DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.28460#0180
Division B.—Dotted Prints.
155
by pieces being cut out from the (black) lines which originally stood
up in relief, and that they have not the regularity and sharpness of
these fine white lines engraved with the burin. Such work could not
be produced on a wood-block at a time when wood-engraving on the
end of the wood was unknown, and the design was always cut with a
knife on the plank. On the other hand, the white-line work engraved
with the burin on the “ dotted prints ” is identical in principle, how-
ever different it may appear in the result, with modern wood-
engraving, carried out with the burin across the grain in white lines
and dots, as practised for a century past.1 M. Hymans, and Mr.
Ivoehler after him, have reproduced an interesting specimen of a
white-line engraving which avoids the use of dots, the plate of which
is preserved at Malines (Schr. 2441. Another plate of analogous
workmauship, Schr. 2219, is in the same collection). Several good
examples of such prints are described in the present catalogue: the
Man of Sorrows with angels, B 10, Schr. 2462 ; the Man of Sorrows
withamonk, B 11, Sclrr. 2464; the Mystery ofthe Incarnation, B 12,
Schr. 2481; St. Catherine and St. Barbara, B 18, Schr. 2585.
Bor the purpose of printing, the metal plates appear often to have
been fastened by nails at the corners to a wood-block, to obviate the
danger of their being bent or broken in the press. The round or
irregular holes thus produced leave tlieir traces in the impression. A
late impression may sometimes be detected by the fact that a corner
of the plate has been broken off. The flaws peculiar to wood-blocks
—worm-holes, cracks and pieces chipped out of the lines which stand
in relief—are not found in these prints.2
In design the “ dotted prints ” are primitive and faulty. This is
not, however, as was formerly supposed, an indication of very early
1 See the illustrations given by Mr. Koehler (op. cit.).
2 Dr. Singer, in his catalogue of the Lanna Collection at Prague, i, G, in describing
an impression of Schr. 2703, argues that in this case the print must be from a wood-
block, because it is “ ausgesprungen ” (cracked or chipped). Our facsimile, however,
of the other impression of the same plate in the Kothschild collection at Paris, shows
that the latter was certainly printed from a metal plate, for the perforations along the
edge, by which it was fixed to a wood-block, are distinctly seen, while the edges of the
plate are curved and flattened out as a soft metal plate would be after much pressure.
The only undoubted case, as far as I know, of the maniere criblee, or something very
like it, being carried out on wood, is the Last Judgment, Schr. 599, of which the wood-
block is preserved in the Derschau collection at Berlin. No old impressinns are known,
and the early date of the block is not, perhaps, above suspicion. It is, in any case,
most likely a copy on wood from an original which had been engraved on metal. There
is an interesting case in our own collection, A 14, of an extant dotted print
being copied on wood, with a rude attempt to reproduce the original technique in
another material to which it is not suitable. Wood, of course, would not admit of the
use of any of the stamps or punches employed in the maniere criblge. The days when
all these prints were described as woodcuts (as by Dibdin, Ottley, Chatto and Duchesne
and the old sale-catalogues) are long past. The consensus of modern anthorities
(Passavant, Renouvier, Weigel, L. and H. Delaborde, Duplessis, Dutuit, Willshire,
Hymans, Lippmann, Koehler, Schreiber) is in favour of metal.
Metliod
printing
155
by pieces being cut out from the (black) lines which originally stood
up in relief, and that they have not the regularity and sharpness of
these fine white lines engraved with the burin. Such work could not
be produced on a wood-block at a time when wood-engraving on the
end of the wood was unknown, and the design was always cut with a
knife on the plank. On the other hand, the white-line work engraved
with the burin on the “ dotted prints ” is identical in principle, how-
ever different it may appear in the result, with modern wood-
engraving, carried out with the burin across the grain in white lines
and dots, as practised for a century past.1 M. Hymans, and Mr.
Ivoehler after him, have reproduced an interesting specimen of a
white-line engraving which avoids the use of dots, the plate of which
is preserved at Malines (Schr. 2441. Another plate of analogous
workmauship, Schr. 2219, is in the same collection). Several good
examples of such prints are described in the present catalogue: the
Man of Sorrows with angels, B 10, Schr. 2462 ; the Man of Sorrows
withamonk, B 11, Sclrr. 2464; the Mystery ofthe Incarnation, B 12,
Schr. 2481; St. Catherine and St. Barbara, B 18, Schr. 2585.
Bor the purpose of printing, the metal plates appear often to have
been fastened by nails at the corners to a wood-block, to obviate the
danger of their being bent or broken in the press. The round or
irregular holes thus produced leave tlieir traces in the impression. A
late impression may sometimes be detected by the fact that a corner
of the plate has been broken off. The flaws peculiar to wood-blocks
—worm-holes, cracks and pieces chipped out of the lines which stand
in relief—are not found in these prints.2
In design the “ dotted prints ” are primitive and faulty. This is
not, however, as was formerly supposed, an indication of very early
1 See the illustrations given by Mr. Koehler (op. cit.).
2 Dr. Singer, in his catalogue of the Lanna Collection at Prague, i, G, in describing
an impression of Schr. 2703, argues that in this case the print must be from a wood-
block, because it is “ ausgesprungen ” (cracked or chipped). Our facsimile, however,
of the other impression of the same plate in the Kothschild collection at Paris, shows
that the latter was certainly printed from a metal plate, for the perforations along the
edge, by which it was fixed to a wood-block, are distinctly seen, while the edges of the
plate are curved and flattened out as a soft metal plate would be after much pressure.
The only undoubted case, as far as I know, of the maniere criblee, or something very
like it, being carried out on wood, is the Last Judgment, Schr. 599, of which the wood-
block is preserved in the Derschau collection at Berlin. No old impressinns are known,
and the early date of the block is not, perhaps, above suspicion. It is, in any case,
most likely a copy on wood from an original which had been engraved on metal. There
is an interesting case in our own collection, A 14, of an extant dotted print
being copied on wood, with a rude attempt to reproduce the original technique in
another material to which it is not suitable. Wood, of course, would not admit of the
use of any of the stamps or punches employed in the maniere criblge. The days when
all these prints were described as woodcuts (as by Dibdin, Ottley, Chatto and Duchesne
and the old sale-catalogues) are long past. The consensus of modern anthorities
(Passavant, Renouvier, Weigel, L. and H. Delaborde, Duplessis, Dutuit, Willshire,
Hymans, Lippmann, Koehler, Schreiber) is in favour of metal.
Metliod
printing