Tag: print

How Experts Identify a First Edition Book in its First State

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A book can be a first edition without being the first run of print. Errors if caught are corrected, making everything printed up and until that point referred to as the “first state”. Anything printed after this is still considered a first edition, but a second state, first edition. Any further corrections during the first printing run would be considered a third state, first edition, and so on. To determine what state a book is, experts look at a book’s points of issue which include its price point and the flap copy which is commonly referred to as the “blurb”, written upon the inner folds of the dust jacket. These dual points of issue tend to change over time, which is why they are indicative of which state a publication is, and whether or not it’s a true first edition

How Japanese Fishers Used Sumi Ink to Document Their Trophy Catches During the 19th Century

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In Japan, there is a traditional art medium referred to as “Gyotaku” (pronounced “gyoo-tah-koo”), which means “fish impression” in Japanese. The art form began in the 1800’s when fishers wanted to record their prized catches before the development of photography. These fishers would coat their most prized catches in sumi ink, press the inked fish onto washi paper, and this create a highly detailed and ornate print which demonstrates the fish’s size and features at a 1:1 scale. The ink relies upon pure collagen, manufactured by simmering raw animal tissue for hours at a temperature range of 60 – 65 degrees Celsius, until such time that the protein of the tissue dissolves into a clear liquid adhesive. Once this occurs, the organic solution is mixed with ultra finely compacted soot pigment, creating a rich and viscous ink to produce prints from

How Antique Books are Forged and How to Detect Replica Antique Book Forgeries

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Modern day forgers are able to replicate rare books printed using a mechanical printing press by using photopolymer plates, a process which involves taking a high resolution photograph of a page which was printed using a printing press and allowing computer software to create a three dimensional printed image of that photograph with depth for each letter present. This method produces pages which have an imprint mark as if pressed by a printing press but its fatal flaw is that it also provides depth to small lines around the margin of text which are picked up during the printing process. These lines should have no depth as they are merely extra ink which has been caught during the printing process but with photopolymer replicas, because the software used to extract three dimensional characters reads every single bit of ink as a marker to place depth, these lines appear to have depth within forgeries which is an immediate red flag in terms of authenticity as originals have no reason to possess depth. These incidental inking lines around the margin of the page are referred to as “shoulder inking”, and if they possess depth of any degree, it is a strong indication that the piece is a modern day forgery

The Rarity of Incunable Books

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Any book printed before 1500 (or within 50 years of the invention of the printing press) is referred to as an “incunable” book. Book printing started around 870 A.D.. but the limitation of literate people who could read and write restricted books from being mass produced until Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press in 1440. Books before 1500 are considered incredibly rare and expensive because they are one of a kind and essentially artwork, pieces which only the very wealthy could afford during the period of their introduction. Incunable means “in the cradle” in Latin which refers to the infancy period of book prints