Black-bellied Sandgrouse & Pin-tailed Sandgrouse (late 19th century)

Title: Black-bellied Sandgrouse & Pin-tailed Sandgrouse

Latin name: Pterocles Arenarius Pall & Pterocles Alchata L.

Origin: Germany

Year: c. 1897-1905

Technique: Original chromolithography on paper

Size (inc. mat): 38.1 x 43.8 cm Size image: 22 x 32.4 cm

Professionally matted in acid-free museum quality mat-board.

Original late-nineteenth or early-twentieth-century ornithological print, published and printed in Germany. The technique used for this print is chromolithography, a form of planographic printing. Planographic printing involves printing from a flat surface, the most common method being lithography (from the Greek lithos = stone). This technique was developed in the 19th century and allowed for larger print runs, greater detail, and efficient printing across many different formats. Music scores, sheet music, classroom posters, magazine covers, theatre posters, and book illustrations—lithographically produced images were applied to a wide variety of uses. Modern printing techniques, such as offset printing used for newspapers and other full-colour illustrations, gradually replaced lithography.

Chromolithography (chroma = colour) was a method of colour printing developed in the 19th century. The initial chromolithographic technique involved the use of multiple lithographic stones—one for each colour—and remained extremely expensive when executed for the highest-quality results. Depending on the number of colours involved, a single chromolithograph could take even highly skilled workers months to produce. To make a premium reproduction print, historically referred to as a "chromo", a lithographer would work with a finished painting in front of them, gradually creating and correcting the many stones using proofs to match the original artwork as closely as possible, sometimes utilising dozens of individual colour layers.