A stele is a stone or wooden slab, generally taller than it is wide, erected for funerals or commemorative purposes, most usually decorated with the names and titles of the deceased or living — inscribed, carved in relief A stele ' onMouseout='HidePop("6462")' href="http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Silk">silk
Silk is a natural protein fiber, some forms of which can be woven into textiles. The best-known type of silk is obtained from cocoons made by the larvae of the mulberry silkworm Bombyx mori reared in captivity...
and
cottonCotton is a soft, staple fiber that grows in a form known as a boll around the seeds of the cotton plant, a shrub native to tropical and subtropical regions around the world, including the Americas, India and Africa. The fiber most often is spun into yarn or thread and used to make a soft,...
were exported to Europe throughout the Modern Period.
The three necessary components for woodblock printing are the wood block, which carries the design cut in
reliefRelief carving as a type of woodcarving is as old as antiquity, yet it is still enjoyed by carvers today. Though it is not as popular as other forms of wood carving, it is gaining in popularity because of its versatility as a medium of artistic expression. There is essentially no limit to this form...
; dye or
inkAn ink is a liquid containing various pigments and/or dyes used for coloring a surface to produce an image, text, or design. Ink is used for drawing and/or writing with a pen, brush or quill...
, which had been widely used in the ancient world; and either cloth or
paperPaper is thin material mainly used for writing upon, printing upon or for packaging. It is produced by pressing together moist fibers, typically cellulose pulp derived from wood, rags or grasses, and drying them into flexible sheets....
, which was first developed in China, around the
3rdThe 3rd century BC started the first day of 300 BC and ended the last day of 201 BC. It is considered part of the Classical era, epoch, or historical period.-Overview:...
or 2nd century BC. Woodblock printing on
papyrusPapyrus is a thick paper-like material produced from the pith of the papyrus plant, Cyperus papyrus, a wetland sedge that was once abundant in the Nile Delta of Egypt....
seems never to have been practised, although it would be possible.
Because
ChineseWritten Chinese comprises the written symbols used to represent spoken Chinese and the rules about how they are arranged and punctuated. These symbols are commonly known as Chinese characters . Chinese characters do not constitute an alphabet or a compact syllabary...
has a character set running into the thousands, woodblock printing suits it better than
movable typeMovable type is the system of printing and typography that uses movable components to reproduce the elements of a document . The first known movable type system was invented in China by Bi Sheng out of ceramic between 1041 and 1048. Metal movable type was first invented in Korea during the Goryeo...
to the extent that characters only need to be created as they occur in the text. Although the Chinese had invented a form of
movable typeMovable type is the system of printing and typography that uses movable components to reproduce the elements of a document . The first known movable type system was invented in China by Bi Sheng out of ceramic between 1041 and 1048. Metal movable type was first invented in Korea during the Goryeo...
with baked clay in the 11th century, and metal movable type was introduced in Korea in the 13th century, woodblocks continued to be preferred owing to the formidable challenges of typesetting Chinese text with its 40,000 or more characters. Also, the objective of printing in the East may have been more focused on standardization of ritual text (such as the Buddhist canon
TripitakaThe ' is the Sanskrit term used by Westerners for a Buddhist canon of scriptures. Asian Buddhists of the Theravada Buddhist school use the term Tipitaka to refer to the Pali Canon...
, requiring 130,000 woodblocks), and the purity of validated woodblocks could be maintained for centuries.
When there was a need for the reproduction of a text, the original block could simply be brought out again, while moveable type necessitated error-prone composition of distinct "editions".
In China,
KoreaKorea is a civilization and formerly unified nation currently divided into two states. Located on the Korean Peninsula, it borders China to the northwest, Russia to the northeast, and is separated from Japan to the east by the Korea Strait....
, and
Japanis an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, People's Republic of China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
, the state involved itself in printing at a relatively early stage; initially only the government had the resources to finance the carving of the blocks for long works.
