Licence to Print Money
I first began this project by researching into how money is made and the history into traditional printing methods. I new that for my design I wanted to keep it simplistic and change the design of a bank note to make it not look as clustered with imagery.
How is money made?
Currency production at the BEP is quite different from its beginnings in 1862, which consisted of a handful of people separating notes with a hand-cranked machine in the basement of the Treasury building. The production of U.S. currency is not an easy or simple task, but one that involves highly trained and skilled craftspeople, specialized equipment, and a combination of traditional old world printing techniques merged with sophisticated, cutting edge technology. There are numerous, distinctive steps required in the production process.
PAPER
Traditional printing methods
Papermaking originated in China but it is such an ancient art that the exact years of its origin are unknown. Agents of the Byzantine Empire imported paper from the Arabs who had been making it since the 8th century. Its manufacture arrived in Europe through Muslim Spain where it was used to fuel their great libraries. The process of making paper begins with pulp consisting of organic fibers suspended in water that are poured over a flat screen and left to dry. These simple basics principals have not changed over time but the printing trades could have never developed as they did without the innovations that began in the mid-18th century.
Prior to the introduction of paper, text and images for books were rendered by hand on animal parchment. This was a costly endeavor as the making of a large Bible could require the slaughter of as many as 300 sheep. It took machines such as the Holander beater that could break down rags into large quantities of pulp, and James Whatman’s invention of a fine screen that produced the first smooth finished Wove paper before large scale printing became possible. Traditionally made by hand, paper moved to machine production in the first half of the 19th century. Within forty years the entire industry had been mechanized. In 1798 Nicholas-Louis Robert became the first to figure out how to make paper in rolls (webs), with Thomas Bonser Cromton perfecting this machine for commercial use in 1820. The use of rolled webs was instrumental in speeding up the printing process and led to the development of the Flatbed Cylinder Press, though most postcards would be printed on slower sheet fed presses.
Paper in the 19th century tended to be made from cotton, hemp, and flax, which were usually obtained from cloth rags, hence the term rag paper. The invention of the horizontal loom and spinning wheel had made the production of linen clothing cheap and plentiful, which in turn insured a continuous supply of rags for the manufacture of paper. Wood was sometimes milled into pulp as a cheep alternative to the more costly rag but it produced a weak paper. Eventually a chemical process was developed that was able to break down wood fibers into purer cellulose that created stronger bonds. Though this chemical process replaced the slow laborious task of grinding wood, it was not often used until methods of removing the vast impurities within it were developed in the 1870’s. This new method not only brought down cost, it greatly increased the supply of paper so urgently needed by the fast growing printing trades.
Generally most postcards were made from the poorer chemical pulp (wood cellulose), giving them both hardness and limited durability. The amount a card has yellowed over time is usually in relation to the quality of the paper used. Several layers of paper would be pressed together to create card stock, then coated with China clay to help brighten the image and prevent ink absorption. It wasn’t until the latter 1800’s that a practical wood pulp, card stock, and coated papers all became available to the printing trades.
Paper Webs: This postcard from 1906 depicts printing paper being rolled into webs at a mill in Maine.
Modifications
The so called Laid papers we use today are a far distant cousin from earlier relations. The watermarked lines they now contain are placed there for decorative purposes and are unrepresentative of the highly uneven surface that resulted from laying paper on a linear wire mesh during production. It was from the wire mesh techniques used to make cloth from silver and gold that a tighter and more even screen for papermaking arose. The smoother Wove paper these new screens produced proved in many ways to be the perfect substrate to print on but it also left printers with two basic problems. One was that the natural absorbency of paper soaked up ink, which created a good bond but diluted the intensity of the image. As pigment migrates into paper it is masked by fibers that prevent light from reflecting off of it and back to the eye creating dull colors and soft edges. Even on Wove paper the natural roughness of cellulose fibers were another problem as they could diffuse fine detail. Both of these problems were partially solved by compressing paper under heavy rollers once they dried. This process is known as cold press, and when the roller is heated to create an even smoother surface it is referred to as hot press.
The remaining absorbency issue was solved by adding a nonabsorbent coating such as starch, casein or glue to the paper’s surface. While the adding of a water soluble sizing became common practice, more durable coatings such as China clay (kaolinite), once used in the manufacture of porcelain became widely adapted for printing papers. It created a bright glossy surface that produced richer colors and darker blacks by subduing light scattering and by masking the properties of natural paper fiber. In 1885 a similar baryta coating (barium sulfate mixed with gelatin) began being used to size photo papers before the photosensitive emulsion is applied. Coated papers were well suited for lithography but not intaglio printing where the paper is routinely soaked before printing to remove most of its sizing. This is a necessary step to allow paper to better stretch under the high pressure of the press and be pushed into the incised lines. Gravure is the only exception to this since it requires far less pressure to create a printed image from its shallow surface.
