hy 57 millimetres. Colored in parts light 

 red, light yellow, light green, in transparent "washes. The green, however, seems to 

 he a hody color mixed with white, hut laid on very thin. Mr. Schreiher points out 

 that tliis print is Weigel's No. 356. See Weigel and Zestermann, n, p. 270. It 

 passed into Coppenrath's hands and was sold at auction in his first sale, No. 2082. 

 The defects of the reproduction are again due to the coloring. 



