American Revolution Makes an Engraver from a Messenger

This country's most famous horse back rider, Paul Revere, was also an engraver.

Listen, my children, and you shall hear Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere, On the eighteenth of April, in Seventy-Five; Hardly a man is now alive Who remembers that famous day and year — a portion of "Paul Revere's Ride", first published in The Atlantic Monthly, 1861 by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Its fairly common knowledge that Paul Revere, the subject of the now famous Wadsworth poem, was a silver smith who had followed in his father's footsteps in that trade. Even though he is most well known for that "midnight ride":

...the night of April 18/April 19, 1775, when he and William Dawes were instructed by Dr. Joseph Warren to ride from Boston to Lexington to warn John Hancock and Samuel Adams of the movements of the British Army, which was beginning a march from Boston to Lexington, ostensibly to arrest Hancock and Adams and seize the weapons stores in Concord. —http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Revere, Revere was also a gold smith, and, come to find out, an engraver.

Engraved commentary, civic and fiscal communications, cultural iconography and satire have long been subjects, and purpose, for goldsmiths wielding the mighty burin, thus did Mr. Revere take up one of his engraving tools and, ummm, appropriate the scene of the historic Boston Massacre and sell an edition of engraved prints for his own personal profit.

Well, the craft in his prints is not beautiful, but I guess he may have made a few coins scooping the efforts of two fellow commercial engravers:

Documentation has come to light over the years indicating that Revere copied engraver Henry Pelham's drawings of the Massacre, produced his own engraving, and three weeks after the occurrence was advertising his prints for sale in Boston's newspapers. By the time Pelham's prints hit the street, Revere's print had flooded the market. A third engraving was executed by Jonathan Mulliken, who also issued prints depicting the event. Except for a number of minor differences, all three prints appear alike. —http://www.earlyamerica.com/review/winter96/massacre.html

Its interesting to note that the specter of easy money is sometimes the motive for highfaluting goldsmiths taking a less lofty professional turn into selling popular editions of prints. (See "History" section in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goldsmith and "Cards" in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Master_of_the_Playing_Cards.)

Macro-photography of Engraved Stationery Die

This image is an extreme close-up of a portion of a steel engraved die, the original image area you are viewing is but 15mm X 20.1mm, that's way less than one inch square, and the digital image is approximately 34 inches wide at 240dpi. (Needless to say what you are viewing has been reduced for use on the internet.)

Visible at this clarity (although we will soon be able to provide even clearer images at this degree of enlargement) are several factors that go into what is this die.

First, it is both etched and touched-up with engraving, the tell-tale granular texture of the bottom of the deep areas is because etching corrodes the metal, thus rendering it much less light reflective than engraving.

Second, notice that some areas (the tops of the arches at top, right) reflect light and look smooth like ice. The engraving tool polishes the metal so light bounces off of it like a jewel.

Other areas of interest are the rust not noticable with the bare eye and the very interesting texture all around the edge (left and bottom) made by the file that beveled the edges of this 1/2" thick steel die. Also, there are many surface scratches that would not print with an engraving press but look kind of spooky here.

While creating this image it was discovered that, at this extreme magnification, minute vibrations blur the image. So, now we will work on stabilizing everything for absolutely maximum focus (and we will be able to get closer, too.)

Odd Ball Short Story

While researching the International Correspondence Schools recently, I was reminded of the odd-ball J.D. Salinger short story, De Daumier-Smith’s Blue Period, about a young man reduced by sad personal circumstances to take a job as a correspondence art course instructor.

I was researching the correspondence school to find out from where this technical text book came.

There’s a great article about correspondence art schools by Steve Heller in the 12.15.09 Design Observer, too.

"What if Edith Wharton Facebooked" in AIGA Voice

Read the article, "What if Edith Wharton Facebooked" recently published in AIGA Voice about life, love, marriage, notoriety, privacy and social media, engraving and writing letters long hand, too.

Hand Engraved Samples and Press Proofs Featured in VOGUE Magazine's Blog

As quoted from Vogue's Need it Now, by Stephanie LaCava and edited by Virginia Tupker, "There’s a special sort of “sample sale” starting online, one unlike all others. Stationer Nancy Sharon Collins is about to launch a site that allows you to choose from her storied collection of bespoke, hand-engraved note cards. Let’s explain: Collins is also an archivist, her specialty being the research of type and print history, meaning she’s an expert on the best stationery. Part of her work is to keep track of the houses that have sadly gone out of business—recall the beloved Mrs. John L. Strong—which means she comes across hundreds of vintage steel engraving dies. Naturally, out of curiosity and duty, she creates small editions to see the prints created with the newly acquired designs. “It occurred to me that rather than hoarding them, I could offer the public these charming little proofs.” For example, some of Collins’s favorite designs are from a shuttered New York City engraver that had its offices on West Twenty-eighth Street. “My favorite is the log, probably something used at a timber or lumber company; unexpected, charming, and kind of cartoony.” Though not as easy to come by, not to be forgotten is Collins’s one-of-a-kind work. She let us in on a special secret: She was once commissioned to hand-engrave an Ellsworth Kelly artwork from a personal, private collection. . . . Who knows what we’ll find in the samples?"

http://petitesuite.wordpress.com./

Love Letters: American Commercial Engraving, Monograms and Social Stationery

Please join us at University of Texas at Austin for the most recent rendition of this evolving presentation about American commercial engraving.

Tuesday September 22, 6:00pm–7:30pm Art Building, Room ART 1.120 This lecture will include images from recent research and sources of commercial engraving and specifications for engraving types never before shown in public or discussed.

http://aigaaustin.org/events/2009/09/detail/414/

Beauty Make-Over for Heavy Metal

A silk purse...from a...sow's ear.

Mission complete, the smaller of two, hundred year old engraving proofing presses have just been fully restored and completely operable by my husband and partner, John Mack Collins. This baby (pictured above) weighs-in at about two hundred pounds and when you hit the ball watch your head and digits 'cause it wields about a force of two tons.

These presses were originally made for proofing half inch thick commercially engraved dies but they have been used for production work on embossed monograms and family seals. The big brother, about 50% again the weight, is almost completely restored as well. This one will reside at Loyola University New Orleans in the graphic design department with Professors Daniela Marx and Nancy Bernardo. A small but burgeoning cottage industry for print engraving is being nurtured here in New Orleans by Yvette Rutlidge, venerable typographer, sign letter and master engraver, at Mystic Blue Signs. Yve will be devoting a portion of her shop to the letter arts, and, engraving.

Follow the entire story, here:

http://typophile.com/node/59459
http://typophile.com/node/58983
(sample of the 1/2" thick steel dies) http://typophile.com/node/51918
http://typophile.com/node/51189