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960807574
A DIRECTORY OF ENGRAVERS AND
LITHOGRAPHERS WORKING IN VICTORIA IN THE
NINETEENTH CENlURY:
A DESCRIPTION AND SOME SOURCES·
THOMAS A. DARRAGH
Engravers and lithographers are craftsmen who practise the printing processes of
engraving and lithography. In the context of this seminar these processes
provided illustrations for books, newspapers and other publications. illustrations
were generally expensive to produce in the nineteenth century and were thus
used sparingly except in those books and newspapers which were produced in
large numbers or in government publications where a commercial return was
not so important.
There were four main types of illustrative process in use last century:
1. Copper or steel engraving. This is an intaglio process, which was expensive
and not much used in Victoria for books. However, copper plate engravmg was
extensively used for map production, commercial billheads, cheques, etc. Plates
produced by this method needed to be tipped into a book by hand. Steel
engraving, which was especially suited for large press runs, does not seem to have
been used in Victoria except for the printing of postage stamps. The best known
Victorian books with steel engraved plates were produced in England, for
example, Victoria ILlustrated published by Sands & Kenny in 1857 and Victoria
ILlustrated: Second Series published by Sands, Kenny & Co. in 1862.
2. Lithography. This is a pianographic process, which was much cheaper than
copper and steel engraving and was used for maps, business circulars, invoices
and cheques. It was also used for printing from engraved plates in large numbers
by the lithographic transfer process. It was often used for book illustrations,
particularly where colour was required. A few colonial periodicals were
produced by lithography, for example, the shorthand magazines Coo·e-e,
Australasian Phonographic News, Southern Phonographic Harmonia and
Australasian Phonographic Reporter. More rarely, whole books such as The
Travels ofMr Newchamp and even whole newspapers such as ILlustrated Melboume
Family News, L'Echo - a French language newspaper published in Melbourne in
1870 - and Fi·Pao - a Chinese language newspaper published in Melbourne in
1868 - have been produced by lithography. This process can reproduce hand-
* An early version of this paper was given at the History of the Book in
Australia Seminar, 13 November 1994, State Library of Victoria.
BSANZ Bulletin, v.19 no.4, 1995
232
1homas A. Darragh
wrinen material using lithographic transfer paper, hence its use last century for
cheap circulars. Plates produced by this method must be tipped in by hand.
3. Wood engraving. This is a relief printing process. It was much cheaper
than metal engraving and probably more expensive than lithography, but it had
the great advantage that an engraved woodblock could be printed with ordinary
lener type, so that illustrations could be inserted in any convenient/lace in the
text. Stereotyped copies of these blocks - e.g. advertising blocks an ornaments
- could be made easily and distributed widely or could be used to print several
copies at once as were many newspapers of the time. This was the most
common method of book and newspaper illustration in use for most of last
century.
4. Process engraving. This is a relief process that superseded most other
processes at the end of the nineteenth century. This took the form of line blocks
or half-tone blocks which could reproduce photographs. These blocks could be
printed with ordinary lener type, but fine screened blocks needed to be printed
on good quality coated paper.
There were a number of other photographic processes, such as collotype and
photolithography, that were relatively linle used for book production in
Victoria. The exception was F. W. Niven's extensive use of the Crisp Photo
Process developed in his establishment at Ballarat for book illustration. These
processes came into use late in the century.
Colour illustrations could be produced by all these methods but were
expensive and not generally used except in large editions such as children's books
or in deluxe editions and some government publications. Usually only three or
four colours were printed to keep costs down. Often plates were merely tinted
with one or two colours. Garnet Walch's Victoria in 1880 has a mixture of
tinted lithographs, plain wood engravings and tinted wood engravings. True
chromolithography for colour illustrations does not seem to have been
anempted because of the cost. The only examples of chromolithographs of
which I am aware were Nicholas Chevalier's garish productions in his album of
Victorian scenery printed in ten colours in 1865 and the Art Union of Victoria
prints lithographed by Ludwig Lang in 24 colours and printed by Sands &
McDougall in the 1870s and 1880s.
