CHROMOLITHOGRAPHS

Chromolithography became the most successful of several methods of color printing developed by the 19th century.

Hand-coloring also remained important; elements of the official British Ordnance Survey maps were colored by hand by boys until 1875.

The initial technique involved the use of multiple lithographic stones, one for each color, and was still extremely expensive when done for the best quality results. Depending on the number of colors present, a chromolithograph could take months to produce, by very skilled workers.

To make an expensive reproduction print as what was once referred to as a "chromo", a lithographer, with a finished painting in front of him, gradually created and corrected the many stones using proofs to look as much as possible like the painting in front of him, sometimes using dozens of layers.

Colors may be added to the print by drawing the area to receive the color on a different stone, and printing the new color onto the paper. Each color in the image must be separately drawn onto a new stone or plate and applied to the paper one at a time. It was not unusual for twenty to twenty-five stones to be used on a single image.

Each sheet of paper will therefore pass through the printing press as many times as there are colors in the final print. In order that each color is placed in the right position in each print, each stone or plate must be precisely ‘registered on the paper.

Offset printing, more cheapier process, replaced chromolithography in the late 1930s.

Flowering Plants - german lithographs

These are fine lithographs printed by the German publishing company "Bibliographisches Institut" from Leipzig, between 1890 and 1900.
These are exquisite quality prints, both in drawing and printing technique and that still today preserve a rich and vibrant color



These prints were originally fitted with a tissue guard with outlines and informative text description of the illustration

You can appreciate the bright coloured on next details of the prints:

old printing techniques: Wood cut

Rhinoceros woodcut image from the book, "The History of the Four-footed Beasts and Serpents.", 1658

Woodcut, a type of relief print, is the earliest printmaking technique, and the only one traditionally used in the Far East. It was probably first developed as a means of printing patterns on cloth, and by the 5th century was used in China for printing text and images on paper. Woodcuts of images on paper developed around 1400 in Europe, and slightly later in Japan. These are the two areas where woodcut has been most extensively used purely as a process for making images without text.

The artist draws a design on a plank of wood, or on paper which is transferred to the wood. Traditionally the artist then handed the work to a specialist cutter, who then uses sharp tools to carve away the parts of the block that will not receive ink. The surface of the block is then inked with the use of a brayer, and then a sheet of paper, perhaps slightly damp, is placed over the block. The block is then rubbed with a baren or spoon, or is run through a printing press. If in color, separate blocks can be used for each color,or a technique called reduction printing can be used.

Reduction printing is a name used to describe the process of using one block to print several layers of color on one print. This usually involves cutting a small amount of the block away, and then printing the block many times over on different sheets before washing the block, cutting more away and printing the next color on top. This allows the previous color to show through. This process can be repeated many times over. The advantages of this process is that only one block is needed, and that different components of an intricate design will line up perfectly. The disadvantage is that once the artist moves on to the next layer, no more prints can be made.

Another variation of woodcut printmaking is the cukil technique, made famous by the Taring Padi underground community in Java, Indonesia. Taring Padi Posters usually resemble intricately printed cartoon posters embedded with political messages. Images—usually resembling a visually complex scenario—are carved unto a wooden surface called cukilan, then smothered with printer's ink before pressing it unto media such as paper or canvas.

Buffon Prints Natural History 1870

Here are other print of the same year, it's a lovely and romantic country scene, preserving the soul of that time !

Detail:

Detail:

Original antique french plate from 1870ca has a clear and romantic Victorian style and and a beautiful calligraphic typography with text in French.

Buffon Prints Natural History 1870

Detail:

Detail:
Original antique french plate from ca1870 has a clear and romantic Victorian style and and a beautiful calligraphic typography with text in French. There are a funny animals with all its charm

Antique Jellyfish scene from 1908

This is a georgeus jellyfish scene, a fine lithograph from 1908, printed in Germany by Bibliographisches Institut Leipzig, Germany in 1908

Antique Jellyfish scene from 1908

Georgeous Fine Antique JELLYFISH lithograph from 1908 aquarium, bright colors, you can see the fine detail of the impresion

Antique aquarium scene from 1908

Nice aquarium scene, It's a fine lithograph from 1908 and printed in Germay, have bright colors and a heavy textured paper

Some about Georges Louis Leclerc, Count of Buffon

Georges Louis Leclerc (later Count de Buffon) was born at Montbard, in the Province of Burgundy from a family of servants. Georges attended the Jesuit College of Godrans in Dijon, then studied law as requisite for continuing the family tradition in civil service. In 1728 Georges left Dijon to study mathematics and medicine at the University of Angers in Switzerland in 173 where he made the camaraderie with the young English Duke of Kingston, and traveled with him for a year and a half through southern France and parts of Italy. There are persistent but completely undocumented rumors from this period about duels, abductions and secret trips to England. In 1732 Georges left Kingston and returned to Dijon. Having added “de Buffon” to his name while traveling with the Duke. With a fortune of about 80 000 livres legacy of his family, Buffon set himself up in Paris to pursue science, at first primarily mathematics and mechanics, and the increase of his fortune.

In 1732 he moved to Paris, where he made the acquaintance of Voltaire and other intellectuals. He first made his mark in the field of mathematics and, in his Sur le jeu de franc-carreau, introduced differential and integral calculus intoprobability theory; the problem of Buffon's needle in probability theory is named after him. In 1734 he was admitted to the French Academy of Sciences. During this period he corresponded with the Swiss mathematician Gabriel Cramer.