The difference between East Asian woodblock printing and the Western
printing pressA printing press is a mechanical device for applying pressure to an inked surface resting upon a medium , thereby transferring an image. The mechanical systems involved were first assembled in Germany by the goldsmith Johannes Gutenberg around 1440, based on existing screw-presses used to press...
had major implications for the development of book culture and book markets in East Asia and Europe.
Early books
Woodblock printing in China is strongly associated with
BuddhismBuddhism, as traditionally conceived, is a path of salvation attained through insight into the ultimate nature of reality. It encompasses a variety of traditions, beliefs and practices, largely based on teachings attributed to Siddhartha Gautama, commonly known as the Buddha...
, which encouraged the spread of charms and sutras. In the Tang Dynasty, a
ChineseThe term Chinese people may refer to any of the following:*People who reside in and hold citizenship of the People's Republic of China or the Republic of China . This definition stems from a legal perspective...
writer named Fenzhi first mentioned in his book "Yuan Xian San Ji" that the woodblock was used to print Buddhist scriptures during the Zhenguan years (AD 627~649). The oldest known
ChineseChina is a cultural region, an ancient civilization, and, depending on perspective, a national or multinational entity extending over a large area in East Asia....
surviving printed work is a woodblock-printed Buddhist scripture of
Wu ZetianWu Zetian , personal name Wu Zhao , often referred to as Tian Hou during Tang Dynasty and Empress Consort Wu in later times, was the only woman in the history of China to assume the title of Empress Regnant...
period (AD 684~705); discovered in Turpan,
XinjiangXinjiang is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China and also claimed by the territory of the Republic of China.-Names:Older English-language reference works often refer to the area as Chinese Turkestan, Sinkiang, East...
province, China in 1906, it is now stored in a calligraphy museum in
Tokyo, officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan and is located on the eastern side of the main island Honshū. The twenty-three special wards of Tokyo, each governed as a city, cover the area that was once the city of Tokyo in the eastern part of the prefecture, totaling over 8 million people....
,
Japanis an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, People's Republic of China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
.
A woodblock print of the Dharani sutra dated between AD 704 and 751 was found at
BulguksaBulguksa is a Buddhist temple in the North Gyeongsang province in South Korea. It is home to seven National treasures of South Korea, including Dabotap and Seokgatap stone pagodas, Cheongun-gyo , and two gilt-bronze statues of Buddha. The temple is classified as Historic and Scenic Site No. 1 by...
,
South KoreaSouth Korea, officially the Republic of Korea and often simply referred to as Korea, is a country in East Asia, located on the southern half of the Korean Peninsula. It is neighbored by China to the west, Japan to the east, and North Korea to the north. Its capital is Seoul, the second largest...
in 1966.
http://countrystudies.us/north-korea/7.htm http://www.ifla.org/IV/ifla62/62-yosz.htm http://www.rightreading.com/printing/gutenberg.asia/gutenberg-asia-9-korea.htm http://eng.buddhapia.com/_Service/_ContentView/ETC_CONTENT_2.ASP?pk=0000594295&sub_pk=&clss_cd=0002187369&top_menu_cd=0000000592&Menu_code=0000008846&sub_menu= Its Buddhist text was printed on a
mulberryThe Paper Mulberry is a tree in the family Moraceae, native to eastern Asia. Other names include Halibun, Kalivon, Kozo, and Tapacloth tree.It is a deciduous tree growing to tall...
paper scroll 8 cm wide and 630 cm long in the early Korean Kingdom of
Unified SillaUnified Silla or Later Silla is the name often applied to the kingdom of Silla, one of the Three Kingdoms of Korea, when it conquered Baekje in 660 and Goguryeo in 668, unifying the southern portion of the Korean peninsula...