In Victoria the processes used for illustrations in the 1840s were metal
engraving and lithography. Wood engraving was introduced to Victoria in 1852
with the arrival of Samuel Calvert, followed by Charles Winston and later
Friedrich Grosse. These three processes were used in the laner half of the
century with metal engraving rapidly being replaced by wood engraving and
lithography. At the end of the 1880s photomechanical processes began to
supersede wood engraving and lithography for book illustrations. However,
traditional stone lithography continued to be used - mainly for posters, labels
and maps - well into this century. Offset lithography was developed at the turn
of the century and eventually became the principal method of printing.
BSANZ Bulletin, v.19 no.4, 1995
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A Directory ofEngravers and Lithographers
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My own work in this area has involved the compilation of a directory or, as it
is perhaps better described, a dictionary of nineteenth-century engravers and
lithographers working in Victoria. The project started in 1976 as an attempt to
obtain information on the personnel involved in the production of the colour
printed geological maps of the Geological Survey of Victoria. As information
was gathered on the engravers and lithographers working for the Survey, other
names were turned up and eventually, in the absence of any secondary sources, it
was decided that a complete list of persons working in the field would be a useful
tool. It was also thought at the time that this would be a fairly simple task, and it
was decided to add firms as well, l'articularly as many of the individuals were in
partnership with others at one tune or another. At first Michael Twyman's
Directory of London Lithographic Printers (London: Printing Historical Society,
1976) was used as a model and it was thought that if such a directory could be
compiled for a large place like London, Melbourne or even Victoria should be
easy. This proved to be a gross assumption and a most naive view as time
progressed and the number of entries grew.
By 1985 there were about 1150 entries, of which 260 were firms (partnerships,
companies and such) and 890 were individuals. At present (November 1994)
there are 1400 entries, of which 281 are firms and 1119 are individuals. Entries
have been made on index cards, filed alphabetically. The entries include a brief
history of each firm and biographical data on individuals. As more and more
biographical tools have become available, thanks to the rise in interest in
genealogy, I was able to add much more information on individuals, so that the
project has taken on more the aspect of a dictionary rather than that of a
directory.
Data from the directory have been used to compile biographical entries on 26
engravers and lithographers for the Dictionary of Australian Artists. These
comprise some of the better known craftsmen in the profession: Samuel Calvert,
Friedrich Grosse, Rudolph Jenny, Julius Hamel, Edward Gilks, George Strafford
and Cyrus Mason. I have also published a book, The Establishment and
Development of Engraving and Lithography in Melbourne to the time of the
Goldrush (Garravembi, 1990), based on information collected for the project.
The names to establish an entry were obtained from a variety of sources: the
professional and trade sectiolls of directories; probate indices; advertisements in
books, almanacs, pamrhlets, newspapers, and periodicals; electoral and rate rolls;
union records; lists 0 public servants; and maps, bill heads, posters and other
printed ephemera.
Because directories and rate rolls, for example, are not specific as to the
branch of the trade concerned, my directory includes individuals and some firms
involved in trades somewhat removed from printing in the strict sense. For
instance, 'Engravers' can include die sinkers, copper plate printers, glass
engravers, seal engravers, letter cutters and stencil cutters. Some of these trades
are relevant to the history of the book, in that binding tools and blind stamping
BSANZ Bulletin, v.19 no.4, 1995
234
Thomas A. Darragh
stencils were made by craftsmen in these trades. 'Lithographers' includes
lithographic artists, lithographic draftsmen and lithographic printers.
The majority of firms were either lenerpress printers (e.g. Mason & Firth) or
statIOners (e.g. Sands & Kenny) that undertook a small amount of lithographic
printing on the side. Some may only have been agents for others, e.g. Fergusson
& Moore (Fergusson, a silent partner, was the principal of Fergusson & Mitchell,
lithographers and engravers), or contracted their lithographic work out.
