Library 513: Description and Name Access

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Cataloguing the Copper Plate Chapter 10
Three-Dimensional Artefacts and Realia

• Library 513 Description and Name Access
• for Dr. Martin Dowding
• James Lovitt
• Marilyn MacPherson
• November 27, 2003

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Learning Objectives

• To understand the relevance and importance of
  non-book oriented material within a large
  collection of materials.
• To understand the development of the printing of
  images.
• To understand and differentiate the intaglio
  printing process from the relief printing
  process.
• To understand the different methods employed in
  the production of images. 
• To understand current printing (relief and
  intaglio) and preservation processes
• To understand the evolution of the terminology
  used to describe items such as the copper plate
• To understand how non-book materials became
  accepted library materials
• To understand how AACR responded to artefacts and
  realia
• To understand how to catalogue three-dimensional
  artefacts and realia

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Materials Held By Rare Books and Special
Collections

• Rare Books
• Manuscripts
• Incunabula
• Historical maps
• Photographs
• Textbooks
• Music
• Maps
• And Woodblocks and Copper Plate Images

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Woodblock Printing Process

• Relief Printing
• Woodblock Prints
• Use these Woods
• Pear
• Sycamore
• Beach
• Process
• An artists drawing is pasted or drawn onto a
  woodblock and the extra wood is pared off by a
  knife or other tool creating a relief print.
• Cross hatching creates shading
• A mistake is corrected by creating a hole and
  plugging it with new wood.
• This is a Japanese woodblock relief print done
  with multiple woodblocks each with different sets
  of colors to create the image
• For further explanation ,click here.

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Woodblock Plate History

• Began in China around 9th century AD. For
  further explanation, click here.
• The Process spread westward through Muslim
  countries until it finally reached
  Constantinople.
• Using woodblock pictures in books didnt become
  popular until around 1490 due to the book trade
  which stimulated the demand for pictures.
• Albrecht Durer changed the belief that only crude
  woodcuts could be made and many schools emerged
  throughout Europe as a result of his influence.
• - This is an example of Durers woodblock work
  and the print that results

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Wood Engraving

• Woodblock Engraving
  For further explanation, click here
• Began to be developed as an art in the 18th
  century.
• Used a special wood
• Boxwood (Extremely slow growing and difficult to
  engrave.)
• Process
• Uses as engraver much like a metal workers Burin
  (Small steel rod with a square or lozenge end.)
• A number of other tools are used to add to
  effects and appearances of the finished picture.

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Intaglio Plate Process

• Intaglio Printing Process
• Process A 1-2mm copper, iron, steel, or steel
  faced copper plate was engraved with a picture.
  The plate is then inked within the indentation
  rather than the relief. The print is then placed
  face up with wetted paper and blankets on top. It
  is then run through a set of rollers to apply
  tremendous pressure. The result is that there is
  enough pressure to force the paper into the
  grooves of the plate and to transfer the ink onto
  the paper. The process takes at least several
  minutes per plate and if different layers are
  called only 8-10 prints may be accomplished in a
  single day! A mezzotint often only produced 8-10
  prints a day due to the difficult in printing.
• For further explanation, click here

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Intaglio Print Shop

• A different process is utilized than what we
  think of usually for printing.
• In this example the man on the far left is
  removing all excess ink from the plate, the man
  behind him is applying the initial ink and the
  man on the right is running the intaglio print
  and paper through the press. A large foot/hand
  crank is used to move the plate. Paper prints are
  drying in the background.

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Intaglio Plate Process Engraving

• Engraving Process
• A burin is used among other tools to engrave the
  surface of the metal.
• Mistakes were made by pounding the rear of the
  metal to raise up a mistake.
• It was a skilled profession and an expert might
  spend years on a single plate.
• One French artist Charles Bervic (1756-1822)
  completed 16 plates in his career.
• For further explanation, click here
• This example to the right is an example of
  engraving.

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Intaglio Plate Process Etching

• The plate is covered with a ground (acid
  resistant material), and then a design is placed
  onto the plate followed by acid. The acid eats
  away the design portion. It required less skill
  than engraving, but more understanding of acid
  and chemistry.
• For further explanation click here.
• This picture below is an example of a print that
  has been produced mostly using etching and only a
  minimal amount of engraving.

