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Wood engraving is, simply, the craft, or technique, of engraving, using the medium of wood. This was the earliest type of engraving.
The original method — which is more precisely termed wood cutting, since it used a knife rather than engraving tools — was developed c. 1400. The outlines of the design to be engraved were put down on a side of smooth-grained wood, and, usually with a knife, the excess surface of the wood block (all but the lines) would be cut away, a process called blocking. This left a set of raised wooden lines on the face of the block. In order make a print of this engraving, thick ink would be applied to the raised design. This is known as a relief. Finally, a sheet of paper (or other material) would be pressed firmly against the wood in order to assure that all the lines printed. This method led directly to the development of the printing press and the 1453 introduction of a press using movable type by Johann Gutenberg.
The technique of wood engraving was developed further, roughly 350 years later, at at the end of the eighteenth century and the beginning of the nineteenth century, with the works of Thomas Bewick. Bewick generally made his engraving in harder woods than normally used, and would engrave the end of a block instead of the side. Finding a knife not apt to working against the grain for harder woods, Bewick used a copper engraving tool called a burin, which has a V-shaped gauge. Engraving on wood in this manner produced highly detailed images, usually quite unlike those produced by engraving on copper plates. (Citation: http://90.1911encyclopedia.org/W/WO/WOOD_ENGRAVING.htm) Furthermore, unlike copper-plate engravings that quickly deteriorated, thousands of copies could be printed from engraved wood blocks. Since wood engraving is a relief process while metal engraving is an intaglio technique, wood engravings could be used on conventional print presses, which were themselves making rapid mechanical improvements during the first quarter of the nineteenth century. As a result of Bewick's innovation and improvements in the printing press, illustrations of art, nature, technical processes, famous people, foreign lands and many other subjects became more widely available.
Bewick's innovations were developed and expanded by a large group of professional wood engravers. Magazines with large circulations (The London Illustrated News, and Harper's Weekly) were illustrated with large wood engravings that were the product of a collaboration between draftsmen and wood engravers. Gustave Dore's famous works were likewise a collaborative product of Dore and a group of talented wood engravers. (http://90.1911encyclopedia.org/W/WO/WOOD_ENGRAVING.htm)
Wood engraving as a reproductive (rather than artistic) technique has been displaced by advanced in printing technology. Wood engraving is now used to create bookplates, fine art limited edition prints, book illustrations and commercial artwork.
Notable wood engravers
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