DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.73058#0125
Fine Art Plate Printers.
CHAPTER XXIV.
Fine Art Plate Printers.
/f /0O Act' astonishment can hardly be felt if fine art copperplate printers
& —. 1 are classed in the minds of the majority of people with " butchers
and bakers and candlestick makers," when the public is too apt to thought-
C, lessly look upon engravers themselves as "a set of ingenious mechanics."*
lessly
* See " Evidence relating to the Art of Engraving taken before the Select Committee of the House of Commons on
Arts " (1836), and the Committee's report made to the House thereon.
It used to be a common saying amongst copperplate printers, that any one with a
thick head and a strong arm was fit for a mezzotint printer; but to work an etched plate
effectively requires brains, or rather artistic instincts rarely found in the British workman.
Many etchers, in ignorance to whom they should apply, and in despair of getting their
plates properly printed, have undertaken the mechanical part themselves, and a copper-
plate printing press as an adjunct to the studio is now by no means uncommon.
The professional engraver is very largely indebted to the skill of the plate-printer
in bringing out and making manifest the beauties and excellencies of his work. Those
who follow this calling are few in number, and, except to the print-publishers, to whom
they owe their principal employment, are utterly unknown outside their own class. In
London there are five firms of plate-printers, who for many years have devoted them-
selves exclusively to fine art work ; and a short history of their antecedents will doubtless
prove of interest :—*
* There are other firms, some in a much more extensive way of business than those mentioned, as Messrs. Virtue &
Co., Limited, who print the Art Journal; Messrs. Vincent Brooks, Day & Son, who have in their employ the Goldings
—father and son; but the writer is unaware of any plate printers who practise fine art plate printing exclusively, save
those mentioned.
The Firm of J. H. & F. C. McQueen was established at the beginning of the
present century, in Newman Street, Oxford Street, London, by the grandfather of the
present members, William Benjamin McQueen, who was joined by his son, William Henry,
in the year 1819. In the year 1832 the business was removed from Newman Street to
Tottenham Court Road, where new premises were erected from designs by John Finden,
99 architect.
H 2
CHAPTER XXIV.
Fine Art Plate Printers.
/f /0O Act' astonishment can hardly be felt if fine art copperplate printers
& —. 1 are classed in the minds of the majority of people with " butchers
and bakers and candlestick makers," when the public is too apt to thought-
C, lessly look upon engravers themselves as "a set of ingenious mechanics."*
lessly
* See " Evidence relating to the Art of Engraving taken before the Select Committee of the House of Commons on
Arts " (1836), and the Committee's report made to the House thereon.
It used to be a common saying amongst copperplate printers, that any one with a
thick head and a strong arm was fit for a mezzotint printer; but to work an etched plate
effectively requires brains, or rather artistic instincts rarely found in the British workman.
Many etchers, in ignorance to whom they should apply, and in despair of getting their
plates properly printed, have undertaken the mechanical part themselves, and a copper-
plate printing press as an adjunct to the studio is now by no means uncommon.
The professional engraver is very largely indebted to the skill of the plate-printer
in bringing out and making manifest the beauties and excellencies of his work. Those
who follow this calling are few in number, and, except to the print-publishers, to whom
they owe their principal employment, are utterly unknown outside their own class. In
London there are five firms of plate-printers, who for many years have devoted them-
selves exclusively to fine art work ; and a short history of their antecedents will doubtless
prove of interest :—*
* There are other firms, some in a much more extensive way of business than those mentioned, as Messrs. Virtue &
Co., Limited, who print the Art Journal; Messrs. Vincent Brooks, Day & Son, who have in their employ the Goldings
—father and son; but the writer is unaware of any plate printers who practise fine art plate printing exclusively, save
those mentioned.
The Firm of J. H. & F. C. McQueen was established at the beginning of the
present century, in Newman Street, Oxford Street, London, by the grandfather of the
present members, William Benjamin McQueen, who was joined by his son, William Henry,
in the year 1819. In the year 1832 the business was removed from Newman Street to
Tottenham Court Road, where new premises were erected from designs by John Finden,
99 architect.
H 2