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Difficulties with Etching

• Problems
• Lines cant be too close together.
• If etching ground is imperfect the plate is
  fowled.
• The plate could be immersed for minutes or hours
  and the etcher must understand this craft
  exactly.
• It is the easiest craft to try out, but the
  hardest to master.
• (Etching and engraving were often combined for
  wonderful effect.
• This plate shows an example of etching in the
  background of the inset, and with the heavy lines
  on the mans shoulder being done with engraving

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The Etching Workshop

• Etching was often the method chosen for mass
  production of plates and the workshop appears
  more like an assembly line.
• Image from the far right moving left the woman
  on the far right is laying the etching ground,
  the next woman is pounding out a mistake for
  correction, the next man is smoking the grounded
  plate, the next two men are removing a solution
  of acid from a wax square, the next woman is
  drawing using a mirror to reverse the image, the
  next two people are using different methods of
  exposing the plates to acid for etching. The last
  man is using a burin to complete the plate

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Problems with Plate Production

• One severe problem with plate production was that
  only so many prints could be produced for each
  plate before the plates were pressed flat and
  unable to produce new prints. Often a good plate
  may be able to produce 2-3000 prints. Retouching
  could often be done, but not always depending on
  the difficulty involved.

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Other Types of Intaglio Processes

• Drypoint a sharp needle is used to draw a
  design, but unlike other plates the burrs left by
  the process are not removed.
• The plate produced can only create 20-30 prints
  before the burrs are pressed flat.
• Mezzotint Works from dark to light. Create a
  darkened plate that will create a black print and
  then use a scalpel to produce white spots.
  Beautiful effects.
• For further explanation, click here

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Mezzotint

• Image of a young man reading by Wallerant
  Vaillant done around 1670s

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Development over the Centuries

• Many artists have influenced print production and
  the development of the craft over the centuries
• Albrecht Durer
• William Hogarth
• William Blake
• Through experimentation with different processes
  and materials they have advanced the craft and
  the artist process of printing.

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UBC Library

• The UBC Rare Books and Special Collections has
  several examples of both woodcut, wood-engraving,
  and copper plate intaglios, as well as steel
  plates.
• Examples include
• A Wood engraving from the Nonesuch Dickens
  collection.
• A woodcut from Japan.
• Several Steel map plates from Japan.
• A copper plate intaglio from the 19th century.
• A collection of Linocuts from the mid-20th
  century (No pictures were available.)

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Dickens Woodblock Plate
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Dickens Nonesuch Plate

• Side and open views of an early 20th Century
  woodblock print of a scene from one of Charles
  Dickens stories. The plate is owned by the UBC
  Rare Book and Special Collection Library, date is
  approximately 1920s

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Japanese Woodcut Plate

• Image of a Japanese woodblock relief plate on a
  family tree/lineage. The woodblock is owned by
  the UBC Rare Book and Special Collection Library,
  date of production is unknown

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Japanese Metal Cartograhic Plates

• Images of Japanese cartographic plates done in
  the 19th century. Owned by the UBC Rare Book and
  Special Collection Library

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Copper Intaglio Plate

• Image of a copper intaglio plate owned by the UBC
  Rare Book and Special Collection Library. Done by
  Philip Velyn on Jean Racines play Mithridate

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Evolution of a Terminology

• Three broad rubrics
• Non-Book Materials
• Nonprint Materials
• Three-Dimensional Artefacts and Realia
• For further explanation, click here

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A Greater Acceptance

• Changing needs and collections
• Historical arguments challenged by those persons
  within and outside of the profession
• Move towards the Information Paradigm
• For further explanation, click here

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AACR and Artefacts and Realia

• AACR first edition incorporates several types of
  non-book materials but not three-dimensional
  artefacts and realia
• AACR second edition redresses the oversight and
  includes Chapter 10
• Expanded glossary a recognition of the breadth of
  material
• For further explanation, click here

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ISBD and Three-Dimensional Artefacts and Realia

• IFLA and ISBD (NBM)
• Standardized Description of Unique MaterialsAn
  Oxymoron?
• ISBD, AACR2, and MARC
• For further explanation, click here

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Cataloguing the Copper Plate

• The Precedent for Cataloguing the Copper Plate
• A Case for Archives, Personal Papers, and
  Manuscripts (APPM)
• A Case for Bibliographic Control
• For further explanation, click here

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Describing the Copper Plate

• Provenance
• Physical Description
• Researching the Copper Plate
• History
• For further explanation, click here

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Chief Source of Information

• Rule 10.0B1 Chief Source of Information
• The object itself
• Accompanying textual material
• Container issued by publisher or manufacturer
• For further explanation, click here

