Frederick Vincent Brooks

“ The work of producing even a small face in the finest hand stipple is a lengthy and tedious affair, and the English craftsman has seldom shown the patience necessary for this work; but since the American invention known as Ben Day’s shading medium was introduced into England the trade has largely taken it up, and thereby much of the tedium has been avoided, so that it has been found possible by its means to introduce a freedom into stipple work that had not before been found possible, and a very much better class of work has since been produced in this department. ”

“ If the chalk drawing has to have tints, it will be necessary to make as many dusted offsetts as there are colours to be used; in this class of work there are generally only two,—one warm or sandy shade and the other a quiet blue—and these, with the black and the neutral colour secured by the superposition of the two shades, give an excellent result, of which Haghe’s sketches in Belgium may be taken as a leading example.
In making such subjects suitable for present-day printing in the machine, the paper will require to be of a good “rag” quality, free from size and damped before printing. ”

“ When the drawing is thus completed, it will require what is termed etching, by which the parts intended to receive the printing ink, and already protected by an acid-resisting grease, will be left above the unprotected surface. The acid and gum mixture varies in accordance with the quality of the work and the character of the stone. A patiently executed specimen will, for instance, stand more etching than a hastily drawn one; while a grey stone will require more of the nitric acid than a yellow one. This is one of the most important tasks that a lithographer has to perform. ”

“ It is desirable to pull impressions of each colour on thoroughly white paper, and beyond this in important work there should be a progressive colour pattern that will show how the work looked when two, three or more colours were on, for this may at the finish be invaluable to show where error has crept in, and is in any event an immense aid to the machine minder. ”

“ According to the census of 1901, 14,686 people in the United Kingdom found their occupation within the trade, while according to a Home Office return (1906) , 20,367 persons other than lithographic printers were employed by the firms carrying on the business. As it may be assumed that an equal number are employed in France, Germany, the United States of America and the world at large, it is clear that a vast industrial army is employed in a trade that, like letterpress printing, has a very beneficial influence upon those engaged in it. ”

“ The question is very frequently asked as to how the necessary registration of the colours is secured; it may be stated for the benefit of the amateur that in hand printing this is generally done by pricking with a pair of needles through printed marks present on each stone; but in the machine this has been done in different ways, although in quite early days “pointing” or “needling” was done even on the machine. On modern machines this registration depends on the accurate cutting of the edge of the paper, of which at least one corner must be an absolute right angle. ”

“ When the artist who is not a professed lithographer desires to make tints to his work, a reversed offset on grained paper should be made for each colour; this is done by pulling an impression in the usual way on a hard piece of paper, and while it is yet wet this should be faced with a piece of grained paper and pulled through again, when the grained paper will be found to have received the greater portion of the ink ”

“ The inventors refrained from taking out a patent either in France or elsewhere, preferring to work their invention as a secret process, but the formula appears either to have leaked out or to have been discovered, so that the process is, perhaps with slight variations, used under numerous names. With the aid of the various systems of rotary copiers, by which blue prints of almost any length can be secured, Dorel prints identical in scale with the originals have been made of the length of 22 feet. An interesting kindred process but with well defined variations is known as velography. ”

“ Care should be taken that the falling pieces are gathered into a box, or they may do irreparable mischief to the work. The work of outlining is done with No. 1 or hard chalk, and until experience is gained it will be well to depend chiefly on this grade, securing rich dark effects by tinting or going over the stone in various directions and then finishing with lithographic ink where absolute blacks are required. ”

“ Grained paper is much used in the ordinary lithographic studio for work such as the hill shading of maps that can be done without much working up, but the velvety effects that in the hands of Louis Haghe and his contemporaries were so conspicuous, cannot be secured by this method. ”

“ Chalk lithography subdivides itself into work in which the black predominates, although it may be supported by 5 or 6 shades of modified colour—this branch is known as “black and tint” work—and that in which the black is only used locally like any other colour. ”

