About Our Prints and Maps
Unless otherwise noted, all items are guaranteed to be original and are NOT reproductions. All items are in as good or better condition as noted in each Item Description. Please note that often maps (and large prints) have center folds, and all prints and maps may often have some edge discoloration or general discoloration through age. Item descriptions will note faults that materially affect the item, such as repaired tears, foxing, irregular staining, soiling etc.
Descriptive Terms
| Foxing - brown spotting caused by the growth of mold. |
| Cockled - smooth wrinkles in the paper, caused by damp conditions affecting the item unevenly. |
| Margins - blank paper area outside the image area. Sometimes the paper can be close trimmed near to the image edge - this often occurred when the item was produced, or when it may have been bound into a book. Can also be a result of later trimming to fit a frame or to remove damaged edges. |
| Plate mark - impression left by the edge of a printing plate. Not always present, especially in the case of very close-cropped items and certain plate types. |
| Soiling - general dirt or grubbiness, ink, tea, coffee stains, etc. |
| Browning, Aging or Tanning - discoloration of the paper due to age, not usually a serious fault in itself but can detract from the images clarity. Sometimes browning can occur very evenly in which case it could also be termed 'age toning' or even a 'feature'! |
| Worm holes - small (usually 1-2mm) holes caused by bookworms eating through the pages of a book or atlas. |
| Offsetting - the inadvertent transfer of ink or color onto the paper surface from another part of the print or map (as when folded and bound in a book) or from another page. Most common with center folded maps that have probably been bound before the ink or color is totally dry. |
| Image size - the measurement of the actual image, including the plate mark if applicable. |
| Sheet size - the measurement of the entire sheet including image and margin. |
| Original/Contemporary Hand Coloring- describes prints and maps that were colored at the same time of the original printing or within the same era. |
|
Modern Hand Coloring- describes prints and maps
that we know were colored relatively recently. |
Print Types
Relief - The oldest of all print methods, the non-printed area of a plate is removed and the remaining image is then inked and pressed into the surface of the paper.
| Woodcut/Wood Engraving - A design is
drawn along the grain of a wooden plank or block, and the excess cut
away. Often rather course in appearance and texture the process was
refined in the 19th Century with the development of wood engraving,
when harder woods allowed the image to be cut across the end of the
grain resulting in a finer image. This method allows for woodcuts
and engravings to be incorporated into a page with text. In the 20th
Century many artists returned to more open grained woods for artistic
effect. A linocut is the same process using a block or sheet of linoleum
as the medium. Period primarily used: Woodcut-1400 to present; Wood Engraving-1750 - 1900. |
| Linoleum Print - Another method of
relief printing, used primarily for art printing. Period primarily used: 1900’s |
Intaglio - Italian for incising
or engraving. The image is manually removed from a flat surface with an
engraving tool or chemically etched away with acid. This allows the ink
to collect in the recesses and transfer to the paper under more intense
pressure than the relief method. Intaglio methods are incompatible with
printed text in book form.
| Copper Engraving - An engraving tool
is used to remove thin v shaped furrows from a copper plate to delineate
the image. Ink is forced into these grooves with a roller. Period primarily used: 1700 – 1850. |
| Steel Engraving - The harder surfaced
steel plate not only allowed for a greater number of images to be
printed from a single plate but a finer line to be etched into it.
Period primarily used: 1820 – 1900. |
| Etching - Similar to an engraving,
but using acid to remove the metal. A sheet of copper is covered with
a wax film, and the image drawn through it with a needle. When dipped
in acid, only the exposed lines will be bitten into (the rest of the
plate being protected by the wax ). Similar is the stipple engraving
which uses a small hammer head covered with tiny points to punch holes
in the wax layer (or in some cases directly on the plate). Like soft
ground etching, stipple engraving is used primarily to mimic drawings
in chalk and pastel. Period primarily used: 1800 – present. |
| Aquatint - Aquatint is a chemical etching
process. A layer of Bitumen dust is laid on a plate, which is then
heated, causing the dust to adhere to the surface. When immersed,
the acid attacks the copper around each grain, thereby creating a
fine web of thin lines . This process allowed for the introduction
of different tints directly onto the plate. Period primarily used: 1800 – 1900. |
| Drypoint - The image is scratched on
the plate surface with a sharp needle. Depending on the force and
angle used, fine, sharp pieces of metal are thrown up on either side
of the line. This burr holds ink, as does the furrow created by the
needle and, the result is a warm almost blurred line. Because the
burr wears quickly its presence can indicate an early impression.
Period primarily used: 1800 – present. |
| Mezzotint - A plate is roughened with
a fine tooth tool known as a mezzotint rocker. When inked this surface
prints a rich, velvety black. The image is created by smoothing (burnishing)
areas to produce lighter tones. The process is unusual therefore in
creating a white image from a black background. Period primarily used: Late 1700’s |
Planographic- Surface printing, in which images are put on the plate through use of chemicals, wax, etc, providing resistance to the ink laid on the plate.
| Lithograph - The image is formed with
a waxy crayon on a block of limestone or a zinc plate, the surface
of which is wetted, and rolled up with ink. The ink adheres to the
wax image, but not the dampened surface surrounding it. As the image
lies on the surface and not in the grooves, little pressure is needed
during printing. Hence no plate marks. Period primarily used: 1800 – present. |
| Chromolithograph - A lithograph printed
with colored inks. A different colored stone is used for each color
required. This process allowed for the mechanical mass production
of colored plates. Period primarily used: 1875 – 1925. |
| Pochoir - Stencils are used to create
the image directly on paper. Period primarily used: 1920’s |
| Halftone - Photographic reproduction
technique by which the image from the original artwork or photograph
is passed through a screen onto a photographic plate. This entirely
mechanical technique is the first time an image did not have to be
manipulated by hand to be reproduced. Color Halftones utilized three
separate halftone blocks resulting in separate specks of individual
colors building up the colored image. Period primarily used: 1890 – present. |
| Photogravure - Gravures include all
mechanical intaglio processes using photography. The surface of the
plate is divided into a grid of separate pits Period primarily used: 1890 – present. |
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