. Another version of the Dharani sutra, printed in Japan around AD 770, is also frequently cited as an example of early printing. One million copies of the sutra, along with other prayers, were ordered to be produced by Empress Shōtoku. As each copy was then stored in a tiny wooden pagoda, the copies are together known as the
Hyakumantō DaraniThe , literally the One Million Pagodas and Dharani Prayers, is a famous large-scale woodblock printing, the earliest recorded uses of woodblock printing in Japan....
(百万塔陀羅尼, "1,000,000 towers/pagodas Darani").
The world's earliest dated (AD 868) printed book is a Chinese scroll about sixteen feet long and containing the text of the
Diamond SutraThe Buddhist text known around the world as the Diamond Sutra is a short Mahayana sutra of the Perfection of Wisdom genre, which teaches the practice of the avoidance of abiding in extremes of mental attachment...
. It was found in 1907 by the archaeologist Sir
Marc Aurel SteinSir Marc Aurel Stein KCIE, FBA was a Hungarian archaeologist. He was also a professor at various Indian universities. Stein was inspired by Sven Hedin's 1898 work, Through Asia.-Early life:...
in
Mogao CavesThe Mogao Caves, or Mogao Grottoes form a system of 492 temples 25 km southeast of the center of Dunhuang, an oasis strategically located at a religious and cultural crossroads on the Silk Road, in Gansu province, China...
in
DunhuangDunhuang is a city in Jiuquan, Gansu province, China. It is sited in an oasis.- History :...
, and is now in the
British MuseumThe British Museum is a museum of human history and culture situated in London. Its collections, which number more than seven million objects, are amongst the largest and most comprehensive in the world and originate from all continents, illustrating and documenting the story of human culture from...
. The book displays a great maturity of design and layout and speaks of a considerable ancestry for woodblock printing. The colophon, at the inner end, reads:
Reverently [caused to be] made for universal free distribution by Wang Jie on behalf of his two parents on the 13th of the 4th moon of the 9th year of Xiantong [i.e. 11 May, AD 868 ].
In late 10th century China the complete Buddhist canon
TripitakaThe ' is the Sanskrit term used by Westerners for a Buddhist canon of scriptures. Asian Buddhists of the Theravada Buddhist school use the term Tipitaka to refer to the Pali Canon...
of 130,000 pages was printed with blocks, which took between 1080 and 1102, and many other very long works were printed. Early books were on
scrollA scroll is a roll of parchment, papyrus, or paper, which has been drawn or written upon.Scroll may also refer to:*Scroll , the decoratively curved end of the pegbox of string instruments such as violins...
s, but
other book formatsTraditional Chinese bookbinding refers to the method of bookbinding that the Chinese have used in recent centuries, before converting to the modern codex form.It is also called stitched binding...
were developed. First came the
Jingzhe zhuang or "sutra binding", a scroll folded concertina-wise, which avoided the need to unroll half a scroll to see a passage in the middle. About AD 1000 "butterfly binding" was developed; two pages were printed on a sheet, which was then folded inwards. The sheets were then pasted together at the fold to make a
codexA codex is a book in the format used for modern books, with separate pages normally bound together and given a cover...
with alternate openings of printed and blank pairs of pages. In the fourteenth century the folding was reversed outwards to give continuous printed pages, each backed by a blank hidden page. Later the bindings were sewn rather than pasted. Only relatively small volumes (
juan) were bound up, and several of these would be enclosed in a cover called a
tao, with wooden boards at front and back, and loops and pegs to close up the book when not in use. For example one complete Tripitaka had over 6,400
juan in 595
tao.
http://www.nb.no/baser/schoyen/5/5.18/#2540
Woodblock printing in Eurasia
The technique is found through East and Central Asia, and in the
ByzantineThe word Byzantine may refer to:Topics directly related to the Byzantine Empire* A citizen of The Byzantine Empire, or native Greek during the Middle Ages...
world for cloth, and by AD 1000 examples of woodblock printing on paper appear in Islamic
EgyptEgypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Western Asia...
