Questions about Woodcuts and CDV/Cabinet Cards & Old Judge cards

[drcy]

In the artworld, prints are considered 'original' (handmade as I call them), if the graphics are made directly by hand or handheld tool into the printing plate, and the print is printed directly from that printing plate. If you hancarve a block of wood and print from that block, you made an original, handmade print. It's the printing equivalent of an original painting or sketch, and if you buy a thousands dollar Picasso lithograph or Rembrandt etching, that's what you are getting.

An example is if your kid makes a linoleum cut print in art class, where you carve the design into a piece of linoleum, ink it up and print it onto a piece of paper. That's an original. If you scan it or photograph and print out a digital copy, that's a reproduction.

In the late 1800s, there was the modern way of reproducing photographs, sketeches and paintings by translating the original art in to a dot-matrix pattern. They take a photo of the sketch or painting, and make the reproduction on the printing plate with that. That's the way modern baseball cards, CD covers, posters, newspapers and magazines reproduce graphics. And if you look under a microscope, you will see the dot pattern.

Before this process, newspapers and magazines couldn't reproduce photos or paintings that way, and so all the graphics in publications are orignal, handmade works of art.

So photographs have been around since 1839, but the in practice technology to realistically reproduce them didn't start until the 1890s. The first photomechanically reproduced baseball card is the 1893 Just So Tobacco. The 1880s and earlier 1880s Allen & Ginters, Red Stocking Tobacco and trade cards are handmade prints.

[mouschi]

GREAT input here, everyone! Thanks so much! So, if I'm understanding properly, Old Judge, CDVs and Cabinet cards were made from negatives. Negatives could produce several, but not an unlimited amount, as they would degrade over time. Perhaps there simply aren't that many cards of each player in the Old Judge set then? Man, I think I've gotta get my hands on that Old Judge book by Jay and the other gentleman who wrote it (I think there were two people?)

As for newspapers, they were using woodcuts and stamping them basically by hand? They couldn't use pictures (until the dot-matrix patterns was invented) because they couldn't reproduce the images due to the paper needed. Do I have it right so far?

Looking forward to hearing from others as well!

[trdcrdkid]

Originally Posted by mouschi

GREAT input here, everyone! Thanks so much! So, if I'm understanding properly, Old Judge, CDVs and Cabinet cards were made from negatives. Negatives could produce several, but not an unlimited amount, as they would degrade over time. Perhaps there simply aren't that many cards of each player in the Old Judge set then? Man, I think I've gotta get my hands on that Old Judge book by Jay and the other gentleman who wrote it (I think there were two people?)

There were three people: Jay Miller (oldjudge on Net54), Joe Gonsowski (Joe_G. on Net54), and Richard Masson (not on Net54).

[mouschi]

Originally Posted by trdcrdkid

There were three people: Jay Miller (oldjudge on Net54), Joe Gonsowski (Joe_G. on Net54), and Richard Masson (not on Net54).

Ah! Ok. I think I also got the Jay I was thinking of wrong, too

[trdcrdkid]

Originally Posted by mouschi

As for newspapers, they were using woodcuts and stamping them basically by hand? They couldn't use pictures (until the dot-matrix patterns was invented) because they couldn't reproduce the images due to the paper needed. Do I have it right so far?

It wasn't really the paper per se, so much as the method of reproduction. Albumen prints were made by exposing a photographic negative to a piece of specially coated paper, whereas newspapers in the late 19th century were printed by letterpress printing, in which a bed made up of movable type is inked and pressed onto a sheet of paper. I'm not sure if it would have been possible to make an albumen print on newsprint, but even if it was, it would have had to be done completely separately from the process of printing a newspaper. A woodcut, on the other hand, could easily fit among the type in a letterpress type bed, as people had been doing from the invention of movable type and the printing press in the 15th century.

[steve B]

Originally Posted by mouschi

GREAT input here, everyone! Thanks so much! So, if I'm understanding properly, Old Judge, CDVs and Cabinet cards were made from negatives. Negatives could produce several, but not an unlimited amount, as they would degrade over time. Perhaps there simply aren't that many cards of each player in the Old Judge set then? Man, I think I've gotta get my hands on that Old Judge book by Jay and the other gentleman who wrote it (I think there were two people?)

As for newspapers, they were using woodcuts and stamping them basically by hand? They couldn't use pictures (until the dot-matrix patterns was invented) because they couldn't reproduce the images due to the paper needed. Do I have it right so far?

Looking forward to hearing from others as well!

The negatives themselves last a long time, as long as there is no wear from handling etc. But most of what was printed was a different size than the negative, and adding the company name meant duplicating the negative. each duplication causes a little less sharpness in the image. How much depends on the skill of the person doing the job.

The woodcuts were sort of printed by hand. Even around the time of the earlier ones the presses were pretty fast. and by the 1870's a major publication would probably be oriented on a steam powered press.

The best woodcuts were sometimes called wood engravings, and were cut into the end grain of a maple block. It was durable enough, and could be carved in enough detail.

[mouschi]

Originally Posted by steve B

The negatives themselves last a long time, as long as there is no wear from handling etc. But most of what was printed was a different size than the negative, and adding the company name meant duplicating the negative. each duplication causes a little less sharpness in the image. How much depends on the skill of the person doing the job.

The woodcuts were sort of printed by hand. Even around the time of the earlier ones the presses were pretty fast. and by the 1870's a major publication would probably be oriented on a steam powered press.

The best woodcuts were sometimes called wood engravings, and were cut into the end grain of a maple block. It was durable enough, and could be carved in enough detail.

Thanks Steve! Great info.