Waterbury evening Democrat., 1888-09-08
HIGH MECHANICAL ART.
Some Wonderful Effects Nowadays Pr0-
 duced in LithographY.

CoAAO "OhuoTlu EHeCIS NOW802yB kT0o
 ducod in Lithography.
 "The growth of skill in the mechanical
 processes of art reproduction within the last few Eyears is something wonderful"
 said a well-known artist to a New York Mdn and Express reporter. You remem-
 Der the time when chromo-lithographs be-
 came rage. The youngsters can not re- member it, for it was, think, nearly thirty years ago. It was, of course, great in- yention-the printing of successive impress sions of different colors on the same sur face-and the work was justly praised as . great achievement. It was, however, crude in the extreme, and, while the pictures that were produced did great good in educating ignorant people to a love of the beautiful, there were many of them abominatlons in the eyes of the educated
 "Competition began at once, and artistic effect was held by many ithographers sec ondary to cheapness. Morally this was right enough, perhaps, but, artistically, it was crime. Millions of cheap pictures, badly printed and glaring and offensive in coloring, were thrown on the market at so small cost that they soon came to be given away as advertisements instead of being sold.
 "Gradually, however, processes were re- fined and better work was introduced, un- til the name abbreviated to 'chromo' was no longer reproach There were still many
 bad chromos, of course, but there were
 many good ones. Now many pictures are
 produced from the Photographic press that
 would not be out of place ID any mans house, no matter how rich or how well edu-
 cated in art he might be.
 Ut Is only within some twelve or thirteen years, however, that efforts have been
 made to reproduce Water-color painting A few were made for show at the great Gen. tennial exhibition of 1876, but they did not
 take the public fancy, though they were
 been made since, until now, such work is
 done as fairly to justify the word just used which was wonderful" q"
 The ithographer said he did not hesitate to undertake work on approval, and that it
 was quite true that the Autograph copies of Water-colors were often taken for originals. "Some little time ago,'' he said, lone of
 the largest advertisers in the country was persuaded to order a quantity of imitation
 water-colors for advertising cards. He hesi- tated about doing it, saying that he did not believe the masses of the people cared for such things. They preferred the shiny gloss of the ordinary Autograph, he believed He gave the order, however, and as he does ! things on a large scale, he gave large order for the first set of four sketches. Be- l fore this was exhausted he ordered an even AdI ger QuduGlLf, dQu GQlS was d2aln IOlIOW6Q l by an order larger than either of the pre- vious ones Some of his employees noticed l that one man came frequently for the pict- ures, asking for three or four sets at once. They were glad to give them to him, for the cards were only used as advertisements and, of course, they wanted as many as possible distributed This stranger, how ever, came so often that their curiosity was aroused and they took some pains to find out who he was They found that he was picture frame maker on Fourth avenue, who was framing the cards in such way as to hide the advertisement, and was doing 2 1 Hourlshing business selling them at three l dollars set.
 1 1.-The process of manufacturing these re- productions of water-color drawings does not differ materially from that employed in the making of the heavier colored chromo, l excepting that very delicate work, as well as careful study of faint color effects, is required on the part of the lithographer. "A separate stone is required for each color printed, and while some exquisite ef-
 fects have been produced in comparatively few printings, the faithful reproduction of more ambitious subjects often requires the use of fifteen, twenty or even more colors or tlnts. In cases where it is necessary to
 produce good results in few printings in order to lessen the expense of production, AAS AOSU 6h1l11uA ana SXp6rl6nCoQ drL1SLS are required, and have seen water-coior drawings in which dozen or more tones and colors could be readily detected, repro duced by the skillful handling of five or six l colors, merely by printing more or less transparent or opaque color over another as the case might demand. After the lithographer has carefully studied the original drawing before him, and laid out his plan, he makes a careful tracing of it on transparent gelatine on which he indicates every line or shade or
 gradation, and this tracing is carefully transferred to previously prepared stone- and serves as key to the entire work and for all the color stones.
 1.-The work on stone is drawn with a greasy black chemically prepared crayon, which, by the way, has to be sharpened backward or from the point up, as it's very brittle nature will not allow of it's being sharpened in the ordinary way. The greasy crayon penetrates the stone, which
 is then subjected to a solution of gum arabic and nitric acid, after which it is carefully washed of with water. The black drawing, however, still show, but is now easily washed from the face of the stone with turpentine, leaving the surface to all ap- pearances as clean as when the stone first came into the artists hands. It is then dampened with water. The printer passes ms roller, charged With color, over the sur face, and this adheres only where the stone is dry, or in other words, where the grease of the crayon is, sand this color is transferred from the stone to the paper.
 "The same process Is employed for the application of each successlve color, DOT tions of the picture being drawn on several different stones to obtain what may be called the composite tints, while others are only drawn on a single stone, when the color in the picture is to be one of those di- rectly employed"
 Birds and Beasts in Groups.