In regard to paper, a description made of rag or rag and esparto is
most desirable for all work on grained stones, but for work in ink and
consequently from polished stone a good coated paper with sufficient
"size" in it is frequently desirable; this paper is generally called
"chromo" paper.
There is at the present time very little encouragement for the high
class of chromo-lithography that was so much in evidence from 1855 to
1875, but there is little doubt that the work could be done equally
well by the present-day craftsmen if the demand revived. Belonging to
the period mentioned, distinguished examples of chromo-lithography are
"Blue Lights," after Turner, by Carrick; "Spanish Peasants" and the
Lumley portrait of Shakespeare, by Risdon; "Queen Victoria receiving
the Guards," by W. Bunney, after John Gilbert; and the series of
chromos after John Leech, produced under the general direction of
Vincent Brooks. A small proportion only of the Arundel Society's
prints were executed in England, but many reproductions of
water-colours after Birket Foster, Richardson, Wainwright and others
were executed by Samuel Hodson, James Lewis and others. Perhaps the
most consistently good work of modern times has been the reproduction
of Pellegrini's and Leslie Ward's drawings for _Vanity Fair_, which
from 1870 to 1906 were with very few exceptions executed by the firm
of Vincent Brooks, Day & Son.
_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. The
stone most desirable for this purpose will be neither a grey nor a
light yellow, but one that stands mid-way between the two; it should
be very carefully polished so as to be quite free from scratches, and
brought to blood-heat by being gradually heated in an iron cupboard
prepared with the necessary apparatus. The methods that sometimes
prevail of pouring boiling water over the stone, heating with the
flame of an ordinary plumber's lamp, or even heating the surface in
front of a fire, are ineffective substitutes, for the surface may thus
become unduly hot and spread the work, and there is no increased
tendency for the chalk to enter into the stone and thus give the work
a long life. If there are no colours or registration troubles to be
considered, it is well to place the transfer in a damping book till
the composition adheres firmly to the finger, before placing it on the
stone; it should then be pulled through twice, after which it should
be damped on the back and pulled through several times; after this has
again been well damped the paper will be found to peel easily off the
stone, leaving the work and nearly all the composition attached; the
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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