“ The initial point will be to consider if the work is to have the edition printed from it, or whether it has to be transferred after proving and before printing; generally speaking, large subjects such as diagrams or posters will be worked direct, while Christmas cards, postcards, handbills or labels, will be repeated many times on larger stones. For the former class a much wider range of methods is possible, but many of these are difficult to transfer, and the deterioration that arises makes it desirable to limit their use when transferring is contemplated. ”

“ In the first decade of the 20th century the number of firms doing high-class work, and the artists who aided them in doing it, were more numerous than ever, and scarcely less able, but it would be outside the present purpose to differentiate between them. ”

“ The rotary machines have only been possible since the more frequent use of aluminium and zinc, but these materials are more suitable to receive transfer than for the general use of an office, the chief reason being that corrections on stone are more easily accomplished and more lasting when done. Preliminary work is therefore frequently done on the stone and transferred to plates for the machine. ”

“ In proving, opaque colours will be got on first, and it will often be found a good plan to put the black on early, for it gives a good idea of how the work is proceeding, and the strength of the touches (for the black should generally be used sparingly) is often pleasantly softened by the semi-opaque colours which should come on next. ”

“ The effects referred to were obtained by much patient work of a “tinter,” who practically laid a ground on which the more experienced and artistic craftsman did his work either by scraping or accentuation. Where fine rich blacks are needed, artists will do well to read the notes on the “aquatint” and “wash” methods described by Senefelder in his well-known treatise, and afterwards practised with great skill by Hulemandel.
Lithography is of great service in educational matters, as its use for diagrams, wall pictures and maps is very general ”

“ A proportion of 1.5 parts of acid to 100 parts of a strong solution of gum arabic will be found to be approximately what is required, but the exact proportion must be settled by experience, a safe course being to watch the action that occurs when a small quantity is placed on the unused margin of the stone. ”

“ Of course practice has led to dexterity, and the great volume of trade has induced many mechanical improvements and facilities, but the principles have not been taken any further, while some valuable methods have been allowed to fall into desuetude and would well repay some experimentally disposed person to revive. ”

“ It will then be desirable to secure a stock of pointed Lemercier chalks of at least two grades, hard and soft: the pointing is a matter that requires experience, and is done by the worker drawing a sharp pen-knife towards him in a slicing manner as though trying to put a point upon a piece of cheese. ”

“ Beyond this, few of the deposits other than in the neighbourhood of Solenhofen have been of the exact degree of density necessary, and the heavier varieties do not receive the grease with sufficient readiness. The desire to find other sources of supply has been stimulated by the social conditions existing in southern Bavaria, for the quarries are largely owned by peasant proprietors, who have very well-defined business habits of their own which make transactions difficult. ”

“ Transfers.—A very large proportion of work is got on to the stone by transfer, and there is no more important part of the business perhaps at the present time. When there is so much original lithography done on grained paper by artists of eminence, the transferring of grained paper drawings is the most important. ”

“ Both flat bed and rotary machines are available for this system, the latter being restricted to zinc or aluminium plates, but giving a high speed, while the former can use both stones and metal plates and may be more effective for the highest grade of colour work; by both classes of machines the finest engraved note headings can be printed on rough paper, and colour work that has for so long been confined to coated or burnished papers will be available on surfaces such as the artists themselves use. ”

“ Among other things, they will seldom supply the highest grades and the largest sizes to those who will not take their proportion of lower quality and smaller sizes; and this, in view of the very expensive transit down the Rhine to Rotterdam, with a railway journey at one end and a sea journey at the other, is a source of difficulty to the importer in other countries. ”

“ The higher class work in this direction has been done in France, Germany and the United States, where for many years superiority has been shown in regard to the excellence and rapidity of retransferring. ”

“ Beyond this, much work is done in lithographic ink on what is called writing transfer paper, such as circulars, law writing for abstracts, specifications and plans.
Machinery.—The chief items are the hand presses and the machines, whether flat bed or rotary, the principal places of manufacture being Leeds, Otley and Edinburgh. Stimulated by American competition, the standard of excellence in the United Kingdom has been very considerably raised of late years. ”