Miscellaneous Notes on Impressions, States, etc. 



51 



MISCELLANEOUS NOTES ON IMPRESSIONS, 

 STATES, Etc. 



Original engraving (etching, etc.) does not imply the original plate 

 (as a plate is never regarded as an end in itself), but a print in which the 

 engraver is his own designer. 



Beproductive engraving, on the other hand, refers to prints in which 

 the engraver has reproduced the painting or design of another artist. 



Impression is the term applied to any print from a block, plate, or 

 stone. The number of impressions which can be pulled varies very 

 greatly, according to the material used, and the breadth or fineness of 

 the handling of the subject. Thus a wood block in broad open lines, 

 a metal plate deeply cut or etched, would yield a large number of 

 impressions — some hundreds, or even as many as two or three thousand 

 — without evident deterioration in the clearness of the line. But if the 

 block has delicate lines or fine cross-hatching, or the engi'aving or 

 etching is equally delicate in its work, the number of good impressions 

 that can be printed is much more limited, as the delicate lines tend to 

 be worn out much more quickly. In woodcut the lines become broken 

 and ragged ; in intaglio work the metal is pressed down, partially 

 closing up some of the furrows, and the lines gradually become fainter. 



Thus a Eembrandt etching with a delicate mesh of shading, such as 

 the portrait of Jan Six at the Window, would yield far fewer satisfactory 

 impressions than an open line etching such as the same master's Clement 

 de Jonghe. 



In metal work in which bui'r plays an important part, i.e. dry-point 

 and mezzotint, a very small number of effective impressions can be 

 taken — in fact, the plate would generally show signs of deterioration well 

 before the hundredth impression. And late prints from either present a 

 mere ghostly idea of the rich effect of the early impression in which the 

 burr still holds the ink. 



About 1820 mezzotint and line-engravers began to use steel plates in 

 place of copper, on account of the greater durability of steel in the 

 printing ; but it is a much harder metal to work on, and the method of 

 steel facing by electroh^sis has been found to add equal durability to the 

 surface of copper, so that the use of solid steel plates has practically 

 disappeared. In general steel-facing is only used on copper plates for 

 commercial purposes, e.g. when a large edition is needed for book 

 illustration ; but some artists, who claim that the microscopic difference 

 it makes to the lines produces no apparent difference to the quality of an 

 impression, use it as a protection to the surface even for more limited 

 issues. 



