Much of the work of these men which appeared in the eighties is masterly, and worthy of being represented in any collection dealing with latter-day wood engraving. There is the fine portrait of Cardinal Manning by C. Roberts, and that of Ruskin by F. Babbage, both treated in the larger and broader manner, which appeared in the Graphic. E. P. Donner, A. Comfort, M. Klinkicht, and W. T. Smith are worthy of mention among the later men, and, of course, Mr. W. Biscombe Gardner. We reproduce an illustration after a picture by Henri Lévy engraved by H. Uhlrich, of a Portrait of a Lady, which appeared in the Graphic of April 8, 1882, from the series, "Types of Beauty." (Facing p. 122.)
The collector will have noticed the absence of the white line cutting the block into sections in this later work. It is not that the wood block consists of one piece of wood, for the box-wood obtained from Turkey was still of small dimensions, not being greater than some three inches by four; so that it will be seen that the large full-page illustrations of the Graphic were made up of many of these blocks joined together. But only one engraver worked upon them, and a metal cast was taken of the block and printed from, so that the white lines of the joining sections never appear as a disfigurement. These clichés admitted of international use. Thus it comes about that some of the best known wood-engravers' work was published in England almost simultaneously with its appearance on the Continent. So long as the original wood block is in existence metal casts can be taken and printed from. This gave the
