On 20/10/2017 7:59 AM, Don Schwartz wrote:
> On 2017-10-19 3:31 PM, Peter Marquis-Kyle wrote:
>>> When I visited Remscheid, the Werkzeugmuseum had these wood block 
>>> engravings on display, along with salesman's samples. I suspect they 
>>> were provided by the manufacturers.
>>>
>>> https://www.flickr.com/photos/33057984@N.../5855947254/in/album-721
57626886873961/">https://www.flickr.com/photos/33057984@N.../5855947254/in/album
-72157626886873961/
>>
>>
>> Those are not wood engravings, though they may be derived from wood 
>> engravings. My guess is that they are stereotypes, cast in metal from 
>> original wood engravings. If that is what they are, it could have been 
>> that the tool manufacturer commissioned wood engravings (which are 
>> laborious and costly to make) from which multiple stereotypes were 
>> made for printing catalogues and magazine advertisements.
>>
>> If they are not stereos made from wood engravings, they could be line 
>> blocks made by photo-engraving from ink drawings.
> 
> 
> Oops! They're not wooden, they're attached to wood.
> 
> Zooming in on the original photo I can see evidence of their attachment 
> to a wooden block. As I know nothing about printing, and Peter knows 
> much more than that, I'll send him a copy of the photo so he can maybe 
> tell us more.

Don Schwartz sent me a higher resolution file (thanks Don) and I took a 
closer look. I think those are half-tone blocks -- half-tone means that 
different shades of gray (grey, Jeff) are represented by a grid of 
larger and smaller dots. So, not wood engravings, and not stereotypes.

This book, published in 1904, explains the process of making these 
blocks: https://archive.org/details/halftoneprocessp00verf

When I was a lad at high school (in the 1960s) I was involved in 
producing a school magazine that was printed by letterpress -- a process 
that was on the way out then, to be replaced by offset lithography. I 
well remember my visits to the process engraving workshop that made the 
half-tone blocks, and the sights and sounds of that place -- the glare 
and sizzle of the arc lights in the camera room, the smell of hypo in 
the darkroom, the pungent smell of acid in the etching room.

-- 

Peter Marquis-Kyle
www.marquis-kyle.com.au