Senefelder Lithogra

by Alois Senefelder and Out Of Print

Book Overview

No Synopsis Available.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0306800535
• ISBN13: 9780306800535
• Release Date: March 1977
• Publisher: Da Capo Press
• Length: 342 Pages
• Weight: 1.90 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Litho by the man who created litho

Lithography was a major step forward in printing. It combined the versatility of intaglio prints with the production capablity of letterpress, and made printed reproduction accessible and affordable. Back when copying meant hand-copying, it was quite remarkable (to use his example) to have fifty copies of a meeting's minutes an hour after the meeting. What amazes me is not just the fact of the copies, but the low cost that made it worthwhile to record even mundane meetings.The most remarkable fact about lithography is that very nearly every technical aspect of the craft was developed or foretold by one mind, that of Alois Senefelder. Very few other branches of knowledge have been so completely laid out by their founders. Shannon's information theory and Einstein's general relativity occur to me, but not much else. This book is where Senefelder lays out the history, the materials, and the technique of early lithography.History, his invention and commercialization of lithography, is the first of the book's three sections. Mostly, this is Alois' writings on the wonders of Alois. Anyone who's read Cellini's autobiography will see a similar ego. The book's second section describes the making of lithography's tools and materials. I imagine that it was authoritative and practical in the 19th century. It was also aimed at the complete do-it-yourselfer, down to etching watch springs in acid to make nibs for pens. Today's reader will probably file his recipes next to mysterious alchemical concoctions. Senefelder assumed that the reader had ready access to sulfuric, nitric, hydrochloric, and phosphoric acids (but he does note that the latter can be prepared by burning your own phosphorus). In preparing different inks and crayons, he would have us combine hog's lard, tallow, soap, minium (lead), and vermillion (mercury). Other steps involve burning some material until its smoke turns yellow. Truly, that was the age before the EPA and OSHA. However it may look to a modern reader, it shows Senefelder's thoroughness and energy in trying every combination of techniques accessible to his rich imagination.I found the book's final section to be the most interesting: the techniques of preparing the stone and pulling the prints. Much of this advice is still applicable, especially the many ways of marking the lithographic stone or plate. A few of the techniques, those that imitate intaglio processes, seem to have fallen out of fashion. Partly, the modern litho plates do not allow some of the freedoms of the softer limestone. Mostly, I think, litho developed around its unique features. The intaglio techniques may have been like training wheels, easing traditional printers in the new method, and lost when they were no longer needed. Still, it was worth seeing that Senefelder managed to emulate nearly every intaglio process in stone, except maybe for mezzotint.This book is not for the modern printmaker, since materials are so different and since technique is taught in mo