| CAUTION WHEN COLLECTING ILLUSTRATED BOOKS. It is a common practice for plates to be removed from books, and then sold on, so it is always best to check the number and quality before buying, as there is a list of plates in most books. If there is no list in the book, then a internet check (e.g ABEbooks) may not only reveal the value of the book, bearing in mind the edition, but also might quote the number of plates that should be in the book. It should also be borne in mind that there are numerous reprints of some of the books, with reprints of the illustrations. The most desirable plates, are those which are printed on better paper (e.g shiny and white) that are not within the text and are not backed by print, or another picture. Depending on the quality of the paper, the print and/or illustration from the reverse of the page can show through to the front of the plate in question Plates may be marked (e.g Foxed - brown spotting) or if full page may have damage to the edges |
| WOOD-CUT via WOOD ENGRAVING Woodblock illustration originally commenced with collaboration between an author and an artist in which the artist displays a image which compliments the author's words. But there is a difference between wood-cutting, and wood-engraving. Wood-cut illustrations came first, and is viewed at cutting away the light areas to be illustrated, and allowing the raised areas to be inked and printed. This can be undertaken along the grain of a relatively soft wood, and came to prominence in the 14th and 15th centuries with the printing of playing cards. Wood-engraving is undertaken on a much harder wood and across the grain at the end of a block of well seasoned wood, rather than along the grain, and therefore a more detailed work can be accomplished. Wood engraving came to prominence in the second half of the 18th century. There was also a distinction between artists who were also engravers, and those who employed engravers. In the latter, the artists' work would go to the engraver. The artist would draw the image on a block of wood by using every line and indicate where the engraver should incise. OTHER ENGRAVING About the later 19th century, photographic techniques started to take the place of the woodblock A different technique commenced, This was called etching (See seperate definition). In this method of engraving, a surface of copper, or later, steel was impregnated with nitric acid, after various other processes. The image was produced with a series of steel needles that had points of different thicknesses, only then was the plate immersed in acid. Steel eventually replaced copper plate when the technique first came into prominence in the late 18th century, and the early 19th century. Steel was much more durable for mass printing. Original engravings were in Black and White: Generally, The act of engraving is cutting fine lines or dots into metal (copper or steel), sometimes wood, plastic or glass with sharp a hard tool, followed by filling the lines with ink and transferring the impression to paper. May be referred to in descriptions as 'line engraving' ETCHING The act of making an impression with the application of acid. If a sharp tool is used with the acid the surface of the plate is normally covered with wax, and the incision in the wax allows the acid to penetrate |
| The following is a definition of words used to describe older illustrations. Tipped In - Generally means that an illustration is attached to a larger page by one edge only. This term might also be used with the words 'Errata Slip' (see confusing book terms) Mounted - Backed - or Laid Down. These terms are generally used to describe an illustration that is completely pasted down on a larger sheet. May be used when describing Maps or other Manuscripts In addition it might be an advantage to know if an illustration has another on the reverse of it, whether it has printing on the reverse of it, or has a plain back. It might also be an advantage to know what sort of paper the illustration is printed on e.g. glossy paper, and whether or not it is marked or 'foxed' (See confusing books terms) |
BOOKS FOR NON-READERS In recent years the publication of books like most other things has deteriorated. Many years ago, it was more expensive to produce books with illustrations than it was with just text. Nowadays, with the advent of colour photographic plates, and scanning, it is more expensive to produce text than illustrations. Print (text) in publications over the years has got larger, therefore there is less text on a page, even though we have the technology to produce smaller print, and have better lighting. Paper has got better over the years, but with pages made of a thicker paper, less is needed to bulk out a book, not to mention that books have cheaper bindings that do not last.. It costs the same to produce a large book as it does a small book.But, bigger books are heavier, so they cost more to post (ship) than smaller books. Armed with all this information, you can begin to see why 'Coffee Table' books are not very popular. |
| TYPES OF ILLUSTRATION - ENGRAVING (ILLUSTRATORS-ENGRAVERS-SIGNATURES). |
