The etcher's handbook : giving an account of the old processes, and of processes recently discovered

Front matter

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THE

Preface

TO THE THIRD EDITION.

It so happens that the third edition of this little Handbook goes to press exactly at the same time as the third edition of my larger work " Etching and Etchers."

In one respect I have followed out the same principle in both, by eliminating controversial matter. This was useful in its own time, when we had to contend against much prejudice for the restoration of etching to its proper place amongst the fine arts, but to-day, when the victory is won, we may drop controversy altogether, and for my part I gladly do so. It has been one of the greatest satisfactions of my life to see etching resume its place in the world of art.

The space gained by eliminating controversial matter has been occupied by new chapters on processes which will increase the usefulness of the handbook. Beyond this, the work is enlarged.

Vi PREFACE.

Two of the illustrations have been withdrawn — the dry point of some cottages which was too much worn to be printed any more, and the etching of two kids which never pleased me as a work of art though it was useful as a technical illustration of a process. The etchings which remain are simple sketches from nature, not carried very far, but quite sound as far as they go, and perhaps more likely to be of use to beginners than more elaborate performances in which the work is not so plainly seen. They were done without erasing. Two of them have been printed twice over to show the different results which may be obtained from the same plate without any alteration in what is drawn upon it.

In the chapter on the etching-needle I have mentioned the points invented by Mr. Alfred Dawson for " typographic etching " as being useful for true etching and in some respects preferable to the needles more commonly employed. There was, however, a difficulty in procuring these points, which are patented and have not hitherto been on sale, as the patentee reserved them for use in his typographic process. At my request Mr. Dawson has very kindly consented to make his points accessible to the general public

PREFACE. vii

through Messrs. Roberson and Co., but it must be understood that the patentee's permission to use them only extends to etching proper and not to any typographic process except his own for which Messrs. Dawson (23, Farringdon Street) supply the prepared plates.

One of the greatest technical inconveniences in etching is the difficulty of covering a deeply bitten plate with transparent ground in such a manner as to protect qttite perfectly the angles of the copper at the edges of the lines. Too often a biting sets in which was not intended by the artist. From some information recently communicated to me by Professor Church of the Royal Academy, about a new kind of resin given by a species of African euphorbia and which clings to metal with a tenacity unequalled by any other substance available for etching grounds, I am inclined to think that the difficulty just mentioned may be entirely overcome. I have not yet had time to make the series of experiments which will be necessary before determining the composition of the new ground, but will do so shortly and give the result in the Art Chronicle of the Portfolio.

London. December, 1880.

PREFACE

TO THE FIRST EDITION.

ALTHOUGH the new processes in etching may be expected in a great measure to supersede those which have been handed down to us by our predecessors in the art, I have thought it best, for several reasons, to give an equally full account of all of them.

It happens, in the first place, that the most revolutionary of these processes is a discovery of my own, and as inventors are always liable to be suspected of undue partiality to their own inventions, the best way to escape suspicions of this kind seemed to be that of treating all processes which have at any time led to good results on a footing of strict equality. Again, although some etchers may like the new processes, others with equally good reason may prefer to remain faithful to the old ones. This is a matter to be decided by the temperament of each practitioner for himself, and the writer of a handbook on the art fulfils his duty best in offering his readers the widest possible range for choice. And the same etcher may

PREFACE. ix

find it convenient to resort to different processes at different times, according to the need of the occasion. The student will therefore do wisely to choose his process according to his taste and temper, and also according to the need of the hour. And let him be assured of this, that unless he really likes the process that he uses, and heartily enjoys the work whilst he is doing it, there is not the faintest chance, whatever his knowledge and ability as an artist, that he will produce a good etching, or anything resembling a good etching. All cold or dull, or business-like etching, however clever and scientific it may be, bears the same relation to the real thing that verse-making does to poetry. And just as a poet, when he sits down to write a lyric, ought not to be bothered with ink and pens of a kind which do not suit him, and are likely to fret him and put him out of temper, so every etcher ought studiously to avoid those varnishes and acids whose operation does not seem to him convenient.

The reader to whom etching is a new subject is especially warned not to judge of the capabilities of the art by the general mass of modern production, which is quite unworthy of his attention. There are a few good living etchers, but a very few ; and out of

X PREFACE.

the quantities of etchings which are published every year, nine out of ten are not only valueless, but a nuisance, doing much harm by propagating and confirming the false conceptions of the art which are generally prevalent. The majority of amateurs seem to imagine that drawing and chiaroscuro of a degree of badness which nobody would tolerate in a picture, somehow become allowable in an etching ; that because good etchings are usually free, an etcher is at liberty to set at defiance all the known laws of nature and of art ; that the mere act of drawing on varnished copper implies of itself a mysterious cleverness, elevating the practitioner above the common canons of art-criticism. On the other hand, those of our artists who could really etch if they liked are so busy making fortunes with the brush that they have hardly any leisure for a less remunerative pursuit.

