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			MyShowCase Big Savings in our Store


			Maintained by: myshowcase( 20378)
			MyShowCase offers rare & unusual art prints. Look through the list of our STORE categories on the left hand side to find a wide selection of prints. Our COMBINED SHIPPING FEE is ONLY $5.50 WORLDWIDE ( $2.50 EUROPE ) via AIRMAIL with insurance for any number of print. SATISFACTION IS GUARANTEED!

******* **** SAVINGS with SHIPPING DISCOUNTS: Pay ONE SHIPPING FEE of $5.50 WORLDWIDE ( $2.50 UK & EUROPE ) and have all additional prints shipped FREE when using COMBINED SHIPPING ****** *******

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** Welcome to MyShowCase **

Greetings from the heart of England where we have our antique shop filled with unusual & eclectic items plus a variety of antique prints from 16th, 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries. We have been dealing with Antiques, Rare Old Books & Collectibles for over 20 years. Over this time we have gained a great deal of experience & expertise with which we try to bring you as interesting a range of items as possible. We find most of our items by attending Victorian & estate auctions plus visits to Antique Fairs & Antique shops all over England, Scotland,Wales & the European continent.

We take pride in the items we offer on eBay and make every effort to describe them completely and accurately.

It is easy for you to ask us questions before bidding. We will always try to answer emails promptly.

We prefer happy & satisfied customers, therefore, we make every effort to accurately describe all our items. If we should make a mistake in our description, then a full refund will be issued upon return of item in same condition in which it is shipped to you.

Satisfaction
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GLOSSARY Information taken from: " Encyclopia Britannica "

Engraving
Engraving involves the use of a metal plate or wooden block. Upon the surface of this metal plate or wooden block, an image or text has been either etched or cut with a graver or sharp burin. The process of transferring the image/text from the plate to the print involves a few steps. First, the plate is inked. Then using a wringer-washer type press, it is printed on dampened paper. The press pushes the paper into the engraved lines which forces the ink onto the paper off of the plate. A print taken from an engraved plate is also known as an "engraving." Engraving was first developed in the 1400s and remained the standard up until the mid 1800s when lithography was developed.

Wood Engraving
a wood engraving is a print from an engraved block of wood. This surface of this block of wood has been cut in the form of a design or text with a steel graver such that the cuts do NOT receive ink. Therefore, it is the white lines on a wood engraved print that depicts an image on the black ink background. To prepare the block of wood for engraving, it is coated in a solution of zinc white with gum arabic. Next, the artist draws the design. Once the design is drawn, the engraver engraves the image. It was only in the late 1800s that wood engraving became obsolete.

Steel Engraving
A steel engraving is a print from an engraved steel plate. Steel engravings are oftentimes recognized by a stiffness found in their paper, although the engraved lines themselves exhibit a very fine quality. Steel engraving developed in the late 1700s and early 1800s. It was in 1819 that steel engraving gained commercial use when Charles Heath and Jacob Perkins worked together to develop currencies difficult to forgerize. Copper plates were found to be made more durable by facing them with steel. Steel engraving remained a very important method of printing until around 1880.

Copper Engraving
A copper engraving is an image taken from an engraved copper plate. A plate of bright, burnished copper that is usually 16 gauge or 18 gauge is used. The copper plate is first coated with a ground, then the image is traced with a sharp point or needle. Once the image is traced, the ground is removed. To ensure accurate engraving, the copper plate oftentimes rests in sand. Using the traced lines, an artist uses a burin to engrave onto the copper plate. Metal shavings are cut away by the burin. These shavings, known as "burr," while removed from the plate must still be detached by a "scraper," a cutting tool. The deeper the burin cuts, the stronger the engraved lines are when printed. Once the plate has been engraved, it is ready to be used for printing by warming it, inking it, and then passing it through a press with the sheet of paper that is to be printed. Copper engraving developed as early as the fourteenth century. Some early examples of copper engraving from Italy and Germany date around 1440. The process used for copper engraving may have come about by armourers using metal engraved patterns to decorate their armor. The first uses of copper engravings were for religious images and playing cards. During the 1600s and 1700s, copperplate engravings were used in a widespread fashion for illustrated works, particularly in France and England. Copper engraving remained the standard up until the 1770s when wood engraving developed.

Stipple Engraving
Stipple engraving combines both of the arts of etching and engraving. The design to be engraved is outlined by a needle on a grained plate. This plate is then etched and dried. Next, a graver is used to make small dots ("stippling"). These small dots give the effect of light and shade. Stipple engraving became popular in the 1700s by an Italian artist, Bartolozzi. The process was later enhanced and improved by the French who used it in a widespread manner during the 1800s.

