The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1868-01-17
From the Boston Daily Aduertiser.
How Chromos are Made.

Chrome Lithography is the art of print
ing pictures from stone, in colors. The
most difficult branch of (which is now
generally implied when the chromos are
spoken Offs the art of reproducing oil
paintings. When chrome is made by a
competent hand, it presents an exact
counterpart of the original painting, with
the delicate gradations of tints and shades,
and with much of the spirit and tone of a
production of the brush and pallet.
To understand how chromos are made,
the art of photography must first be briefly
explained. The stone used in ithograph,
ing is species of limestone found 10 Ba-
varia, and is wrought into thick slabs with
finely polished surface. The drawing is
made upon the slab with sort of colored
soap, which aiheres to the stone, and en-
tiers into CHI mical combination with it
after the application of certain acids and
gums. When the drawing is com plete,
the slab is put on the press, and carefully
dampene with a sponge. The oil color
Cor ink is then applied with common
printer roller. Of course, the parts of
the slab which contain no drawing, beiug
wet, resist the ink while tue drawing
itself, being oily, repsis the water, but
retains the color applied. It is thus that,
without raised surface or incision-as in
common printing, wood cuts, and steel en-
gravings-lithography produces printed
drawings from = perfectly smooth stone. =
In chrome, the first proof is light
ground tint, covering nearly all the sur,
face 1t has only a faint, shad,wy re-
semblance to the completed picture. 1t is
in fact rather a shadow than an outline.
The next proof, from the second stone,
contains all the shades of another color
This process is repeated again and again
and again occasionally, as ofteu as thirty
times. We saw one proof, in visit to
Mr.. Prang's establishments group of
cattls-that had passed through the press
twelve tunes and it still bore a greater
resemblance to spoiled colored phi ITO,
graph than to the charming picture which
it subsequently became The number of
impressions, how ever, does not necessari.
ly Indicate the number If cJlors in
painting, because the colors and tints are
greatly multiplied by combinations created
in the process of printing one over anoth-
er. In twenty-five impressions, it is some
times necessary and possible to produce a
hundred distinct shades.
The last impression is made by an en-
graved stone, which produces that resem-
blance to canvas noticeable in all of Mr..
Prang's finer specimens. Enslish and
German chromos, as rule, do not at
tempt to give this delicate final touch, al
though it would seem to be essential in
order to make a perfect Imitation of a
painting.
The paper used is white, heavy ''plate
paper" of the best quality, which has to
pass through heavy press, sheet by
sheet, before its surface is fit to receive an
impression. .le ..... ....-. r
The process thus briefly explained, we
need hardly add, requires equally great
skill and judgment at every &C. A
single error is instantly deteotei by the
practised eye in the finished specimen
The production of a chrome, if it is at all
complicated, requires several mouths
sometimes several years-of ca. eful prep
aratiou. The mere drawing of the differ
ent and entirel y-detached parts Oh so
many different stones is of itself work
that requires an amount of labor and a
degree Of skill, which, to person unfa-
miiar with the process, would appear in-
credible. Still more difficult, and need
ing still greater skill, is the process of
colorng. This demands knowledge
which artists have hitherto almost exclu-
sively mopopolized, and, in addition to it,
the practical familiarity of a printer with
mechanical details. drying" aut Greg
istering' are as important branches of the
art of making chromos as drawing and
coloring. On proper registering, for ex-
ample, the entire possibility of producing
picture at every stage of its progress de-
ponds. "Regis tering" is that part of
pressman's work which consists 10 so ar.
ranging the paper in the press, that it
shall receive the impression on exactly the
same spot of every sheet. In book work.
each page must be exactly opposite the
page printed on the other side Of the
sheet, in order that the impression, if on
thin paper, may not "show through" In
newspaper work this is of less Importance,
and often is not attended to with any
special care. But in cLromo-lithography
the difference of hairs. breadth would
spoil picture fJr,it would hopelessIy
miz up the colors. slH ta'f ID
After the chrome has passsd through
the press, it is embossed apd vanished,
and then put up for the market. These.
fual processes are for the purpose of
breaking the glossy light, and of soften
ing the hard outlines which the picture
receives from the stone, which imparts to
it the resemblance ofa painting on cam
vas. 35H0. t'taa .-.afe a.1#
Mr.. Prang began his business in the
humblest way, but has rapidly increased
his establishment, until be now employs
bfty workmen--nearly oil of them artists
aud artisans of the most skillful class
! and is preparing to move into larger
building at Roxbury. He uses eighteen
presses and his sales are enormous. -