Printing techniques

The great masters of Ukiyo-e developed a technique in the mid-1700s that allowed them to obtain color images using multiple matrices. Maintaining a perfect register, several plates were carved, one for each desired color, then inked and printed in succession on the same sheet.

Appeared around 1900, it is a technique very similar to woodcut, the matrix is linoleum instead of wood. The gouges are the basic tool of this technique which has as an advantage the speed of execution and the flexibility of use.

Process similar to etching, with which it is often associated and with which tonal effects similar to watercolor are obtained. The engraver coats the plate with a fine powder of quartz and asphalt, which bonds to the bottom when the plate is heated. Immersing the plate in acid will penetrate the grains, slightly corroding the metal. The intensity of the tones depends on the quantity and timing of the etchings.

The tool used to engrave the copper plate is the burin, which is a thin quadrangular steel tool that ends in a cutting point with an oblique section, its handle is made in such a way as to allow the artist to exert strong pressure on the metal. The burin, by engraving the copper, raises thin sheets of metal, called barbs. These are carefully removed with a scraper to obtain a sharp and clean mark characteristic of this technique.

This technique is usually combined with etching. The engraver traces the design on the copper with a very pointed steel tool, the groove thus created gives rise to small metal curls, called beards. These remain on the sides of the incision and are not removed with the scraper as in the burin technique. Once the plate is inked, the ink held by the very thin metal beards will give the print those velvety tones that are the merit of this technique. The beards are very delicate and the press presses them quickly so that, generally, after about twenty impressions, the prints lose their characteristic "soft" effect.

Carborundum etching is a technique - developed by Henri Goetz - which consists in gluing a powder of very hard grains of silicon carbide onto the matrix by drawing shapes and combining the caliber of the grains and the density of their distribution before glue them. This technique, which can be used with other engraving techniques, enhances the color and gives a great plastic richness of materials and shapes.

Are to be considered original prints (xilography, burin, puntasecca, etching, aquatint, lithography, screen printing, etc.) the proofs drawn in black and in color from one or more plates conceived by the artist himself, whatever the technique used to make them.

In the twentieth century many of the traditional techniques have undergone variations due to the improvement of technology and the desire of artists to experiment with new forms of expression, so in the original prints we encounter techniques with a photographic or heliographic basis, up to the processing of images performed with the aid of computer. These particularities are indicated in the technical sheets of the work.

Japanese prints do not follow these rules: the artist made a drawing on very thin paper, this was then glued upside down on the plate and then engraved by the hori-cho (woodcutter), under the artist's control. A plate for each color was engraved.

Status is a voluntary change to the plate, while the variant is an accidental change to the plate or refers to quality or paper.

The quality or beauty of the impression is independent of the state, conservation, rarity, subject and author (a late proof of last state, if carefully printed, can be of high quality)

The adjectives used internationally to define quality are, in descending order: superb, splendid, magnificent, very beautiful, beautiful, discreet, mediocre, tired and poor. For modern and contemporary prints, when it is not a question of proofs or undocumented runs but of copies belonging to a run, in which the first and last copy have no differences in quality, these are indicated with the term " perfect example ". For Japanese prints, color quality is indicated with the following adjectives in descending order: bright, excellent, good, fair, pale.

The existence or not of the signature is always mentioned. However, please note that this is of no use either in the certification of authenticity or in the attribution. Therefore the assignment of a print to an author, unlike that of a drawing or a painting, being printed in several copies is considered a published work and therefore of a certain and documented author. For antique and Japanese prints it is difficult to speak of circulation as they were generally printed according to demand. In addition to the two large divisions, contemporary and late, the prints were drawn at different times depending on the demand.

By current edition we mean a large edition, sometimes even more than a thousand copies, desired by the author and the publisher, often as an off-text table of books or art magazines. They are not to be considered artistically minor works, many have had a parallel luxury edition. The rarity is due either to the few impressions made, or to the law of supply-demand.

The quality of conservation is indicated with the following phrases in descending order: in exceptional state of conservation, in perfect state of conservation (except for ...), in good state of conservation (except for ...). The margins are classified as follows: very thin up to 1 mm, thin from 1 to 2 mm, small from 2 to 4 mm, good from 4 to 15 mm, broad beyond 15 mm; Uncut is a sheet that preserves the measures in which it was manufactured or printed, editorial means a sheet that was put on the market without margins or with a precise size of paper chosen by the artist in agreement with the publisher. The measurements are all in millimeters, height by base, refer, for “intaglio” prints (etchings, burins,...), to the copper imprint, for the woodcuts to the marginal line and, failing these, to the sheet, for lithographs and serigraphs to the imprinted image and not to the sheet. Sometimes the reasoned catalogs report slightly different measurements, this may depend on the measurement criteria or the elasticity of the paper which, depending on the temperature / humidity of the environments in which it was stored or the pressure of the press, shrinks or widens.