. Printing onto cloth had spread much earlier, and was common in Europe by 1300. Woodblock printing on paper of images only began in Europe around 1400, almost as soon as paper became available, and the
printAn old master print is a work of art produced by a printing process within the Western tradition . A date of about 1830 is usually taken as marking the end of the period whose prints are covered by this term. The main techniques concerned are woodcut, engraving and etching, although there are others...
in
woodcutWoodcut — formally known as xylography — is a relief printing artistic technique in printmaking in which an image is carved into the surface of a block of wood, with the printing parts remaining level with the surface while the non-printing parts are removed, typically with gouges...
, later joined by
engravingEngraving is the practice of incising a design on to a hard, usually flat surface, by cutting grooves into it. The result may be a decorated object in itself, as when silver, gold, steel, or glass are engraved, or may provide an intaglio printing plate, of copper or another metal, for printing...
, quickly became an important cultural tradition for popular religious works, as well as playing cards and other uses.
Many early Chinese examples, such as the Diamond Sutra (above) contain images, mostly Buddhist, that are often elaborate. Later, some notable artists designed woodblock images for books, but the separate artistic print did not develop in China as it did in Europe and Japan. Apart from devotional images, mainly Buddhist, few "single-leaf" Chinese prints were made until the nineteenth century.
Block-books in fifteenth century Europe
Main article: Block bookBlock books, also called xylographica, are short books of up to 50 leaves, printed in Europe in the second half of the fifteenth century as woodcuts with blocks carved to include both text and illustrations. The content of the books was nearly always religious, aimed at a popular audience, and a...
Block-books, where both text and images are cut on a single block for a whole page, appeared in Europe in the 1460s as a cheaper alternative to books printed by
movable typeMovable type is the system of printing and typography that uses movable components to reproduce the elements of a document . The first known movable type system was invented in China by Bi Sheng out of ceramic between 1041 and 1048. Metal movable type was first invented in Korea during the Goryeo...
. These are different from
woodcutWoodcut — formally known as xylography — is a relief printing artistic technique in printmaking in which an image is carved into the surface of a block of wood, with the printing parts remaining level with the surface while the non-printing parts are removed, typically with gouges...
s illustrated books using images, perhaps with a title, cut in a single block and used as a book illustration with the adjacent text printed using movable type. The only example of the blockbook form that contains no images is the school textbook Latin grammar of
DonatusAelius Donatus was a Roman grammarian and teacher of rhetoric. The only fact known regarding his life is that he was the tutor of St...
.
The most famous block-books are the
Speculum Humanae SalvationisThe Speculum Humanae Salvationis or Mirror of Human Salvation was a bestselling anonymous illustrated work of popular theology in the late Middle Ages, part of the genre of encyclopedic speculum literature, in this case concentrating on the medieval theory of typology, whereby the events of the Old...
and the
Ars moriendiArs moriendi is the name of two related Latin texts dating from about 1415 and 1450 which offer advice on the protocols and procedures of a good death and on how to "die well", according to Christian precepts of the late Middle Ages...
, though in this the images and text are on different pages, but all block-cut. The
Biblia pauperumThe Biblia pauperum was a tradition of picture Bibles beginning in the later Middle Ages. They sought to portray the historical books of the Bible visually. Unlike a simple "illustrated Bible", where the pictures are subordinated to the text, these Bibles placed the illustration in the centre,...
, a Biblical picture-book, was the next most common title, and the great majority of block-books were popular devotional works. All block-books are fairly short at less than fifty pages. While in Europe movable metal type soon became cheap enough to replace woodblock printing for the reproduction of text, woodcuts remained a major way to reproduce images in illustrated works of early modern European printing. See
old master printAn old master print is a work of art produced by a printing process within the Western tradition . A date of about 1830 is usually taken as marking the end of the period whose prints are covered by this term. The main techniques concerned are woodcut, engraving and etching, although there are others...
.
