THIRTEENTH ORDINARY MEETING. ROYAL INSTITUTION, 20th APRIL, 1868. J. A. PICTON, Esq., F.S.A., VICE-PRESIDENT, Ladies were invited to attend this meeting. Mr. BYERLEY exhibited a living specimen of one of the four-horned sub-varieties, ovis ariis Guinensis, or Guinea sheep, which was brought to England eighteen months ago, from Beda, 540 miles up the Niger. It was given to Mr. Fell by Masaba, King of Beda, who is about one of the most powerful potentates of Central Africa, and king over a large space of country. Masaba had seen but two of these animals, and gave one of them to Mr. F. Dr. J. E. Grey, in a note, gave the following account of the animal: "British Museum. My dear Sir,-The photo you have sent me represents one of the many sub-varieties of the Guinea sheep-ovis ariis Guinensis. Buffon figures them under the name of "Indian sheep." They often have manes, pendent ears, and a rounded or rather arched nose; some have very small horns; others, like your specimen, more than one pair. They are the sheep of Western Africa. Yours is a fine specimen, in much better case, I suspect, than he used to be in Africa.-Yours truly, "J. E. GREY." All the varieties are known by their long legs and slender tail. They are generally covered only with hair, but some varieties obtain wool in cold districts, which falls off in summer. The following paper was then read: ON PICTURE PRINTING-CHROMO-LITHOGRAPHY. BY MR. D. MARPLES. WHEN, in a previous session,* I read to you a paper on Picture Printing, which was received with much interest and kindly acknowledged, my illustrations were confined almost exclusively to pictures produced by the ordinary type press or machine, or by this process upon a mezzotint ground. I submitted the opinion that the development of the art of printing at the commencement of the fifteenth century might more properly be designated a revival, than an invention; and that it arose in connexion with art, rather than with letters, its first productions being, in all probability, a series of outlines printed from wood blocks, at a rude press, to be filled in afterwards by the pencil of the artist. If this were so, it is a natural inference that the success of the experiment led to the far wider application of the art to the production of impressions from wood blocks in imitation of the black letter MSS. of the middle ages, with rude embellishments, and ultimately to the introduction and use of movable metal types. In bringing down the history of Picture Printing to our own day, I invited your attention to the beautiful works produced by the late lamented George Baxter, who was removed from the scenes of his successful labours at a comparatively early age, and a few specimens of whose works I cannot resist the temptation of bringing before you again, on the present occasion, assured that they will not * Vol. xix., page 80. suffer by comparison with some of the best Chromolithographs now before you. Since his death, I am not aware that any one has taken up his particular line of business, which for its successful prosecution and commercial success requires not capital alone, but the thorough practical knowledge of the wood engraver, the printer, the chemist, and the colourman. To his matured experience and skill in all these respects we are doubtless indebted for the beauty and brilliancy of nearly all his works. One or two establishments in London produce works of a very pleasing character, chiefly as illustrations to the periodical literature of the day. But the greater part of these, printed from series of blocks, grained or otherwise, and marvels of cheapness, fall far below the beautiful works which preceded them. With these few remarks, I pass on to the subject of this evening's paper, - Chromo-lithography, and purpose to submit to you a brief history of the art of printing from stone from its commencement to the present time. The invention of Lithography, as most of you are aware, is of comparatively recent date, and, like its kindred art, Typography, had its origin in Germany, where it was practised for some time, with but partial success, before it was introduced into this country early in the present century. There can be no question that to Alois Senefelder the discovery is due, not as the result of study and experiment in that direction, but when seeking to adapt the lithographic stone to a very different purpose,—an attempt which, viewed not in the light of modern practice, but one might almost say of common sense, clearly indicated the spirit of the enthusiast, confident in the fertility of his own resources, though baffled at almost every step, and finding them totally inadequate to the accomplishment of his wishes, rather than the sober judgment of a profound thinker and skilful manipulator. The early history of Senefelder, as related by himself, while often amusing, is generally both interesting and instructive. He was born at Prague, on the 6th of November, 1771. His father was one of the performers at the Theatre Royal of Munich, apparently a man of large and liberal views, anxious to give his son such an education as would enable him to follow one of the liberal professions. Had the son been permitted to follow his own inclinations, he would certainly have embraced his father's profession, with all its uncertainties; but, in compliance with parental wishes, he devoted himself to the study of jurisprudence, seeking opportunity for gratifying his predilections for the stage by occasionally performing at small or private theatres, and occupying his leisure in the composition of some trifling dramatic publication. In this way he wrote what he terms a "little comedy," in the year 1789, which was received by his numerous friends with such applause that he was induced to send it to the press, and had the good fortune to clear fifty florins from the sale of it, after defraying the expenses of printing. With the sanguine temperament of an enthusiast, and moving, as it may be inferred he did, in good society, it is not easy to say what success might have attended his legal studies if he had been able to prosecute them. But the death of his father brought them to a sudden and unexpected close, and threw him upon his own resources before his mind was sufficiently imbued with legal lore to enable him to make his way in the world in the pursuits his father had chosen for him. As was to be expected, and the opportunity occurring, his first efforts for personal support were in the direction of his early tastes; but after two years of misery and disappoint ment, at several theatres, his enthusiasm cooled, and he forsook the unpromising profession again to try his fortune as a dramatic author. Here again he was unsuccessful, the sale of his next publication, a drama, which could not be got ready for the Easter book-fair at Leipzig, producing scarcely sufficient to pay the expenses of printing it. In order to accelerate the publication of his drama, he had passed more than "one whole day in the printing-office," and naïvely states that he made himself acquainted with the whole process of printing, and thought it so easy that he wished for nothing more than to possess a small printing press, in order that he might become the composer, printer, and publisher of his own productions! A new direction had been given to his thoughts-new ideas crowded upon his mind; plan succeeded plan, and experiment followed experiment, but with the same disappointing results. His first idea was to engrave letters on steel, stamp them in forms of hard wood as matrices, and thus produce stereo plates, from which impressions could be taken; but apparently without any well-defined idea as to how his invention could be applied to improve his resources, and, one would suppose, in ignorance of the fact, though he admits afterwards that he was not ignorant of it, that stereo casts had been taken from metal types, and various works printed from them, long before, both on the Continent and in England. This experiment had to be abandoned, solely because the purchase of a small stock of type, which he then supposed was all that he required, was too much for his limited resources. Senefelder's next experiment was no other than to learn to imitate the printed characters very closely in an inverted sense, to write these with an elastic pen on a copper plate, to bite them in with an acid, and then to take an impression from them; in other words, to re-invent the engraver's art, |