A technical dictionary of printmaking, André Béguin.


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Chromolithography
Colour printing done with several lithographic stones. Each main colour is printed by a separate stone. Senefelder had tried to use colour as of 1810 but chromolithography (or chromos in its abreviated form) was not invented until 1816 when Engelmann and Lasteyrie began to print two colour lithographs in Paris. Around the year 1832 Hildebrand in Germany managed to use as many as fifteen stones to make a colour lithograph. In 1837 Engelmann patented his "litho colour press or colour lithography imitating painting" under the name of chromolithograph. His system became quite popular in France.
Chromolithography must not be confused with lithochrome, which is also a lithographic process but which is used to reproduce (or should one say imitate) paintings by printing on cloth. Nevertheless although the goal of these two techniques is not the same and although they are used on different materials it is also true that their printing process has much in common. Lithochromy was invented in the 1820's by Malapeau. [chiaroscuro, colour, lithography].
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