Most block-books before about 1480 were printed on only one side of the paper — if they were printed by rubbing it would be difficult to print on both sides without damaging the first one to be printed. Many were printed with two pages per sheet, producing a book with opening of two printed pages, followed by openings with two blank pages (as earlier in China). The blank pages were then glued together to produce a book looking like a type-printed one. Where both sides of a sheet have been printed, it is presumed a printing-press was used.
Colour
The earliest woodblock printing known is in colour—
ChineseChina is a cultural region, an ancient civilization, and, depending on perspective, a national or multinational entity extending over a large area in East Asia....
silkSilk is a natural protein fiber, some forms of which can be woven into textiles. The best-known type of silk is obtained from cocoons made by the larvae of the mulberry silkworm Bombyx mori reared in captivity...
from the
Han DynastyThe Han Dynasty was the second imperial dynasty of China, preceded by the Qin Dynasty and succeeded by the Three Kingdoms . It was founded by the peasant rebel leader Liu Bang, known posthumously as Emperor Gaozu of Han. It was briefly interrupted by the Xin Dynasty of the former regent Wang Mang...
printed in three colours.
On paper, European woodcut prints with coloured blocks were invented in Germany in 1508 and are known as chiaroscuro woodcuts.
Colour is very common in Asian woodblock printing on paper; in
ChinaChina is a cultural region, an ancient civilization, and, depending on perspective, a national or multinational entity extending over a large area in East Asia....
the first known example is a Diamond sutra of 1341, printed in black and red at the Zifu Temple in modern day Hubei province. The earliest dated book printed in more than 2 colours is Chengshi moyuan, a book on ink-cakes printed in 1606 and the technique reached its height in books on art published in the first half of the seventeenth century. Notable examples are the Treatise on the Paintings and Writings of the Ten Bamboo Studio of 1633, and the Mustard Seed Garden Painting Manual published in 1679 and 1701.
In
Japanis an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, People's Republic of China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
, a multi-colour technique, called
nishiki-erefers to Japanese multi-colored woodblock printing; this technique is used primarily in ukiyo-e. It was invented in the 1760s, and perfected and popularized by the printmaker Suzuki Harunobu, who produced a great many nishiki-e prints between 1765 and his death five years later.Previously, most...
("brocade pictures"), spread more widely, and was used for prints, from the 1760s on. Japanese woodcut became a major artistic form, although at the time it was accorded a much lower status than painting.
In both Europe and Japan, book illustrations were normally printed in black ink only, and colour reserved for individual artistic prints. In China, the reverse was true, and colour printing was used mainly in books on art and erotica.
Japan
The earliest known woodblock printing dates from 764-770, when an Empress commissioned one million small wooden
pagodaA pagoda is the general term in the English language for a tiered tower with multiple eaves common in Nepal, India, China, Japan, Korea, Vietnam, and other parts of Asia. Some pagodas are used as Taoist houses of worship. Most pagodas were built to have a religious function, most commonly...
s containing short printed scrolls (typically 6 x 45 cm) to be distributed to temples.
http://www.nb.no/baser/schoyen/5/5.18/#2489
Apart from the production of Buddhist texts, which became widespread from the eleventh century in Japan, the process was only adopted in Japan for secular books surprisingly late, and a
ChineseChinese or the Sinitic language is a language family consisting of languages mutually unintelligible to varying degrees. Originally the indigenous languages spoken by the Han Chinese in China, it forms one of the two branches of Sino-Tibetan family of languages...
-
Japaneseis a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is a member of the Japonic language family. There are a number of proposed relationships with other languages, but none have gained general acceptance...
dictionary of 1590 is the earliest known example.
Though the Jesuits operated a
movable typeMovable type is the system of printing and typography that uses movable components to reproduce the elements of a document . The first known movable type system was invented in China by Bi Sheng out of ceramic between 1041 and 1048. Metal movable type was first invented in Korea during the Goryeo...
printing-press in Nagasaki, printing equipment brought back by
Toyotomi Hideyoshiwas a daimyo in the Sengoku period who unified Japan. He succeeded his former liege lord, Oda Nobunaga, and brought an end to the Sengoku period. The period of his rule is often called the Momoyama period, named after Hideyoshi's castle. He is noted for a number of cultural legacies, including the...