I would ask the reader to think of etching simply as a kind of highly-concentrated drawing, subject to the same laws as any other, kind of point-drawing,* but more difficult to execute because complicated

* Except that more artistic feeling is expected from an etcher than from any other artist, because the best etchers have always .concentrated so much passionate expression in their work with the etching-needle.

PREFACE. xi

(whatever process you employ) by calculations about biting. And the first step towards becoming an etcher is to become a good draughtsman with any pointed instrument. The second step is to master the relations of light and dark in nature. The third and final stage of an etcher's education is to obtain a technical mastery over copper, so as to make the copper yield the precise tone he requires, whether in the depth of a single line or in the shading of a space. Few modern etchers have mastered the copper in this way ; they do not give time enough to the art. It may be done, however, by great labour. Jacquemart and Martial have, each of them, subdued the copper, as Joachim has subdued the violin, the difficulty being probably very nearly equal in both of these two great expressional fine arts.

THE ETCHER S HANDBOOK.

CHAPTER I. Of the Etching Needle or Point

Almost any small bar of metal that can be sharpened to a point will do to etch with. Turner used an old fork. A nail at the end of a stick would answer the purpose. Common sewing needles have often been used. There are, however, various degrees of suitableness even in things so easily made as etching-needles, and different artists have different tastes. Mr. Haden's theory about the point is, that it should be heavy, in order that the hand may not have to trouble itself much about pressure, but remain free to direct simply, whilst the weight of the instrument itself penetrates the ground. He therefore uses a bar of steel sharpened at both ends, in shape something like a cigar or a stump. The ideal Haden point would be of gold, as the heaviest of metals, and the one which resists acid best.

My points are made of a single bar of iron or steel, and are shaped exactly like a lead-pencil sharpened

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THE ETCHER'S HANDBOOK.

to a fine point. They may be sharpened in the most various ways, according to the need of the moment. I have found the points invented by Mr. Dawson for typographic drawing useful for etching, as from their peculiar section they can be sharpened so as to present different edges, according to the artist's will. After some practice, I found that I easily obtained lines of three very different thicknesses with one of these instruments by merely holding it differently, and I use it often.

Needle-holders are sold in which short needles of different thicknessess can be held tight by a little screw. They are very convenient.

When the etching needle is all in one piece it is more certain to be firm, but the point should be sharpened to a very acute angle, or else the thickness of the iron itself will often prevent the artist from seeing properly what he is doing.

CHAPTER II. Of the Distinction between Etching and Dry Point

To etch means to eat. There is no etching at all without corrosion — pen-drawing is not etching, and it ought not to be called by that name.

In etching the metal is covered with a waxy substance, technically called a "ground." The needle removes this where it passes ; and the ground being removed along the lines, they are exposed to the action of any acid which may be applied to them.

In dry point, on the contrary, there is no corrosion ; it is the point itself which ploughs into the metal, and raises what is called a " bur."

A " dry point " is really an engraving in which the graver, unlike the burin, is held as a pen or pencil is held ; and this being so, the reader may ask why this art, so distinct from etching, is mentioned in a treatise upon etching.

The reason is that almost all the distinguished etchers have used dry point as an auxiliary. It is to etching very much what glazing is to impasto painting— not the thing itself, but a valuable aid and accompaniment. An etching which has been judiciously worked upon in dry point is almost sure to look lighter, more finished, and more transparent ;

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THE ETCHER'S HANDBOOK.

consequently all skilful etchers practise dry point more or less, and it is considered to be almost a part of etching.

From this it has come to pass that skilful etchers often scratch drawings on copper which are altogether dry points —drawings in which no line is corroded by acid, and yet every line will print, because every line is scratched below the surface of the metal.

Dry points do not generally yield many impressions ; but since the discovery of steeling, by which copper is covered with a thin coat of steel, they are more available.

There are two distinct kinds of Dry Point, one being dependent for its effect entirely upon the incised line, the bur being removed with a scraper, whilst the other depends as much upon the bur itself, the copper raised by the point in its passage, as upon the incision. Engravers remove the bur, etchers keep it more or less, as suits their convenience. This explanation would suffice for the present ; but in order to escape the necessity for another chapter on Dry Point, I add a few words on the bur, and on the ways of raising it.

