Chapter 15

Co-operative Printing

A print is shown at the end of this book (page 95) as an example of a first experiment in co-operative printing. An actual print was needed to illustrate the method of block printing, and the number required was too great for a single printer to undertake. So the work was divided between four printers (of whom the writer was one), working together. Each of us had been accustomed to print our own prints in small batches of a dozen or two at a time, giving individual care to each print. The printing of 2000 prints to a fixed type was a very different matter, and proved an instructive and valuable experience. It was found that the printing of a large number of successive impressions gave one an increasingly delicate control of a block, and a high percentage of perfect impressions. After the initial experiments and practice, the failures in the later batches of the print were reduced to only 4 or 5 per cent. of the completed prints. The work was done in batches of 250 prints, each print receiving eight impressions, as shown on pages 98 to 109. Each of the four printers took charge of a particular series of the blocks, which were printed in a regular order. It was found most convenient to print the key-block last of all, as the heavy blacks in it were inclined to offset under the pressure of the baren and slightly soil the colour-blocks, if the key-block was printed first, as is usually the practice.

The colour-blocks were printed in the order in which they are placed in the Appendix.

The best quality of work was done on nearly dry paper. The damping sheets were placed among the new paper at the end of the day's work and removed after ten or fifteen minutes, the printing paper then was left standing over night between boards, ready for work in the morning, and was not damped again until after receiving several impressions. Then it was very slightly damped again by means of a damping sheet to every ten or twelve prints placed there for a very few minutes.

As one printer finished the impressions from one of his blocks, the batch of papers was passed on to the others, each in turn. In this way three batches of 250 were printed without haste in one week, working eight hours a day for five and a half days.

The chief difficulty experienced was in keeping to the exact colour and quality of the type print, each printer being inclined to vary according to individual preferences. To counteract this tendency, it is necessary for one individual to watch and control the others in these respects.

Otherwise the work proceeded easily and made very clear the possibilities of the craft for the printing of large numbers of prints for special purposes where the qualities required are not obtainable by machine printing. Obviously the best results will always be obtained by the individual printing of his own work by an artist. This can only be done, however, in comparatively small numbers, yet the blocks are capable of printing very large quantities without deterioration. The set of blocks used for the example given here showed very little deterioration after 4000 impressions had been taken. The key-block was less worn than any, the pressure being very slight for this block, and the ink perfectly smooth. The impression of which a reproduction is given on page 109 was taken after 4000 had been printed from the key-block. Block No. 2 was much more worn by the gritty nature of the burnt sienna used in its printing. It would be an easy matter, however, to replace any particular colour-block that might show signs of wear in a long course of printing.

Other examples given in the Appendix show qualities and methods of treatment that are instructive or suggestive.

No. 6 is the key impression of a Japanese print in which an admirable variety of resource is shown by its design; the character of each kind of form being rendered by such simple yet so expressive indications. It is instructive to study the means by which this is done, and to notice how interior form is sometimes suggested by groups of spots or black marks of varied shape while the indication of the external form is left entirely to the shape of the colour-block subsequently to be printed.

Plate XVI is a reproduction of a print by Hiroshigé and shows the suggestive use of the key-block in rendering tree forms. Plates XVII and XVIII show in greater detail this kind of treatment.

Plates XXIII-XXIV are key-blocks of modern print designs.

APPENDIX

An original print in colour, designed and cut by the author and printed by hand on Japanese paper, followed by collotype reproductions showing the separate impressions of the colour blocks used for this print, and other collotype reproductions of various examples of printing and design.

+-----------------------------------------------------------------------+ |The particulars given in Chapter VIII on co-operative printing refer | |specially to the original print included in the first edition. In this | |edition an entirely new print is shown, and only 1,000 copies of it are| |being published. | +-----------------------------------------------------------------------+

Plates originally printed in collotype are now produced in half-tone

BOOKS OF REFERENCE

"Tools and Materials illustrating the Japanese Method of Colour Printing." A descriptive catalogue of a collection exhibited in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. Price Twopence. Victoria and Albert Museum Catalogues. 1913.

"The Colour Prints of Japan." By Edward F. Strange. The Langham Series of Art Monographs. London.

"Japanese Colour Prints." By Edward F. Strange. (3rd Edition.) Victoria and Albert Museum Handbooks. London.

"Japanese Wood Engravings." By William Anderson, F. R. C. S. London, Seeley & Co., Ltd. New York, Macmillan & Co. 1895.

"Japanese Wood-cutting and Wood-cut Printing." By T. Tokuno. Edited and annotated by S. R. Kochler. Report of the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, for the year ending June 30, 1892. Issued in pamphlet form by the U.S.A. National Museum, Washington. 1893.

Other works containing descriptions and references to the craft of wood-block printing in the Art Library at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, are the following:--

"The Industries of Japan." By J. J. Rein. (Paper, pp. 389.) London. 1889.