's army from
KoreaKorea is a civilization and formerly unified nation currently divided into two states. Located on the Korean Peninsula, it borders China to the northwest, Russia to the northeast, and is separated from Japan to the east by the Korea Strait....
in 1593 had far greater influence on the development of the medium. Four years later,
Tokugawa Ieyasu
, even before becoming
shogun is a military rank and historical title for Hereditary Commanders in Chief of the Armed Forces of Japan. The modern rank is equivalent to a Generalissimo...
, effected the creation of the first native movable type, using wooden type-pieces rather than metal. He oversaw the creation of 100,000 type-pieces, which were used to print a number of political and historical texts.
An edition of the
ConfucianConfucius , lit. "Master Kong," was a Chinese thinker and social philosopher, whose teachings and philosophy have deeply influenced Chinese, Korean, Japanese and Vietnamese thought and life....
Analects was printed in 1598, using a Korean moveable type printing press, at the order of
Emperor Go-YōzeiEmperor Go-Yōzei was the 107th emperor of Japan, according to the traditional order of succession...
. This document is the oldest work of Japanese moveable type printing extant today. Despite the appeal of moveable type, however, it was soon decided that the running script style of Japanese writings would be better reproduced using woodblocks, and so woodblocks were once more adopted; by 1640 they were once again being used for nearly all purposes.
It quickly gained popularity among artists of
ukiyo-e' is a genre of Japanese woodblock prints and paintings produced between the 17th and the 20th centuries, featuring motifs of landscapes, tales from history, the theatre, and pleasure quarters...
, and was used to produce small, cheap, art prints as well as books. Japan began to see something of literary mass production. The content of these books varied widely, including travel guides, advice manuals,
kibyōshi' is a genre of Japanese picture book kusazōshi produced during the middle of the Edo period, from 1775 to the early 1800s. Physically identifiable by their yellow-backed covers, kibyōshi were typically printed in 10 page volumes, many spanning two to three volumes in length, with the average...
(satirical novels),
sharebonThe was a pre-modern Japanese literary genre. Plots revolved around humor and entertainment at the pleasure quarters. It is a sub-genre of gesaku.-Characteristics:As a sub-genre of gesaku, humor was a major aspect to each story...
(books on urban culture), art books, and play scripts for the
jōrurican refer to:*Jōruri , a type of sung narrative with shamisen accompaniment, typically found in Bunraku, a traditional Japanese puppet theatre.*Jōruri , an opera by Japanese composer Miki Minoru.*Jōruri-ji , a Buddhist temple near Nara....
(puppet) theatre. Often, within a certain genre, such as the
jōruri theatre scripts, a particular style of writing would come to be the standard for that genre; in other words, one person's personal calligraphic style was adopted as the standard style for printing plays.
France
Woodblock printing on wallpaper became famous in France at the end of the 18th century. Manufactures like
Joseph Dufour et CieJoseph Dufour et Cie, founded 1797 by Joseph and Pierre Dufour, was a s a French Manufacture de Papier Peints et Tissus manufacturer located in Mâcon, France.-General:...
(1797 - ca. 1830) or Zuber et Cie (founded 1797) used the woodblock printing for wall paper production. In 1806, in collaboration with the artist
Jean-Gabriel CharvetJean-Gabriel Charvet , also known as Jean Gabriel Charvet, was a French painter, designer and draftsman who was born in Serrières, Ardèche, France. He studied at the École de Dessin in Lyon under the French artist Donat Nonotte and worked as a designer for the French wallpaper manufacturer Joseph...
