Beyond giving some idea of what wood engraving is and how it is produced, it is not intended to do more than refer to the early history of the art—a subject on which bulky volumes have been written—or to enter minutely into the details and modes of execution of modern work. To those who desire further information, special works on the subject may be consulted.[1]

WOOD ENGRAVING AND COPPER-PLATE
ENGRAVING—THE DIFFERENCE.

Copper-plate engraving, which almost entirely superseded wood in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, differs in principle from wood engraving in this—that a woodcut has the lines of the design standing up in relief, the wood between the lines incised or cut away, so that when the surface is inked the lines so charged will give off an impression upon paper by rubbing the back, or by the use of the type press. In the copper-plate the lines are cut into the polished surface of the metal, which, when smeared over with printing ink, and the surface wiped clean, leaves the incised lines filled with ink; an impression is taken by the use of a press specially adapted to the purpose.

It will be seen that surface printing is the necessity and characteristic of wood engraving. Simple and crude in its beginnings, owing chiefly to the imperfect mechanical means of cutting the wood in sufficiently fine or exact lines; it was employed first in the production of playing cards, the outlines of which were formed by impressions from wood blocks, and the colouring filled in by hand or stencil. In Europe the earliest application of the art to pictorial illustration took place in Germany about the close of the fourteenth or beginning of the fifteenth century. The oldest woodcut with a date known is of 1423. It represents St. Christopher carrying our Saviour on his shoulders across a river. Other specimens, though undated, from their greater rudeness, have been held to have superior claims to antiquity. With the invention of printing the art soon made rapid strides, and on the introduction of moveable types to print in conjunction with engraved blocks, a new impetus was given to the production of engraved wood blocks. In the early part of the sixteenth century, several artists of celebrity were either designers on wood or engravers. Books at this period were profusely illustrated. Among the most distinguished in this line was Albert Dürer, whose productions as a painter and an engraver on copper and wood are so numerous that he could not possibly have engraved a tithe of the wood engravings attributed to him; probably he only put the design on the blocks, leaving them to others to execute.

The art was chiefly practised in Germany, where it was patronised by the Emperor Maximilian, for whom Burgmair produced the great work, “The Triumphs of Maximilian.” The next great name in the annals of wood engraving is that of Hans Holbein, whose “Dance of Death” was printed in Lyons in 1538.

In England Caxton brought out his “Game and Playe of Chesse” in 1476, with cuts. There are woodcuts also in the “Golden Legend,” 1483; “Fables of Æsop,” 1484; Chaucer’s “Canterbury Tales,” and other books of his printing—all scarce and poor in execution, but noticeable in the history of Art. From 1545 to 1580 wood engraving continued to be much used for illustrating books in England, chiefly by John Daye. From this period there is little to be recorded of essential importance till the appearance of Bewick, to whom the revival of wood engraving is chiefly to be attributed.

EARLY METHOD OF ENGRAVING ON THE SIDE
OF THE WOOD WITH KNIVES.

In early days of wood engraving a close-grained slab of wood of a suitable thickness to print with type was used for the purpose by the engraver—cut the long way of the tree, and not upon the end or section of the wood as in modern work; and the cutting was necessarily executed with the knife. The quaint and rude cut on the accompanying double page is a fair example of the earliest species of woodcut, and is the most ancient Ex Libris known.

Regarding the knife as a cutting instrument, Mr. W. J. Linton, in his “Manual of Wood Engraving,” p. 28, says: “As far as I have been able to ascertain, with the one possible exception of the cuts to Croxall’s Fables, 1722, all engravings on wood from the earliest time to the time of Bewick were done with the knife instead of gravers.”

The most ancient Ex Libris known. It is Jean Knabensberg, called Igler, chaplain to the family of Schönstett. It represents a hedgehog with a flower in its mouth. In the banderole we read, “Hanns Igler das dich ein Igel Kuss.” Its approximate date is 1450. Herr Ludwig Rosenthal, antiquariat, Munich, has a copy of this rare plate in his possession, which he values at 600 marks. See Warnecke’s “Die deutschen Bücherzeichen” (Ex Libris), 1890.

We can to some extent realise the difficulties the early wood engravers laboured under in this respect in producing fine work, but when we examine the later works of the German engravers, and observe the gradual improvement from crudeness to really excellent work, we are amazed that with such disabilities such splendid results were attainable by the knife. The Form-schneider, as the engraver of block pictures was termed, increased in skill and dexterity in deftly cutting the design exactly as it was drawn on the wood, and with exceeding truthfulness; using a finer grained and harder wood and tools more perfectly adapted for the work, so would the art advance by leaps and bounds, until in the time of Dürer and Holbein it had reached its high-water mark of excellence. Boxwood was then, as now, in use, but for delicate work only, and cut plank-wise. For larger work softer woods were good enough: pear and apple woods, privet, sycamore, and any white wood upon which a drawing could be seen—everything being drawn line for line on the plank; the engraver’s business simply to cut away the white spaces between the lines, cutting, as before said, with knives in the smaller spaces, and with chisels and gouges clearing away the larger to a sufficient depth to escape the ink in printing.