Texture
While the purpose of cold and hot press processing of paper was to generally reduce the rough surface that formed while it dried on a screen, the heavy rollers that were employed were sometimes used to emboss a specific texture directly into the paper. The patterns on these special rollers could be incised right into them by photo-mechanically transferring an image and then rotating them in an acid bath. Most of the patterns produced are so delicate their details cannot be discerned by the naked eye, which creates the impression if a natural rough surface. More noticeable geometric patterns were also embossed into paper. The most common of these were small rectangles in a waffle like grids that produced the illusion of linen. The texturing of paper for the most part was originally done just to add to the appeal of the final product by drawing up associations with artwork such as paintings on linen canvas. In the 1930’s the practice of embossing would gain more practical applications as an aid in speeding up the drying time of dye based inks.
Embossed Paper: The dirt on this detail from a postcard made in 1905 helps bring out the wormy pattern embossed into this paper. The edges of the embossment are actually more sharply defined than what can be seen here, and under magnification it is impossible to confuse it with the natural fibers of paper that has not been pressed.
PRINTING INK
The inks used in the printing trades have been carefully adapted to each printing medium resulting in a wide variety of product; those used in lithography are the consistency of tar, and those used in screen printing are similar to house paint. In the 19th century it was the new scientific field of organic chemistry that brought real changes to ink. Many new synthetic colors were developed that were a boon to the printing trades and no doubt fueled both the interest and ability to create chromolithographs. Unfortunately many of these new colors proved to be fugitive and either faded or changed color over time. As fierce competition grew between England and Germany to invent and patent new synthetics, more careful research was done to insure color stability but a reliable pallet for printing would not be found until well into the 20th century. These problems may have influenced the general scaling down of colors used to make postcards as much as economic incentives, but the lack of pure hues would also hamper those attempting to apply prevailing color theory to simplify printing methods.
In 1925 six major German companies merged into a cartel, IG Farben (Interessen-Gemeinschaft Farbenindustrie AG) to become the world’s largest manufacturer of chemicals including inks and dyes. Prior to World War One these companies already practically had a German monopoly giving them control 88% of all colorants. Few nations took notice and just imported their inks from Germany until the outbreak of hostilities brought about embargoes and blockades. As ink supplies dwindled a worldwide crisis in the printing trades arose and the pallet used for postcards would have more to do with available supply than with actual need. In postwar years the manufacturing of inks became more global though Germany still held an edge until World War Two. With many trade secrets taken as part of war reparations the United States has now become the world’s largest producer of ink.
While colorants played a major role in postcard production not all of them were in the form of ink. Countless postcards would be hand colored in the tradition of popular prints. This was usually done through watercolor, which soaks into the paper leaving ill defined edges behind. If a color is uneven and exhibits no discernible grain it was most likely a water based paint applied by hand with a brush. Some postcards were more than hand colored, they were entirely hand painted. The clue to discovering these cards is in the way the colorant lies on the paper. If created with paints other than watercolor they will sit on top of the papers surface and sometimes show indications of brush marks. Many such cards were produced by artists throughout the 19th century, not as postcards but as tokens and souvenirs.
Handmade Card: This postcard was created entirely with an opaque paint, probably gouache. In the detail below we can see the unevenness of tone and surface texture as well as rough outlines in the paint as a result of being applied by a brush.
PRINTING PRESSES
The basic design of the printing press had remained the same for centuries, but when change finally came it continued to evolve at an ever increasing rate. The impetus to generate new technology was not driven by new discoveries but by the growing demand for printed material in a world where literacy rates were suddenly climbing. Few books and newspapers had been needed when most people could not read, but as literacy became more commonplace the printing industry barely found it possible to keep up with demand. Without this general trend the printing trades would have remained a minuscule industry and there would be no such thing as postcards, at least not in the way we have come to know them.
Screw and hand Presses
The first presses designed for typographical printing were similar to those used for pressing grapes for wine. A pressing board suspended on vertical runners was attached to the bottom of a large screw. As the stationary nut that surrounded the screw was turned it forced it and the pressing board downwards until it squeezed what lay between it and the press bed. By the 19th century screw presses had become obsolete for commercial printing for they were just too slow to compete with the newer bed and platen models. A smaller version known as a hand press would have a much longer life and play a role in postcard production. These easy to use hand powered devices were often utilized by small businesses not related to the printing industry, and even amateurs at home could print up small paper products in low quantities because of the ease of setup. Their existence in small shops all over the country would eventually create the climate for the stock postcard. Establishments who did not have enough customers to order a full press run of an original image could buy small quantities of generic cards and use their small hand press to customize them to their location or for a specific event, or even to advertise a particular product. This procedure became a common practice with trade cards before it was used in conjunction with postcards.
