I-70. Lithography: The Popularization of Printing in the 19th Century - Advance Reading List

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  • Preliminary Advices

    The series of topics to be covered in this course involves crossing boundaries between printing history, printmaking and illustration, bibliography, musicology, and ephemera studies. We have to do this if we are to form a full and proper picture of lithography in the age of the hand press (broadly the first half of the 19th century). Some of you are already experts in some of the fields to be covered, but if you are not familiar with particular fields you might find it helpful to read or dip into a few of the following:

    1. Gascoigne, Bamber. How to identify prints (London: Thames & Hudson, 1986; several times reprinted)
    2. Gaskell, Philip. A new introduction to bibliography (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1972; rep with corr 1974, &c. and a recent paperback reprint published by Oak Knoll Books)
    3. Griffiths, Antony. Prints and printmaking: an introduction to the history and techniques (London: British Museum Publications, 1 980)
    4. Ivins, William M., Jr. Prints and visual communication (Cambridge: Harvard, 1953; rep Boston: MIT, 1979)
    5. Krummel, D. W. and Stanley Sadie, ed. Music printing and publishing (Basingstoke & London: Macmillan/NY: W. W. Norton, 1990) ; particularly the first part
    6. Rickards, Maurice. Collecting printed ephemera (Oxford: Phaidon/NY: Abbeville, 1988)
    7. Twyman, Michael. Printing 1770-1970 (London: Eyre & Spottiswoode, 1970; reprint New Castle DE: Oak Knoll Books, 1998).

    Technical manuals are the basis for the study of early lithographic printing. It would be good if you were able to read or scan one of the early manuals (though original editions may be difficult to find). Any such manual would be worth reading, but the following have been among the most influential:
    8. Engelmann, Godefroy. Traité théorique et pratique de lithographie (Mulhouse, 1840)
    9. Hullmandel, Charles. The art of drawing on stone (London, 1824; 2nd edn 1833; 3rd edn 1835 rep NY: Garland, 1982)
    10. Senefelder, J. Alois. Vollständiges Lehrbuch der Steindruckerey, 2 vols (Munich & Vienna, 1818; 2nd edn Munich 1821). English translation of the 1821 edn by J. W. Muller (NY: Fuchs & Lang, 1911)
    11. Senefelder, J. Alois. A complete course of lithography (London, 1819); reprinted with a new introduction by A. Hyatt Mayor (NY: Da Capo, 1968): a slightly shorter version of no. 10

    Several general histories of lithography or compilations of articles on lithography have been published that provide a useful backdrop to the course. Please make yourself familiar with at least one of the following:
    12. Gilmour, Pat. Lasting impressions: lithography as an art (Canberra: Australian National Gallery/Philadelphia: University of Pe nnsylvania, 1988)
    13. Pennell, Joseph and Elizabeth Robins. Lithography and lithographers (London 1898; 2nd edn 1915)
    14. Porzio, Domenico, ed. Lithography: 200 years of art, history & technique (NY: Abrams, 1983)
    15. Twyman, Michael. Lithography 1800-1850 (London: Oxford University Press, 1970)
    16. Weber, Wilhelm. A history of lithography (London: Thames & Hudson, 1966)

    Though the course is specifically concerned with European lithography, there are several books on American lithography that cover similar issues:

    17. Marzio, Peter C. Chromolithography 1840-1900: the democratic art (Boston: Godine, 1979)
    18. Peters, Harry T. America on stone (NY: Doubleday, Doran & Co, 1931)
    19. Pierce, S. and C. Slautterback. Boston lithography 1825-1880 (Boston: The Boston Athenaeum, 1991)

    The remaining items on this list relate specifically to the topics to be covered during the week. It is with considerable embarrassment that I refer to my own publications so frequently; all I can say by way of excuse is that most of our topics have not attracted the attention of other writers. If you were to read all the papers and books listed below you wouldn’t need to follow the course. Whether you read any of them is up to you.
    Day 1 focuses on two important early manuals on lithography: those of Senefelder and Hullmandel (nos. 9 and 10). A reading ofLithography 1800-1850 (no. 15) would prepare you for this session.