At the present day, in the skilfully drawn and engraved block books of the Japanese, the illustrations will be found to be drawn with the brush upon the side of the wood, and cut with a knife; but we are not now astonished at anything done by this wonderful people, who have knocked the wind out of us in so many forms of art.

MODERN WOOD ENGRAVING.

To understand the scope and practice of wood engraving, it will be necessary to glance through the illustrated publications of a few years ago, before process blocks had to so large extent superseded the work of the graver. The immense popularity the art has obtained in this country owing to the establishment of the Illustrated London News, Graphic, Art Journal, Magazine of Art, and similar publications, not to speak of book illustrations, has been remarkable. The excellence of the work and the infinite variety of style introduced by the best artists and engravers show it to be capable of representing every artistic quality supposed to be peculiar to copper and steel engraving; other qualities it has, such as power and force in the darker portions, and the use of white-line work on tint, or solid ground—effects obtained with extreme difficulty upon the metal plate.

Wood engraving for pictorial work may be divided into two kinds:—

I.—Black-Line or Fac-simile Work.—The drawing on wood is engraved exactly as it is drawn, line for line. All examples up to the time of Bewick, and a great many since, are of this kind. As illustrating the best qualities of this style of wood engraving, no more apt examples could be named than the cartoons and drawings in Punch by Tenniel, Doyle, Leech, and others, before the introduction of photo-etched process blocks. (Bewick himself, an artist as well as an engraver, made a departure from the old crude manner of wood engraving by introducing a new style of work, imitating more truly the local colour and the textures of nature: drawing the subject of the design on wood in pencil and afterwards tinting in the masses of shade and local colour with washes of china ink; and with the graver giving all the characteristic markings and minuter details by white lines upon the dark ground. In his Natural History Cuts he imitated in the most marvellous manner the textures of trees, grass, and natural scenery, the plumage of birds, the shaggy or smooth coats of animals, etc. A number of Ex Libris executed by him on wood have the same characteristic handling). The two wood engravings by Bewick are reproduced by process blocks. Though inferior to many of his Natural History Cuts, they fairly show the style and character of his handiwork—the careful execution of details and the use of white-line work upon solid black ground.

II.—Tinted Work.—In this mode the subject is drawn in TINTS OR WASHES, and partly with the pencil. To be successful in work of this kind, to interpret the artist’s ideas truly, the engraver must himself be an artist of considerable ability, as he has to adapt the lines to the work, and in this lies rare judgment and discretion, as not only the direction of the line most conducive to develop the form, but the width and thickness of the lines and spaces must be accurately judged; the various qualities of surfaces must likewise be suggested by the engraved lines.

MATERIALS AND MODE OF PROCEEDING.

The wood used by engravers is boxwood, on account of its close grain and firm texture; it is principally imported from Turkey, cut transversely or across the grain (so that the engraving is done upon the end way of the wood). It is made seven-eighths of an inch in thickness (type height). It takes a beautifully smooth surface, and cuts under the graver with the utmost clearness and fineness. The polished surface of the wood being unsuitable for drawing on, a slight “tooth” is given to it by a little water-colour white rubbed over the face of the block with the ball of the thumb until nearly dry, when it presents a pleasant surface for the pencil.

The drawing or design having been sketched out and perfected on paper, it is then traced the reverse way upon the wood block, and the drawing then worked out, either in black-line fac-simile or in tints, as may be intended. The black lead pencil, of sufficient hardness of lead to stand the pressure upon the solid surface, is the favourite instrument for drawing. For tinting, either the pencil or the brush with washes of china ink can be used.

The tools used are gravers, tint-tools, and scoopers, or cutting out tools—in all about a dozen different sizes; the several kinds are here indicated. With the gravers the outline and all the details are cut; the tints, by which the proper tones or light and shade are obtained, can best be rendered with tint-tools of various widths of cut. The parts not required to be printed are hollowed out with scoopers. It will be understood that all the blanks or white parts of an engraving have been cut away in the block.

There are several et ceteras also required by the engraver, as, an oil-stone to sharpen his gravers; an eye-glass, when engraving very fine work; a small circular sand-bag, on which the block is held while being engraved; an instrument called a burnisher, with which to take proofs. A glass globe filled with water, to concentrate the light from lamp or gas jet upon the block, is used at night.

The engraving being completed, the surface of the block is inked very lightly with printing ink, and a piece of India paper, or any fine paper of similar quality, being laid upon it, an impression is taken by rubbing the paper with the burnisher until it is fully printed. From this proof the engraver can judge whether any alterations are required and what improvements can be effected.

The revival of wood engraving by Bewick and others, and the high state of perfection to which it had been brought by his immediate successors, to a very great extent superseded copper-plate engraving for book illustrations, though for Ex Libris, copper-plate held, and still holds its place as the chief and deservedly favourite style.