Goes Lithographing Company

“ As regards lithographic processes for reproduction in one colour the cost varies with the nature of the work. If an artist be commissioned to make an autolithograph, the fee would be agreed upon beforehand. Photolithography and collotype, on the other hand, are processes which do not require the hand of an artist, and these methods of reproduction are relatively inexpensive. The price quoted by the lithographer or collotyper is for printing so many copies, hence the relative cost per copy depends upon the run and on the quality of the paper used. Lithography is cheaper than collotype ”

“ It is the nature of earthly being and of human imperfection that rarely is anything found that combines in itself everything to be wished for and required. So it may be said of stone-printing that it makes neither book-printing nor copper-plate printing entirely superfluous. It is possible that in the future, by perfecting the presses, lithography may equal book-printing in point of speed, as it does not now ”

“ The transferring process is another peculiarity of this art which allows the lithographer to duplicate small designs with greater facility and economy than a similar duplication could be effected by the stereotyper of types. These advantages are counterbalanced by one great defect: lithography is not a quick method of printing. The usual performance of the lithographic hand press when applied to ordinary work, is about four hundred impressions per day ”

“ Thus I came to use these stones as the principal means for making my countless experiments, whose happy result has been to elevate stone-printing to an art by itself.
Having stated the process and the character of this form of printing, it remains only to say a few words about its value.
With every new invention there arises the question if it is useful, and if so, in how far, for science, arts, and industry. Therefore all who have no sufficient knowledge of lithography, will ask justly: What is its value? What advantages does it give that are not to be found in any other forms of printing? ”

“ The lithographer can frequently transfer several jobs on to one stone of the full size of the machine, and work more economically than by using papers and machines of smaller sizes. For black work a fair litho. paper in several substances should be stocked, for colour work a heavier paper in one or two substances only, and small quantities of plate, plan, chart and chromo papers will be required. All the writings and miscellaneous papers mentioned earlier will be included in the stock warehouse of the lithographer. ”

“ A comparison between Lithography and Etching in particular—putting other mediums aside—leads to further reflections. Lithography lacks the relief of etched work. “You can’t have grey and black lines”—a skilled etcher says to me, who enjoys Lithography as well as Etching, and sometimes practises it—“you can’t have grey and black lines, in that the printing of a lithograph is surface-printing, and every mark upon the stone prints equally black. Therefore for grey work in Lithography, you must have a grain upon the stone—or on the transfer-paper—that your drawing is made on.” ”

“ An occasional application of tallow or lard, say about once a week, will keep the roller skin soft and pliable, and counteract the [29] hardening effect of constant contact with the damp surface of the lithographic stone and the oxidisation of the printing ink.
Proving the work of the lithographic artist, though not always an absolute necessity, is a helpful and most important function. In its progressive stage it enables both designer and lithographer to observe the realisation of their colour schemes, and to amplify or minimise if necessary the effects they desire to produce. ”

“ In the pen and crayon method all the lines that are to take printing-color are drawn directly on the stone with a fatty preparation. But lithography has a unique way of transferring to the stone a drawing or inscription that is first put on paper with the fatty substance. This is possible only for lithography, and I incline to the belief that it is the most important of all my inventions. It makes it unnecessary to learn reverse writing. ”

“ One of the most necessary tools of lithography is the steel pen for writing and drawing on the stone. Simple as its manufacture is in principle, it demands much care and skill. The beauty of the work depends largely on a good and well-cut pen. The best artist, using the best chemical ink on a perfectly prepared plate, cannot do good work unless the pen is good and cut to suit his hand. ”

“ From all this it appears that lithography makes it much easier to write and design and then to print swiftly and produce any desired number of impressions, of all those works that heretofore could be produced only on copper or zinc, providing they do not demand the very greatest degree of delicacy, strength, and sharpness obtainable with copper; in a word, so long as it is not vital to attain the utmost possible artistic beauty. ”

“ Nothing is more common, in a badly done lithograph, than to find in the face of the human subject, say an attractive young lady, the flesh colour overlapping the collar or the hat, or even extruding itself out into space beyond the ear. All this implies bad "registering." The drawing on each stone must be made to fit in, or register, with the preceding one, so that, as the paper is passed through the printing machine, the picture is built up colour on colour, each, however, being allowed to dry before the next is applied. ”

“ As soon as I did not need any longer to give up my time to earning a mere livelihood, I began seriously to plan publication of my lithographic text-book, the first number of which had appeared previously and been well received. But the skill of the various lithographers made noticeable advances every day, so that I was not content with the specimen pages that had seemed so satisfactory a year earlier. ”

“ Not all kinds of paper are equally good for lithography. On the whole, however, it may be assumed that this form of printing is very similar to copper-printing and book-printing, and that the paper that is good for these branches is suitable also for the stone, if only it does not contain too many impurities, grains of sand and other substances that make any considerable roughnesses. Such roughnesses, if considerable, have an ill effect not only on the impression, but chiefly on the leather in the printing frame. ”

“ Lithography is another and quite important branch of the printing art, in which the lines and characters are drawn upon stone with a kind of oily ink to which printers’ ink will adhere, while it is repelled from the other moistened surfaces of the stone. Lithography was invented in 1798 by Alois Senefelder, of Munich. It finds its greatest application in artistic and fanciful work in inks of various colors, and its development into chromo-lithography in the Nineteenth Century has grown into a fine art. ”

