The Book: Its History and DevelopmentDavenport, Cyril
History
The Book: Its History and Development
Davenport, Cyril
Bookbinding; Books; Books -- History; Printing -- History
C. J. Hullmandel and J. D. Harding were friends and co-workers in the
new art, and they were both adepts at it; Hullmandel drew several of
the beautiful plates of birds for John Gould, and they were afterwards
coloured by hand. From the beginning colour has been much liked by
English lithographers, either added by hand or produced by means of
“chromo-lithography,” that is, several plates inked in different
colours and then printed over each other on one piece of paper.
Roberts’ _Holy Land_ is magnificently illustrated with lithographic
plates by Louis Haghe, a left-handed Belgian, who worked here, and
these plates were afterwards coloured by hand. Clarkson Stanfield and
Cattermole both worked in lithography, and Nash’s _Mansions of England
in the Olden Time_, 1839-49, are familiar to most of us. Nash coloured
several copies by hand.
Owen Jones’ _Plans of the Alhambra_, published 1842-5, are excellent
chromo-lithographs. In quite modern times the old tradition is worthily
upheld by William Griggs, whose colour plates of _Illuminated MSS. in
the British Museum_ are in every way excellent--indeed, for truth and
fidelity to their originals they have never been equalled.
Munich was a sort of headquarters of lithography in the early part of
the nineteenth century, when H. J. Mitterer succeeded to Senefelder’s
establishment there. Among the first lithographers in Germany were J.
M. Mittenleiter, who also invented the art of engraving on stone, and
Joseph Hauber.
Most of the German lithographers contented themselves with making
copies of existing pictures, and one of the finest examples of this
kind of lithography is to be found in the _Gemälde Galerie des K.
Museums in Berlin_, published in 1842, and containing excellent work by
Fr. Jentzen, C. Fischer, and others.
Adolf Menzel did some notable lithographic work about the middle of the
century, and Mouilleron, Eybl, and Ritter were all excellent workmen.
Belgian lithographers have nearly always been very good; besides Haghe,
who worked in England, there were, with others, Tuerlinckoe, Van der
Meulen, and Van Loo.
Although there have been lithographic workshops set up at Rome,
Florence, Turin, Milan, and other towns, the art has never flourished
much in Italy: it never appealed to the sensitive artistic Italian
nature. Such examples as do exist are mostly portraits.
Lithography has been popular in Spain, and Spanish artists have done
excellent work in this manner.
In 1824 J. de Madrazo published the most important Spanish work
illustrated with photographs; it is called _Collection lithographica
de cuadros del Rey ... Fernando VII., lithographiada por habiles
artistas_, among whom are named J. Jollivet, P. Blanchard and A.
Guerrero. The work of all of these is excellent. Lithographic work
in Spain, so far as books are concerned, has been mostly of an
archæological character--views of old buildings or old pictures
particularly. F. Goya, however, worked largely in this manner.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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