Screw Hand Press:
This postcard reproduces an old woodcut from 1522 displaying a Badius hand operated screw press in action.
Bed and Platen Press
Two types of presses have dominated the printing trades since the early 19th century. One was the Bed and Platen press where paper is laid over an inked form on a flat bed and pressure is applied by means of a heavy metal plate that squeezes them all together. Though based on the principals of the screw press these more efficient machines had no screw, their mechanisms opened and closed through the use of weights, counterweights, and springs. They could be powered by steam and still be operated by pressmen utilizing traditional skills. By mid-century much commercial work had switched over the speedier cylinder press, which had proved its excellence in printing newspapers and large book editions. While the cylinder press became the chief competitor to the platen it required special training to use and was not suitable for printing smaller items in more limited quantities. To meet these special needs Daniel Tredell of Boston built the first small scale version of this press in 1818 that became known as the Jobbing Platen. It was basically an American invention eventually manufactured in many varieties to satisfy specific needs. Many of these old models were used well into the 20th century. Both of these press types have played an important roll in the printing of postcards since their inception.
Bed and Platen Press: This English made Minerva from about 1880 is a typical design for a small jobbing platen.
RELIEF PRINTING METHODS
All methods of relief printing are characterized as being made from a printing substrate whose flat top surface carries the image when rolled with ink while all non printing areas (the color of the paper) are cut away so that they fall below the surface plane (dead level). It is one of the few techniques where prints can be pulled either from the pressure supplied by a press or solely from burnishing by hand. Wooden planks were the traditional material used for the relief substrate, but cast metal would eventually become predominant for use in commercial printing.
WOODBLOCK (woodcut)
Printing from cut blocks or planks of wood is the oldest printing technique known to man dating back to at the least third century in China. It is no doubt an outgrowth of the earlier practice of stone rubbing (ta-pen). This method spread throughout Asia where it remained a common and popular method of printing well into the 20th century. In the West woodcuts had been used to place designs on fabric before paper was available and they became a staple in printed image reproduction from as far back as the 1300’s. Relief printing grew in importance with the invention of the moveable type press a century later, but as metal became the choice substrate of skilled artists the quality of woodcutting fell into decline. When postcards were first manufactured traditional woodcutting was no longer used in commercial printing outside of Japan. The rare postcards made from woodblocks in the West most often appear between the two World Wars and are most likely to have been published by the artists who created them.
Woodcut: This old illustration from an 18th century broadsheet shows the traditional way that wood was cut to represent drawn or copper engraved lines.
In woodblock printing an image was usually first drawn or painted onto a plank and then the areas not meant to print were cut away with knives, chisels, scrives, and gouges. A stiff ink is then applied to the surface of this substrate by hand with the aid of a rag, tampon, or dauber. After 1820 rollers began being used for inking either by hand or directly adapted to a printing press. Unlike most other printing methods a great deal of pressure is not needed for woodblock, so once a thin paper was placed upon an inked block the image could be transferred simply by burnishing the paper’s back. A small amount of embossing may form around cut edges of the final image if heavy pressure is used to transfer it onto paper. Presses were eventually used to produce more relief prints in less time with the same incentive as today; time is money.
Woodcut: Even at full size this reproduction of a woodcut made in 1918 easily displays the marks left behind from the tools used to create it. This aspect of woodcutting that was once considered a flaw in workmanship later became a stylistic element in modern prints.
Since the images from wooden blocks are cut with a knife or a gouge they often leave tell tail marks that would not appear in any other medium. Lines that taper, hard straight edges and sharp angles can all be signs that a print was produced by the act of cutting. This is not to say that flowing lines cannot be found for a true craftsman can be quite adept. Under magnification however these cut lines are not as rigid as one might imagine for wood is an organic substance whose edges will crumble away without regularity.
Color Woodcut: In this detail from a color woodblock the angular quality of the tree branches displays the typical signs of being cut out with a knife.
Wood Cutting Tools: A variety of knives and gouges used to cut woodblocks are shown in the picture above. In relief printing the non-printing areas are cut away below the surface and the surface is then rolled with ink. The shape of the cut areas and their edges will vary depending on the type of tool used to cut it. The wider the dead level the greater the chances of accidental ink transfer. The narrower the line the greater chances of the wood crumbling and not picking up ink. Sometimes the peaks left in the gouged out dead zones can inadvertently pick up traces of ink and print.
