IMPROVEMENTS IN THE PROCESS OF PRODUCING PRINTS OR IMPRESSIONS FROM STEEL, COPPER, AND OTHER PLATES
Year: 1839

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, HENRY
GRIFFITHS, of Acton Place, Camden Town, in the County of Middlesex, Artist,
send greeting.
+
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at
Westminster, the Twenty-fifth day of May, in the second year of Her reign,
and in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and thirty-nine, did,
for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said Henry
Griffiths, Her especial licence, full power, sole privilege and authority, that
I, the said Henry Griffiths, my executors, administrators, and assigns, and
such others as, I, the said Henry Griffiths, my executors, administrators, or
assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time
and at all times, during the term of years therein mentioned, should and
lawfully might make, use, exercise,, and yend, within England, Wales, and
the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE
PROCESS OF PRODUCING PRINTS OR IMPRESSIONS FROM STEEL, COPPER, AND OTHER
PLATES;" in which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso obliging me,
the said Henry Griffiths, by an instrument in, writing under my hand..and
seal, particularly to describe and ascertain the nature of my said Invention,
and in what manner the same is to be performed, and to cause the same to
be enrolled in Her Majesty's High Court of Chancery - within six. calendar
months next and immediately after the date of the said in part. recited Letters
|Price Sd.]
:

page_text: Patent, as in and by the same, reference being thereunto had, will more fully
and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Henry Griffiths, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention, and
the manner in which the same is to be performed, are particularly described
and ascertained in and by the following description thereof, reference being
had to the Drawings hereunto annexed, that is to say:-
My Improvements in the Process of producing Prints or Impressions
from Steel, Copper, and other Plates, have for their object the production
of imitations of drawings by several successive operations of printing different
colours or tints upon paper or other suitable material, each successive im-
pression being so carefully placed as to register with perfect accuracy, and
fit the previous impression, in order that when the several successive impres-
sions have been so taken upon one sheet, tablet. or surface of paper or other
material, the whole shall produce the effect of a drawing or picture delineated
in its various tints or colours with a camel's hair or other pencil. In performing
this process I first provide a series of three, four. or more plates of copper or
steel, as many in number as may be required. to produce the different grada-
tions of tints or of colours in the drawing to be imitated. Upon these plates I
produce severally, by the ordinary process of etching, stippling, aqua-tinting,
or mezzo-tinto, or other suitable modes of engraving, the selected paris or
portions of the drawing which are to be represented by the particular tint or
color printed from each individual plate. When the several plates have been
thus engraven there must be lines or registering points marked upon all the
plates, accurately corresponding. in order that the first impression upon the
paper may exactly register with the parts of the subject upon the successive
plates.
In order that my operation of printing a series of impressions upon one
sheet of paper or tablet, so that they may collectively produce one picture,
may be clearly understood, I have hereto appended a series of prints taken
from several plates, shewing the different stages of the business. Supposing
that I am about to print a flower in colours in imitation of a drawing. I produce
upon a plate, by some of the modes of engraving above alluded to, the form of
the pale yellow part of the flower, which I then print upon the paper, as shewn
in Fig. 1. ] next produce a plate having only that part of the flower
engraven on it which is to represent the central bright tint and the green
stalk, which I print upon the former impression, as shewn at Fig. 2. A third
plate is then provided, having the forms of the shadows only; this is to be
And lastly I produce
printed upon the two former, as shewn in Fig. 3.

page_text: a plate on which is engraven the deep purple tint of the flower, and having
printed this upon the three preceding impressions, complete the picture of the
flower, as at Fig. 4. Supposing that the subject of the drawing to be imitated
is a landscape, I engrave a plate with the forms only of the grey tints repre-
senting hills and sky, and parts of the foreground, and having printed this
produce the imperfect or first stage of the picture shewn at Fig. 5. A second
plate is then provided, having only the forms of the yellow tints of the drawing,
which is to be printed upon the previous impression, and will thus give the
picture in that stage represented at Fig. 6. A third plate is then to be
employed, having only the shapes of the brown colour and broad shadows
of the picture, which being printed upon the two preceding impressions,
gives a resemblance of the landscape drawing in the advanced stage of Fig. 7.
Lastly, I provide a plate having the stronger or more powerful parts of the
picture engraven on it, and having printed this upon the three previous
impressions produce a finished copy of the drawing, as at Fig. 8.
I have now to remark that I do not always print with oil colours. as some
of the tints designed to imitate water colours would lose much of their
brilliancy and delicacy if mixed with oil. I therefore sometimes employ moist
water colours for printing; but wherever brilliancy. and purity are essential I
use the color in a dry powdered state.
The process of printing with oil colour is so well known as to render any
description of it unnecessary. That of printing from moist water colours has
also been of late in use, but if not generally known I would merely observe
that the parts of the plate to be printed by moist water colours are covered by
a small dabber, and the smooth surface of the plate wiped clean by a damp
rag. In printing with dry colours I first grind the color with pure water or
spirits of wine, and, when dry, reduce it to a very finely powdered state; I then
apply the powdered or dry colour to the parts of the plate required by means
of a camel's hair pencil, and carefully wipe off all the superfluous color by the
hand or by a soft feather. The plate is then put into the press and the damped
paper laid upon it, and after the dry colour impression has been given to the
paper by passing the plate under the rollers, the successive impressions should
be taken whilst the paper remains damp, excepting in cases where great force
of colour is required, which may be promoted by drying the paper between
each stage.
In witness whereof, I, the said Henry Griffiths, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twenty-fifth day of November, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and thirty-nine.

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Twenty-fifth day of November,
in the third year of the reign of Her Majesty Queen Victoria, the said
Henry Griffiths came before our said Lady the Queen in Her Chancery, and
acknowledged the Instrument aforesaid, and all and every thing therein
contained and specified, in form above written. And also the Instrument
aforesaid was stamped according to the tenor of the Statute made in the fifty-
fifth year of the reign of His late Majesty King George the Third.
Inrolled the Twenty-fifth day of November. One thousand eight hundred