ABOUT ANTIQUE PRINTS

Humans had always drawn and painted pictures or symbols of the world around them: particularly flaura and fauna, as well as representations of religious beliefs.

By the end of the 15th Century, there was a ‘perfect storm’ of technical development, artistic excellence, scientific discovery, and geographic expansion that created a virtual explosion of printing throughout Europe and adjacent areas. Gutenberg had developed the moveable type printing press during the 1450s, the Renaissance was in bloom, and the human imagination was released from the confines of the middle ages.

Then after Columbus in 1492, waves of explorers who regularly took artists and scientists with them on their vogages, brought back tales of fantastic beasts and primitive cultures. Book production soared, libraries and schools multiplied. Maps and illustrated books, particularly bibles, books on exploration, and natural history volumes, as well as pulp novels were in high demand. Copper plate engraving became a major part of a major industry.

Many of these engraved ‘book plates’ were hand colored, and publishing houses employing great numbers of artists and printers spread .

In time, and especially when the scientific or geographical content of these books became obsolete, the engravings became valuable and were treated as works of art. Individual artists began publishing their own books which featured hand colored ‘natural history’ engravings that were technically and artistically works of superb craftsmanship.

We had entered the Golden Age of Printing, until roughly 1820 when steel replaced copper and more mechanized and photographic processes took hold.

This short article cannot begin to address the masters of natural history engraving: Merian, de Bry, Hogarth, Ortelilus, Besler, Weinmann, Gould, Audobon: they all produced work that is more prized today than ever.