The printed image from a woodblock generally appears as a flat solid surface. All gradations must be created optically through the careful spacing of areas cut to print and those not to print. Because the inking methods are so variable the printed areas may appear densely solid, which is the ideal, or mottled. It is often difficult to tell the difference between a woodblock print and a lithograph since they both capable of producing solid continuous tones. The borders surrounding inked areas on woodblocks are often darker as the pressure from printing forces ink outwards till it spills over the cut edge (ink squash). The grain of the wooden plank may also sometimes appear, which is a dead giveaway. Seeing wood grain in an image however was not generally a desired trait in commercial prints and it tended to be avoided. Visible wood grain only became acceptable at the very end of the 19th century when artists began incorporating their materials into the visual meaning of their work. In some cases these wavy patterns actually became part of a prints design. Planks could be scoured with a wire brush to exaggerate the differences between the hard and soft areas of wood grain thus bringing out the contrast even further.
Ink Squash: This detail from the back of a postcard shows that it was more likely printed from a line block relief than by lithography due to the ink squash around the edges. The ink that is pressed upon by the printing press migrates outward and gathers where the surface plane drops off, which is also the maximum point of pressure on the substrate as it is in a hand rubbing. This should only be considered a clue for a similar look can be caused for other reasons.
Wood Grain: This block of wood was scoured with a wire brush that removed softer areas of wood at a faster rate than hard areas. This created a very low relief but one high enough for rolled ink to bring out the wood’s natural grain.
In relief printing it is the top surface of the substrate that gets inked and all areas cut away will be non printing, at least in theory. Broad areas within the dead level usually contain a wide variety of valleys and ridges that are left behind from the actions of cutting tools. While they all fall below the printing plane it is still possible for the high peaks to pick up some ink and for it to inadvertently transfer onto the finished print, especially when inking and printing is done by hand. On more modern prints this is often just considered part of the process but in general these unplanned for markings were undesirable. Some printers saw opportunity in this effect and developed the process known as lowering, which could create softer grey within an otherwise solid black tone or a vignetting effect around printed edges. The image area of the block was gently burnished to fall just under the printing plane where it might pick up small amounts of ink. Lowering however could not give consistent results so it was used sparingly on both woodcuts and wood engravings.
COLOR WOODBLOCK
Reduction Printing
The reductive nature of woodblock printing provided for a technologically easy method of creating multiple color prints but one that required more careful planning. The areas to retain white (usually the paper color) are cut out first, and then the entire surface plane of the remaining substrate is inked with a light color and printed. The same substrate would then be cut into again removing all areas needed to retain the light colored ink, and then its surface is covered with a darker ink, which is printed over the lighter printed image. This procedure can continue multiple times creating ever darkening layers until the image is complete. Since only one substrate is used, any single color must be printed on all the needed copies before it is cut into again. If prints are lost due to registration problems along the way the final press run is diminished as there is no going back to print more. The cutting of each successive color destroys the previous plate.
While many colors can be printed this way, most prints that used this technique only utilized two to four hues including black. This method rarely employed color to create a realistic looking image; very often the pallet chosen was similar in hue to create elaborate tonal images that were sometimes referred to as chiaroscuro woodcuts. This method was much too time consuming to be used for most commercial printing but images made to simulate the technique were easily printed in lithography and line block and found their way onto postcards.
Reduction Woodblock: It is often difficult to tell if a woodcut was printed with multiple blocks or through a reduction method. Sometimes one layer of ink will seep through the inadvertent nicks in the next to give a clue. If an image can be logically deconstructed in a reductive manner it is probably a reduction print. In the detail below we can see that after the whites were cut out the light grey would have been printed, then the block was cut again to create the brown design. Finally everything was cut away except for the surface plane that would print black.
Japanese Woodblock
By the 1740’s new color inks were being manufactured in Japan and many printers began adding green and pink to their woodblocks. Soon afterwards they were made in four colors with the addition of purple and yellow. By 1764 the artist Harunobi was producing full color woodcuts from ten different blocks. A very long and exacting regiment of apprenticeship was eventually developed for those working in this medium so that every artist allowed to draw an image would have had years of experience cutting, inking, and printing. These color prints were so widely popularized by a culture that had reserved more elaborate forms of art to their elite that woodblock prints remained in strong competition with more modern techniques well into the 20th century. When Japan began to produce privately printed postcards in 1900 this technique was one of those widely used in their production.
