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( 165 )
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XXL—THE HISTORY OF WOOD-ENGRAVING.
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ny» In its ancient and more general sens...
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
( 165 )
( 165 )
Xxl—The History Of Wood-Engraving.
XXL—THE HISTORY OF WOOD-ENGRAVING .
Ny» In Its Ancient And More General Sens...
ny » In its ancient and more general sense , Engraving may be denned
as the representation of objects by means of incision , on plates of metal , blocks of wood , or on precious stones : but in later times
this term is commonly applied to impressions of figures executed by incision upon wood or metal , communicated to paper by a
printing-press . Of the art of engraving generally , including , as it would , the
history of Egyptian hieroglyphics , Indian numismatics , Chinese printing-blocks , Grecian maps , the jewelled fingers of Roman
matrons , Etruscan art , Anglo-Saxon goldsmiths , or that still later development of the art , those sepulchral brass plates of the era of
the _ISTorman Conquest , so frequently to be seen in our old churches and cathedrals , we cannot now speak , as we desire to trace the rise ,
progress , and present condition of that one branch of this subject named at the heading of our article , and which is most deservedly
attracting the attention of so many intelligent women of the present day . The Government schools at Kensington Gore have in a great
measure produced this most desirable effect ; it is with the hope of still further arousing the attention of females to this most
exquisite art , of informing them of the fact of the lucrative nature of this employmentand with the intention of warning them against
, what is proving a great barrier to their success , that we purpose sketching the outlines of what is , comparatively speaking , so
modern an invention ; the art of wood-engraving being nearly coeval with , or but little in advance of , printing .
In the annals of Provence as early as 1361 mention is made of cards : an edict against their use was published by John I ., King
of Castile , 1387 ; and they certainly formed an important branch of German and Venetian commerce soon after the year 1400 . It
should be remembered that this class of art . constituted an early field for the display of artistic skill , and it is also most -worthy of
note that the earliest cardmakers mentioned as living at Nuremberg were females , for in an old rate-book of that city , under
the years 1435 and 1438 , are the names of Eliz . and Margret , Kartenmacherin , —or the cardmakers . Afterwards such persons
were called Karten-maler , i . e . card-painters ; and occasionally bore the name of Formschneider , or cutters of moulds , an appellation
by which they are still known in Germany . The reason why we have thus so particularly given the date of the invention of these
" books of Satan " ( as they have not inaptly been called when we
consider the amount of misery they have caused ) , arises from the .
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Citation
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English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), May 1, 1858, page 165, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01051858/page/21/
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