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    Linoleum Block Printing for Amateurs - The Beacon Handicraft Series
    Linoleum Block Printing for Amateurs - The Beacon Handicraft Series
    Linoleum Block Printing for Amateurs - The Beacon Handicraft Series
    Ebook135 pages1 hour

    Linoleum Block Printing for Amateurs - The Beacon Handicraft Series

    By Charlotte D. Bone

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    About this ebook

    Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. We are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherJesson Press
    Release dateJan 8, 2021
    ISBN9781528764759
    Linoleum Block Printing for Amateurs - The Beacon Handicraft Series

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      Book preview

      Linoleum Block Printing for Amateurs - The Beacon Handicraft Series - Charlotte D. Bone

      CHAPTER I

      HISTORY OF BLOCK PRINTING

      THE cutting or engraving of designs on blocks of wood or metal, and then applying coloring matter to the outstanding surface so that the design can, under pressure, be repeatedly imprinted on paper, cloth, or other media is so simple and natural a process that it must have very early suggested itself to the inventive mind of man. In fact, the origin of the art undoubtedly extends back before the Christian Era.

      Printing from wooden blocks and clay tablets is said to have been discovered in China at least as early as 50 B. C. Native Chinese historians, however, date the beginning of the practical development of the art of making prints from engraved wood blocks in the sixth century A. D. The earliest known prints on paper were made during the T’ang dynasty (618–905). They were cheap reproductions in great quantities of religious paintings. The earliest printed book which has been discovered was printed from blocks and bears the statement Printed on May 11, 868, by Wang Chieh for free general distribution, in order in deep reverence to perpetuate the memory of his parents. A little later, printing from movable type was invented in China and used from 1040 to 1049 but, on account of the great number of characters needed in the Chinese language, the method was impractical and was not generally adopted.

      The Japanese learned the art of block printing from China in the eighth century, the earliest known date being 770. At first they confined their efforts to reproducing popular religious figures, as had been the custom in China. Soon, however, a school of artists arose in Japan who made designs especially for woodcutting and planned them with due consideration for the possibilities and limitations in cutting the wooden surface, whereas in China the art was the mere reproduction of any more or less suitable designs. Even the use of various colors was known to the Chinese, and presumably also to the Japanese, as early as the seventeenth century, possibly earlier, for there is in the British Museum a set of prints in eight colors which was brought from China in 1693. To the Japanese, however, belongs the credit for the real development of the art so that beautiful prints were produced through the cooperation of the designers in planning suitable designs and the deftness of the woodcutters in engraving the blocks. Thus was begun what is known as the Chinese-Japanese school of woodcutting.

      In European countries, the origin of woodcut engraving and printing probably dates back to remote antiquity, but it is as obscure as in the Asiatic countries, though many early goldsmiths of Egypt, Phœnicia, and Greece showed great artistic talent and mechanical ability in engraving beautiful designs on crosses, candelabra, and articles for religious service, and they were even skilled in the use of enamel and setting precious stones. They, therefore, possessed all the means for printing impressions, but there is no evidence that they developed the art.

      The earliest definite use of wood engraving, in the beginning of the fifteenth century, was for printing playing cards, which were, however, very poorly done. At the same time, there began a general use of woodcuts of Bible subjects, of saints and martyrs, especially common in upper Germany and the Flemish provinces. Frequently there were legends of the saints or short prayers on the block with the picture, so that it is probable that they were produced in different convents and monasteries in order to spread religious influences among the people.

      The earliest dated European woodcut is of the year 1423. It is a representation of St. Christopher carrying the infant Christ across a stream. A hermit is kneeling in prayer at the right, while on the left a peasant is carrying a heavy sack on his back toward his simple thatched cottage on a hill. The inscription states that every day that anyone looks on the image of St. Christopher, he for that day will be saved from death by violence.

      All these early woodcuts were done by unskilled persons, for woodcutting was not recognized and developed as a separate craft until the middle of the fifteenth century. Impressions from the early blocks were made by placing dampened paper on the inked surface and rubbing the paper with a cloth or a roller. These crude prints gained wide popularity, for they were printed in great numbers and consequently were cheap in price. The subjects, moreover, were such as to make a ready appeal to the common people.

      Soon the idea was conceived of binding several of these block-printed sheets together, making a so-called block book. The idea of the block books is believed to have been originated in the Rhine districts of Germany and in the Netherlands in 1420, but they did not become common until about thirty years later. One of the finest was the Historia Virginis in the Cantico Canticorum (Song of Solomon). The block books were often gilded by hand and rudely daubed with colors in imitation of the beautifully illuminated manuscripts, especially those which had been copied by the monks in the monasteries.

      It was probably the use of the block books that inspired the idea of printing in separate words or even single letters, for the page-size blocks were costly, easily broken, and did not allow corrections or changes. There seems to be no evidence that the Europeans borrowed the idea of movable type from China, where it had been used nearly five hundred years before. In fact, various attempts were made to discover a means of printing from movable type, culminating with the invention of the printing press, which is accredited to Johannes Gutenberg of Mainz. The earliest complete book, printed wholly from movable metal type, is the so-called Gutenberg Bible, which was issued about 1455 or 1456.

      The printing press soon entirely displaced the books printed from blocks, but woodcuts continued to be used for illustrating the books. At first the cuts were crudely made and inaccurate. Often the same cut was used as the portrait of a number of different persons or as a representation of several kings, bishops, or saints, or one cut of a building or a scene was used for different buildings and places. Gradually, however, greater discrimination was exercised, so that by the sixteenth century a harmony of text and illustration was achieved which has never been surpassed.

      Soon after the art of printing had originated in Germany, early traveling printers carried it to France and other countries. The most important of the early French books was Livres d’Heures (Books of Hours), which was very popular in the latter part of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. It was printed from movable type with ornamented borders and designs. Some of these designs were printed only in outline from the blocks and the coloring was added by hand. The engraved vignettes, often found at the beginnings of

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