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MAGAZINE ILLUSTRATIONS.

THE last few years have witnessed a remarkable change in the character of Illustrated Literature. The direction of the change is very apparent when we compare the illustrated magazines now published with the Penny Magazine (the pioneer of illustrated periodicals), published by Charles Knight fifty years ago.

The modern magazine does not depend, as did its predecessor, upon its literary excellence, or the value of the information it supplies, but relies mainly upon the richness and variety of the illustrations it contains to ensure the support of the public.

The conductors of some of our magazines fought very hard for a time against this tendency, but the stream has been too strong for them; the increasing demand for "picture books" had to be met, and now publishers appear to vie with each other as to which can produce the best illustrated periodical at the lowest possible price.

It is startling to notice the efforts which, at the present time, are being put forth to achieve this end. When we are informed that one magazine has expended upon it from eight hundred to a thousand pounds to illustrate a single number, and that the proprietors have, in order to ensure the greatest possible variety and excellence, made arrangements with the most eminent English, American, French, Dutch, Spanish, Italian, and Russian artists-and that men of the calibre of Sir Frederick Leighton (President of the Royal Academy), Millais, Burne-Jones, Moore, Poynter, Alma-Tadema, Watts, Brett, Hunt, Gilbert, and a host of others of high reputation, will in the future contribute to its pages-it will be readily seen that the tendency of periodicals is to artistic excellence, to the very probable detriment of their literary value.

The probability is, indeed, that in the future the distinction between illustrated magazines, and magazines devoted to purely literary ends. will be very sharply defined; and that we shall cease to expect literary value in any of the former class. We shall buy them for the sake of the charm their illustrations afford, and shall not notice, or certainly not be troubled by, the feebleness of the fiction, the dulness of the poetry, and the wearisome monotony of the description of foreign lands and cities they contain. Nay, in our satisfaction, we may even pass with a good humoured smile the heterogeneous contents of the "Editor's easy chair" at the end.

But whatever opinion may be held as to the literary value of these periodicals, all will agree as to the artistic merit of the illustrations they contain. Some of these are exquisite works of art, and it will add not a little to the interest they have for us if we endeavour to acquaint ourselves with the methods of their production; for some knowledge of reproductive art is necessary if we are to derive all the pleasure and instruction it ought to afford. It is not very creditable to be ignorant of the difference between a woodcut and an etching, and yet the reviewers who from time to time review illustrated magazines not unfrequently fall into the error of confounding the two.

In discussing the art of illustration, it must not be forgotten that some of the methods employed are regarded as secrets by those who use them; hence it would not be possible, even were it desirable, to give full particulars of the various means used.

Magazines are now illustrated by one, often by more than one, of the arts known as steel-engraving, etching, wood-engraving-which belong to the old order and by means of "process blocks," produced by various mechanical means, and known as photo-etching, photo-relief, typo-etching, photo-zinc, &c. With the exception of etching and steelengraving, all these processes are largely indebted to and some are dependent upon photography. It is to be regretted that steel-engraving, the usual method employed in illustrating high-class books forty years ago, is rapidly disappearing, and that, as an art, it is practised less and less every year, so that now the Art Journal is the only periodical wherein we find specimens of this beautiful art.

The higher class of magazines, such as the Portfolio, Art Fournal, American Art Review, and Cassell's Art Magazine, of the periodicals with which we are most familiar, alone contain etchings, undoubtedly the highest possible form of illustrative art of which we can avail ourselves, as all who are acquainted with etching will long since have recognised. It is possible, and even probable, that etching may become a general, instead of an occasional method of illustration, from the facts that by steel-facing copper plates are now made capable of giving any number of copies, and that by the use of machinery impressions may be printed at the rate of a thousand an hour. It is thought now that only by hand labour can the highest class of etchings be printed; the same was maintained in regard to wood engraving thirty-five years ago, but at the present time the finest blocks are printed to perfection on a machine. And what is true of the one art may become true of the other, so that sooner or later high-class etchings may be printed with equal facility by steam-power. But it is yet early to speak with confidence, and since etching is not yet generally used, it will probably be wise to leave the discussion of the subject till some future time, when we may have an opportunity of considering the subject of "Etchers and Etching," in the Central Literary Magazine.

At present the general methods employed in illustrating ordinary magazines are those of wood-engraving and "process" blocks; the extent to which these are now employed having been rendered possible

by the great advance made in the art of printing by machinery during the last few years. In reference to wood-engraving, it is curious to observe that this is also one of the oldest forms of reproductive art. The invention of it has been claimed for the Chinese, whose books have been printed for ages from engraved wood blocks. It was also used by the ancient Egyptians and Romans, but it is not till the fifteenth century that we find evidence of its existence as we now understand it. It appears to have been used at that time in Germany for printing playing cards, and figures of saints; about 1476 it was in general use as a means of illustrating religious books, &c. In the beginning of the sixteenth century the art made a rapid advance, to a large extent attributable to the works of Albert Durer, of whose engravings it has been said "we find crosshatching freely introduced-the readiest mode of producing effect to an artist drawing on wood with a pen or blacklead pencil," which to an engraver is attended with considerable labour. From Durer's time till 1766, wood engraving made but little progress. In England, indeed, it was but seldom used, till the genius of Thomas Bewick was brought to bear upon it. He gave to wood-engraving that impetus which has made it what it now is one of the most important of the illustrative arts. Those who consider that the wood-engraving of to-day represents a great advance upon the work of the past, would do well to examine Bewick's work, printed 1790 (British Quadrupeds), or his later work, 1804 (British Birds). These will demonstrate to them that much of the work now being done, and passing as work of "highest mark," is inferior to Bewick's.

The art of engraving designs on wood differs from that of engraving upon copper plates by having the parts intended to be printed in relief. Thus, the lines to be printed being on the surface, a wood-cut can be printed with type at the same operation. The wood used is boxwood, which has the closest grain of any wood hitherto discovered; but when blocks of a large size are required it is necessary to join two or more pieces together, as not more than a few inches of sound wood are to be got out of the largest slice. There is, however, no practical limit to the joining process, as blocks have been printed consisting of from 50 to 150 pieces, the trace of this joinery being frequently to be noticed by the faint white lines running through the drawing; which are always apparent, except in cases where the joinery is more than usually perfect. The advantage of this method of joining blocks consists in the fact that after the drawing has been made the blocks can be separated, and a dozen or more engravers employed upon one drawing. It is by this method that the large drawings in the Graphic and Illustrated London News are produced. It is very rarely, indeed, that a block (except a very small one), is the work of one man. A block that would take one engraver a month to produce is often done in a few days by a subdivision of labour, rendered possible by the division of blocks.

The tools employed in engraving are few, not more than a dozen being necessary, and those of the simplest kind. Much engraving of a mechanical kind is now being done by machines made for that purpose;