| RICKETTS Charles 1866 - 1931...................House of Pomegranates ROBINSON, Charles 1870 -1937.............. Child's Garden of Verses, Alice's Adventure in Wonderland, Secret Garden, Happy Prince, and Songs and Sonnets of Shakespeare. |
| RACKHAM, Arthur 1867 - 1939.............. Rip Van Winkle, Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens, Alice's Adventure's in Wonderland, Midsummer (See Signatures he used) Night's Christmas Carol, Fairy Tales, Tales of Mystery and Imagination. Click on images to right see larger samples of his work. |
STEADMAN, Ralph - 1936 - To date............ Alice in Wonderland; Francis Williams Book Illustrator; and Silver Paintbrush Award STONE, Marcus 1840 - 1921 .......................(Numerous) SULLIVAN, Edmund J. 1869 -1933...............Sartar Resartus. TENNIEL, John 1820 -1914...........................Alice in Wonderland |
| SCARFE, Gerald................................. A Modern illustrator and who is well known for his images of politicians and other public figures. Even when they look like a wild animals, or an inanimate object e.g, a car. It is not difficult to gain their identity. Click the typical images on the left to see (See copy of signature) larger versions, and there is no reward for guessing who they are, although the images look nothing like them. |
SEARLE, Ronald 1920 - Todate.............. Forty Drawings; Hurrah for St Trinians; Back to the Slaughter House; Souls in Torment; Merry England; To the Kwai and Back - War Drawings; World of Book Collecting. Click on images to right to see larger samples of his work. |
| GILL Eric 1882 - 1940.................................Troilus and Criseyde; Canterbury Tales; Art and Prudence - An Essay; Art Nonsense and Other Essays: Christianity and The Machine Age; Clothes; Clothing without Cloth; Engravings; Essay of Typography; First Nudes; Future of Sculpture; and Letters. GIBBINGS, Robert. 1889 - 1958.................. Fourteen Wood Engravings; Iorana; 7th man - A True Cannibal Tale of the South Sea (See sample of his work) Islands; Samson and Delilah; Voyage of the Bounty's Launch; Journals of James Moorson; John Graham: Sweet Thames Run Softly; and Over the Reefs and Far Away. GILLRAY, James 1757 -1815...................... Caricatures of Gillray; Genuine Works of Mr Gillray; and Works of James Gillray. GOBLE Warwick 1862-1943........................ Water Babies: Green Willow; Stories from the Pentamerone; Folk Tales of Bengal, and The Fairy Book. GOULD John 1804 -1881............................ Birds of Europe, also B of Australia and B of Great Britain GREENAWAY, KATE 1846-1901 ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, Under the Windo, Mother Goose; Language of Flowers; Painting Book; Marigold Garden; Album, Apple Pie and Book of Games. HASSELL John 1868 -1948....................... Two Well Worn Shoe Stories; Grimm's Fairy Tales; Old Nursery Stories and Rhymes; Peter Pan Painting Book; ABC; and Painting Book HOUSMAN, Laurence................................. .Arthur Boyd Houghton - A Selection from his Work HOGARTH, William 1697 - 1764................. Analysis of Beauty; Biographical Anecdotes, Hogarth Moralised, Hogarth's Peregrination HUGHES, Shirley 1927 - To date................ Lucy and Tom's Day; Dogger; Alfie Gets in First; Fairy Tales; Tim Rabbit's Dozen; Peter Pan and Wendy. LEAR, Edward 1812 -1888......................... Illustrated Excursions in Italy; Illustrations of the Family Psittacidae (or Parrots); Book of (See copies of Signature) Nonsense; Nonsense Songs, Stories, Botany and Alphabets; Three Poems by Tennyson LEECH, John. 1817 -1864......................... Etchings and Sketches; Funny Characters; Christmas Carol; Comic History of England LEIGHTON, Clare....................................... Farmer's Year; Where Land Meets Sea; Wood Engraving of the 1930's MARSTON, John 1789 - 1854................... Metamorphosis of Pigmalion's Image MORRIS William 1834-1896..................... History of Reynard The Foxe; Order of Chivalry; and Trial Pages of the Projected Edition of Froissart's Chronicles NIELSON, Kay 1886 - 1957....................... In Powder and Crinoline; East of Sun and West of the Moon; Han's Andersen's Fairy Tales; and Hansel and Gretel. PAGET, Sidney 1860 - 1908..................... Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, Hound of the Baskervilles; and Return of Sherlock Holmes PAGET, Walter 1860 - 1908 ........................Strand; Memories (and Adventures) of Sherlock Holmes, and Hound of the Baskervilles PEAKE Merrvyn 1911 - 1968..................... Captain Slaughterboard Drops Anchor; Ride a cock-Horse; Household Tales, Alice's Adventure's in Wonderland; Through the Looking Glass; and Drawings PITCHFORD, Denys Watkins (BB) 1905 - 1990. POGANY, Willy 1882 -1955..................... Rubiyat of Omar Khayyam; Rime of the Ancient Mariner; Songs of Bilitis.; and Alice's Adventure in Wonderland. |
| EDWARDS, Lionel.....................................Well known for his sketches of Horses and other hunting scenes. Click on images to see larger and clearer samples of his work |