However, if an advertisement stated that lithographic printing and!or engraving
was undertaken, the firm has been included. With time, as firms grew bigger and
became more diversified, most large firms had their own lithographic and
engraving departments, so that most - if not all - of the large printing firms of
the late nineteenth century are included in the directoty.
I have had considerable difficulty and linle success in ascertaining who were
the individual engravers and lithographers employed by particular firms because
few staff records of the firms have survived. Furthermore, ascertaining this kind
of information is made particularly difficult by the nature of the trade, because so
many were itinerants. Lithographic artists were generally self-employed and
tended to work on a freelance basis, though many of the large firms had their
own permanent in-house artists and engravers. However, even these seem to
have changed firms after a number of years. Staff artists seem only to have
inserted the firm's name on a piece of art work, whereas freelance artists usually
used a signature or monogram, which allows their work to be identified. The
printers of course are completely unidentified.
SOURCES
Having established a name for an entry, I then endeavoured to find out relevant
information from a wide range of sources. Initially, I cast a very wide net and so
was bound to get something, but finding information on one particular
individual or firm has not always been successful. The sources used are divided
into printed and manuscript.
Printed sources
Trade and society periodicals. These are useful sources for histories of firms,
biographies and obituaries. There are few periodicals for the book or printing
trades and many of these are only represented by incomplete runs in Victorian
libraries. Some of the trade journals such as Collie's Monthly Circular and
Wimble's Reminder are not represented at all in Victorian public libraries. Some
overseas journals not available in Victoria may be useful sources for Victorian
items, e.g. The British Printer and The British Lithographer, though I have not been
able to consult these. There is much intercolonial news in the New Zealand
trade journals Typo, Griffin's Colonial Printer's Register, Colonial Printer's Register
and New Zealand Press News, which I have been able to consult. The local trade
journals consulted included the Australian Typographical Circular, Australasian
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A Directory ofEngravers and Liihographers
235
Typographical Journal, Cowans, Australian Printer and Colonial Printer's Art
JournaL.
Many in the trade were members of temperance societies, friendly societies,
masonic lodges, churches and so on, and the relevant periodicals often have
obituaries. George Lusty of the Geological Survey lithographic branch and later
head of the lithographic section of the Government Printing Office was manager
of the Southern Baptist; James Fergusson of Fergusson & Mitchell was involved
with printing the Presbyterian; and James Arbuckle with its successor the
Messen"er. Many of the booksellers specialised in church, masonic and other
specialist publications, and there are advertisements for them in the appropriate
journals. For instance, in the Australian TempLar there is a biographical sketch
and portrait of the Melbourne stationer and bookseller, W. B. Stephens.
Newspapers. These are a difficult source to use because of the size of the task but
they do have notices of relevant publications and work undertaken by
lithographers, engravers and publishers. Apart from advertisements under
'Publications', there are notices of receipt of publications, including prints and
maps in the news columns. From the 1870s these tend to be put into the small
section at the end of the news along with acknowledgments of charitable
donations, thus making searching for them much easier.
Insolvency lists. There are three consolidated lists: J. N. Wilson, The Victorian
Insolvent List, from 1842, to the end ofJune, 1862, and Public Assignments from
1854, to the end ofJune, 1862 (Melbourne, 1862); Lyell & Gowan, The Victorian
Insolvent List, comprising Insolvencies and Assignments from 30th June, 1862, to
31st December, 1866 (Melbourne, 1867); and Lyell & Gowan, The Victorian
Insolvent List from 1867 to 1873 (Melbourne, 1874). The three lists have been
issued recently on microfiche by the State Library of Victoria. These offer a
quick and efficient means of ascertaining the date of an insolvency or trade
assignment. For the period after 1873, one must use the business and credit
journals mentioned below or the indices in the Government Gazette. These
business and credit journals are particularly valuable for ascertaining the
existence of trade assignments, because these are usually notified only in
newspapers.
