DOI Heft:
No. 118 (December, 1906)
DOI Artikel:Newbolt, Frank: The art of printing etchings
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.28250#0154
The Art of Printing Etchings
is damped for twenty-four hours, or more, but when
used must not be wet on the surface.
Now, having the plate, the press, the ink,
and the paper ready, having attended to the
innumerable minute details briefly indicated
above, the printer has before him the chief
difficulty of his complicated task, that of inking
the plate. He may wish to take a plain, rough
proof, simply to show the state of the plate.
The lighter of the two from Mr. Brangwyn’s
plate is such a proof. The plate is heated
and the ink rubbed into the lines with a
“ dabber ” made of soft flannel until the whole
plate is black. It is then wiped with coarse
muslin, or printer’s canvas, which removes all the
ink except what is in the lines, and a final
polish is given by the hand, charged with whiten-
ing. The plate is placed on the bed of the
press, and when the paper is removed after
passing under the rollers it gives the hard,
dry, cold result shown in the illustration. The
other impression from the same plate is very
different. The plate was not wiped so vigorously,
and after the first wiping was again heated and deli-
cately manipulated with different cloths and in
different parts. The most delicate part of the work
is done with the hand. The ink left on the plate and
drawn out of the lines does not in this case affect
or obscure them, although there is no doubt that
weakness and other defects in a bad etching may
sometimes be obscured by very inky printing.
The result here is to produce a more finished,
artistic, and pleasing impression. In the two illus-
trations from proofs of the Tem'eraire plate the
effects of wiping are easily seen. One is the best
and most artistic that Mr. Goulding can produce
from M Paul Rajon’s plate. The other is more
plainly wiped, so as to give a harder and sharper
appearance to the lines all over, and on the left-hand
side a strip is wiped quite clean, no ink being left
outside the lines at all.
The object of this description of the process of
printing is to show that the one illustration is not
a better etching than the other, the difference (as
in the other three subjects also) being entirely one
of printing. The etching is in each case the same.
Retroussage is the name given to one special
kind of wiping. It is not new, and was probably
140
turner’s “ TEMERAIRE,” ETCHED BY PAUL RAJON. FROM A PROOF CORRECTLY PRINTED
(By permission of Messrs. Seeley 6° Co.)
is damped for twenty-four hours, or more, but when
used must not be wet on the surface.
Now, having the plate, the press, the ink,
and the paper ready, having attended to the
innumerable minute details briefly indicated
above, the printer has before him the chief
difficulty of his complicated task, that of inking
the plate. He may wish to take a plain, rough
proof, simply to show the state of the plate.
The lighter of the two from Mr. Brangwyn’s
plate is such a proof. The plate is heated
and the ink rubbed into the lines with a
“ dabber ” made of soft flannel until the whole
plate is black. It is then wiped with coarse
muslin, or printer’s canvas, which removes all the
ink except what is in the lines, and a final
polish is given by the hand, charged with whiten-
ing. The plate is placed on the bed of the
press, and when the paper is removed after
passing under the rollers it gives the hard,
dry, cold result shown in the illustration. The
other impression from the same plate is very
different. The plate was not wiped so vigorously,
and after the first wiping was again heated and deli-
cately manipulated with different cloths and in
different parts. The most delicate part of the work
is done with the hand. The ink left on the plate and
drawn out of the lines does not in this case affect
or obscure them, although there is no doubt that
weakness and other defects in a bad etching may
sometimes be obscured by very inky printing.
The result here is to produce a more finished,
artistic, and pleasing impression. In the two illus-
trations from proofs of the Tem'eraire plate the
effects of wiping are easily seen. One is the best
and most artistic that Mr. Goulding can produce
from M Paul Rajon’s plate. The other is more
plainly wiped, so as to give a harder and sharper
appearance to the lines all over, and on the left-hand
side a strip is wiped quite clean, no ink being left
outside the lines at all.
The object of this description of the process of
printing is to show that the one illustration is not
a better etching than the other, the difference (as
in the other three subjects also) being entirely one
of printing. The etching is in each case the same.
Retroussage is the name given to one special
kind of wiping. It is not new, and was probably
140
turner’s “ TEMERAIRE,” ETCHED BY PAUL RAJON. FROM A PROOF CORRECTLY PRINTED
(By permission of Messrs. Seeley 6° Co.)