| Click words underlined in white to view: Main/Home Page Undercover Books |
| POTTER, Beatrix. 1864 - 1943................ Tale of Peter Rabbit; Tailor of Gloucester; Tale of Squirrel Nutkin and Others. Click on images to see larger samples of her work |
CALDECOTT, Randolph 1846-1886...........House that Jack Built; Diverting History of John Gilpin; Collection of Pictures and Songs (plus Second Collection); Contributions to the Graphic; and Aesop's Fables. CLARKE, Harry 1889 - 1931........................Colour Pictures on Pot Lids; Fairy Tales; Faust; and Tales of Mystery and Imagination. CRANE, Walter 1845-1915.........................Basis of Design; Baby's Opera; Baby's Bouquet; Baby's Own Aesop; Picture Book; Flora's Feast; India Feast; Line and Form; Masque of Days; William Morris to Whistler; Decorative Illustration of Books; Cartoons for the Cause; and Story of the Glittering Plain |
| DANZIEL, Edward and Thomas.............. Pictures from Birdland; Jungle Book; Fables of Aesop; Twenty Four (24) Nature Pictures; and Arabian Knights DORE, Gustave 1832 - 1883.....................Legended of the Wandering Jew; Dante's Inferno; Paradise Lost; Adventures of Baron Munchausen; London - A Pilgrimage; and Cassell's Dore Gallery. DOYLE Richard (Dickie) 1824 - 1883..........Fairy Ring; fairy Tales from All Nations; King of the Golden Rive; In Fairyland; Princess Nobody: and Journal - 1840. DULAC Edmund 1882 -1953......................Stories from the Arabian Nights; Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam; Stories of Hans Christian; Picture Book for the French Red Cross; Fairy Garland - being Fairy Tales from the Old French; Picture Book; and Lyrics Pathetic and Humorous from A to Z. |
| CRUIKSHANK, George 1792 - 1878............German Popular Stories; Oliver Twist; Jack Sheppard; Tower of London; Guy Fawkes; Windsor Castle; Comic Almanack; Cruikshankiana; Illustration of Time; and Omnibus. |
| Click on image to left to see sample of Cruiksanks work |
| BACKGROUND TO PRINTMAKING AND PRINTS We are talking about illustrations from many sources and they usually originate from a block, an engraved plate, or an etched plate, and includes plates from books that are not otherwise saleable, and support the print market at this time. It can include currency notes, stamps and other ephemera. The origin of print making by engraving and etching goes back to the 19th century, even though it was not considered to be one of the traditional methods of art, therefore was not looked on favourable by the Royal Academy, although associate membership was granted to the operatives. The trend started when operatives copied techniques in Mezzotint (See description below) of work by well known artists so they could be made available to the populous generally, whereas the originals were not available. Mezzotint developed into Aquatint (See below for explanation), and eventually took on the more popular line-engraving, and etching, and sometimes there was a combination of all these methods. In the late 18th century etching was commonly used in satire, and appeared in books, and was eventually was overtaken with Lithography (See below for explanation). |
| AQUATINT EXPLAINED The aquatint involved an etched plate with a multi coloured pattern. The image taken was then hand-coloured to simulate the effect of a water-colour painting. Coloured lithography (See below for explanation) and colour-printing could be used with woodblocks after about 1860. All these improved methods brought down the cost of book publishing. Various colours could be applied to the then lead plate to obtain highly detailed and visually realistic images. An improvement in the process was stereotyping or galvanizing the soft lead plate in order to increase the plate's durability and therefore the number of impressions that might be taken. |
| LITHOGRAPHY EXPLAINED The original method was discovered by Ludwig Von Siegen in Utrecht. Lithography and was cheaper than previous methods, and was invented by accident. Although the technique was first discovered by Simon Schmidt in Germany, at that time it did not prove practical or successful. The original name for this process was called polyautography A ground was applied to a polished limestone surface, made up off wax, soap, and lamp-black, which was then etched with acid to produce an elevated image suitable for printing. Afterwards, the process was refined even more by using an ink composed of tallow, wax, soap, shellac and Paris black to illustrate an image on the surface of the stone, before adding an acid solution over the image to decompose the lime in the stone and the soap in the ink. Before commencing the printing, the stone is well wetted with water, and when inked with a roller will receive the ink only on the greasy parts, that is the parts drawn upon, and will ignore ink from the parts treated with acid, gum, or water" By the end of the 1830s lithography was in common use, being employed in some very attractive books. It depended for its effect upon the detraction between grease and water: a greasy