, Dufour et Cie produced a twenty-panel set of scenic wallpaper entitled
Sauvages de la Mer du Pacifique (Savages of the Pacific), which became very famous. It was the largest panoramic wallpaper of its time, and marked the burgeoning of a French industry in panoramic wallpapers. Dufour realized almost immediate success from the sale of these papers and enjoyed a lively trade with America. The
NeoclassicNeoclassicism is the name given to quite distinct movements in the decorative and visual arts, literature, theatre, music, and architecture that draw upon Western classical art and culture...
spirit currently in favor was accented handsomely in houses of the
Federal periodFederal-style architecture is the classicizing architecture built in the United States between c. 1780 and 1830, particularly from 1785 to 1815. In the early Republic the founding generation consciously chose to associate the nation with the ancient democracies of Greece and the republican values...
by the exaggerated elegance of Charvet's scenes. Like most of eighteenth century wallpapers, the panorama was designed to be hung above a
dadoIn architectural terminology, the dado is the lower part of a wall, below the dado rail and above the skirting board.This area is traditionally given a different decorative treatment to the upper part of the wall; for example panelling, wainscoting or lincrusta...
.
While
Joseph Dufour et CieJoseph Dufour et Cie, founded 1797 by Joseph and Pierre Dufour, was a s a French Manufacture de Papier Peints et Tissus manufacturer located in Mâcon, France.-General:...
was shut down in the 1830ies Zuber et Cie is still existing and claims to be the last factory in the world to produce woodblock printed wallpapers and furnishing fabrics.
For its production Zuber uses woodblocks out of an archiv of more more than 100,000 engraved from the XVII and XIX century which are classified as a "Historical Monument".
It offers panoramic szeneries such as “du Vue de l'Amérique Nord”, “Eldorado Hindoustan” or “Isola Bella” and also wallpapers, friezes and ceilings as well as hand printed furnishing fabrics.
Further development of woodblock printing in East Asia
In East Asia, woodblock printing proved to be more enduring than in Europe, continuing well into the 19th century as the major form of printing texts, especially in China, even after the introduction of the European printing press.
Jesuits stationed in China in the 16th and 17th centuries indeed preferred to use woodblocks for their own publishing projects, noting how inexpensive and convenient it was. Only with the introduction of more mechanized printing methods from the West in the 19th century did printing in East Asia move towards metal moveable type and the printing press
In countries using Arabic, Turkish and similar scripts, works, especially the Qu'ran were sometimes printed by
lithographyLithography is a method for printing using a stone or a metal plate with a completely smooth surface...
in the nineteenth century, as the links between the characters require compromises when movable type is used which were considered inappropriate for sacred texts.
On materials other than paper
Block printing has also been extensively used for
decorativeDecoration may refer to:* Decorative arts, the craft of a house painter and decorator.* An object or act intended to increase beauty of a person, room, etc....
purposes such as
fabricA textile is a flexible material consisting of a network of natural or artificial fibres often referred to as thread or yarn. Yarn is produced by spinning raw wool fibres, linen, cotton, or other material on a spinning wheel to produce long strands...
s and
wallpaperWallpaper is a kind of material used to cover and decorate the interior walls of homes, offices, and other buildings; it is one aspect of interior decoration. They are usually sold in rolls and are put onto a wall using wallpaper paste...
. This is easiest with repetitive patterns composed of one or a small number of
motifsIn art, a motif is a repeated idea, pattern, image, or theme. Paisley designs are referred to as motifs. Many designs in mosques in Islamic culture are motifs, especially those of flowers. Two major Roman motifs are egg and tongue, and ball and reel...
that are small to medium in size (due to the difficulty of carving and handling larger blocks). For a multi-colour pattern, each colour element is carved as a separate block and individually inked and applied. Block printing was the standard method of producing
wallpaperWallpaper is a kind of material used to cover and decorate the interior walls of homes, offices, and other buildings; it is one aspect of interior decoration. They are usually sold in rolls and are put onto a wall using wallpaper paste...
until the early twentieth century, and is still used by a few traditionalist firms. It also remains in use for making cloth, mostly in small artisanal settings, for example in
IndiaIndia, officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the west, and the Bay of Bengal...