Color Woodblock: This early 20th century postcard in woodblock reproduces another woodcut by Torii Kiyonaga made in the 1780’s. While the style is more linear than what was in vogue at the time it was printed it still demonstrates how certain traditions remained constant over time.
By the late 19th century most prints in Japan were being produced in elaborate colors (Ukioye) through the use of multiple blocks that would each print an individual color. This process starts with a full sized drawing that is pasted face down on what will be the key block containing most of the image. Once the back of the thin paper was slowly peeled away the drawing would be reveled on its surface and cutting could begin to relief the image. From a print pulled off this key block the drawings for the next blocks could be prepared and then the pasting and cutting would continue until there was a separate substrate for every color the image required. Labor in the production color woodblock prints was traditionally strictly divided by experience. First one had to learn how to print before being allowed to cut. Only a master cutter was allowed to paste the drawing onto a block. It was only when all these skills were mastered so what lay ahead was well known was an artist allowed to make an original drawing. This strict procedure was designed so that problems would not arise for anyone working under them.
Color Woodblock: This postcard displays the flat color fields that are typical of Japanese prints and easily achievable through block printing. The style is a perfect match to the technique.
Unlike woodblock printing in the West where colors were printed in uniform flat fields, the Japanese showed themselves to be far less reluctant to manipulate the application of ink onto blocks. The most common method was in the creation of vignettes where a single block was inked in a manner that would produce a gradation of tones in one hue. Sometimes a single block would be inked in two blending colors or a single block was printed twice but each time inked differently. Because these tonal or color gradations are not in the block itself but created by the skill of those who ink it there are always variations from one printed image to the next.
Color Woodblock: This postcard displays the tonal transitions common in Japanese prints that could be created through inking the blocks by hand. The four distinct compositional elements have enough empty space around them to receive the three colored inks on a singe block.
The art of papermaking originated in China but evolved differently as the process migrated to the West and Japan. The Japanese did not view their handmade papers (washi) as manufactured goods as much as a product of cultivation. Papermaking had been the traditional winter occupation of farmers but by the 1870’s increased demand had forced much of its production to become mechanized in industrial settings. While Japan largely adopted Western methods to produce postcard stock, they continued to manufacture thinner papers for printing. Woodblocks printed by hand require thin paper to achieve the full effect of burnishing. Some cards were hand printed on traditional thin sheets of mulberry or rice paper that were totally unsuitable for mailing. These were sometimes mounted onto heavier stock but it may be advisable to look upon these items more as novelties than as postcards. Those woodblock postcards produced on heavier paper stock were most likely printed on a press.
Color Woodblock: This Japanese woodblock has been printed on a thin rice paper and mounted onto thicker paper stock. The card however remains flimsy and it is doubtful it was ever meant to be mailed.
While color woodblock printing came to the West in the 19th century it could not compete commercially with the printing methods already in use. The method was however adopted by a number of artists. This tradition however was so strong in Japan that it continued to be used to create postcards in significant number up to the Second World War alongside more modern techniques. A few Japanese publishers continue to produce postcards in color woodblock.
Color Woodblock: While this more modern woodblock postcard shows some Western influence in its use of pictorial space and the looseness of its drawing, it still displays all the typical stylistic cutting of the traditional Japanese technique.
Compound Print
In compound printing the individual shapes to print different colors within the same design are separated by sawing completely through a single substrate. In this way each individual piece can be inked in its own color with greater speed and accuracy, and then reassembled to print an entire color image in one press run. This process imposed strict limitations on the design of the image as no colors could overlap and color areas had to be shaped in a way that made it possible for them to be cut into pieces. While very tight color registration could be achieved a white line was often visible between each cut piece from the loss of the sawed substrate. Compound prints have been made from woodblocks since the 15th century but they have proven too slow to print for modern commercial use.
Compound Style While we can tell the line block postcard above was made from two separate plates due to ink overlap, it is designed in a style based on traditional compound woodcutting. The modern postcard below reproduces a compound woodcut made in 1898 by Edvard Munch, of which many variations exist in different colors.
White Line Block Printing
While similar to a compound print white line block printing is a uniquely American form developed by a group of artists in Provincetown, Massachusetts in 1915. It involved gouging out a wide line around the simple shapes of the image drawn on the wooden block. This is similar to the idea of a black key plate that traditionally holds the composition together in other color media, only here it is in white. This outlining also made it possible to use a brush or daub to ink each isolated area with a single color that would yield fairly consistent results. Theoretically the entire block could be inked at once but usually only one color was printed at a time so any spill over of color into areas beyond its designated white boundaries could easily be wiped clean. This allowed for a bit more complexity in the design from a technique that imposed limits on drawing and encouraged simple stylization. Proper registration was usually achieved by pinning the printing paper to the side of the block, but this meant that each print would be made start to finish one at a time. This lengthy process insured that its use would be confined to artists.
