Lunchtime Lecture: Print Before Photography

For more than 400 years the only way to print any non-typographical image was by hand-cutting a wooden block or a copper plate, and then printing impressions one by one. This generated a huge cross-European industry which depended on highly skilled labour. It was made obsolete 150 years ago by the invention of photomechanical techniques, and is now forgotten by all but a few historians. Antony Griffiths, former Keeper of Prints and Drawings at the British Museum, will discuss this forgotten industry and the remarkable range of its products.