Printing Colour 1700-1830 by Grasselli, Margaret Morgan; Savage, Elizabeth;

Short description:

From the invention of four-colour separation printing c. 1710 to the introduction of chromolithography c. 1830, Printing Colour 1700-1830 offers the first survey of eighteenth-century colour printmaking in and beyond western Europe, dynamically expanding print history to include such diverse consumer goods as clothing, wallpapers, and pottery.

Long description:

Printing Colour 1700-1830 offers a broad-ranging examination of the rich period of invention, experimentation and creativity surrounding colour printing in Europe between two critically important developments, four-colour separation printing around 1710, and chromolithography around 1830. Its 28 field-defining contributions, by 26 leading experts, expand the corpus far beyond the beautiful, already well-studied images produced in European hubs like London and Paris. The chapters unveil the explosive growth in the production and marketing of colour prints at this pivotal moment. They address the numerous scientific and technological advances that fed the burgeoning popularity for such diverse colour-printed consumer goods as clothing, textiles, wallpapers, and ceramics. They recontextualise the rise in colour-printed paper currencies, book endpapers and typography, and ephemera, including lottery tickets and advertisements. This landmark volume launches colour printing of the long 18th century as an interdisciplinary field of study, opening new avenues for research across historical and scientific fields.

In addition to collating three hundred fifty beautiful high-resolution images, this book offers an exceptional overview of the practices, materials, and figures that contributed to bringing colour to European visual and textual culture in the long eighteenth century.

Table of Contents:

• Introduction


• Part I: Materials and Techniques Printing Colour in 18th-Century Europe


• Tools, Machines, and Presswork for Printing Colour in 18th-Century Europe


• Colour Printing Inks and Colour Inking in 18th-Century Europe


• Part II Relief Techniques: Letterpress, and Colour Woodcut


• Colour Letterpress in Europe in the Long 18th Century


• Elisha Kirkall and his Proposals for Printing in Chiaroscuro, Natural Colours and Tints, 1720-1740


• Printing Chiaroscuro and Colour Woodcuts in Paris, Venice, and London c.1725-70


• Bringing Colour to Books and Objects with Decorated Paper in the Long 18th Century


• Colour for Commerce: Letterpress-Printed Ephemera in Britain, 1700-1830


• Part III Mezzotint and Trichromatic Printing


• The Politics of Process Mezzotint: Jacob Christoff Le Blon's Reputation, 1700-89


• From Colour Theory to Colour Practice: Printmakers in Pursuit of the Ideal Pigments in 18th-Century Europe


• Colouring the Body: Printed Colour in Medical Treatises during the Long Eighteenth Century


• Colour Printing in Late 18th-Century Italy: Édouard and Louis Dagoty, 1770-1800


• Part IV Chalk, Pastel and Watercolour Manner, and Aquatint


• Printed Paintings and Engraved Drawings: Technical Innovations in Colour Printing in 18th-Century France


• Coloured Prints in Imitation of Old Master Drawings in 18th-Century Italy: Anton Maria Zanetti the Elder, Benigno Bossi, Francesco Rosaspina and their Contemporaries


• François-Philippe Charpentier and the Development of Aquatint in France in the 1760s


• A Voyage pittoresque in Norway through Colour Prints, 1789-c.1815


• The Market for Colour Prints in Paris at the End of the 18th Century


• Multiple-Plate Colour Prints and the Problems of Variant Impressions, Missing Plates, and Disappearing Inks


• Part V Stipple and a la Poupée


• English Colour-Printed Stipple Engravings, 1774-1800


• Between Painting and Graphic Arts: Colour Printmaking in Russia, 1750s-1800s


• Anne Allen, Jean Pillement, and the Development of à la poupée Printing in France


• The Contribution of à la poupée-inked Colour Printing to Natural History Illustration in France, 1800-1870


• Part VI Consumer Goods and Expanding Markets for Colour Printing


• Anatomy to Embroidery: Intaglio Colour-Printed Illustrations in European Books and Periodicals, 1700-1850


• Early Dye-Patterned Colour on Calico in Europe, 1600-1840


• Printed Wallpaper in England in the Long Eighteenth Century


• Colour Printing on English Ceramics, 1751-70


• Part VII Technical Experimentation and Industrialisation


• William Blake's Colour Printing: Methods and Materials


• Innovation and Tradition in Early 19th-Century Colour Printing


• The Beginnings of Commercial Colour Printing in Europe, 1835-1840