White Line Woodblock: This image of Provincetown is typical of white line block printing except that the chosen pallet is more muted than usual.
WOOD ENGRAVING
Thomas Bewick took up the graver in the late 18th century during the general decline of woodcut printing. While he made no technological innovations his ability to produce high quality images with this medium slowly attracted an audience that would lead to a revival in block printing. More importantly these blocks unlike their intaglio rivals could be cut to the same uniform height as that of type so that they could be used in conjunction with letterpress in the same frame. During the 19th century wood engravings became the primary source of printed imagery for public consumption. No sooner did the process reach supremacy than it came into competition with newer printing techniques that would replace it before the century’s end. Its use on postcards was largely relegated to the earliest forms of advertising cards. Even when it was no longer an economically viable printing method wood engraving remained so popular with the public that cheaper printing methods sometimes tried to imitate its look. While wood engraving has disappeared from the commercial scene it is still has ardent practitioners within the art community.
Wood Engraving Tools: The two tools at the bottom in the picture above are gravers for use on wood. The width and depth of an engraved line is totally dependent on the relationship between the V shape of the burin tip that cuts it and the amount of pressure that is applied by hand as seen in the illustration below. At the top with a strong wide cutting edge is a tinting graver capable of producing six parallel lines at a time. This tool not only saves on time, it ensures proper spacing between lines. If engraved lines are placed too close to one another the wood between them may crumble away rendering the peak too low to pick up ink.
In wood engraving it is the polished end grains of carefully seasoned boxwood that are incised to create an image. Other types of hardwoods such as cherry are sometimes employed but its surface is more susceptible to crumbling. Boxwood is so dense that it is the only wood that will not float in water. Specially crafted gravers are utilized to push wood out of the block in a precise manner more reminiscent of metal engraving with burins than the knife cutting of woodcuts. Some tinting tools were even developed so that multiple parallel lines could be cut at one stroke speeding up production. Only here in wood engraving it is the surface areas that will be inked and print while those lines incised by the burin will become the dead zone and remain the color of the paper. Because of the hardness of these blocks, and their lack of directional grain, wood engraving could reproduce pictures with much finer details than those cut from planks of wood, but still only as solid tones. Gradations had to be created optically but they could be much more subtle thanks to the finer lines.
Wood Engraving: In this detail a variety of engraved marks are used to create optical tone. The white on black cut lines of a wood engraving are very evident.
White Line and Black Line Style
Most woodblocks had been cut in a linear fashion in an attempt to imitate the look of the more prestigious metal engraved line and this tradition was initially passed down to the art of wood engraving. This method of cutting became known as black line wood engraving. Interest in the work of Thomas Bewick arose not so much for any technical innovations he discovered but for the new way in which he approached the medium. Cutting wood away to leave a thin black line behind is a somewhat unnatural act that does not lend itself to the best use of the material. The finished product would often look forced because it was being made to appear as something it was not. Instead of carving out black lines Bewick treated the surface of the block as a black field into which he would incise highlights out of in white. This method that became known as white line wood engraving attracted many followers and it has become the predominant stylistic approach to this medium since the 19th century.
White Line Wood Engraving: Where previously wood was cut away to reveal black lines, Thomas Bewick would gouge out white lines from a black field in ways that more naturally showed off the medium itself.
LETTERPRESS
The relief process known as Letterpress was the primary method used to print text throughout the 19th century and halfway through the 20th. Traditionally text had been printed by cutting whole lines into a single block of wood until it evolved into a method where individual letters (type) were carved and latter cast in metal. These small pieces of type could be locked together into frames to print entire pages at a time and then filed away for reuse. This method had changed very little in the 400 years since the goldsmith Johannes Gutenberg first put this concept into practical use. With the invention of the linotype machine whole lines of reusable cast text that were easy to produce replaced single letters. Compositors who had traditionally set loose type into forms at no more than fifty lines per hour were thrown out of work by this innovation, but the underlying principals of this process remained unaltered. Prints created by this process are characterized by the same solid tones found in traditional woodblock printing, but because the inked form presses the image directly into the paper it creates a slight embossing that is often noticeable even when printing occurs on heavy card stock.
Wood Engraving Tools: This modern lithographic postcard issued by the Gutenberg Museum in Mainz illustrates Johannes Gutenberg printing a bible with his screw press in 1445.
