DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.73059#0054
Barto/o^i and his Works.
CHAPTER XXXVIII.
How to Handle Prints.
/'nrr’jJT'N.er 's eas'er than to handle a print, and nothing is more
/difficult. Any one can take up a piece of paper and
V lay it down again, and yet many a valuable engraving is seriously injured
and sometimes half ruined by this slight act. Most persons in lifting an engraving or
a flat piece of paper of any kind, will grasp it with the fingers underneath and the
thumb uppermost, to keep it steady. Take a large sheet of writing paper and try it, even
without more roughness than one is accustomed to use in handling loose papers ; and see
what will ensue. A broad and unsightly crease, sometimes several creases together,
will probably be found on the paper where the thumb and two first fingers had held
it; and such a crease or creases would diminish the value of a fine print by perhaps
many pounds. The thumb and fingers must never squeeze a print; nor ought prints
after passing through the hands of many owners, and being turned over for examina-
tion any number of times, to show the slightest indication of having been handled.
Watch with what affectionate care and gossamer touch a collector will handle his treasures.
He takes a print up with the right hand and on the right side, passing as he does so
the fingers of the left hand underneath to the opposite corner, lifting it boldly but
tenderly, not using the thumbs at all, or with a passing touch at the edges so slight that
not the faintest indication of their presence is left behind. It requires some little practice
to handle prints, more especially large ones, without damage; and few possessors of
fine examples will allow strangers to touch them at all. "Look, but don't touch," is
their rule; and were it otherwise, a thoughtless person could, in turning over a portfolio,
easily do an enormous amount of damage, and yet be utterly ignorant of his offence.
In grasping a print with the thumb pressing between the first and second fingers, the
indentation sometimes not only causes creases, but cracks, which cannot afterwards be
removed even by the most careful pressing. Another trick of the careless, is, besides
holding the print in the manner indicated, raising it with one hand from a horizontal
to a perpendicular position, treatment that more often than not causes it to fall over and
break its back, which pretty well works its ruin.
32
In
CHAPTER XXXVIII.
How to Handle Prints.
/'nrr’jJT'N.er 's eas'er than to handle a print, and nothing is more
/difficult. Any one can take up a piece of paper and
V lay it down again, and yet many a valuable engraving is seriously injured
and sometimes half ruined by this slight act. Most persons in lifting an engraving or
a flat piece of paper of any kind, will grasp it with the fingers underneath and the
thumb uppermost, to keep it steady. Take a large sheet of writing paper and try it, even
without more roughness than one is accustomed to use in handling loose papers ; and see
what will ensue. A broad and unsightly crease, sometimes several creases together,
will probably be found on the paper where the thumb and two first fingers had held
it; and such a crease or creases would diminish the value of a fine print by perhaps
many pounds. The thumb and fingers must never squeeze a print; nor ought prints
after passing through the hands of many owners, and being turned over for examina-
tion any number of times, to show the slightest indication of having been handled.
Watch with what affectionate care and gossamer touch a collector will handle his treasures.
He takes a print up with the right hand and on the right side, passing as he does so
the fingers of the left hand underneath to the opposite corner, lifting it boldly but
tenderly, not using the thumbs at all, or with a passing touch at the edges so slight that
not the faintest indication of their presence is left behind. It requires some little practice
to handle prints, more especially large ones, without damage; and few possessors of
fine examples will allow strangers to touch them at all. "Look, but don't touch," is
their rule; and were it otherwise, a thoughtless person could, in turning over a portfolio,
easily do an enormous amount of damage, and yet be utterly ignorant of his offence.
In grasping a print with the thumb pressing between the first and second fingers, the
indentation sometimes not only causes creases, but cracks, which cannot afterwards be
removed even by the most careful pressing. Another trick of the careless, is, besides
holding the print in the manner indicated, raising it with one hand from a horizontal
to a perpendicular position, treatment that more often than not causes it to fall over and
break its back, which pretty well works its ruin.
32
In