Library Preservation At Harvard
preserve.harvard.edu.
HCL Preservation & Imaging Services
HUL Weissman Preservation Center
Monochrome Printmaking
An Introduction to Monochrome Manual Printmaking Techniques
A Selected Bibliography
Compiled by Thea Burns, Helen H. Glaser Conservator for Special Collections in the Harvard
College Library, for the program, Identifying Monochrome Printing Processes for Illustrations,
held at Harvard on March 24, 2005.
Primary Sources
Anon., The Complete Aquatinter: being the whole process of etching & aquatinting in
aquatinta; the method using the aquafortis, with all the necessary tools, &c…,
London, J.Barfield, (1804).
An early treatise on the subject. Contains 4 original prints illustrating various grounds and
processes.
Bosse, Abraham, Traicté des manières de la gravure en bois, Paris (1766).
The first treatise on etching and engraving; it was published 200 years after their invention in
mid 15th-century Europe.
Fielding, Theodore Henry, The Art of Engraving: Historical and Practical, London,
M.A.Nattali (1844).
Illustrated by 10 original specimens of different styles of engraving.
Jackson, John, A Treatise on Wood Engraving, London, Charles Knight, (1839).
The only early treatise on the subject. Contains over 300 illustrations engraved on wood.
Laborde, Léon, Gravure en manière noire, Paris (1839).
Papillon, Jean-Michel, Traité historique et pratique de la gravure en bois, Paris (1766).
The first separate work in Europe on wood cutting, the oldest graphic process.
Partington, Charles F., The Engraver’s Complete Guide, London (1825).
Senefelder, Alois, Vollstandiges Lehrbuch der Steinmalerei, (1818).
Senefelder’s account of his invention, 20 years later. Translated into English as A Complete
Course of Lithography, London, R. Ackerman, (1819). Within 12 years of the invention of
lithography treatises began to be published in Germany and, over the next 40 years, some 50
works explaining the process were published in Western Europe.
© 2007 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College
1
Library Preservation At Harvard
preserve.harvard.edu.
HCL Preservation & Imaging Services
HUL Weissman Preservation Center
Secondary sources
Alexander, David, and Richard T. Godfrey, Painters and Engraving: The Reproductive
Print from Hogart to Wilkie, New Haven, Yale Center for British Art (1980).
An exhibition catalogue that explores a neglected subject, the role of the 18th-century
reproductive engraver, who made prints for private commissions or the book trade. He has
often been overlooked as a mechanical or commercial accessory to the great creative
printmakers who expressed ideas uniquely in prints.
Brunner, Felix, A Handbook of Graphic Reproduction Processes, 5th ed., Teufen
(Switzerland), Arthur Niggli, (1975).
A comprehensive and generously illustrated handbook which gives the relevant technical
terminology in French and German, as well as English.
Chamberlain, Walter, Wood Engraving, A Thames and Hudson Manual, London, Thames
& Hudson (1978).
Gascoigne, Bamber, How to Identify Prints: A Complete Guide to Manual and
Mechanical Processes from Woodcut to Inkjet, 2nd ed., New York, Thames &
Hudson (2004).
A basic book for those attempting to identify printmaking processes.
Gilmour, Pat, Understanding Prints: A Contemporary Guide, London, Waddington
Galleries (1979).
Griffiths, Antony, Prints and Printmaking, an Introduction to the History and
Techniques, Berkeley and Los Angeles, University of California Press (1996).
A brief yet comprehensive and satisfying review of a vast subject.
Griffiths, Antony, “Notes on Early Aquatint in England and France”, Print Quarterly,
vol.4:3 (1987), pp.255-270.
An account of the history of aquatint in France (c.1758-1782) and a survey of its
development in Britain (c.1771-1782).
Griffiths, Antony, “On Gillotage”, in Barbara Stern Shapiro, “Manet as Printmaker”,
Print Quarterly, vol.3 (1986), pp.147-149.
A description of the Gillot process based on the original patent specification (1871) and an
early description (1894).
Hamerton, P.G., Etchers and Etching, Boston (1888).
© 2007 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College
2
Library Preservation At Harvard
preserve.harvard.edu.
HCL Preservation & Imaging Services
HUL Weissman Preservation Center
Hunnisett, Basil, Engraved on Steel: the History of Picture Production Using Steel
Plates, Brookfield, VT, Ashgate, (1998).
Ivins, William, How Prints Look: Photographs with Commentary, Boston, Beacon Press,
revised and expanded by Marjorie B. Cohn (1987).
Excellent introduction to the identification of traditional printmaking processes.
Ivins, William, Prints and Visual Communication, Cambridge, MIT Press, (1969).
Enriches the history of image printmaking by placing the technical procedures into the
broader historical context in which printmakers operated.
Kainen, Joseph, “Why Bewick Succeeded: a Note in the History of Wood Engraving”,
United States Museum of History and Technology, Papers, no.218 (1959), pp.186201.
Situates the rise of wood engraving, circa 1800, in the context of earlier white line engraving
and new technological advances, the development of wove paper and the Stanhope iron press.
Landau, David, & Peter Parshall, The Renaissance Print 1470-1550, Yale University
Press, 1994. See especially Ch.2, “Craft Guilds, Workshops, and Supplies”, pp.7-32.
This book provides an integrated view of the Renaissance print as social and artistic
enterprise.
Museum of Modern Art, NYC, What is a Print?,
Make your own prints.
Rosen, Charles, and Henri Zerner, “The Romantic Vignette and Thomas Bewick”, in
Romanticism and Realism: The Mythology of Nineteenth Century Art, London, Faber
and Faber (1984), pp.73-95.
Simon, Herbert, Introduction to Printing: The Craft of Letterpress, London & Boston,
Faber and Faber (1980).
Stijnman, Ad, “Jan van de Velde IV and the Invention of Aquatint”, Print Quarterly,
vol.8, (1991), pp.153-163.
Close descriptions of various aquatint grains. Excellent detailed images of grain structures.
Tuer, A., “On the Art of Stipple Engraving – its Distinctions and Methods”, Ch.20 of
Bartolozzi and his Works, London (1881), pp.82-87.
© 2007 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College
3
Library Preservation At Harvard
preserve.harvard.edu.
HCL Preservation & Imaging Services
HUL Weissman Preservation Center
Twyman, Michael, The British Library Guide to Printing History and Techniques,
London, The British Library (1998).
In this slim book, Twyman considers the origin, evolving technologies, and multiplication of
printed artefacts, eastern and western.
Twyman, Michael, Lithography, 1800-1850, London, Oxford University Press, (1970).
Wax, Carol, The Mezzotint: History and Technique, London, Thames & Hudson (1990).
Traces the social, economical, and technical history of the mezzotint, 1642 - 20th century.
Contains a vast amount of information. Somewhat frustrating to use because of its distaste for
the scholarly apparatus of documentation.
Winship, Michael, “Printing with Plates in the Nineteenth Century United States”,
Printing History, vol.5, no.2 (1983), pp15-39.
Discusses the phenomenon of printing from stereotype and electrotype plates in the
19th-century U.S. Well illustrated.
Available from http://preserve.harvard.edu
http://preserve.harvard.edu/bibliographies/monochromeprints.pdf
Last updated: March 24, 2005
© 2007 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College
4