Artisans From England
Wood engraving is the art of engraving designs in relief on the end grain of wood for printing. Special tools called gravers or burins, of various shapes, are used. The technique was developed by Englishman Thomas Bewick in the late 1700’s to produce finer detail than was possible in woodcuts in which the design is cut with a knife on the face of the wood.
The series of tones varying from black to white in Bewick's work brought the process much acclaim. A superb draughtsman, Bewick was able to work in fine detail using his technique. The methods Bewick developed were quickly taken up and wood engraving became the most important common method of illustrating books. Boxwood with its close, hard grain is the favourite timber for wood engraving. The design is placed in reverse on the block by direct drawing by an artist, by pencil tracing from a drawing or after about 1870, by photographic means, and then passed to an engraver. Several blocks may be joined to form a large picture. |
Thomas Bewick died on 8 Nov 1828 aged 75. His ideas were developed and expanded by a large group of professional wood engravers working in London at the time. A contemporary of Bewick was Robert Branston. Born in Norfolk in about 1780, Branston served his apprenticeship with his father as a general copperplate engraver and heraldic painter. Branston came to London in 1799 where he applied himself to wood engraving. Thomas Bewick is regarded as the father of the British School of wood engraving, whilst Branston is regarded as the father of the London School.
With the inception of the popular illustrated press in the 1830s and 1840s, engraving on wood became a relatively cheap reproductive process for illustrating the ‘News of the Day’. Magazines with large circulations, such as The Illustrated London News, provided illustrations of art, nature, famous people and many other subjects to accompany their articles. In the days of hand-set type, wood blocks were prepared 'type-high' and locked in a printing frame at the same time as the type, thus producing an illustrated page with text and not requiring a separate plate for the picture alone.
By the mid-19th century, many wood engravings rivalled copperplate engravings. Eletrotyping was developed, which could reproduce a wood engraving on metal. By this method, a single wood-engraving could be mass-produced for sale to print-shops, with the original retained without wear. Photographic processes eventually curtailed the use of wood engraving as an industry although it is still used today to create bookplates, fine art prints and commercial artwork. Modern wood-engraving is quite different in style however. The engraver is now also the artist, designing his own engravings. |