2: Steel Engraving
Wood
At the beginning of the nineteenth
century, there were four competing technologies when it came to publishing
illustrated works. The oldest of the four was the woodcut: when Alexander
Jenkins was preparing to illustrate his History
and Description of Exeter in 1806[1],
he executed his own wood engravings. His seven engravings accompany four plans
and just one map engraved on copper. When the London Illustrated News hit the streets in May 1842 it contained 32
wood engravings and sold 26 000 copies[2].
The first pictures in printed books had
used the woodcut, a relief process where the back is cut away leaving the
design raised. Probably because both wood and wood carvers were plentiful before
1800 this remained a popular printing technique long after copper plate
engraving had become the favourite for book illustrations. Wood would remain an
important medium for illustrations until the 20th century and
Victorian guide books often included attractive woodcuts; even some of the guide
books in the Ward Lock series, or those published by the railway companies had
a tendency to be executed in wood rather than metal. Because they were
relatively cheap to prepare, woodcuts also tended to be popular in penny
newspapers and where illustrations were embedded in the text.
Fig. 3. Scene of the entrance to the River
Dart in History of Devonshire.
Woodcuts remained popular and were used parallel
to the newer mediums just coming on the scene: hence, Robert Jennings turned to
steel for the all-important plates to illustrate the work by the Rev. Thomas
Moore, but he was quite happy to include a number of woodcuts in the text
sections.
There are some 13 woodcut engravings embedded in
the text section of History of Devonshire. While most of these are
unsigned; these include two Dartmoor scenes, a view of Dartmouth (Fig. 3),
3 fossils and a plan of their find, a Devonshire plough and the Laywell Spring
in Brixham; four of these are signed. Sowerby drew an illustration of Grauwracke of Hartland Point, a scene of
Vixen Tor is signed J Mosses Sc., Bowman’s Nose is by Sears, and W Dawson
signed the view of Aqueduct over the
Torridge (Fig. 4). In
addition, there are also attractive initial letters at the beginnings of the
main chapters (Fig. 5).
Fig. 4. W Dawson’s
view of Aqueduct over the Torridge.
Some of these wood engravers were quite
well-known: James De Carle Sowerby (1787-1871), was a well-known mineralogist.
He and his cousin founded the Royal Botanic Society and Gardens. William Dawson
is quoted in Somers Cocks as contributing to two other works with a westcountry
connection.
Probably Devon´s most well-known wood engraver was George Parry Hearder (1811-1844) The brother of Jonathan Nash Hearder, George was a printer and publisher as well as an engraver on wood[3]. G & J Hearder published a monthly magazine which ran from 1833-1836, The South Devon Monthly Museum.[4] This included a large number of well-executed wood engravings by G P Hearder.
Fig.5. Four woodcut
capital initial letters in History of Devonshire.
Copper
The next major development in printing was the
use of copper plates and most prints and, more especially, maps seen from the
1600s and 1700s would have been executed on a copper plate. The one detailed
map, of Exeter, in Alexander Jenkins´ work was engraved on copper by B Baker
and D Wright of Islington.
Here the design was cut into the metal in
reverse, the plate was then inked and wiped clean leaving the ink within the
incised lines. Passing the plate through rollers under pressure ‘lifted’ the
lines onto the paper, so that they stood proud of the surface. This technique
had many advantages over the woodcut; the engraver could work much faster and
could use many other techniques, dots, pecked lines, stipples and lettering of
greater fluency.
For the publisher, copper had the advantage that
changes were also fairly easy to carry out on the plates; lines could be burred
or hammered out and re-engraved. Copper engraving had the major disadvantage
that the printing plate eventually wore down, so that strengthening
of incised lines was needed or even the preparation of a new plate.
Hence, by 1829, copper plate engraving had dominated the production of maps
and book illustrations for well over a hundred years, but would survive on a
commercial level only until the 1840s.
The earliest copper engraved scenes of Devon or Devonian architecture appeared in the early years of the eighteenth century. Works such as Henry Overton’s Cathedral Churches of England (1710) and William Stukeley’s Itinerarium Curiosum (1724) featured views of Exeter’s cathedral[5] and the city[6] respectively. Further advances were made using copper plate such as the use of acid to produce etchings and the introduction of aquatints.
Hence, Historical and Topographical works
appeared at more frequent intervals with sometimes more, occasionally less,
wood cuts but with ever more copper engravings, etchings and aquatints of
important sights in Devon throughout the 1700s.
However, during the early years of the nineteenth
century two new techniques were beginning to be explored: the use of
Lithography; and the replacement of copper sheets for harder wearing Steel
Plates. Two young publishers, Robert Jennings and Henry Fisher both decided to
opt for one of these new technologies. Both men were active in London in the
early 1820s, although Henry Fisher had been publishing previously in Liverpool.
Fig. 6. Sidmouth:
lithograph published by J Wallis & H Haseler, c.1822.
(Courtesy of RareOldPrints)
Lithography
Ultimately, the biggest breakthrough
in printing would be lithography, invented in 1798 and patented a year later.
Alois Senefelder, a German playwright
(1771-1834) who published his own plays, found that by drawing with special
greasy ink or crayon on a flat limestone slab, the grease was absorbed and the
image would then accept printer’s ink which was repelled by the rest of the
stone, provided the surface was kept moistened.[7]
Senefelder went on to experiment with colour and constructed various printing
machines. The technique was already being used by the 1820s but was not adopted
generally by the printing trade until much later.[8]
Switching to lithography meant a
completely new departure from old printing techniques. Nonetheless, the
technique was not unknown in the southwest. John Wallis, a major bookseller and
publisher in Sidmouth at the start of the nineteenth century, was already
publishing lithographs from the early 1820s (Fig. 6). He published four
lithographs of Sidmouth by the artist, Henry Haseler, in 1822. A set of 12
lithographs followed in 1825, published by Haseler (S.68A and S.75).
