PRINTING ILLUSTRATIONS

For a more detailed account of wood cuts and wood engraving please go to THIS page concerning relief printing or click on the link on the right.

A revival in interest in early wood block illustration took place in the 19th century, to a great extent this was due to the publishers Field and Tuer. Andrew Tuer, who came to London in 1856, set up as a wholesale stationer in about 1862 and was joined the following year by Abraham Field. They established the firm of Field and Tuer publishing their first book in the 1870s. The firm became known for its illustrated books and particularly for reprints of old chap books and children's books. A year after Field's death in 1891 Tuer changed the name of the firm to 'The Leadenhall Press'.

A major change that took place with the introduction of photographic techniques at the end of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth centuries, and this saw the end of these crafts as reproductive processes. In the first instance wood engravers used the photographic process to transfer images from the original drawings to the wood block, which was then engraved. However, the whole process quickly changed to one where the drawing or photograph was transferred to a zinc plate, which was then etched. This plate was then fixed to a type high wood block which was then printed.

below: an example of a line block. The raised surface, which reproduces the original line drawing, was then printed as a RELIEF print.

A further development was the introduction of a "screen" during a process in which the image was photographed and transferred to a "block" similar to those shown here. The process involved the creation of a transparent photographic positive image that was made up of tiny dots, that would reproduce the tonal values, the darks and lights of the original photograph or piece of art work. below: This rather old and battered example shows solid areas that would print black and areas of course dots, that would print as a dark grey, while finer dots would print as a light grey. Colour reproduction would require four blocks representing Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Key (black).

The illustration on the left shows an unmounted "plate" used to print an ad for "Encounters" magazine. Both the text and the image have been etched into the plate in order to produce a relief (mirror) image, which was then printed by letterpress.

With the demise of the woodcut and the wood engraving as a means of reproducing illustrations in the world of mass industrial printing, the woodcut was adopted by printmakers in the 20th century as a bold expressive art form. This is by Frans Masereel, whose books without words represent fine examples of book art.

The English artist Edward Bawden was noted for his bold relief prints (lino prints) but he was also highly successful as an illustrator who's work was reproduced by lithography. This process gradually replaced letterpress as the main form of industrial printing in the twentieth century. Bawden's work, and the high quality of the printing, often retains the look of an original print even though these are essentially reproductions.