The Three Form^ of Pr'nitkuj. 



9 



(or most of it) is ^c'nlo^■e(l by dragging printing muslin across the plate, 

 and the rubbing generally finished witJi tlie palm of the hand covered 

 with a layer of whitening mixed with printer's ink. The plate is either 

 rubbed quite clean (as is generally the case with line-engravings), or 

 more or less ink may be left on the surface to add a tint. 



The hard effect of the lines may be softened by what is called 

 retroussage, fine mushn being passed lightly over the surface of the 

 inked and wiped plate. In this motion the muslin catches a small 

 portion of the ink in the lines, draws it slightly upwards, and leaves 

 traces of the ink at the side of the lines, which tlius lose some of their 

 sharpness of definition. 



The paper is first damped, and then passed through a copper-plate 

 press, which remains to-day in its essentials of the same form as 

 illustrated in Bosse's engraving {Qg. 1). The essential feature is a 

 sliding board which passes between two rollers. The pressure is strong 

 enough to force the damp paper into the hollows, and so to pull out the 

 ink. One of the distinctive qualities of all intaglio engraving is its 

 strength of line, the ink (taken from the furrow) standing in far greater 

 relief on the paper than ink transferred from the surface of a block or 

 stone. The brilliant tone of a line engraving is largely due to this 

 in conjunction with the clearness and regularity of the cutting. 



III. LiTHOGEAPHIC PRINTING. 



Here the printing is from the surface, only that part of the surface 

 of the stone drawn on with the lithographic crayon being able to hold 

 the printer's ink. The pressure is apx^lied by a scraping movement. 

 The paper, laid on the inked stone and protected at the back, passes 

 beneath a bar of w^ood (generally covered with leather and greased), 

 which acts like the pressure of a burnisher in hand-printmg (see next 

 section). 



The prmting of lithographs is so closely bound up with the essential 

 elements of the process that we reserve further description to the section 

 devoted to Lithography. 



Printing by Hand Pressure. 



It is also possible to obtain impressions by hand without the use 

 of a press. It is the usual practice of the goldsmith to prove his work, 

 or to keep a record of his engraved design, by rubbing. The plate being 

 inked, the damp paper is laid on the surface and its back generally 

 covered with another piece of smooth paper. This is then rubbed and 

 pressed on to the plate with the burnisher, or some flat metal rod. 



Prints from wood-blocks might be taken similarly, rubbed on the 

 back by a flat piece of wood or a "frotton" of leather, or a hand roller 

 might sometimes have been used instead of the rubber. In any case 

 a considerable number of the earliest woodcuts seem, from their uneven 

 printing, to have been rubbed by one or the other method by hand. 