Business and finance journals. The Australian Building Companies and Mortgage
Companies Gazette, Australian Financial Gazette and Journal of Commerce have
proved useful in providing information on firms.
These often have
advertisements and trade notices and sometimes details of insolvencies. The
Journal of Commerce has import and export data for each week and is more
detailed than the yearly Victorian Statistics. The Customs, Victoria Weekly Bill of
Entry (1855-1875) may have even more detail. It does include, for instance, the
names of individuals importing books.
BSANZ Bulletin, v.19 noA, 1995
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Thomas A. Darragh
Banking and insurance journals. Apart from advertisements, each monthly issue
of the Australasian Insurance and Banking Record has notices of fires in printing
and other establishments for the eastern Australian colonies and New Zealand.
Having obtained the date of a fire, newspaper reports or fire inquests can then be
checked for details. Losses are often extensively reported in newspapers,
together with details of the insurances held by the firm involved. Fires were
common in printing establishments.
Credit rating journals. These can be used to ascertain how the book and printing
trades were financed, thus allowing the reconstruction of trade networks. There
are two which I have used - the Victorian Trade Protection Association Digest
(1876-1890) and its successor, Coomb's Trade Circular. The latter has separate
half-yearly consolidated indices (1890-1925) which give full names, professions
and addresses of those listed. The indices are soon to be issued by the State
Library of Victoria on microfiche. These journals list bills of sale, contracts of
sale, mortgages, trade assignments and insolvencies, as well as various business
notices such as partnership dissolutions and registration of companies.
Victoria Government Gazette.
Contains notices conceming partnerships,
companies and insolvencies. Advertisements for government publications are
often given on the back page of each issue.
Victoria Police Gazette. This has notices of thefts of books from houses, shops,
libraries and so on. I found the weekly notices of prisoners released from gaol
occasionally contained someone who should be included in the directory,
because the lists cite the profession or trade of the prisoner.
Government stafflists. Persons employed by government organisations are listed
in Blue Books, Public Service lists and the like published in the Government
Gazette and Parliamentary Papers. The organisations which employed engravers,
lithographic draftsmen and lithographic printers were the Surveyor General's
Mines DepartII\ent), Railways and Melbourne
office, Geological Survey
and Metropolitan Board of Works. Large numbers of supernumerary draftsmen
and printers were also employed who usually were not listed. Their names may
be ascertained in some cases from returns to Parliament or from departmental
records.
Manuscript sources
These can be divided into Government Records, Private Records and Union
Records.
Government Records at the Victorian Public Record Office (record series
mentioned preceded by VPRS). To some extent using these records is like
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A Directory ofEngravers and Lithographers
237
looking for the proverbial needle in a haystack, but with persistence they can
yield very useful material.
Personnel records. Files on individuals were not kept, but correspondence about
staff can be found scattered throughout various record series. Information on
government employees involved in engraving and litho&raphy can be found
in Surveyor General's Department (vpRS 44), Mines Department
lYPRS 1596), Geological Survey and Railways (VPRS 425) correspondence. In
addition there are applications from those seeking government employment,
which often give the person's employment history. For my purposes the
Surveyor General's office and Railway Construction branch records were the
most useful.
Probate records are particularly useful for the principals of firms - i.e. for the
wealthy - but not for most others. Consulting the probate indices can be a quick
way of finding a death date. Other vital records now available are birth, death
and marriage indices. Consolidated indices, such as the Pioneer Indices for
Victoria and Tasmania and the Federation Index for New South Wales, have
made searching such indices much easier.
Shipping lists. These generally give trades and professions of ship's passengers. It
is surprising the number of passengers of the one trade who arrived on the same
ship.
Business records. Accounts and invoices were normally not kept by a department
but were passed on to the Treasury and do not seem to have survived. However,
such items can be found scattered throughout various record series. A number
can be found in the Melbourne Public Library papers. Such accounts will be
important for the book trade.
Company registration (vpRS 932).