.
See also woodblock printing on textilesWoodblock printing on textiles is the process of printing patterns on textiles, usually of linen, cotton or silk, by means of incised wooden blocks. It is the earliest, simplest and slowest of all methods of textile printing...
.
See also
- Woodcut
Woodcut — formally known as xylography — is a relief printing artistic technique in printmaking in which an image is carved into the surface of a block of wood, with the printing parts remaining level with the surface while the non-printing parts are removed, typically with gouges...
- Woodblock printing on textiles
Woodblock printing on textiles is the process of printing patterns on textiles, usually of linen, cotton or silk, by means of incised wooden blocks. It is the earliest, simplest and slowest of all methods of textile printing...
- Wood engraving
Wood engraving is a relief printing technique, where the end grain of wood is used as a medium for engraving, thus differing from the older technique of woodcut, where the softer side grain is used.-Origin and technique:...
- Banhua
Banhua is the Chinese umbrella term for any printed art objects, and especially for those made by woodblock printing, the term used for woodcuts from Asia.-History:...
- old master print
An old master print is a work of art produced by a printing process within the Western tradition . A date of about 1830 is usually taken as marking the end of the period whose prints are covered by this term. The main techniques concerned are woodcut, engraving and etching, although there are others...
- New Year picture
A New Year picture , is an important and popular Banhua in China. Its original form was a picture of a door god fashioned during the Qin Dynasty. Later, more subjects, such as conventions, carnivals, the Kitchen God, women and babies were included...
- ukiyo-e
' is a genre of Japanese woodblock prints and paintings produced between the 17th and the 20th centuries, featuring motifs of landscapes, tales from history, the theatre, and pleasure quarters...
- scroll
A scroll is a roll of parchment, papyrus, or paper, which has been drawn or written upon.Scroll may also refer to:*Scroll , the decoratively curved end of the pegbox of string instruments such as violins...
External sources
- Jonathan Bloom, Paper Before Print. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2001.
- Tsuen-Hsuin, Tsien. Science and Civilisation in China. Volume 5, Part 1: Paper and Printing. Cambridge University Press, 1993.
- Imma Socias Batet, Les Beceroles tabel·làries de la Biblioteca de Catalunya. Barcelona: Biblioteca de Catalunya, 1992.
External links
- Centre for the History of the Book
- Excellent images and descriptions of examples, mostly Chinese, from the Schoyen Collection
- The digitized blockbooks of the Herzog August Bibliothek
Herzog August Bibliothek , in Wolfenbüttel, , known also as Bibliotheca Augusta, it has an international importance for its collection from the Middle Ages and Early modern Europe. The library subordinated for the Lower Saxony Ministry for Science and Culture...
Wolfenbüttel.
- http://special.lib.gla.ac.uk/exhibns/month/apr2005.htmlFine example of a European block-book Apocalypse
Apocalypse is a term applied to the disclosure to certain privileged persons of something hidden from the majority of humankind. Today the term is often used to refer to the end of the world, which may be a shortening of the phrase apokalupsis eschaton which literally means "revelation at the end...
with hand-colouring]
- Ukiyo-e Caricatures 1842-1905 Database of the Department of East Asian Studies of the University of Vienna
- Chinese book-binding methods, from the V&A Museum
- Chinese book-binding methods, from the International Dunhuang Project
- Society for the History of Authorship, Reading and Publishing
- American Printing History Association—Numerous links to Online Resources and Other Organizations
- Emma Boyne A practical example of contemporary Block printing
- Deatiled information on various Hand Block Printing areas In India
- A comprehensive photo album of the entire block printing process and a detailed description of the block printing process in the Jaipur tradition
- Block printing in India
- Matrix at the Biblioteca de Catalunya http://www.bnc.es/fons/detall.php?id=40