1) Reference: Many artists are the subject of comprehensive listings of their work. These catalogue raisonnes are identified by the author’s initials. The example above is entry 210 in ‘The Prints of Stanley William Hayter’ by Peter Black and Desiree Moorhead.

2) Medium: The process by which the printing surface or matrix has been created. Of the many processes in use, the main types are:

Engraving—An engraving tool or burin is used to remove thin ‘v’ shaped furrows from a metal plate. The ink is forced into these grooves with a roller.

Etching—Similar to engraving, but using acid to remove the metal. A sheet of copper is covered with a wax film, and the image drawn through it with a needle. When dipped in acid, only the exposed lines will be bitten into (the rest of the plate being protected by the wax). This tends to produce a more fluid, less hard-edged line than engraving. An 18th Century variant is the soft-ground etching, where the image is drawn on a sheet of paper laid over the wax. Under the pressure of the pencil the wax sticks to the underside of the paper, which is then peeled away, and the plate dipped in acid as before. The resulting image is a close approximation of the original drawing. Related in function and technique is the stipple engraving, which uses a small hammer head covered with tiny points to punch holes in the wax layer (or in some cases directly on the plate). Like soft-ground etching, stipple engraving is used primarily to mimic drawings in chalk and pastel.

Aquatint—Like etching, aquatint is an acid based process. Instead of wax, a layer of bitumen dust is laid on a plate which is then heated, causing the dust to adhere to its surface. When immersed, the acid attacks the copper around each grain, thereby creating a fine web of thin lines. The technique is most suited to imitating areas of tone, such as those found in watercolour washes.

Drypoint—The image is scratched on the plate surface with a sharp needle. Depending on the force and angle used, fine, sharp pieces of metal are thrown up on either side of the line. This burr holds ink, as does the furrow created by the needle, and the result is a warm, almost blurred line. Because burr wears quickly its presence can indicate an early impression.

Mezzotint—A plate is roughened with a fine toothed tool, known as a mezzotint rocker. When inked, this surface prints a rich, velvety black. The image is created by smoothing (burnishing) areas to produce lighter tones. The process is unusual therefore in creating a white image from a black background.
The above five methods are collectively termed intaglio—ie the image is held in marks made into a printing surface. A characteristic of intaglio prints is the platemark, an impressed mark around the image, caused by the plate and paper being forced together in the printing press.

Woodcut—A design is drawn on a wooden block, and the excess cut away. Often rather coarse in texture, the process was refined in the nineteenth century with the development of wood engraving. Here harder woods such as Box and Pear are cut across the end of the grain (whereas woodcuts are cut along the grain). The result is a cleaner, finer image. In the 20th century many artists returned to more open-grained woods for artistic effect.

A Linocut is the same process using a block or sheet of linoleum as the matrix.

A chiaroscuro woodcut is the result of two or more blocks printing in different colours—or more often different shades of the same colour

Lithograph—the image is formed with a waxy crayon on a block of limestone or a zinc plate, the surface of which is wetted, and rolled up with ink. The ink adheres to the wax image, but not the dampened surface surrounding it. As the image lies on the surface and not in grooves, little pressure is needed during printing. Consequently lithographs do not normally have platemarks.

A tinted lithograph is the product of two or more stones building up an image by printing in different colours.

Screenprint—Ink is forced through a fine mesh, known as a silkscreen, on to the paper surface. Areas the artist does not want to print are blocked out using stencils. A relatively new technique derived from commercial printing, screenprints are characterised by broad, flat areas of colour.

Pochoir—Again using stencils, this time the image is created directly on the paper. Often used to replicate hand colouring.

Monotype—Perhaps the simplest technique of all, the image is created by painting directly onto a smooth surface, usually metal or glass. Although the term implies a single print, a small number of impressions are possible.

3) Date: Identifies when the matrix was produced. In most cases this date is also when the print was printed. Prints taken long after the matrix was created are known as late impressions or re-strikes.

4) Colouring: Mention of colour is made only when a print is printed in two or more colours, or a single colour other than black. Where a colour print has additional colouring we say that it has been finished by hand. In the nineteenth century, colours were often enhanced by the addition of gum arabic, a clear varnish made from egg-white.
5) State: The number of states refers to the number of times an artist altered the matrix. In the above example Hayter engraved the image, then subsequently modified it four times. The image exists, therefore, in five versions or ‘states’.

6) Paper: Where possible, papers are catalogued by their manufacturer’s name, which appears as a watermark, (a design in the paper seen by holding the sheet against a light). Where this is not possible, the type of paper is identified. The main categories are:
Laid—One of the oldest types of paper, characterised by faint horizontal and vertical lines.
Wove—Invented in the mid eighteenth century, wove has an even density, without the lines shown in laid.
Japan—A fibrous paper, often characterised by a faintsurface lustre.
Chine—A thin, very fine paper. Because of its inherent fragility, chine is often laid on sturdier paper for support. The combination is known as chine applique.
Deckle edge—The edge of certain papers has a thinner, uneven finish. Far from being a defect, this is a sign that the sheet has not been trimmed.

7) Edition: The numbering of editions is a comparatively recent practice. Until the late nineteenth century prints were neither routinely signed nor numbered, nor in most cases were editions sizes even recorded. The convention now is for each print to be numbered in series, shown with the total number in the edition, thus 64/100. In many cases there are additional impressions reserved for the artist and collaborators.
These separate editions are identified by various abbreviations, amongst them AP (artist’s proof), EA (epreuve d’artiste), PP (printer’s proof), and HC (hors comerce). With very few exceptions prints from these editions are of equal value to the main edition.

8) Proofs: In the process of finishing a plate an artist will often print an intermediate or trial proof to see how the image is developing. Where the image is complete, but before publication details have been added we use the term proof before letters. A scratch-letter proof is where the title and publication details have been lightly scratched in before being engraved.

9) Condition: Intended as a guide only, below are some of the terms we use to describe condition:

Laid down: when a print has been pasted to another surface, usually paper or card.

Sandwich mounted: when a print has been laid down and a mount pasted on top.

Foxing: a mould which grows in the paper fibres, characterised by brown spotting.

Light staining: yellowing of the paper caused by exposure to sunlight. Poor quality late Victorian paper is especially prone to light staining.

Framing: works are framed unless otherwise stated.

10) Measurements: For intaglio prints, the platemark (PL) is measured. In other cases, measurements for the image size (I) or sheet of paper (SH) are given.

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