Janice Conway
Jan Conway is currently Director of Library and Student Services at the University for the Creative Arts. Previously she was Deputy Director of Library and Academic Services at the University of the Arts London. Jan has long had an interest in the history and the art of the book. As a student she studied historical and social bibliography at the University of Wales Aberystwyth. Following this she completed her MA in Library and Information Studies at University College London under the supervision of David McKitteric Librarian of Trinity College Cambridge. Jan’s dissertation explored Victorian box wood engraving techniques. Jan also taught a module in the history of the book at the London College of Printing where she also managed and developed the Historical Printing Collection and the Fine Printing Collection of Artist’s Books over a number of years.
Jan is the Chair of the Art Libraries Society UK and Ireland Publication Committee and is a Liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Stationer’s and Newspaper Makers.
Nineteenth Century British Wood Engraving: its commercial decline
The aim of the paper is to present an overview of a particular form of illustration which was for some forty years of the nineteenth century, the predominant method of graphic reproduction in British Publications and to consider its eventual commercial decline.
The use of wood engraving to produce exactly repeatable visual images on paper has a long and fascinating history. End-grain boxwood engraving however was a truly Victorian phenomenon and an understanding of the strengths, weaknesses, versatility and limitations of this technique may perhaps best be reached through an understanding of its commercial decline. The period 1860 – 1900 is one of the most crucial and interesting in the history of British wood engraving. Although wood engraving as an illustrative method was able to survive for some time after it had ceased to be truly commercially viable, by the turn of the century it had virtually disappeared due to a combination of pressures, technical, economic and aesthetic. A form of wood engraving closer to Bewick’s original interpretation of the craft re-emerged through the establishment of private presses during the inter-war period.
This paper will focus on mechanization in book production, the impact of photography on book and newspaper illustration and the adaptability of wood engraving as a means of graphic reproduction. It will reflect upon the changing attitudes and approaches of artists and engravers to the role of wood engraving in the pivotal years of its commercial pinnacle, its technical downfall and will point towards its later resurgence as a method of book illustration through the work of Morris, Beardsley, Johnson and Gill.
The paper will conclude with some reflections on the use of special collections within academic settings and the importance of the book for object-base learning in specialist arts institutions.
The use of wood engraving to produce exactly repeatable visual images on paper has a long and fascinating history. End-grain boxwood engraving however was a truly Victorian phenomenon and an understanding of the strengths, weaknesses, versatility and limitations of this technique may perhaps best be reached through an understanding of its commercial decline. The period 1860 – 1900 is one of the most crucial and interesting in the history of British wood engraving. Although wood engraving as an illustrative method was able to survive for some time after it had ceased to be truly commercially viable, by the turn of the century it had virtually disappeared due to a combination of pressures, technical, economic and aesthetic. A form of wood engraving closer to Bewick’s original interpretation of the craft re-emerged through the establishment of private presses during the inter-war period.
This paper will focus on mechanization in book production, the impact of photography on book and newspaper illustration and the adaptability of wood engraving as a means of graphic reproduction. It will reflect upon the changing attitudes and approaches of artists and engravers to the role of wood engraving in the pivotal years of its commercial pinnacle, its technical downfall and will point towards its later resurgence as a method of book illustration through the work of Morris, Beardsley, Johnson and Gill.
The paper will conclude with some reflections on the use of special collections within academic settings and the importance of the book for object-base learning in specialist arts institutions.