Used extensively to print newspapers and books, the role of letterpress in postcard production as a typographical medium was basically limited to advertising cards and for the printing of sharp clear text. Linotype began replacing set type in 1892 and was extensively used to print the backside of postcards but it was also employed to overprint text,, such as titles directly onto a card’s image. While softer toned mediums might produce a superior picture they were not very successful in rendering the precise sharp details required by lettering to be clearly legible. Letterpress overprints in color were also a method of highlighting text on an otherwise purely black & white card. Almost all early printshops of size contained a variety of presses capable of printing different mediums. A shop’s ability to use letterpress in combination with any other process must almost be taken for granted but after offset lithography became a viable commercial process in the 1960’s letterpress printing all but disappeared. Its limited role in postcard production shouldn’t be slighted for its century’s old dominance of the printing trades caused all other mediums and techniques to compete with it in some way or die.
Letterpress: The majority of early cards were used for advertising, and they usually combined a wood engraved illustration with printed text. This combination of letterpress was referred to as xylography (see more below). No other process could capture the minute facets and gestures that gives this typeface its readability and character, especially at this small size. Over time metal casts would be made of the wood engraving so it could be stereotyped along with the text for printing on faster rotary presses.
Rotogravure and Letterpress: Even though gravure is known for its high quality the detail above shows the ambiguity of its structure when enlarged. Below is an example of letterpress type. Even with the dramatic ink squash its sharp edges make it much more readable and this is why it was often employed to print text on postcards regardless of the medium used to create the image.
Chromolithograph: The generic image on this unusual stock card from 1912 was printed in chromolithography while the title was added through letterpress. It was not unusual for small retailers to buy such cards and add on their own lettering with a small hand press.
Xylography
When wood engravings are used in conjunction with letterpress printing to match text with image it is referred to as xylography. Unlike wooden planks that were cut with the grain of the wood and could stretch and crack under the pressure of a press, wood engravings were hard and durable. They could easily be sized to the same height of type and then locked into the same frame to be printed together.
Wood Engraving Joints: This detail displays the joints typically found on large wood engravings, which are visible due to the crumbling of the block edges. Another visual disruption comes from the lines moving across the image that do not match up at the joints. This is the result of each section being engraved separately before being pieced together.
The creation of a wood engraving requires a highly skilled hand/ It is a slow process that can take weeks to produce a single image. In order to get illustrations into newspapers in a more timely manner, a system was developed in the 1840’s that largely took production out from the hands of artists and gave it to a team of craftsmen. Since engraving blocks are cuts of end grain wood, not planks, they are only available in very small pieces. To create larger images a number of these small blocks are glued together to form one large substrate. When working with a team these small blocks would only be temporarily bolted together, then coated with a wash of white paint so that the master artist could more easily make his drawing. Afterwards the clamps would be removed, and each piece given to an individual engraver to work on. Some engravers specialized in cutting skies or faces and so each piece would be portioned out accordingly. These were finely trained craftsmen whose role was to engrave to a set style and not add their own individuality to the process. When each piece was complete all sections would then be reassembled, glued or bolted back together, and the master artist would finish engraving the image along the lines where all the pieces met up. Sometimes these glued edges would pick up ink or more often crumble away and unwanted thin white lines would appear in the final image.
Wood Engraving: It would take a long time for white line cutting to gain popularity and the larger audience in commercial printing remained with work that simulated the line work traditionally found engraved on copper. The central objects of attention in wood engraving were usually cut first and the background tones and details were added afterwards. This leads to a halo effect where linear tonalities do not meet up to outlining as seen in the detail below.
Wood Engraving: At first glance the mottled surface on parts of this old trade card make it look similar to a line block print. If the surface of the woodblock is dented or abraded in any way, this will show up as white markings within the blacks similar to the random texture often added onto line block plates. Despite this confusing issue, the detail below seems to indicate that this image was cut away rather than drawn in.
A great deal of 19th century illustration employed wood engraving with beautiful results. It was occasionally used on earliest advertising postcards where an illustration would enhance the text. By the 1890’s it was completely replaced by line block, which was much cheaper to print. Many early line blocks were created in the style of wood engraving and they are hard to differentiate on postcards without magnification.
Wood Engraving In this illustration an engraver is cutting into a small block of wood while observing his handiwork through a magnifier. The block sits on a pillow so it can easily be maneuvered. Various sized gravers are handily laid out on one side besides him, and on the other are more blocks ready to be cut.
