THE PRINT TRADE.
CONSIDERABLE excitement has been caused among the printsellers and publishers, by the appearance, a few weeks since, of an extraordinary mani- festo, signed by several of the most eminent line-engravers, amongst whom were the names of Messrs. FINDEN, E. GOODALL, Doo, &c., declarative of their intention to insist upon retaining, as of right, eight proof impressions of every plate that they should thereafter engrave, private plates excepted. It has been the custom, it appears, among the engravers, for several years past, to have from three to twenty proof impressions taken off from each plate that they engraved, for their own private use, without consulting the proprietor of the plate who paid them for engraving it. These "proofs be- fore letters" are highly esteemed by connoisseurs, as will be seen by some striking instances in the catalogue of a recent sale of rare and valuable prints, by Mr. HESSEY : it contains some prices which will astonish the reader who is uninitiated in the mysteries of print collecting. The celebrated Mr. CHARLES HEATH possessed a very extensive stoek of proof impressions of the plates that he engraved ; and after his bankruptcy his assignees an- nounced them for sale ; but Mr. Mutt RAY, of Albemarle Street, for whom Mr. HEAT 11 had engraved a great number of plates, on seeing proof impressions from them in the catalogue, obtained an injunction to stop their sale ; and the Lord Chancellor directed the question of right to be tried in a court of law. The result of the trial in the King's Bench, before Lord TENTERDEN, was to overthrow the attempt to establish such pre- scriptive right on the part of the engravers ; and they were therefore left de- pendent upon the courtesy of the proprietors of the plates they engraved, for more than the two or three proofs necessary to enable them to judge of their work in its progress. This does not appear a very great hardship, or a very unreasonable conclusion for a jury to arrive at,—especially when the engravers who came forward as witnesses on the trial could only prove that it was their custom to take a few proofs for themselves, but were not able to identify the custom with a rule of the trade, or to fix any data as to the number of proofs that were usually taken ; and for the necessity for their having more than one or two as specimens of their art, not one was found to speak. The great value of these "engraver's proofs," which are taken before any inscription is added to the plate, renders the engravers very tenacious of what some of them still consider their right ; and the same cause induces the publishers to resist the custom. The latter, though aware of this practice of the engravers, did not feel inclined to resist it so long as those im- pressions were confined to the portfolio of the artist or those of his friends, and they accumulated as a sort of stock for the benefit of their widows or chi1. d ren, which was increasing in value by time, while it did not interfere with the property of the publisher. But the appearance of copies of these " proof0 before letters " ill the market at the very time when the publisher was pro, moting the sale of his impressions, was a manifest injury to him ; and the door that was thus opened for traffic in a species of property that ought to have been considered inconvertible into money, at least for many years to
come, induced the trade to put a stop to the custom altogether. We have
been informed, that proof copies of the splendid mezzotint of the Pope, after LAWRENCE, were actually offered for sale before the publisher had got his
impressions from the printer :,,and that two proofs of the beautiful mezzotint of Illaster Lartibton, after LAWRENCE, were publicly exhibited by a print. ttuctioneer, and bought of him for a very large sum in advance of the pub- lication-price, by the publisher himself, in order to protect his property !— These are facts, and they need no argument to strengthen them. It was the custom also for the engravers to exchange away these proofs among themselves ; and thus they were enabled, at no expense, to possess themselves of valuable works of art which it would have cost them a large sum to purchase. The copperplate-printers are, by the custom of their trade, allowed to retain a copy of every plate that they print ; and the value of the collections so acquired may be judged from the circumstance of one of thent having been ofFered 2000/. for his collection.
The print-publishers also complain of another and a more recent custom lately adopted by artists, of demanding large sums for the copyright of pictures ; not only of such as they themselves have to dispose of, but of those that they have sold to private individuals. The enormous sums re- ceived by Sir Tit osiAs LawItENCE for the use of his pictures, are almost in. credible : for the privilege of engraving his portrait of Lord Liverpool, the publishers paid him 7001., and the consequence was they were great losers by the speculation. In the case of the portrait of Young Lambton, we have heard that an engraver, haying obtained Lord Durham's permission to engrave the picture, applied to the artist, out of a feeling of courtesy, to know if he should have any objection to his engraving it ; and he received for answer, that he had a decided objection, but would write to Lord Dur- ham on the subject. Ile did so ; and received the picture, which he put into the hands of another engraver to execute for him, and he afterwards sold the plate for a very large sum over and above what he paid the en- graver. Many patrons of the arts have very properly resisted this encroach-, meta upon their property ; the establishment of which in many instances has tended to the loss of the publisher, and to prevent the public means.