You hold your point, which is sharpened with a short cutting edge, exactly as a pencil is held, but you may hold a pencil (it is a matter of habit) nearly straight, or you may lean it over to the right. If you alter the angle at which the dry point is held, you alter its power of raising bur. When quite perpendicular it raises a low bur on each side ; when very much slanted it raises a high bur on the opposite side. The way in which these burs catch the ink is best ascertained by experiment with copper and a press.

DISTINCTION BETWEEN ETCHING AND DRY POINT. 5

Whilst on the subject of Dry Point we ought not to forget the diamond. A small diamond is set at the end of a holder, in shape like a pencil, and the artist draws with this upon the copper. The diamond raises less bur than steel, because it is so sharp, that it carries away a good deal of copper, but its scratch is marvellous, and when used rightly it is a very valuable instrument. Here again the reader is invited to try experiments and take proofs.

CHAPTER III. The Old Negative Process

WITH STOPPING OUT.

1. Cleaning the Plate.

Before the artist laid his ground the plate was cleaned with turpentine and whiting. The whiting was afterwards removed with bread.

2. The Ground.

The etching ground was composed of white wax, bitumen, pitch, and resin. Sometimes one of the ingredients was omitted, but never the white wax. Sometimes gum-mastic was used instead of resin.

Bosse's ground was composed of white wax 30 grammes, gum-mastic 30 gr., asphaltum 1 5 gr.

It is not exactly known what was the composition of the ground Rembrandt used, but an old ground which bears his name is as follows : — White wax 30 gr., gum-mastic 1 5 gr., asphaltum or amber 1 5 gr. The mastic and asphaltum were pounded separately in a mortar. The wax was melted in a glazed earthen pot, and the other ingredients were added little by little, the operator stirring all the time.

THE OLD NEGATIVE PROCESS.

Callot's ground was composed as follows : — White wax 60 gr., amber or asphaltum 60 gr., gum-mastic from 30 to 60 gr., according to the heat of the weather, the hotter the weather the more gum-mastic, which was the hardening ingredient.

Several other grounds used by the Old Masters have been handed down to us, but those just given here are the best. It is enough to explain the principle common to all these compositions, which is simply to get hardness or softness, at will, by the addition of a hard or a soft ingredient.

Again, it is necessary that the ground should behave well under the dabber, not sticking to it, or else it cannot be spread evenly. Also its constitution must be such that it will take smoke without losing quality.

If the student has any difficulty in preparing a ground, he will probably overcome the difficulty by altering the proportions of the ingredients in obedience to these principles.

Let him remember always that the quality of a ground depends very much upon temperature, that a ground which will shell off the plate on a cold day may be the very thing you want on a hot one. Hence a knowing etcher mixes his ground with some reference to the season. It may be observed, however, that the soft grounds do fairly well in most weathers, provided you do not touch them, but use a hand-rest, whereas the hard grounds are so liable to become unsafe when the temperature is in the least below what is suitable for them, that it is always safer to err on the side of softness— that is of the wax ingredient — than of that of hardness, or the resinous ingredient,

THE ETCHER'S HANDBOOK.

When the ground is thoroughly mixed, you pour it into tepid water and roll it into balls.

3. To lay the Ground.

Wrap a ball of ground in new taffetas silk, of a kind from which small particles do not detach themselves.

Fasten a hand-vice to the margin of the plate, inserting a piece of cardboard to prevent it from roughening the copper.

Heat the plate over a spirit lamp or anything else, provided there is no dust.

The degree of heat must be enough to melt the composition, but not enough to burn it. The composition, when melted on the plate, must not boil. If you burn your ground it will crack off under the point, and so any work you do upon it will be useless and worthless.

When the plate is properly heated, the ground will melt through the silk and spread itself easily as you pass the ball over the plate.

Very likely there will be a sort of greasiness or repulsion in the copper in spite of all your cleaning, so that the ground will avoid the copper in parts, as ink avoids greasy paper. Do not let this discourage you. The ground will spread itself properly under the dabber, and if the dabber does not accomplish this quite perfectly, a subsequent operation will.

4. The Dabber.

You now need the dabber, which is made of cotton-wool and horse-hair, covered with silk, and kept in shape by a disc of cardboard. To make a dabber you lay first the cotton-wool on the silk, then the horse-

THE OLD NEGATIVE PROCESS.

hair on that, then the disc of cardboard on the horsehair, and finally, you bring the silk up on all sides round the disc, bind it with cord, and cut off what is superfluous, leaving just enough to hold it by.

