Understand and Appreciate Antique Prints

Understanding the process and Appreciating the work involved in Antique Prints.

For a better understanding of your finely detailed antique print, you might like to know a little about the process involved in its printing. Firstly, “printing” entails the transference of ink from a prepared printing surface (the block, plate or stone carrying the image) to the piece of paper. Ink can be carried on raised parts of a printing surface (relief process), in lowered carved or etched grooves (intaglio process), or on the surface itself (planographic or surface printing).

The relief process is an ancient method, where the relief surface is ready for printing once all the non-printing areas have been cut away from the original surface (as with a rubber stamp), leaving the area raised to receive the ink from a roller.

The intaglio process is almost the reverse of this, as the ink is held in the grooves that have been carved or etched into the engraving plate. The varying intensity of the ink is achieved by the different width and depth of the grooves incised by a hand-guided tool or by etching with the application of acid. After the ink has fully penetrated the recesses, the plate is wiped. The paper is then dampened and is subjected to considerable pressure to transfer the ink from the grooves of the engraving plate. This pressure leaves a plate mark known as the intaglio impression.

The planographic style of printing is the most in use today. With a lithograph the printing surface remains flat as the process relies on the principle that grease repels water. The design is drawn on to the prepared stone with greasy ink; previously a zinc crayon was used. The plate is then washed with water that is absorbed by the stone yet repelled where the image has been drawn. The plate is then rolled over with a greasy printer’s ink that adheres only to the drawn marks as the water repels the ink from the rest of the plate. Then the ink is transferred to the paper through a press. Lithography is rather a complex process even though the principle is straightforward.

APPRECIATING Antique Prints..
For multiple copies nowadays, offset lithography is generally used. For individual instantaneous images, printing is usually done by ink-jet or laser-printing of an image captured by a digital camera. This of course negates the need for all the effort and skill of bygone days; however, the clarity of a digital image, no matter how skillful, will never capture the personal style of the engraving or linework of the early artists. Nor is the amazing history of early discovery imparted in modern direct representation.

The romance of a voyage of discovery, as delineated by an engraver, whether of the charting of a newly discovered coastline or the unusual flora or fauna seen there, was often imaginatively embellished, either from disbelief of the sketch from afar, or personal belief in rumour of alternate knowledge. Antique prints and maps portray the story of the world’s development and sophistication. Unlike digital replication, the fine details of original antique engravings was often also combined with an artist’s skillful colouring by blending watercolours with gouache, gum Arabic, and even in some works, gold or silver leaf, to achieve the exceptional style of each individual work. Antique prints and maps will always be treasured, not only for their beautiful combination and science and art, but also because the rarity of each illustration on paper increases with the passage of time.