A rare first edition of The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling, with a poignant handwritten note by the author to his young daughter, has been discovered.
Continue Reading Add comment April 9th, 2010
Screenprinting is a printing technique that uses a woven mesh to support an ink-blocking stencil. The attached stencil forms open areas of mesh that transfer ink as a sharp-edged image onto a substrate. A roller or squeegee is moved across the screen stencil, forcing or pumping ink past the threads of the woven mesh in the open areas.
It is also a stencil method of print making in which a design is imposed on a screen of silk or other fine mesh, with blank areas coated with an impermeable substance, and ink is forced through the mesh onto the printing surface. It is also known as silk screening or serigraphy.
Add comment April 7th, 2010
Letterpress printing is form of relief printing of text and image using a press with a “type-high bed” printing press and movable type, in which a reversed, raised surface is inked and then pressed into a sheet of paper to obtain a positive right-reading image. It was the normal form of printing text in the west from its invention by Johannes Gutenberg in the mid-15th century until the 19th century and remained in wide use for books and other uses until the second half of the 20th century.
Continue Reading Add comment April 5th, 2010
From: A Guide to An Exhibition of the ARTS OF THE BOOK. Wm. Ivins, Jr., Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1924, New York
Add comment April 4th, 2010
Hot metal typesetting (also called mechanical typesetting, hot lead typesetting, hot metal, and hot type) refers to 19th-century and early 20th century technologies for typesetting text in letterpress printing.
Continue Reading Add comment April 2nd, 2010
A signed copy of a Jane Austen novel published in 1816 has been bought for £325,000.
The book is a first edition copy of Emma which Austen presented to her friend Anne Sharp, the inspiration for Mrs Weston in the novel. Jonkers Rare Books in Oxfordshire paid £180,000 for it at auction in 2008.
It is understood that a British collector bought the book, which is one of 12 special ‘presentation’ copies Austen gave to friends and family. The book has previously been exhibited in Hong Kong, New York and San Francisco. The rest of the presentation copies were donated to relatives.
Christian Jonkers, director of Jonkers Rare Books in Henley-on-Thames, said: “We had several clients around the world who were considering this book, but it is pleasing that the book will remain in this country. “It is unique, considering the whole historical context of the book – the fact that it was given by Austen to her best friend who was a model for one of the principal characters in the novel.”
Source: BBC News
Add comment April 1st, 2010
The comic debut of Superman has sold for an out-of-this-world price.
The copy of Action Comics No. 1 from 1938, which features the first appearance of the “Man of Steel” was bought by an undisclosed buyer for a record $1.5 million Monday on the online auction site ComicConnect.com. “This is the Holy Grail of Holy Grails,” said Vincent Zurzolo, co-owner of the Web site.
Continue Reading Add comment March 31st, 2010
Relief is an image created by a printmaking process, such as woodcut, where the areas of the matrix (plate or block) that are to show printed black (typically) are on the original surface; the parts of the matrix that are to be blank (white) having been cut away, or otherwise removed.
Continue Reading Add comment March 29th, 2010
Intaglio is a family of printmaking techniques in which the image is incised into a surface, known as the matrix or plate. Normally, copper or zinc plates are used as a surface, and the incisions are created by etching, engraving, drypoint, aquatint or mezzotint. Collographs may also be printed as intaglio plates.
Continue Reading Add comment March 25th, 2010
Lithography (from Greek λίθος – lithos, ‘stone’ + γράφω – graphο, ‘to write’) is a method for printing using a stone (lithographic limestone) or a metal plate with a completely smooth surface. Invented in 1796 by Bavarian author Alois Senefelder as a low-cost method of publishing theatrical works, lithography can be used to print text or artwork onto paper or another suitable material.
Continue Reading Add comment March 23rd, 2010