5. Dabbing the Ground.

Whilst the plate is still heated, you dab the ground all over it with the dabber, to spread it evenly.

If this is well done, the ground will be thinly and evenly spread, and of a pale golden colour, showing the shine of the copper well through it.

If you have too much, you may clean the dabber on a piece of coarse canvas (like that used for printing) and dab again, cleaning the dabber repeatedly, whilst you are at work. In this way the superfluous ground is easily removed.

If you have not enough ground, add a little from the ball and dab again.

6. Smoking the Ground.

Still holding the plate with the hand-vice, heat it again, but not so as to burn the ground.

Whilst the plate is hot, hold it up in the air, the covered side down, and expose it to the smoke of wax tapers, twisted together.

The flame should just touch the plate, no more, and should be passed rapidly along its surface, never resting at one place or else it would burn it. If this is properly done, the smoke-black will incorporate itself with the ground all over the plate, and produce a beautiful black surface.

7. Quality of the Smoke.

Much depends upon the quality of the smoke. That from wax is good ; that from mineral oils is

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abundant, but too greasy, and the ground does not harden well with it.

8. Burning the Ground.

As I have already warned the reader, the ground which is burned anywhere will shell off when you come to etch upon it, or if not then, it is liable to shell off afterwards in the bath. Hard grounds behave worse when burned than soft grounds do.

If you discover afterwards, when at work, that a portion of your ground, which you believed to be sound, is burnt, you may sometimes get over the difficulty by using a sharper point. A ground which will shell off with a blunt point will often bear work with a sharp one.

9. Banking the Plate.

As I am describing the old process of etching quite faithfully, I am bound to give an account of banking the plate, one of the most unnecessary of traditional processes, and at the same time one of the most troublesome.

It never seems to have occurred to the old etchers that if they could protect one side of the plate against acid, they could protect the other side too, so they took the trouble to build a hedge of wax all round the margin of the plate in order to make a bath of it to receive the acid.

" Banking-wax " was composed of beeswax mixed with resin. It was usually kept in sticks, but before being used these sticks were put into warm water and flattened out between the fingers, till they were like ribands. These ribands of wax being set on edge all round the plate, and joined together where they met,

THE OLD NEGATIVE PROCESS.

1 1 make a wall round it, and they were pressed to the plate to make them stick. It was a tradition that they were to be pressed with a very hot key (just as a very cold key applied to the back of the neck is sure to cure hiccup), probably because some early practitioner of the art had happened to have nothing better by him, and had got into the habit of using a key for the purpose. Then the wall of wax was painted with varnish to prevent the acid getting out. Very often, however, it did get out, notwithstanding all these precautions.

The old etchers never reflected how much simpler it would have been just to lay the ground on both sides of the plate, and plunge it bodily into a flat bath. It is only, I believe, since photographers took to using flat trays for baths that etchers have learned to use them also.

I very well remember, in my first attempts at etching, the trouble I had with " banking-wax."

Even in the case of the very largest engravers' plates, there is not the least necessity for banking-wax, as porcelain trays can now be had of a large size, and wooden trays can be made acid-proof.

10. Etching.

The custom of the old etchers seems to have been to do all the work at once with the point, or nearly so, except what came in the way of corrections and finishing with the Dry Point. How they managed to get paler and deeper tones in the biting will be seen shortly.

11. Biting.

The plate being banked all round with wax had

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acid poured upon it. The acid used was most commonly nitric, or nitrous, mixed with an equal volume of water. Other mixtures are said to have been used by the old masters, but the best mordant known to them was the nitric mordant.*

The mordant was left on the plate just long enough to bite the palest tones only. Then it was poured off, and the plate dried. Then the passages which were to remain pale were painted over with stopping-out varnish.

Here is an old receipt for stopping-out varnish, but Brunswick black is used now instead of it : —

White wax 8 grammes, asphaltum 30 gr., gum-mastic 4 gr., turpentine 240 gr.

12. Biting, continued.

The stopping-out varnish being applied, and having dried, the acid was again poured upon the plate. When it had bitten some time longer, the acid was poured away and the plate stopped-out again, and so on, till the darkest lines were deep enough.

