The Emporia news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1859-1881, 1868-05-08
HOW CHROMOs ARE MADE.

| Chromo-L ithography is the art of
printing pictures from stone, IN colors.
The most difficult branch of (which
is now generally implied when chromos
are spoken offs the art of reproducing
oil paintings. When a chrome is made
by a competent hand, it presents an ex-
act counterpart of the original painting,
with the delicate graduation of tints and
shades, and with much of the spirit and
tone of production of the brush and
pallet.
To understand how chromos are
made, the art of lithograpy must first
be briefly explained The stone used
in lithographing is a species of lime
stone found in Bavaria, and is wrought
into thick slabs with finely polished sur
face. The drawing is made upon the
slab with sort of colored soap, which
adheres to the stone, and enters into a
chemical combination with it after the
application of certain acids and gums.
| When the drawing is complete, the slab
is put on the press, and carefully damp
ened with a sponge. The oil color Cor
ink is then applied with a common
printers roller. OF course the parts of
the slab which contain no drawing, be-
ing wet, resist the ink while the draw
| ing itself, being oily, repels the water,
but retains the color applied. 1t is thus
that, without a raised surface or incis-
ion-as in common printing, wood-cuts,
and steel engravings- pro-
duces printed drawings from a perfect
ly smooth stone.
In a chrome, the first proof is light
ground-tint, covering nearly all the sur
face. 1t has only faint, shadowy re-
semblance to the completed picture.
1t is in fact rather a shadow than an
mi he
ond stone, contains all the shades of an
| other color. This process is repeated
again and again and again; occasional
ly as often as thirty times. We saw one
proof, in visit to Mr.. Prang's-a group
of cattle-that had passed through the
press twelve times and it still bore a
greater resemblance to spoiled colored
photograph than to the charming pic
ture which it subsequently became. The
number of impressions, however, does
not necessarily indicate the number of
coIors IN painting, because the colors
ana tints are greatly multiplied by COM
blnatlons created in the process of print
ing one over another. In twenty-five
impressions, it is sometimes necessary
and possible to produce a hundred dis
tinct shades.
The last impression is made by an
engraved stone, which produces that
resemblance to canvas noticeable in all
of Mr.. Prang's finer specimens. En-
glish and German chromos, as a rule,
do not attempt to give this delicate final
touch, although it would seem to be es-
sential in order to make perfect imita-
ton of 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.
The process thus briefly explained,
we need hardly add, requires equally
great skill and judgment at every stage.
A single error is instantly detected by
the practised eye, in the finished speci-
men. The production of a chrome, if
it is at all complicated, requires several
months-sometimes several years-of
careful preparation. The mere draw
ing of the different and entirely detach-
ed parts on so many different stones is
of itself work that requires an amount
of labor and degree of skill, which,
to person unfamiliar with the process,
would appear incredible. Still more
| difficult, and requiring still greater skill,
| is the process of coloring. This de-
mands knowledge which artists have
hitherto almost exclusively monopo-
lied, and in addition to it, the practical
familiarity of printer with mechanic
| al details. Drying" and Registering
are as important branches of the art of
making chromos as drawing and color
| ing. On proper registering, for exam
pie, the entire possibility of producing
picture at every stage of its progress
depends. Registering" is that part of
pressman's work which consists in so
arranging 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 oppo-
site the page printed OH the other side
of the sheet, in order that the impress
sion, if on thin paper, may not ''show
through" In newspaper work this is
of less importance, and often is not at
! tended to with any special care. But
| in chrome -hthograyhyt the difference of
a hairs breadth would spoil picture
for it would hopelessly mix up the
| colors.
After the chrome has passed through
the press, it is embossed and vanished,
and then put up for the market. These
final processes are for the purpose of
breaking the glossy light, and of soft
ening the hard outlines which the pic
ture receives from the stone, which i'm
parts to it the resemblance of a paint
ing on canvas.
! Mr.. Prang began his business in the
humblest way, but has rapidly increas-
ed his establishment, until he now en-
ploys fifty workmen,-nearly all of
them artists and artisans of the most
slilful class,-and is preparing to move
into larger building at Roxbury. He
uses eighteen presses and his sales are
| enormous. His catalogue now embra-
ces a large number of Album Cards,
about seventy sets of twelve in each
set; a beautiful series of illuminated
'.Beatitudes" and ''Scriptural Notices =
an endless list of our great men, and OF
men not so great after all !; of juveniles,
notably, profusely illustrated edition
of ''Old Mother HUBBARD and of half
chromos and chromos proper: Tait's
| Chickens" ''Duckhngs," and "Quails''
were the first chromos that met an in
slant and wide recognition. Nineteen
thousand copies of the Chickens" alone
were sold. Bricher's early Autumn on
Esopus Creek is one of the best chromos
ever made on small scale. The EtBul-
| finch" and the '.Linnet" (after Cruik-
shank) are admirable. There are other
chromos which are less successful. and
| one or two that are not successful at all
but they are nearly all excellent copies
of the originals, with which the defects
must be charged
The chromos of Bricher's paintings
are really wonderfully accurate.
| Mr.. Prang's masterpiece, however, is
not yet published, although it is nearly
ready for the market. 1t entirely sur
passes all his previous efforts. 1t is
1 q -,