These documents include prospectus,
memorandum and articles of association, annual reports and statements, and
shareholders' lists. Unfortunately, very few of the firms in which I was
interested were of sufficient size to warrant being formed into companies. There
is now one consolidated index to this series on microfiche which indexes every
word in the title of a company, so it can be used if the exact name is not known.
Business registration (vpRS 933). Such registration was introduced in 1892 and
covers partnerships and small firms. The documents give full names and
addresses of all those involved in the business as well as changes in the makeup of
the firm. The index (vpRS 128) to this series is available on microfilm.
Court records. A most useful source if one is lucky enough to find the relevant
party involved in a court case. Some copyright cases might be useful for the
BSANZ Bulletin, v.l9 noA, 1995
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Thomas A. Darragh
history of the book project. Lithographers were occasionally called as expert
witnesses to give evidence about handwriting on documents and their evidence
has in some cases provided information for my project.
Insolvency records. These can often provide large ·inventories and lists of assets, as
well as debts which can indicate business networks. There can also be lists of
employees to whom wages were owed. Insolvents' names can be obtained from
the books and journals cited above or from the court registers. The records are
as follows: Proceedings in Insolvent Estates 1863-1871 (vpRS 759), Certificates of
Discharge 1848-1875 (vpRS 75), Deeds under 1871 Act (vpRS 762), Index to
Insolvencies 1843-1921 (vpRS 75), Register of Insolvencies 1871-1915 (vpRS
757), Register of Certificates of Discharge 1884-1928 (vpRS 1194), Deeds of
Arrangement 1899-1928 (vpRS 766), Liquidation Deeds 1871-1904 (vpRS 764),
Deeds of Composition 1871-1898 (vpRS 763), Schedules under 1890 Act 18901916 (VPRS 765). Records of the Ballarat Insolvency Court are held at Ballarat
Branch of the Public Record Office: Registers 1860-1907 (vpRS 723), Affidavits
1871-1934 (vpRS 3592), and Deeds of Insolvency 1890-1934 (vpRS 811).
Records of the Geelong Insolvency Court are held at Laverton: Registers (vpRS
1473), and Records (vpRS 815).
Registered bills ofsale. Bills and contracts of sale were lodged for registration with
the Registrar General's Office and are being transferred to the Public Record
Office. When available these will prove to be an extensive source of information
from the 1860s onwards. The credit periodicals mentioned above index these
documents and provide a ready method of finding names of interest. Bills of sale
were an important means of securing credit and so cover a vast range of
merchandise, equipment and stock-in-trade. As these documents are not well
known, I will provide two examples of the information contained in them.
In June 1885 John M. Easton, an engraver and lithographer of Niagra Lane,
off Little Bourke Street, borrowed £1500 from the executors of John Buchan
McIndoe, which was secured by a mortgage on his equipment. This is listed in a
schedule to the bill of sale as follows: Four horse Otto gas engine, 3 litho
machines, cutting machine, copperplate press, 3 litho presses, 2 engraving
machines, 2 embossing presses, iron safe, stones, dies, plates and sundries, stock
of paper, fittings, tools, shaftings, pulleys and belts, stock colours, bronze.
Interest was payable at 6% and the principal was due in 1888. This bill of sale is
listed in the credit journal Vl1'A Digest mentioned above and a later entry
informs us that the bill of sale was renewed in 1889.
My second example gives details of a provincial letterpress printer. In May
1881 Andrew Semple of Portland, Journalist, Printer and Stationer, and his wife
Mary, borrowed £250 from John Pearson of Portland. They were to pay 10%
interest and pay back the principle in 27 monthly instalments of £10 and a fInal
instalment of £11/8/-. The debt was secured by a mortgage over the whole of
their property, listed in great detail in a schedule to the mortgage. The list of
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A Directory ofEngravers and Lithographers
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items is too long to give here in detail, but a few lines will indicate the
information available.
