Vintage Copper-Plate Engraving on Paper 05

The earliest method of creating lithographs involved the use of a block of porous limestone. The method of preparing such stones for hand printing has remained substantially unchanged since that time. The materials and procedures of the are duplicated in almost every respect by the contemporary hand printer. An image is drawn with tusche (a carbon pigment in liquid form) and light rayon before the printing surface is fixed, moistened, and inked in preparation for printing.

The printing itself is done on a press that exerts a sliding or scraping pressure. Because it undergoes virtually no wear in printing, a single stone can yield an almost unlimited number of copies, although in art printmaking, only a specific number of prints are pulled, signed, and numbered before the stone is “canceled.” 

Lithography of the more commercial variety came to India in the late 1800's, when in 1894, the Ravi Varma Fine Arts Lithographic Press was the largest picture printing establishment in India. Several German technicians looked after the servicing and working of the machines, and by extension, took part in the formulation of the modern Hindu pantheon. These German presses were dismantled, shifted and reassembled at least twice between 1898 and 1901, first moving from Girgaum to Ghatkopar, and later to Malawi near Lonavala.

Gottacombai has a wide range of "German" lithographs from India, in addition to copper-plate and wood-block engravings from Europe that will be available on the site once they have been framed in the style that is consistent with its custom.