    Day 2 deals with equipment and materials. The specific concerns are lithographic stone and presses. The following papers cover these topics more fully than we shall be able to do in our sessions:
    20. Twyman, Michael, “Lithographic stone and the printing trade in the nineteenth century,” Journal of the Printing Historical Society 8(1972), 1-41
    21. ______. “Thomas Barker’s lithographic stones,” ibid. 12 (1977/8), 1-32
    22. ______. “The lithographic hand press 1796-1850,” ibid. 3 (1967), 3-50
    23. Weimerskirch, Philip L., “Lithographic stone in America,” Printing History 11 (1989), 3-15

    Day 3 focuses on the lithographic trade. The first session takes Hullmandel’s establishment as a case study; the second is devoted to a study of the lithographic trade in London in the first half of the 19th century. There are two relevant papers:
    24. Twyman, Michael. “Charles Joseph Hullmandel: lithographic printer extraordinary,” in Gilmour (no. 12), 42-90, 362-67
    25. ______. A directory of London lithographic printers (London: Printing Historical Society, 1976)

    Day 4 is devoted to two poorly documented branches of the lithographic trade: book production and music printing. The first is the subject of
    26. Twyman, Michael. Early lithographed books (London: Farrand Press/Williamsburg, VA, The Book Press Ltd., 1990)
    The second is briefly discussed in chapters by H. E. Poole and D. W. Krummel in Krummel (no. 5); and by
    27. D. W. Krummel (comp.), Guide for dating early published music (Hackensack, NJ: Joseph Boonin Inc., 1974)
    28. Gamble, William. Music engraving and printing (London 1923; reprinted NY: Arno, 1971)
    29. Twyman, Michael. Early lithographed music (London: Farrand Press, 1996)

    Day 5 morning sessions are devoted to 19th-century color printing in general and chromolithography in particular. Publications that are central to the subject are:
    30. Burch, R. M. Colour printing and colour printers (London: Isaac Pitman/NY: Baker & Taylor, 1910; reprinted NY: Garland, 1981)
    31. Gascoigne, Bamber. Milestones in colour printing 1457-1859 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997).
    32. Friedman, Joan M. Color printing in England 1486-1870 (New Haven: Yale Center for British Art, 1978)
    33. McLean, Ruari. Victorian book design and colour printing (1963, 2nd edn London: Faber & Faber, 1972)
    34. Wakeman, Geoffrey & Bridson, G. D. R. A guide to 19th century colour printers (Loughborough: The Plough Press, 1975).
    Lithographic jobbing and other ephemeral work is the topic for the Day 5 afternoon session. This is the least well documented of the major branches of the lithographic trade, though it is referred to in passing in many books that discuss particular categories of ephemera, such as sheet music covers, greetings cards, labels, and rewards of merit. Examples of this kind of book are:
    35. Allen, Alastair & Hoverstadt, Joan. The history of printed scraps (London: New Cavendish Books, 1983; pb rep Pincushion Press 1990)
    36. Buday, Gyorge C. The history of the Christmas card (London: Rockliff, 1954; rep 1964, 1992)
    37. Davidson, Joe. The art of the cigar label (Secaucus, NJ: Wellfleet Press, 1989)
    38. Fenn, Patricia & Malpa, Alfred P. Rewards of merit (Charlottesville, VA: Ephemera Society of America, 1994).
    39. Pearsall, R. Victorian sheet music covers (Newton Abbot: David & Charles, 1972; Detroit: Gale Research Co., 1972)
    If you are unusually hard pressed for time and are relatively new to the subject, I suggest the following starter kit:
    No. 1 [Gascoigne]: sections 19, 20, 27, and 28, which describe different kinds of lithography
    No. 7 [Twyman Printing 1770-1970]: Chapter 2: “New processes,” and Chapter 6: “Pictures into print”
    No. 15 [Twyman Lithography 1800-1850]: Part I: “The first twenty years of lithography”
    No. 29 [Twyman Early lithographed music]: Chapter 5: “Lithographic stone” and Chapter 6: “Lithographic presses and materials”
    and
    Twyman, M. “The art of drawing on stone,” Penrose Annual 64 (1971), pp 97-124.
    This may be the best sequence in which to approach your reading.