Multi Plate Printing
In an earlier time when almost all printing was done in black & white the addition of just one single color could attract much added attention. In letterpress an individual letter, block of text, and even image was sometimes inked a different hue from the body of the work, and then fit into an already inked chase. This of course slowed production down tremendously and this method could not be employed when printing a large volume of work.
Color Woodblock: Only two woodblocks were used to produce this postcard with its unusual pallet. Color is not used to create a more realistic image, but to attract attention through stylization.
The more common way to print two colors was through the introduction of a second substrate. Areas that required color would be left blank on the substrate that holds the black portion of the image, and then the same paper would be placed over another substrate that held only areas inked to print in color. Since color was added to attract attention, red was the most common color used. This technique was widely used on early advertising postcards. As more complex methods of adding even more color to an image were developed this simple technique largely fell out of use. Producing images from multiple substrates however would become the dominant method of color printing.
Chromoxylography
In this early method of color printing ten to twenty wood engraved blocks would be employed to each hold a separate color, and when printed together they would yield a single color image. The final results were often outstanding and it became a major competitor to chromolithography. It was chromolithography that became the industry standard in the fight for color printing supremacy, except in England where chromoxylography remained popular. This may be at least in part do to the techniques ability to reproduce the tinted look of watercolors; a strong tradition in England. The art of chromoxylography did not just disappear, by the late 1900’s it began to be used in more simple ways to provide cheap illustrations for magazines, comics, and children’s books. Typically only three blocks would be cut and inked in red, yellow, and blue, which created a very distinct look. Commercial printers would abandon the use of wood engraving in the 1890’s but by then this style was so familiar that many would carry on this tradition in the form of color line block printing (chromotypography).
Chromoxylograph: This rare chromoxylographic postcard used the technique to create an association with folk art. Most printers would have created a facsimile image in wither lithography or line block.
Chromotypograph: Postcards were generally not made as chromoxylographs with the possible exception of a few pioneers, but the style was imitated in other mediums. This early Will Call card from 1903 has a simple design but it took four separate line block plates inked with RGB colors plus black to print. Many similar cards used fewer colors.
Lithograph: This early color lithographic postcard from 1896 does not follow the styling that would be normally used to create a chromolithograph. Its use of linear marks drawn with a simple red, yellow, and blue pallet is much closer in spirit to a chromoxylograph. Only the use of a dark brown for details is more typical of a lithograph. In the detail below the card’s strange array of markings almost look as if they were cut out from wood.
Chromoxylograph: Artists also used multiple wood engraved blocks to create color prints but the choice of pallet was based more on individual discretion than industry standards. This image was produced with five color woodblocks.
Glyphography
An unusual relief printing method was invented by the Englishman, Edward Palmer in 1842 to imitate wood engravings though the use of metal plates. The plate would first be blackened then coated with a thick milky wax like fluid. When dry an artist could make his drawing through it just like a ground on an etching plate. Only here the plate was not etched but electrotyped in copper to create a low relief. After being backed with another sheet of metal the glyphograthic plate would be mounted on a block and rolled with ink for printing in the manner of letterset. The coating that the artist drew through proved to be problematic; it had to be thick enough to provide a workable relief but thin enough so that thin lines could be laid down with ease. This aspect of the process was never satisfactorily resolved so it was rarely used.
Paniconography
This unusual technique patented by Firmin Gillot in 1850 as paniconography is actually a hybrid of lithography, intaglio and relief printing. It was based on the metalcut designs and fancy letters traditionally produced by metal cutters for printing. After a lithographic print is pulled from a stone it is pressed against a metal plate so that its wet ink will be transferred to it. A greasy ink drawing on transfer paper could also be used in place of this print. The plate is then dusted with rosin crystals, which will only stick to the tacky litho ink. After the plate is heated to melt the rosin onto its surface the ink is cleaned off. The remaining dots of rosin act as a resist to the acid bath it is then placed into. As the acid eats away at the metal the original surface will only remain under each of the rosin dots where the transferred image had lain. After a sufficient dead level has been created and the rosin removed the plate can be rolled with ink and printed as a relief. The resulting print will look similar to the original lithograph. The larger purpose for this transfer is so that the metal plate could be mounted on a wooden block and printed alongside type as letterpress. While postcards were not created in paniconography, this process was elaborated on by Gillot’s son Charles into the Gilliotype. This would soon evolved into line block etching, which would become instrumental to postcard production.
Following from research I then researched the bank note and evaluated it to see what I could possibly take out of the current bank notes to create something simpler. I noticed that every bank note has a different pattern so I thought that I could base my note off the patterns on a bank note.
From this I then decided to research in to current redesigned bank notes to see what styles people have gone for.
