Title

Fables of Aesop and Others

Heading

The Best of Both Worlds: Wood Engraving

Description

The illustrative technique shown here postdates Caxton by three centuries. Thomas Bewick developed the art of wood engraving in the late eighteenth century. Wood engravings combined the best of woodcuts and metal engravings. They were made by cutting into the end-grain of hard wood with the burin used for copper engraving, enabling much more detailed images than could be obtained by woodcuts. But whereas copper engraving had to be printed separately from type, wood engravings had the advantage that they could be printed at the same pull of the press.

William Caxton was Aesop’s first translator into English. He translated the fables from an intermediary French translation and printed them twice, both times as folios with woodcut illustrations, in 1484 and again in the 1490s.

Exhibition Section

Beyond CaxtonSee all items with this value

Author

Ill. by Thomas Bewick

Place of Publication

Newcastle

Publisher

Printed by E. Walker for T. Bewick

Date of Publication

1818

Century

19th

Illustrations

Wood Engraving