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Terms and Phrases Used in Our Descriptions

We hope the information on this page will help you understand more about the 19th century prints we offer, the printmaking techniques used to produce them, and the terminology used in our descriptions. If you choose to purchase a print, the information here will enable you to make a more informed choice. We have sold  prints to a wide variety of people, collectors looking for their items of choice, people tracing their ancestors, owners of historical homes, museum curators adding to their collections, local historians, and researchers.

One of the most satisfying things we do is connect people to the history of their communities. The topographical prints we offer are excellent conversation pieces, and little windows into a past to a landscape that has disappeared  forever. In a time prior to the mass distribution of photographic images and widespread literacy, these prints often were uncannily accurate presentations of landscape views, down to the actual location and look of individual buildings. Some of them have great historical interest. The prints contain and express the values, morals, and the ideals of beauty and comfort of those who have come before us.  They are remarkable items. We aim to please! Contact us if you have any questions.

General Information.

Paper and Inks

These are genuine antique prints, the paper and printing inks all of 19th century origin. We do not sell modern reproductions. The prints date from the years stated in the auction descriptions. These are all images printed on paper. The terms Steel Engraving, Wood Engraving, Photogravure, Lithograph and Etching all refer to the technique used to produce the image, and are the accepted technical terms for the item itself. In many cases these prints have been cleaned using proper conservation techniques, to remove age toning, foxing spots, soiling or smudges- the effects of time and improper storage or handling.

Plate Marks

Many of these antique prints have faint indentations in the margin areas where the edges of the engraved steel or copper plate upon which the image was engraved has left impressions in the paper during the printing process. These plate marks are valued in themselves now, as indicators of the authenticity of the age of the print. This is especially the case prior to the 1850's when the plates used were often smaller than the paper that was being printed on. After that period, the plates used in the printing process were often larger than the paper used and there are no apparent plate marks. And at times more than one image may have been engraved into a plate for greater efficiency and the edges trimmed. The lack of a plate mark does not indicate that the print is not an original. Most prints from the 1860's onwards do not have the plate marks present.

Phrases Used in Our Descriptions

Artist
The originator of the design or drawing.

Engraver
The person who took the original design and engraved it into the steel/ copper/ wood plate used in the printing of the image.

Image Size; Overall Size
The image size refers to the dimensions of picture portion of the print minus the margins. The overall size is the dimensions  of the image and margins combined. All dimensions are in inches

"Excellent condition"
No apparent or readily discernable blemishes or flaws on the print, such as stains, spotting, or tears. There may be very minor flaws but nothing that would detract from a satisfying presentation of the piece. Complete perfection on 100-150 year old paper items is difficult to attain and not to be expected.

"Very good condition"
The print may contain a minor defect such as a foxing spot, age toning, a minor blemish, small tear, or mild crease in the image or margin areas that affect the visual presentation of the print - but not in a remarkable way. We will always try to describe these.

"Good condition"
The print contains substantial and obvious flaws, but because of the historical or aesthetic value of the subject matter we still consider the print to be of value, and therefore saleable. The flaws will be described in the auction description.

Example of a steel engraving

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Examples of wood or wood cut engravings

1. A print from a 19th century newspaper:

2. A print from a 19th century engineering journal:

Print Terminology

Engraving
A method of cutting or incising a design into a material, usually metal, with a sharp tool called a graver. One of the intaglio methods of making prints, in engraving, a print can be made by inking such an incised (engraved) surface. It may also refer to a print produced in this way. Wood engravings were produced in Europe as early as the 14th century. Later came copper engraving and then steel engraving. These are also referred to as line engraving because the techniques results in linear marks. Graduations in shading are achieved by cross hatching, stippling, and altering the closeness of parallel lines.
A. Steel Engraving:
    Incising lines into a steel plate which is then inked and pressed on moistened paper to produce an image. The term refers to   the process and to the print resulting from the process. These are considered to be of the highest quality work and this technique was used in the production of the finest prints of the period.
 B. Wood Engraving:
   The use of oak or boxwood blocks  which are engraved then inked and used to print images on paper. In wood engraving the spaces between the lines of the final image produced have been cut away leaving an elevated surface. The technique does not produce the fine lines of steel engraved prints. Wood engravings could be produced quickly and were therefore used to create the pictures for Harpers Weekly, Gleason's Pictorial, Ballou's Pictorial, Frank Leslies Illustrated Monthly, and other 19th century  publications where very fine graduations in tone and shading were not required. Later in the 19th century technical artist's using woodcut engraving produced some outstanding examples of technical drawings such as views of early steam and gas engines, agricultural equipment, steam tractors, ship's boilers, early electrical equipment, bridge trusses, and iron work.
 

Etching
An intaglio printing process in which an etching needle is used to draw into a wax ground applied over a metal plate. The plate is then submerged in a series of acid baths, each biting into the metal surface only where unprotected by the ground. The ground is removed, ink is forced into the etched depressions, the unetched surfaces wiped, and an impression is printed. Also, both the design etched on a plate and an impression made from an etched plate. Too often confused with engraving.
 

Lithograph
In the graphic arts, a method of printing from a prepared flat stone or metal or plastic plate, invented in the late eighteenth century. A drawing is made on the stone or plate with a greasy crayon or tusche, and then washed with water. When ink is applied it sticks to the greasy drawing but runs off (or is resisted by) the wet surface allowing a print-- a lithograph-- to be made of the drawing. The artist, or other print maker under the artist's supervision, then covers the plate with a sheet of paper and runs both through a press under light pressure. For color lithography separate drawings are made for each color.

Photogravure
 A photomechanical printmaking process invented in 1879. A photographic image is transferred to a copper plate which is chemically etched. The plate is hand-inked for each print.

Thanks Again!

Jim and Rita Green