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Level of Description

• Rule 1.0D2 Second Level of Description
• Does not include ISBD Area 3
• Will not use Standard Number as one does not
  exist
• For further explanation, click here

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Language and Script of the Description

• Rule 1.0E1Use the language and script that
  appears on the item.
• Title and statement of responsibility
• Edition
• Publication, distribution
• Series
• French

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Leader and 008

• Leader
• 0000nz220000004500
• OO8
• Standard Fixed-Length Data Elements for all
  fields is used.
• 031122q18011816pfra001fred
• For further explanation, click here

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Area 1 Title

• AACR2 Rules 1.1B7, 10.1B1, 10.1C1, 10.1E1,
  10.1F1
• 245 01 aCopper plate engraving of Jean Racines
  théâtre complet h realia b Mithridate, act
  5, scene 2 c engraved by P. Velyn from an
  original painting by Pierre Peyron.
• For further explanation, click here

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Area 2 Edition Statement

• AACR2 Rules 10.2B1, 10.3B3
• a 2nd ed., red.
• For further explanation, click here

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Area 4 Publication, Distribution

• AACR2 Rules 10.4G1, 10.4G3, 1.4F7
• 260 e (Paris f Didot LAine g ca.1816)
• For further explanation, click here

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Area 5 Physical Description

• AACR2 Rules 10.5B1, 10.5C1, 10.5D1, 10.5E1
• 300 a 1 copper plate b copper, intaglio c
  20 x 15 x 1 cm. e 1 sheet describing copper
  plate 28 x 22 cm.
• For further explanation, click here

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Area 7 Notes

• AACR2 Rules 10.7B1, 10.7B3, 10.7B6, 10.7B7,
  10.7B10
• 500 a Engraving of illustration of Monime,
  Phoedme, Arcas discussing the fish
• 500 a Title supplied by cataloger
• 500 a Pierre Peyron d 1744-1814
• 500 a Philip Vilijn d 1878-1836
• 561 a Originally collected in 1902 by Bugsy
  Krat, noted Colombian drug lord and
  preserved by his nephew and sole
  heir, A. S. Quirrel, who donated item to UBC in
  an elaborate tax scheme
• For further explanation, click here

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Complete Record

• LDR nz2204500
• 008 031122q18011816pfra0001
• 245 01 a Copper plate engraving of Jean
  Racines théâtre complet h realia
  b Mithridate, act 5, scene 2
• 260 e (Paris f P. Didot LAine, g
  ca. 1816)
• 300 a 1 copper plate b copper,
  intaglio c 20 x 15 x 1 cm.
  e 1 sheet describing copper plate 28 x 22 cm.
• 500 a Engraving of illustration of Monime,
  Phoedme, Arcas discussing the fish.
• 500 a Title supplied by cataloger
• 500 a Pierre Peyron d 1744-1814
• 500 a Vilijn, Philip d 1787-1836
• 561 a Originally collected in 1902 by
  Bugsy Krat, noted Colombian drug
  lord and preserved by his nephew and sole heir,
  A. S. Quirrel, who donated item
  to UBC in an elaborate tax scheme

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Future Directions

• Future directions for cataloguing three
  dimensional realia may include the following
• An expansion of chapters 10 of the AACR2R to
  provide a better and more complete understanding
  of how to catalogue three-dimensional realia.
• The training of AACR2R users and library
  cataloguers to better understand the complexity
  of many three-dimensional objects and the need to
  provide appropriate provenance on them whenever
  possible.
• The review and updating of older catalogues of
  three-dimensional objects that have been left on
  the shelf for too long!
• There needs to be a better way of dividing the
  image from the object. Within numerous catalogues
  there is frequently no distinction made between
  the woodcut or copper plate intaglio and the
  print. This distinction may cause annoyance to
  patrons who ask for one thing, but get another
  however, among cataloguers and historians it is
  often a crucial difference that needs to be made
  by both cataloguers as well as librarians.

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Cataloguers and Catalogs Containing Plates and
Woodcuts

• Paceprints Explanations on print production.
• Illustration Techniques
• Library of Congress
• Intaglio production
• Copper Plates for Intaglio Production
• Robert Maxwell
• Blanche Lazzell woodcuts on display at Elvehjem
• Durham University Library contains woodcuts
• NewCastle City Librarys Bewich Collection
• Original Woodcuts in the Archive of the
  University of Vienna

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Reference List

• This reference list contains articles, books, and
  websites.