"Bungei Ruisan," By Yoshino Sakakibara. Essays on Japanese literature, with additional chapters describing the manufacture of paper and the processes of printing and engraving. (The Museum copy has MS. translations of the portion relating to engraving.) Tokyo. 1878.

INDEX

Alum, 50

Andreani, Andrea, xi

Baldung, Hans, x

Bamboo-sheath, 62

Baren, 11, 61, 62

Baren, manner of using, 72

Baren, to re-cover, 63, 64

Baren, to re-cover (diagram), 64

Batches, size of, 89

Batten, J. D., 2

Block cutting, materials, 17

Blocks, cutting of, 17, 23

Blocks, mounting of, 18

Blocks, planning of, 23

Books of reference, 129

Bowie, Henry P., 86

British Museum Print Room, 43

Brushes, 65

Brushes, drawing of, 66

Carborundum stone, 21

Cherry wood, 17

Chiaroscuro, x

Chinese ink, 55

Chisel, grip of, 34, 35

Chisels, 20

Clearing of spaces, 33

Clearing of wood between knife cuts, 35

Colour, 56

Colour block, diagram of section, 42

Colour blocks, plan of, 39

Colour blocks, planning, 40, 41

Colour blocks, printing from, 73

Colour design, 87

Commercial development, 5

Conventions of design, 82

Co-operative printing, 89

Craft in Japan, 61

Craftsmen, training of, 24

Cranach, Lucas, x

Crane, Walter, ix

Creasote, 56

Cutting, 25

Da Carpo, Ugo, x

Damping, 14

Damping sheets, 51

Design, 27

Design, conventions in, 82

Designing, 81

Designing wood-block prints, principles of, 81

Design of key-block, 26

Diagram of knife cuts, 33

Drying of colour, 77

Drying of prints, 79

Errors of register, 43

Eve and the Serpent, print of, 2

Flat treatment, 26, 27

Foliage, 85

Gelatine, 48

Giles, William, 65

Glue solution with colour, 58, 75

Gouge, method of holding, 35

Gradations, printing of, 75

Grip of chisel, 34, 35

Hands, position of, in cutting, 30, 31

Herkomer, ix

Hiroshigé, 84

Impressions, possible number of, 92

Ink, 54

Inking of block, 69

Ink, preservative for, 56

Italian woodcuts, ix

Jackson, T. B., xii

Japan, craft in, 4, 23

Japanese blocks, 43

Japanese craftsmen, 61

Japanese drawing, 27

Japanese key-block, 33

"Japanese Painting, The Laws of," 86

Japanese paper, 54

Japanese printers, 52, 80

Japanese prints, 83

Key-block, 25, 27, 84, 85

Key-block impressions, 5, 26, 33

Knife, 19

Knife, drawing of, 19

Knife, use of, 24

Knife cuts, diagram of, 33

"Laws of Japanese Painting," 86

Light and shade, 85

Line block, cutting of, 32

Line, development of, 32

Line of key-block, 26

Mallet, 21

Mallet, drawing of, 21

Mantegna, xi

Millboards for drying, 79

Modern prints, 83

Mordant, alum as, 50

Mould, 79

Mulberry fibre, 47

Museums, sets of blocks at, 43

Number of impressions, 92

Offsetting, 71, 77

Oilstones, 21

Orlik, Prof. Emil, 7

Outamaro, 24

Pad, 61

Paper, 47

Paper, damping of, 51

Paper, manner of holding, 70

Paper, mould in, 79

Paper, need of white, 54

Paper, sizing of, 48

Paper, sizing of (drawing), 49

Paste, 58

Paste, amount used in printing, 74

Paste, preparation of, 59

Plank, preparation of, 18

Planning of blocks, 24

Position of hands, 30, 31

Posters, 86, 87

Printing, 67

Printing, co-operative, 89

Printing, detailed method of, 61

Printing from colour blocks, 73

Printing, general description of, 9

Printing of gradations, 75, 76, 77

Printing pad, 62

Prints, designing, 81

Prints, drying of, 79

Register, 71, 78

Register, errors of, 41, 43

Register marks, 36, 37, 42

Register marks, position of, 37

Register marks, section of, 38

Rice flour, 59

Rice paste, 58

Rubber, glass, 65

Rubber, printing, 61

Shadows, treatment of, 85

Shallow cuts, 34

Shrinking of paper, 41

Siberian bear hair brushes, 66

Size, amount of, in paper, 75

Size, excess of, 75

Sizing of paper, 48, 49

Smithsonian Institution pamphlet, 2

South Kensington Museum, 43

Spots in paper, 79

Table, plan of, 11

Tokuno, T., 2

Tools for block-cutting, 19

Training of designers, 86

Treatment of form, 93

Tree-forms, 85, 93

Variety of line, 82, 83

Washita oilstone, 22

Wood, 17

Woodcuts, Italian, ix.

Work-table, plan of, 11

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