His protector Maurepas had asked the Academy of Sciences to do research on wood for the construction of ships in 1733. Soon afterward, Buffon began a long-term study, performing some of the most comprehensive tests to date on the mechanical properties of wood. Included were a series of tests to compare the properties of small specimens with those of large members. After carefully testing more than a thousand small specimens without knots or other defects, Buffon concluded that it was not possible to extrapolate to the properties of full-size timbers, and he began a series of tests on full-size structural members.

In 1739 he was appointed head of the Parisian Jardin du Roi with the help of Maurepas; he held this position to the end of his life. Buffon was instrumental in transforming the Jardin du Roi into a major research center and museum. He also enlarged it, arranging the purchase of adjoining plots of land and acquiring new botanical and zoological specimens from all over the world.

Thanks to his talent as a writer, he was invited to join Paris's second great academy, the Académie Française in 1753. In his Discours sur le style ("Discourse on Style"), pronounced before the Académie Française, he said, "Writing well consists of thinking, feeling and expressing well, of clarity of mind, soul and taste .... The style is the man himself" ("Le style c'est l'homme même"). Unfortunately for him, Buffon's reputation as a literary stylist also gave ammunition to his detractors: The mathematician Jean le Rond D'Alembert, for example, called him "the great phrase-monger".

In 1752 Buffon married Marie-Françoise de Saint-Belin-Malain, the daughter of an impoverished noble family from Burgundy.

Publications:

Buffon's Histoire naturelle, générale et particulière (1749–1788: in 36 volumes; an additional volume based on his notes appeared in 1789) was originally intended to cover all three "kingdoms" of nature but the Histoire naturelle ended up being limited to the animal and mineral kingdoms. "Written in a brilliant style, this work was read ... by every educated person in Europe".

In the opening volumes of the Histoire naturelle Buffon questioned the usefulness of mathematics, criticized Carl Linnaeus's taxonomical approach to natural history, outlined a history of the Earth with little relation to the Biblical account, and proposed a theory of reproduction that ran counter to the prevailing theory of pre-existence. The early volumes were condemned by the Faculty of Theology at the Sorbonne. Buffon published a retraction, but he continued publishing the offending volumes without any change.

In the course of his examination of the animal world, Buffon noted that despite similar environments, different regions have distinct plants and animals, a concept later known as Buffon's Law. This is considered to be the first principle of biogeography. He made the suggestion that species may have both "improved" and "degenerated" after dispersing from a center of creation. In volume 14 he argued that all the world's quadrupeds had developed from an original set of just thirty-eight quadrupeds. On this basis, he is sometimes considered a "transformist" and a precursor of Darwin. He also asserted that climate change may have facilitated the worldwide spread of species from their centers of origin. Still, interpreting his ideas on the subject is not simple, for he returned to topics many times in the course of his work.

Buffon considered the similarities between humans and apes, but ultimately rejected the possibility of a common descent. He debated with James Burnett, Lord Monboddo on the relationship of the primates to man, Monboddo insisting, against Buffon, on a close relationship.

At one point, Buffon propounded a theory that nature in the New World was inferior to that of Eurasia. He argued that the Americas were lacking in large and powerful creatures, and that even the people were less virile than their European counterparts. He ascribed this inferiority to the marsh odors and dense forests of the American continent. These remarks so incensed Thomas Jefferson that he dispatched twenty soldiers to the New Hampshire woods to find a bull moose for Buffon as proof of the "stature and majesty of American quadrapeds". Buffon later admitted his error.

In Les époques de la nature (1778) Buffon discussed the origins of the solar system, speculating that the planets had been created by a comet's collision with the sun.^[8] He also suggested that the earth originated much earlier than 4004 BC, the date determined by Archbishop James Ussher. Basing his figures on the cooling rate of iron tested at his Laboratory the Petit Fontenet at Montbard, he calculated that the age of the earth was 75,000 years. Once again, his ideas were condemned by the Sorbonne, and once again he issued a retraction to avoid further problems

1894 Antique butterfly print, Big Butterflies and caterpillars

Beautiful german lithograph of butterflies from 1894 very good textured paper with bright colors, belongs to a old encyclopedia

1894 Rare Antique beautiful polar lights

Beautiful aurora borealis in scandinavia and greenland from 1894 is a german color Chromolithograph

Antique bird prints from 1779

It is truly a masterpiece in the world of bird art, from a fragment of '' Herr von Buffons Naturgeschichte der Vogel''. Friedrich Martini H. W. Herrn. Berlin, Pauli, 1772.
Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon (7 September 1707 – 16 April 1788) was a French naturalist, mathematician, cosmologist, and encyclopedic author. His works influenced the next two generations of naturalists, including Jean-Baptiste Lamarck and Georges Cuvier. Buffon published thirty-five quarto volumes of his Histoire naturelle during his lifetime; one additional volume based on his notes was published in 1789 after his death. It has been said that "Truly, Buffon was the father of all thought in natural history in the second half of the 18th century

Artisan engraving, hand-colored at the time of publication the hand coloring is excellent, and the paper it's handmade also and you can see manufacturer's watermark in the paper