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zzz Chinese woodblock printing has a long history and deep-rooted traditions. The earliest known example of a print made by this process is the frontispiece of the Diamond Sutra, a picture still extant, printed by a man called Wang Jie, in the 9th year of the reign of Xiantong of the Tang Dynasty (868 AD). In the centuries that followed, with the fast development of science, art and literature, many books were illustrated with beautiful pictures printed from wooden blocks.
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A big stride forward was made in the 16th century when colour printing was invented, and therafter the art progressed steadily over a period of some 400 years. A new stage of rapid development emerged during the last 3 decades, which saw continued improvement in the traditional skills with the aid of modern scientific and technical knowledge. Today it is possible to reproduce not only small pictures or designs on letter paper but also huge scrolls and silk paintings, requiring an extremely complicated process.
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Woodblock printing is done by taking successive impressions from engraved wooden blocks. There are three main steps in the process:
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1: Tracing: This is carried out by master artists. First, all brushstrokes of the same colour are classified in the same registering. In other words, the number of registerings used, corresponds to the number of colours applied in the original. For paintings with simple colours, the numbers of registerings used, ranged between 2 to 8 or 9. For paintings with more delicate or intricate colours, tens of registerings may be used. And for some enormous paintings, more than a few hundred, even up to 1600 registerings are required (e.g. in the reproduction of "Ladies with Head-Pinned Flowers"(we have a part of that painting as a woodblock print in stock) and "An Xizai's Evening Feast". Then the brushstrokes are traced in ink on a transparent sheet for each registering. The tracing work has to truly reflect the exact tones of ink used in the original painting. The transparent sheets are glued on woodblocks for carving.
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2: Carving: Apart from carving along the lines traced in ink, the carver has to refer to the original work frequently in order to capture the true spirit of the painting. Is is only by doing so that the carver can apply his knife blade as if he is using his brush and can thus express fully the spirit of the original.
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3: Printing: After all the woodblocks have been carved, they are then impressed on paper or silk of the same type and period as used in the original. The ink and colours applied in the reproduction process are also exactly the same as those used in the original. Owing to the fact that the printing materials employed and the form of mounting for the reproduced painting are exactly the same as in the original work, reproductions made by the watercolour woodblock printing method are extremely close to their originals. Also, the process in watercolour block printing are carried out by hand. Since the requirements of the finished product are so high, the work time-consuming and the output small, reproductions by watercolour block printing are considered works of art and are immensely popular in China and with foreign art-lovers!
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About 1988 we had some 300 different scrolls in stock. Probably because there are not so many craftsmen anymore we now have only about 120 different scrolls in stock. We don't know how many we can buy the next time, hopefully more, but we really can't tell. Maybe these craftsmen can now make a better living by doing something else?
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