beauty and bring enormous
prices. The process, now almost a memory, is a costly one, and this
prevents its use in book illustration excepting for volumes which
command a very high price. This kind of printing requires the plate to
be actually painted by hand with inks of such colors as the picture
may require, and the painting has to be repeated for every impression
that is taken. The colors are put on with a "dole,"--a small piece of
muslin turned to a point,--and great care must be taken that they do
not overlap, or run into, each other. As each color is placed, the
plate is wiped clean with rags as already described, and when all the
colors have been properly placed, the plate is pulled through the
press in the same manner as in ordinary printing.

The successful printer of color plates must be a rare artist or else
work under the direction of an artist. Little of this work is now done
except in Paris and Vienna, and the limited number of color plates of
this kind used for book illustration in this country does not warrant
the time and expense necessary to train printers capable of doing the
work. Even English plates are usually sent to Paris to be printed.

It is difficult to describe the work of what is termed artistic
printing. Every plate is a subject to be treated by itself, and no
hard and fast rule can be applied. It is really a matter of artistic
feeling, and to revert to the simile of the angler, one cannot explain
how a trout should be played, but can only say that it depends on the
fish, the water, and the circumstances. A fisherman can _show_ you, if
you are on the spot, and so can the printer.

THE GELATINE PROCESS

By Emil Jacobi.

Of the many photo-mechanical processes which have come into existence
in recent years, the photo-gelatine, next to the half-tone process,
has shown the greatest adaptability for practical use in art and
commerce.

Whatever the name may be,--Collotype, Artotype, Albertype, Phototype,
or Carbon-gravure,--the principle is the same; an impression is made
in printer's ink from a photo-chemically produced design on a gelatine
surface, either on the hand-press or on a power cylinder press similar
to that used in lithographic printing.

There is hardly any process which is more capable of producing fine
works of art. It is the only true method for reproducing, in the full
sense of the word, an etching, engraving, a drawing in pen and ink, an
aquarelle, a painting, o