Prints: A Brief Review of Their Technique and HistoryRichter, Emil H. (Emil Heinrich)
History
Prints: A Brief Review of Their Technique and History
Richter, Emil H. (Emil Heinrich)
Engravers; Engraving -- History
When we turn to the second great division, to the intaglio processes,
we find that the recipe of the woodcut has to be just reversed to fit
this new proposition. Consult the diagram of the three possibilities
of printing; the cross-section of the relief-block presents a series
of flat-topped ridges with valleys between them. The tops of the
ridges print, the valleys are the spaces which are to appear white in
the impression. The second figure, a cross-section of an intaglio
plate,--an engraving on copper we will say,--shows no hills and vales,
but a flat surface with a number of V-shaped cuts filled with ink. When
engraving on a copper plate, we cut with the graver into the metal
every line of our design that is to appear black. Wherever we want a
white space we are careful to leave untouched the polished surface of
the plate. Having completed the cutting-in (engraving) of our design,
the plate is covered all over with printing-ink, and this is rubbed
thoroughly into every furrow which we have cut, so that they are all
filled flush with the surface. The surface of the plate is wiped clean.
An impression taken from the plate so prepared will show us a black
line for every furrow we have cut. Small wonder that the lines on the
dollar bill were perceptible ridges of ink, since all the ink in the
furrows of the plate is now on the surface of the paper. The theory
of the intaglio processes is plainly this: wherever you want black
in your design, cut lines or dots into the plate; wherever white is
needed, leave the smooth surface of the plate untouched. Based upon
this formula, the different intaglio processes produce their blacks
in different ways; in dry-point engraving, for instance, the design
is scratched into the metal by means of a sharp needle-point, the
etching-needle. In tearing through the copper the needle leaves a
jagged ridge of copper standing on the sides of each line, this “burr”
retains some ink after the plate has been wiped clean, and gives to
the dry-point line its peculiar velvety, slightly blurred appearance.
The mezzotinter begins his work by roughening the whole surface of the
plate with the “rocker” into myriad indentations and tiny projecting
teeth of copper. The plate in this condition prints a uniform, velvety
black, the deepest tone obtainable. Now by scraping away the little
teeth of copper more or less completely, the design is modeled at will
in varying half-tones. The high lights are obtained by burnishing the
copper quite smooth again. The etcher, instead of cutting the lines of
his design into the copper, trusts to the corroding action of powerful
acids. Covering his plate with an acid-proof etching-ground, he draws
his subject with the etching-needle, using just sufficient pressure to
cut through the thin film of ground and lay bare the copper. The plate
is then put into an acid bath which eats away the metal wherever a
line has been laid bare. The ground is then washed off with a suitable
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