13. Objections to Stopping-out.

Stopping-out is a troublesome and objectionable

process, both because it takes a great deal of time, also causing delay in waiting for drying, and because, however much pains you take, it cannot always be done delicately enough. For instance, it is all but impossible to stop out passages of much intricacy, such as a sky seen between the branches of a tree. I remember distinctly that when I practised the old

* This mordant takes from five minutes for the palest lines to half-an-hour for the darkest, in temperate weather. t

THE OLD NEGATIVE PROCESS.

process some plates cost me more time and trouble in stopping-out than in the drawing of the subject on the copper.

14. Re-biting.

If the artist found the subject insufficiently bitten, he cleaned the plate very carefully with turpentine and whiting, and bread, and proceeded to cover the whole of the smooth surface with etching ground by means of a dabber, which took it up evenly from another plate. He then put his banking-wax round the plate again, and gave it a second biting.

Contemporary etchers use a roller for this purpose instead of a dabber, as it is more certain, but the roller is of use only when the plate is perfectly flat.

15. Objections to Re-biting.

The ground fills up the palest lines, and only leaves those which are already rather deep to be re-bitten. Thus the process alters the relations of the lines already made, and that in a manner necessarily different from the first intention of the artist

A plate which has been re-bitten has usually an unequal look, caused by the excessive depth of the deep lines. The pale lines look, by contrast, paler after the operation than they did before it.

Re-biting has been largely resorted to by the proprietors of old worn coppers by great masters. Very many of Rembrandt's coppers (which still exist) have been re-bitten, and such re-biting always spoils them by giving a violently disproportionate accent to certain lines.

Of course re-biting may be occasionally used by an intelligent etcher with advantage, to give additional

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weight to heavy foreground lines, but it can never revive a weak plate equally.

1 6. Transparent Grounds.

When a plate requires additional work it may be covered with a transparent ground, which shows the work already done, and then the artist may add what he likes.

Here is a receipt for an old transparent ground said to be Rembrandt's.

White wax 30 grammes, gum-mastic 15 gr., asphaltum or amber, 1 5 gr. Melt the wax first, and add the other ingredients gradually, in powder.

More convenient transparent grounds will be found amongst the new processes.

17. Dry Point.

The old etcher's very often finished their plates in dry point, which has been explained in the preceding chapter.

Note. — When you use stopping-out at all, give plenty of time to it, and remember this maxim, handed down to us from the elder etchers : — " One day of stopping-out is worth five with the needle?

CHAPTER IV. The Old Negative Process

AVOIDING STOPPING-OUT.

i. The First Biting.

Having grounded and smoked your plate in the old-fashioned way {see Old Process, pp. 8 & 9), you first trace your subject, which may be easily done by rubbing the back of a drawing with chalk, and then having laid it on the grounded plate passing over the principal lines with a blunt point. You then etch all those parts, and those only, which are to be darkest, such as vigorous foreground work in landscapes, and any black and deep markings wherever you may happen to want them.

Use a blunt point for this work and keep the lines well open. Admit no delicate lines at this stage. Work as Turner did in his etched foregrounds, at least on his principle, making few lines, but these few all strongly suggestive of the light-and-shade of the composition, no outlines, as such, only the darkest places marked by bold marks, leaving the outlines to take care of themselves.

If the reader cares to follow the old tradition of etching to the letter, he will now bank his plate with banking-wax, but if he prefers convenience to tradition l6 THE ETCHER'S HANDBOOK.

he will japan the back of it, and the place where the hand-vice was fixed, and then use a porcelain bath.

The plate is to be immersed in the acid bath long enough to produce very black lines, say half-an-hour, in the usual nitric bath. Then clean it, and have a proof taken to guide you in subsequent labours.

2. The Second Biting.

Ground your plate again and smoke it. The deep lines will still be very clearly visible, notwithstanding the black ground, which must be substantial.

With the proof before you, draw all work that is to be neither very dark nor yet pale. Employ for this purpose a point sharper than before, but not yet quite sharp. Let your lines be nearer to each other than they were, yet not close.

Immerse your plate a second time in the bath till it is bitten sufficiently to make the lines moderately deep. Remove it, clean it, and take a second proof.

3. The Third Biting.

You now ground with transparent ground, and do not smoke. Proceed with all pale and delicate work, such as distances, skies, &c, and with pale tones in near objects, such as tender shades in fur of white animals, &c, and with pale tones that have to cover whole spaces where work has been already done, but which require to be veiled with what painters would call a scumble or a glaze.

This is not so easy as when you worked in the black ground, because you will not see your lines very distinctly.

In the third etching you must keep the lines close to each other, and use a sharp needle, provided your

THE OLD NEGATIVE PROCESS.

needle be not sharp enough to make little involuntarystoppages on the copper, jumping from one point to another.