“ Now at the time that three of them were thus fluttering in moist rags from the roof they had adorned, the shops of the Rue Rivoli at Paris were, in obedience to a steadily-increasing public Demand, beginning to show a steadily-increasing Supply of elaborately finished and coloured lithographs, representing the modern dances of delight, among which the cancan has since taken a distinguished place.
5. The labour employed on the stone of one of these lithographs is very much more than Tintoret was in the habit of giving to a picture of average size. ”

“ Very rarely is it possible to print from the litho-draughtsman’s original drawing, and even when it may be convenient to do so, it is, in the majority of cases, unadvisable on account of the element of risk involved. There is an ever-present danger of the stone breaking,—a catastrophe which would necessitate an entire reproduction of the design, and even under the most favourable conditions the constant attrition produced by the rollers, etc., would have an appreciable effect on the work, and in course of time destroy its value for graphic reproduction. ”

“ Rarely working even from sketches, never from a work already finished in another medium, they drew the subjects intended for printing directly upon the block in a technique adapted for the purpose, avoiding such combinations of lines as the most skilful craftsmen would be unable to cut. Their actual handiwork was preserved upon the surface of the block, much as in the modern original lithograph the artist’s actual work survives upon the surface of the stone; if it was in any way disfigured, as often, no doubt, it was, that must be set down to failure on the cutter’s part. ”

“ The application of lithography for purposes of coloured printing or chromo-lithography in the last fifteen years, has done much to awaken the attention of the artist and the lovers of art to the treasures mouldering in our libraries and museums; by its aid we have been enabled to obtain copies and specimens of illuminated printing, almost perfect facsimiles of the originals. It has stimulated the artist to pursue a new track for his operations; it has infused a corresponding taste in the public mind for ornamental improvement, which has manifested itself in every branch of manufacture. ”

“ Metal, as a printing surface, is even yet a comparatively new factor in lithography, and the majority of printers have been working with lithographic stones from their apprenticeship till the present time. It is not surprising, therefore, that in relation to the use of stones almost every possible contingency has been provided for, but with metal plates a little fresh knowledge must necessarily be acquired before the workman can claim the same familiarity of manipulation which he may feel towards the parent process. ”

“ Then lithography made its appearance, and in no great while was applied to the production of drawing-copies, once the monopoly of crayon engraving. Nor was this the only quarter from which the method of François and Demarteau was assailed. By degrees it fell out of use for the production not only of drawing-copies, but of fac-similes of drawings by the masters for artists and amateurs ”

“ The trouble there is that the author of that section supposed that the lithographic process was the only other process of producing a book besides printing it from type or a streotyped plate. Now, the lithographic process is not the only process. There are modern processes of photomechanical printing that have nothing at all to do with lithography, that are much cheaper than lithography, and that do all that lithography does. As an illustration, those beautiful illustrated supplements that come out every week with the New York Tribune on Sunday are supposed by some gentlemen to be lithographs. ”

“ When a copper-plate engraver has partially finished his plate, he can have a proof pulled to enable him to study his work. Then he can make corrections as he pleases,—an advantage that the stone worker has lacked hitherto.
To produce an impression that shall be faithful to all the beauties of a crayon design is a matter dependent on so many trivial details that of the many hundred crayon designs that have been produced by lithographers since the origin of the art, hardly one has realized the designer's hopes and ambitions. ”

“ Lithography as a means of artistic reproduction has suffered much in public esteem by being put to all manner of inartistic trade uses. It is really one of the most wonderful means of reproducing an artist's actual work, the result being, in most cases, so identical with the original that, seen together, if the original drawing has been done on paper, it is almost impossible to distinguish any difference. ”

“ The penetrative power of a greasy pigment, together with the porous nature of the litho-stone, may be regarded as the cause by which the lithographer produces as an effect a design or impression which, to some extent, enters into the texture of the stone—the homogeneity of which checks any tendency to spread. This fatty matter may be applied in one or two ways, either as a transfer from some other printing surface, or as a direct drawing with pen, brush, or crayon. ”

“ Lithographic printing is a very important branch of the Art, and one in which excellence is rarely attained. It is applicable to a very great variety of work, and hence is worthy of much consideration. ”

“ There is no press as yet that is so perfect for lithography that it leaves nothing to be desired. The press whose plan I laid before the Royal Academy of Sciences in Bavaria, which does its own inking-in and which can be worked by water-power, has not yet been built on a large scale, so that its value cannot be stated exactly.
I am only too well aware, however, of a grave defect in lithography, which is that the beauty and even the number of impressions depend mainly on the skill and the industry of the printers. A good press is necessary, to be sure ”

“ Printing entered on a gloomy stage of its career in England after Day’s time, {104} and as State restrictions gradually hemmed it in, crushing by its monopolies healthy competition, and by its jealousy foreign succour, every printer became his own letter-founder, not because he would, but because he must, and the art suffered in consequence. ”

“ The arts of lithography and copper-plate are useful and beautiful methods of printing, but they do not make books and newspapers. [1] The necessity which compels them to make a new engraving for every new subject restricts them almost exclusively to the field of art and ornament. If no other method of printing were known, encyclopedias and newspapers would be impossibilities. "The art preservative of all arts" is not the art of lithography nor of copper-plate. ”