Photogravure:
The process known as photogravure, which uses a light-sensitized acid-resisting ground when etching a copper plate, is in fact older than photography. As early as 1827 the Frenchman Nicephore Niepce achieved an intaglio plate by this method. His starting point was an existing engraving, which he waxed to make the paper translucent. He had now the equivalent of what we could call a positive transparency ( the black lines of the image remaining opaque ), and he laid this down on a copper plate coated with bitumen - a natural tar which is light-sensitive. After hours of exposure in the sun ( hence the ofiginal name for this process, heliogravure ) the bitumen had been hardened by light under all the white spaces but was still soluble where protected by the lines of the engraving. It was then only a natter of using an appropriate solvet to dissolve these lines in the bitumen, after which the copper palte could be etched in the normal way with the hardened bitumen acting as a resist. This process remained unused for many years apart from anything else because it involved virtually destroying an engraving in order to reproduce it. But all that was lacking was to make it useful was a transparent photographic positive in place of the waxed engraving. As soon as this became available the process was seen to have great potential - particularly since it coincided with the revival of interest in etching in the second half of the century & there was now a demand for good reproductions of old masters etchings. Experiments began in the 1850s & reproductions of rare prints by this method became quite common from 1870s.

Around 1880s there began the development of the most brilliant and faithful monochrome reproductive technique yet known in the history of printing. It applied photography to the making of intagilo plates for the reproduction of tonal images. Some very successful private experiments in this line had ben made by Fox Talbot in England in the 1850s, but the process did not go into commerical use until 1880s. In its various forms and in the modern development of it known as gravure, it has provided reproductions of paintings & of photographs with an accuracy of detail and depth of tone unlikely to be surpassed in monchrome printing.

Mezzotint
also called Black Manner, a method of engraving a metal plate by systematically and evenly pricking its entire surface with innumerable small holes that will hold ink and, when printed, produce large areas of tone. The pricking of the plate was originally done with a roulette (a small wheel covered with sharp points), but later an instrument called a cradle, or rocker, was used. It resembles a small spade with a toothed edge, and its cutting action throws up rough ridges of metal called burrs. The burrs are scraped away in places intended to be white in the finished print. In the 20th century, the plate is often roughened by working over it in several directions with a carborundum stone.
The term mezzotint (from Italian mezza tinta, alftone derives from the capability of the process to produce soft, subtle gradations of tone. Used alone, however, mezzotint designs are often indistinct and, consequently, engraved or etched lines are introduced to give the design greater definition.
Although the process of mezzotint was invented in Holland by the German-born Ludwig von Siegen during the 17th century, it was soon practiced enthusiastically and almost exclusively in England. The technique is laborious and, consequently, unsuitable for original work. But its rich blacks, its subtle gradations of tone, and especially its adaptability to making colour prints made it ideal for the reproduction of paintings. During the 17th, 18th, and early 19th centuries, mezzotints were the only means most people had of becoming acquainted with the paintings of major artists. After the invention of photography in the 19th century, mezzotint was rarely used, although in the 20th century the French artist Georges Rouault and the English printmaker Stanley William Hayter each made several plates. Its most distinguished mid-20th-century advocate, Yozo Hamaguchi, a Japanese artist living in Paris, developed techniques for printing colour mezzotint, and other artists, such as Mario Avati of Great Britain and Merlyn Evans of France, have mastered it.

Burin
also called graver engraving tool with a metal shaft that is cut or ground diagonally downward to form a diamond-shaped point at the tip. The angle of the point of a particular tool affects the width and depth of the engraved lines. The shaft of the tool is fixed in a flat handle that can be held close to the working surface; it has a wide rounded end for bracing against the palm of the hand. The point is guided by thumb and forefinger.

Lithography
Lithography is the process of printing from a stone slab. A lithograph is a print made from the lithographic process. Lithography was stumbled across by a German in Munich named Aloysius Senefelder in 1796. He took a piece of limestone and inscribed upon it. He then had the idea to treat the stone with acid which would raise the writing. The raised parts of a lithographic stone are considered "greasy" which is important for attracting the ink. The lowered surfaces attract water. So thus the image attracts the ink which is then transferred to the paper to create a lithographic image. The plate and the paper were sent through a hand press though the early 1800s. It was in 1851 that a cylinder press was developed to further speed up the process. When looking at a lithographic image, it is possible to see the "spongy" nature of the stone that created the image on the print.

Chromolithography
Chromolithography is simply the process of lithographic printing in several colors. Chromolithography has existed probably since the earliest stages of lithographic printing.

Printmaking
An art form consisting of the production of images, usually on paper but occasionally on fabric, parchment, plastic, or other support, by various techniques of multiplication, under the direct supervision of or by the hand of the artist. Such fine prints, as they are known collectively, are considered original works of art, even though they can exist in multiples.