Probably the first set of lithographs
to be published by a local artist was the set of 26 lithographs by and after
Thomas Hewitt Williams which appeared in six parts published in London by
Rodwell & Martin, but also in Exeter by Penny & Co., and by Cole &
Co. in 1821-22 (S.68). George Rowe was another of the first Devonians to
exploit this new medium[9],
and issued booklets with varying numbers of lithographic views, and an early
work published by Wallis of Sidmouth cottages comprised 48 lithographs (S.81.
1826).
Up to 1830 the majority of engravings had been executed on copper plates. By 1800 only 25 illustrated works on Devon had been published (or started) with scenic views[10] but by 1829 this had increased to over 100[11]. Of these, 28 were sets of, or included, lithographs. If there were almost 100 different views of Devon scenery available at the beginning of the century this had blossomed to nearly 600 only 30 years later. The period 1825-1830 seems to have been something of a watershed in the fortunes of landscape scenery and printing on copper, as it is after about 1825 that copper engraving slowly disappears and is superseded, initially by steel plate engraving and lithography before the advent of the photograph.
Steel
The first illustrated book engraved
on steel plates in English was a poetry book: a new edition of Thomas
Campbell´s The pleasures of hope.[12]
Appearing in 1821 it almost coincided with the first illustrated books on Devon
printed using lithography. Illustrated prints of Devon printed on steel before
1829 are rare and Somers Cocks has only occasional prints “c.1825”: e.g., of
Buckland by W Cooke jun. after G Shepherd (SC298); and of Dartmouth (SC455). The
first book of views produced on steel plates was John Britton´s History and
Antiquities of the Cathedral Church of Exeter (S.84, 1826). However, the
prints published by Jennings and by Fisher constitute the first sets of steel
engravings of the county. Despite the advance of lithography, both publishers
opted to print using steel: while Fisher seems to have successfully exploited
the medium and prospered from the start, Jennings appears to have been less
fortunate initially - but this was more a case of poor choice of author than
choice of medium.
Estimates as to how many prints could be run off
a copper sheet vary from 250 to 1000[13]:
the use of steel allowed a much longer print run with no loss in quality, hence
illustrations and maps engraved on steel became more common. And, after all, it was
just a variation on old, established printing techniques. For the publishers of
illustrative prints, this was a tempting development.
Maxted[14]
has calculated that most print runs before 1800 would have been between 1,500
and 2,000 for a large print run: and most printing batches would have been much
lower. However, for both Jennings and Fisher, The Plates being engraved on
Steel, and consequently allowing a large number of Impressions to be taken off,
alone enables the Proprietors to offer Four Engravings, and Letter-Press for
ONE SHILLING (Fisher´s Address on the back cover of Part 1).
Steel engravings became increasingly popular
and noted publishers of illustrations using this technique included Henry
Besley of Exeter (and successor). His Route Books began to include
illustrations in the 1850s and continued until the 1870s. Rock & Co. were
another company who successfully exploited the medium. William Rock was born in
Barnstaple 29th January, 1802, but moved to London where he
later established his publishing business. He kept his attachment to north
Devon as evidenced by the large number of steel engraved views his company
produced of the westcountry. Between 1848 and 1876 Rock & Co. published at
least 260 views of Devonshire (out of some 7000 prints).
Although the heyday of steel
engraving would prove to be very short, both publishers seem to have found a
niche in the market which they were able to exploit until the time that
lithography became standard.
Use the links here to go directly to desired pages:
[1] Alexander Jenkins prepared seven woodcuts to illustrate The History and Description of the City of Exeter and its Environs from the Time of the Romans to 1806. Published in Exeter by P Hedgeland and in London by Scatcherd & Letterman; Longman, Rees & Orme; Crosby & Co; and J Mawman. S.33.[2] See Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Illustrated_London_News.[3] A woodcut by G P Hearder showing Torquay Strand can be found in Panorama of Torquay by Octavian Blewitt, 1832.[4] This included wood engravings by Hearder after various artists (Somers Cocks S.222).[5] All references to early guides are to Somers Cocks (1977) and given in the format S.#. Entry S.1. contained one line engraving by J Harris of The Cathedral Church of Exeter.[6] Somers Cocks S.2. This work has two-line engravings after Stukeley; Prospect of Exeter and Moridunum.[7] Jesusa Vega; Lithography and Spain: the difficult beginnings of a new art; JoPHS; 1998; pp. 33-34.[8] Twyman (1998) especially pp.47-50.[9] Somers Cocks entries S.81. (1826), S.90. (1828) and S.98. (1828), S.99. (1828) and S.104. (1829). S.90, for example, lists a selection of up to 20 available in booklets of between 4 and 15 views.[10] Somers Cocks has entries S.1 to S.25 including Polwhele’s The History of Devonshire published in 3 volumes between 1793 and 1806. There are over 90 illustrations listed excluding Polwhele, those (re)published in a second work or the elevations of Edystone lighthouse.[11] Somers Cocks entries S.1. to S.102.[12] Basil Hunnisett; An Illustrated Dictionary of British Steel Engravers; Routledge; 1989.[13] See the Museum of Royal Worcester (250) or Malta Map Society (800-1000) websites.[14] https://bookhistory.blogspot.com/2007/01/london-1775-1800-introduction.html.
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