Presses, 1 double demy columbian, 100 lbs brevier type, zinc wening trough,
set wening boards, 1 double crown, 1 foolscap copying press. Type, long primer
112 lb, long italic 14 lb, brevier 5 pair cases 250 lb, bourgeois 4 pair cases 300 lb,
dozen, 24 line
pica 40 lb (another 35 kinds of type), Wood Lener, 40 line
sanserif 11 dozen, 10 line roman 11 dozen, 14 line roman 11 dozen, 34 line
antique
dozen, Large metal jobbing, 10 line roman 28lbs (another six kinds).
Printing material, 17 galleys, 30 pair cases, 9 double demy wening boards, 6
lengths bill rule and so on. The whole equipment of the printing office was
listed. The schedule also listed the furniture in the house room by room, so we
know that they had some carpet and a kangaroo rug in the bedrooms and oil
floorcloth in the hall.
Government Printer (vpRS 786, 787, 1159, 1796, 1861). A very fruitful source
concerning Government publications, but much of the correspondence has been
destroyed. From my point of view this is not so critical because there was no
lithographic work undertaken at the Government Printing Office until relatively
late in the century and then only a few printers were employed.
Miscellaneous departmental records. Printed ephemera are present in great
quantities in various record series. The Governor's correspondence contains
leners from authors and correspondence about
prospectuses for
gifts of books lVl'RS 1094, 1096, 4066). Naturalisation papers contain
biographical information. The Chief Secretary's inward correspondence (vpRS
1189, 3991, 3992) contains printed annual reports of charities, societies,
mechanics institutes and so on from all over Victona as well as lists of subscribers
to mechanics institutes. The Registrar of Friendly Societies records (vpRS 284)
contain printed rules and regulations of a large number of Victorian
organisations. Treasury correspondence (vpRS 1207) contains printed reports of
hospitals, benevolent societies and other charitable organisations.
Melbourne Public Library. The records of this organisation are immense but using
them is not easy because the finding aids are unsatisfactory. These need to be
reorganised to assist researchers. I found a few accounts and bill heads of
interest, but there is a vast correspondence with the book trade.
Printer and Newspaper Registration. These records (affidavits, declarations and
recognizances) are held at the Registrar General'.s Office for the period 1850 to
date. Earlier records are held in the Archives Office of New South Wales. In
endeavouring to obtain information on printing firms, I have transcribed all
records from 1838 to 1924 and indexed them according to proprietors, printers,
publishers, firms, place of publication and titles. The transcriptions and indices
BSANZ Bulletin. v.19 no.4, 1995
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Thomas A. Darragh
with an introduction to the legislation and the documents will be published by
Elibank Press in 1996.
Private Records. These are mostly housed in the State Library of Victoria or
Melbourne University Archives. They contain collections of papers and
manuscripts which I found particularly useful for ephemeral items such as
billheads, promissory notes, cheques and accounts for work done. Only a few
firms' records have survived - e.g. Troedel and Niven - and been passed over to
repositories. These were useful in obtaining names of employees from the few
staff records that have survived.
Union Records. In the nineteenth century there were various clubs, societies
and unions connected with engraving and lithography, but of these only the
records of the Victorian Lithographic Printers Union and its predecessors have
survived and then only for the last decade of the century. These are held at the
Archives of Business and Administration, Australian National University. Not
all lithographic printers were members of unions. Government employees did
not join, nor it seems did permanent employees of larger printing firms,
presumably because they gained no benefit from doing so. The surviving records
give members' names and sometimes dates of death but rarely their place of
employment.
CONCLUSION
The directory is now being typed up from the index cards with a view to editing
and revising each entry for possible publication as a book. In listing many of the
sources I have used in its compilation, I have endeavoured to cite those which
would be of particular interest to researchers concerned with aspects of the
history of the book in Australia, but the sources could be useful to any historian
who is interested in obtaining biographical and other data on a particular person
or information on a particular firm or company.
Melbourne
BSANZ Bulletin, v.19 00.4,1995