To the modern reader, the word print might suggest mechanically mass-produced commercial products, such as books, newspapers, and textiles. In this article, however, the print refers to the original creation of an artist who, instead of the paintbrush or the chisel, has chosen printmaking tools to express himself.

The fine print is a multiple original. Originality is generally associated with uniqueness, but a print is considered original because the artist from the outset intended to create an etching, woodcut, or other graphic work and thus conceived his image within the possibilities and limitations of that technique. Without doubt, early printmaking was strongly influenced by a desire for multiple prints. Artists quickly discovered, however, that when a drawing is translated into a woodcut or engraving it takes on totally new characteristics. Each technique has its own distinctive style, imposed by the tools, materials, and printing methods. The metamorphosis that takes place between drawing and print became the strongest attraction for the creative artist. It is important to understand that the artist does not select his printing method arbitrarily but chooses the one in which he can best express himself. Thus, any of the proofs printed from an original plate is considered an original work of art, and, although most fine prints are pulled in limited quantities, the number has no bearing on originality, only on commercial value.

What is the difference between a reproduction and an original print? In the very early days of printmaking this was not a serious problem because the print was not looked upon as a precious art object, and prices were low. The question of originality became an issue only in the 18th century, and, in the 19th century, artists started to hand sign their prints. Since then, the signed print has been accepted by most people as the proof of its originality.

With regard to the name with which he signed his works, the Japanese artist followed a bewildering custom: he adopted and discarded names at will. If he admired another artist, he simply adopted his name. Thus, in the art history of Japan, it is common to find several unrelated artists bearing the same name and one artist bearing many names; during his long life, Hokusai, for example, used about 50 different names. In fact, a signature by itself means little or nothing. For instance, Pablo Picasso issued many signed reproductions of his paintings; on the other hand, many of his original etchings have been published in split editions, some signed, some not. These unsigned etchings are original, while the signed reproductions are not. The crucial difference is that Picasso made the plate for the original print, while the signed reproduction was photomechanically produced.

In 1960 the International Congress of Plastic Arts drafted a resolution intended to regulate contemporary prints. The crucial paragraph reads:

The above principles apply to graphic works which can be considered originals, that is to say to prints for which the artist made the original plate, cut the woodblock, worked on the stone or any other material. Works that do not fulfill these conditions must be considered eproductions.BR>
Although this is a straightforward statement, later developments have proved it to be highly controversial. Since the rise of the Pop and Op movements, a great number of photographically produced prints have been published and sold as signed originals. Because museum curators, art critics, and artists have not taken a firm stand on the question, any print that the artist declares to be original is now accepted as such, regardless of how it was made. Although the art world is divided on the solution, nearly everybody agrees that something should be done to clarify the situation. The state of New York, for example, has passed a law requiring complete disclosure by the dealer of how, and by whom, the print was made.

Many artists believe that the answer lies in the giving of honest information. In the 17th and 18th centuries in the West, most prints carried all the relevant information on their margins. The name of the individual was followed by a Latin abbreviation indicating his role in the work. Common examples are del. (delineavit): e drew it imp. (impressit): e printed it and sculp. (sculpsit): e engraved it.This type of information, together with the total edition number, should be furnished by the artist or the dealer to the buyer. Clearly, it is impossible to make completely rigid rules to define originality. Probably the most realistic solution is to establish degrees of originality, based on the degree of the artist's participation in the various steps in the creation of the finished print.

There may also be confusion about edition numbering. In contemporary printmaking, an original print in limited edition should carry information about the size of the total edition and the number of the print. A problem can arise because, in addition to the regular edition, there are rtist's proofsor the French .C.(hors de commerce) proofs. These are intended for the artist's personal use and should be no more than 10 percent of the edition; but, unfortunately, this practice is often abused. All of the prints pulled between working stages are called rial proofs.These can be of great interest because they reveal the artist's working process and of great value because the number of proofs is small.

With prints of old masters in the West, originality is a very complex and difficult issue. These artists did not publish their prints in limited editions but printed as many as they could sell and without signing or numbering their works. There are arguments even between experts about the authenticity of many old prints. Important works of the masters are documented in catalogs and, although these must be revised from time to time, they furnish the only firm information available. After the edition is printed, the modern artist usually either destroys the plate or marks (trikes it in a distinctive manner to guarantee that any reprint from the plate is identifiable.

The 19th-century U.S. painter and etcher James McNeill Whistler was one of the first Western artists to hand sign his prints. Signing is now regulated by a convention. Upon completing the edition, the artist signs and numbers each print. Usually the signature is in the lower right corner; the edition number is on the left. Some artists put the title in the centre.

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