image on a surface of smooth limestone is first moistened and then inked. The image rejects the water but accepts the ink, while the stone accepts the water and consequently rejects the ink. The image can then be printed on paper. By 1870s it was becoming a common practice to add the impression of another stone, printed in a straw colour to give a tinted background, and this produced what are known as tinted lithographs. Further experiments were conducted with lithography; one method tried involved overprinting the lithograph with a single yellow tint to bring out the highlights, patented as "lithotint" in 1840. "The system now is to print one colour on each stone, or rather one tone, for the chromo-lithographer often builds up what may seem simple colours by the super-position of two or more tones. A saving, however, of time and expense may occasionally be effected by the same stone carrying two distinct colours on two separate parts" Some lithographs required more than twenty printings in various colours before they were finished. The method was discovered accidentally by a Aloya Senefelder in the year 1789 in Eastern Europe. Although it achieved prominence in the 19th Century, |
| MEZZOTINT EXPLAINED. This method was achieved from a uniformly roughened metal plate, on which the rough areas give technique, and the parts scraped smooth give the effect of light. This process was introduced in the 1770s, but was little used until after the 1830s. Printing was achieved similar to line engraving. If in colour, by the colour being applied to the plate with a dabber, cloth, or leather named a poupee, and the whole print is made in one operation. This type of printing is called 'a la poupee'. |
| INTAGLIO EXPLAINED This is a generic term which describes a plate made usually of metal, which has engraved, etched etc, the lines which can be used for printing when ink and a press are introduced. Aquaprint is an Intaglio technique (see above), as is Chalk or Crayon Engraving, Drypoint, Etching, Line engraving, Mezzotint, Polygraph or Pollaplasiasmos, Roulette, Steel Engraving, and Stipple. |
| SCOTT, Peter....................................... English artist and author. Eye of the Wind, Battle of the Narrow Sea, Wild Chorus, Wild Geese and Eskimos. (See more details of Scott and his links with the Fens) |
| WATKINS-PITCHFORD, D J....................... Wrote and illustrated Autumn Road to the Isles, Little Grey Men, Brendon Chase, Wild Lone, Sky Gypsy, Wizard of Boland, and many others (Also known as BB) |
| (For sample of his work and copies of his signature). Click here |
WHISTLER R J (Rex), 1905 -1944........... Songs of Our Grandfathers; and Gulliver's Travels WAIN, Louis 1860 -1939................................Happy Funny Book; Arrivals; Summer Book; and Big Midget Book |
| THEAKER, Harry G..................................... Long Long Ago, Children's Stories from the Arabian Nights, Robin Hood, The Water Babies, Grimms Fairy Tales, Storm of King Arthur, Ingoldsby Legends, etc. |
| (See a sample of Theaker's illustration and samples of his signatures by clicking here) |
| ROWLANDSON, Thomas. 1756 - 1827.... English Dance of Death; English Dance of Life; Tour of Doctor in Search of Consulation in Search of the Pictureesque - and .in Search of a Wife; and History of Johnny Quae Genus. SHEPARD, E H 1879 - 1976................... When we were Young; Winnie-the-Pooh; Now we are Six, House at Pooh Corner, Wind in the Willows; Drawn form Life; and Drawn from Memory. |
| ROBINSON, William Heath 1872 -1944... Danish Fairy Tales and Legends, The Arabian Nights, Tales from Shakespeare, Absurdies, Book of Collected Drawing, Andersen's Fairy Tales. (Click in box on right to see a sample of his work and his various signatures) |
| FOLKARD, Charles 1878 -1963...................Pinocchio; Grimm's Fairy Tales; Aesops Fables; Arabian Knights; Teddy Tail and the (See Folkard's signature and sample) Daily Mail; Teddy Tail in Nursery Rhyme Land; and Teddy Tail in Fairyland. FORD, Frank...............................................You Needn't Laugh. Some of his drawings first appeared in the 'The Bystander'. (See samples of FORD'S signature and his work) |
| THOMAS, Henry. 1879 -1962................. Spanish - Sixteenth Century Printing THACKERAY, William Makepeace........ Henry Osmond; Newcombes; Rose and Ring |
| TUNNICLIFFE, Charles Frederick (C F Tunnicliffe) 1901 - 1979 - Illustrated many books by various authors about natural History and Birds, including Garden Birds, Tarka the Otter, Country Child, My Friend Flicka, What to look for in Summer, and Under the Sea-Wind. |
| HERALDIC TERMINOLOGY. Many of the illustrations involve heraldry, as do other collectible items. If you are unfamiliar with the heraldic terminology, what it means and how to recognise it, then click here |
| DUNCAN, F. Martin....................................Natural History Experience (See sample of his drawing and a sample of his signature) |
| To see author's signatures or those of other celebrities - Click here |
| Click on Blue Names to see samples of their work and/or signatures |