Читать книгу On the Processes for the Production of Ex Libris (Book-Plates) онлайн
5 страница из 8
W. H. K. WRIGHT,
Editor Ex Libris Journal.
ON THE PROCESSES FOR THE
PRODUCTION OF EX LIBRIS.
ssss1
By John Vinycomb, M.R.I.A.
Introductory.
ssss1
The production of book-plates, by whatever means, is but a side branch of the Art by which pictorial and decorative illustrations of every kind are executed, and copies multiplied by some of the ordinary processes of printing. Without, at this stage, going minutely into the history of pictorial illustration and printing, it may be briefly stated that in times past, the only available modes of reproduction were either by engraved wood blocks with the lines in relief to print with letterpress, or by engraved copper-plates having the lines cut into the polished surface of the metal and printed by the copper-plate press (the modus operandi in each method will be explained later on).
The processes for the production of Ex Libris—as it is now the fashion to term these dainty little works of art we so delight to collect and preserve—are to-day so numerous and so varied in their style and character of work as to be wholly dissimilar, yet in very many instances we find the results to be so nearly alike that only a practical expert can, with any degree of certainty, state how and by what means they have been executed. It is not therefore surprising that the collector—that picker-up of unconsidered trifles—however deeply versed he may be in the literature of the subject, for want of some technical knowledge should sometimes be mystified and unable to declare how a particular specimen has been produced. In the older examples there is little or no difficulty in distinguishing the difference between a woodcut and a print from a copper-plate; to one or the other of these two methods it must of necessity belong. The advance of modern science has, however, changed all that, and we may now possess a charming book-plate, which is neither engraved on wood nor on copper, and yet may pass for either the one or the other, or have characteristics entirely its own.