If some splendid works of art placed within the reach of ordinary m
If an artist, instead of selling his picture, chooses, or is only able to dispose of the use of it for engraving, it is just and right that he should receive a fair remuneration,—although Sir JOSHUA REYNOLDS never profited in this way by his immortal works : and if an artist superintends the work of the engraver, a compliment is due to him for the time and attention so em- ployed; but further than this, he can have no claim, legal or moral, be his celebrity high or low. Another equally serious invasion of their right of property to which pub- lishers of prints have been subject, and which has been carried on for a length of time and to a great extent, has at length been put a stop to: we allude to the practice of copying new and popular prints in miniature size, in pencil or water colours, and disposing of such copies in the fancy shops, to the injury of the sale of the original print. This custom has been made a lucrative trade by the small fry of embryo artists, who are incapable of doing any thing more than imitating (and that most abominably) the pro- ductions of real talent and genius ; and there are several persons who have regular manufactories for these spurious copies, employing colourers of prints and boys to copy at so much per dozen, and vending their wares to the fancy-stationers and small print-dealers. The number of copies so made of the beautiful lithographic drawing of Miss Fanny Kemble, after LAW. RENCE, by LANE, induced the artist and the publisher (Mr. J. DICKIN- so x) to apply for an injunction to stop the sale of these piratical copies; and the Vice-Chancellor, it will be seen, has granted it. We may here mention why we have omitted to fulfil the intention we had expressed of treating ourselves and our readers to a dejeun6 of art OR French prints. Whilst making a selection of the most interesting to remark
upon, now and then breaking forth into audible expressions of admiration, we were stopt by a sigh and a deprecatory exclamation from the worthy
printseller whose folios we were ravishing, and, upon inquiring the cause, received for answer the following statement, to which we beg to call the at- tention of all patriotic purchasers of prints. French prints may be imported into this country on payment of one penny each, be the print sold for a shilling or for five guineas ; and as artists are more numerous, and the inferior class more talented and better educated, in France than in England, the French have a great advantage over Eng.. lish artists and publishers, even in a competition upon equal ground ; but when we consider that French labour and paper are cheaper than English, and that the duties in France upon the importation of English prints amount to nearly 45 per cent. ad valorem, it will be clear to every one, that the ba- lance of reciprocity, on the free trade system, as applied to this branch of
commerce, is prodigiously against England. One effect of the system is to deluge this country with common French lithographs, many of them either positively indecent or pruriently gross ; and the superior skill of the French artists in producing these bagatelles, their taste in design and facility in drawing, added to the low price at which they are enabled to offer the ordi- nary class of prints for scrap-books, &c.—a price not amounting to the expense of the mere printing and paper in England—render it impos- sible for the English artist and publisher to compete with them. The English engravers both in line and mezzotint are superior to the French,
manyof them being employed to copy the works of the French artists ; it is in lithography principally that they have so decided an advantage over us.
This arises from the superior system of instruction adopted in the ateliers
of Paris, where the students are thoroughly accomplished in the use of the crayon, and in drawing from the figure,—two points of practice and study in which many English artists, even of eminence, are deficient. Their facility in using the crayon renders lithography peculiarly available to them; and they design and draw subjects and likenesses on the stone, without
the intermediate use of a sketch, with great spirit and freedom of drawing and purity of tint ; as GREVEDON'S admirable heads testify. Our lithe« graphic draughtsmen, however, surpass those of France in the fidelity, finish, and effect, which characterize their imitations of pictures and sketches; witness the unrivalled productions of Messrs. LANE, HARDING) SHARP? HAGHE, &c., in lithography.
Peeps at the Print-Shops in our next.
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