Adhesive Staining or Tape Staining

Animal-based adhesives like many pressure-sensitive tapes cause yellowing as seen at the bottom edge of this drawing. Staining caused by tape or other adhesives can be fully removed in most cases. Severe tape staining is, in some cases, harder to eliminate.

à la poupée

An early method of printing in color. A full color image is created with only one plate and avoids the difficulties of registration and color theory required for multiple plate or stone printing. À la poupée inking utilizes a cloth daubing pouch whose shape resembles a poupée (“doll” in French). The copper plate is inked in full color; in essence, the plate is hand colored. The print is then made in full color with one pass through the press. The artist would usually add final touches to each print with watercolor, hence the term “finished by hand.” An engraving colored in this manner reveals the various colors within the actual engraved lines or stippled dots. This differs from a hand-colored engraving where the engraved lines reveal one color of ink (usually black) underneath the broader areas of transparent watercolor applied after the print is made.

The image pictured to the left is from Redouté’s Les Roses, Plate 24 Austrian Copper Rose.

Aquatint

Aquatint is an etching process that creates tonal areas on the plate. It is usually used in conjunction with line engraving or etching. A porous resin ground is applied to the plate. This ground is then made to contract either by a heating process or suspension in a solvent. The contraction of the resin particles causes an irregular linear pattern to form around each particle. The plate is then etched with acid, which affects only the linear patterned parts of the exposed copper. The word aquatint is derived from aquafortis, which translates to “strong water.” The term refers to nitric acid, which is used to etch the copper plate.

The best examples of this technique are seen in the early nineteenth-century English works of Havell, Brookshaw and Thornton. The image to the right is from Thornton’s Temple of Flora Plate 14 Night Blowing Cereus.

Blind Stamp or Blind Embossing

Indentations in paper, usually text or symbols, that do not contain color. Oppenheimer Editions’ prints are blind embossed as seen in the lower right corner of this image.

Bloom

Bloom is a painting restoration term referring to a fine cloudy discoloration which can form beneath the surface of varnish as seen in this oil painting.

Chine-Collé or Chine Collé

Chine-collé is a printmaking technique used with etching or lithography. A Chine-collé is where the image is printed on a thin sheet of paper that is mounted to a heavier sheet of paper. The heavier sheet of paper often has a plate mark. The Henri Matisse print to the right is an example of a chine-collé engraving.

Cockling

Cockling is waviness that occurs in paper or vellum often due to exposure to moisture. Minor cockling sometimes occurs in prints with deep plate marks. Cockling can be reversed by art restoration methods. The diploma on the right is printed on vellum and has severe cockling.

Consolidation

Consolidation is a conservation treatment using a variety of archival adhesives to re-adhere loose paint or broken parts of the support and to prevent recurrence of delaminations. Consolidation is a restoration treatment that repairs lifting paper fibers caused by surface abrasions. 

The image to the right has surface abrasions caused when the artwork was pulled from the mount. The paper surface will be repaired by consolidating the lifting fibers.

Craquelure

Craquelure is a network of fine cracks in a painted surface that often occur with age. Craquelure can often be diminished with restoration procedures. The detailed image of an oil painting to the right is an example of craquelure.

Chromolithography or Chromolithograph

Chromolithography is a printing process using separate stones for each color and is a natural extension of one-color lithography. Before the use of chromolithography, prints were usually colored by hand. This new process was an ambitious development utilizing multiple stones. The difficulty of aligning the paper perfectly (registering) for each color was the primary challenge in the development of this printmaking technique.

Chromolithography was developed during the second half of the nineteenth century. Its best-known early proponent was Julius Bien, who used this technique when printing the 1858-1860 Bien edition of The Birds of America.

Delamination

Delamination is the separation of a material into layers. Delamination often occurs to corners of works of art on paper as seen in this image. Restorative treatments can repair the delaminated corner by re-adhering the separating layers.

Double Elephant Folio

Double elephant folio is a bookbinding, papermaking, and printing term used to refer to very large prints and books. Double elephant size is the largest and can range up to 50″ on the longest side. Audubon’s Havell and Bien Editions are double elephant sizes.

The 1981 publication of The Birds of America by the Audubon Society is often referred to as the baby elephant folio.

In this photo Joel Oppenheimer stands behind a double elephant folio of the Bien Edition. Behind him is a double elephant sized print of Audubon’s Flamingo.

Dry Peel

Dry peel is a restoration technique used to remove an artwork from a foreign material. The dry peel method involves manually (non-aqueous and non-chemical) removing the mount material in very small sections. Dry peeling is a highly skilled procedure.

Drypoint

Drypoint is an etching technique that involves the use of a sharp tool, burin, to physically incise lines into the copper plate. This differs from traditional etching which relies on a chemical process to etch the lines into the plate. The characteristic soft lines of a drypoint etching are created by the jagged edge of the lines cut by the burin; this rough edge is called the burr. The soft lines in the background of the Roland Clark print to the right are created using drypoint techniques.

Embrittlement

A fragile condition that results from dehydration and prolonged acidic degradation. This architectural drawing of a brewery has become severely embrittled. The drawing on paper is cracking and flaking into some pieces. The wood pulp board on which the drawing is mounted is highly acidic and has also become embrittled. Careful conservation techniques can save this drawing.

Engaged Facemat

An artwork is engaged when the facemat covers part of the artwork. The image to the right is an example of an engaged facemat with hand-painted lines.

Etching or Engraving

Etching and engraving are both printmaking techniques in which the lines in the copper plate are chemically etched into the copper by either immersing the plate into acid or otherwise applying acid to the copper surface. The plate is first coated with a solid ground of resin or wax. This ground is then scratched away with a needle that selectively exposes the copper in those areas. The ground resists the acid, allowing it to “bite” into only the areas that have been drawn on with the needle. The depth of the line is dictated by the duration of exposure of the plate to the acid.

Although the technique of making the plate differs from engraving, the method of printing an etching is identical to that of printing an engraving. Both engraving and etching show the characteristic plate mark in the paper. The quality of the line created, however, is quite different and distinguishable to the trained eye. The uncolored engraving Plate 115, Blue cornflower, White, pink, and mauve cornflowers  to the right is from Besler’s Hortus Eystettensis Deluxe Edition.

Fiberfill

Fiberfill is a restoration procedure utilizing paper pulp to complete losses in a sheet of paper. Replacing the missing fiber in a sheet of paper is often only the first step in completing a loss. Color or tone is often added after the fiberfill is applied to create a nearly invisible repair. 

To the right are before and after images of an example of fiberfill. The image to the left shows the severely compromised sheet. The image to the right shows the repair including filling the losses with fiber created from 100% cotton rag.

Finished Corner or Closed Corner

A finished corner frame or closed corner frame is completed by hand after joining the moulding to create a seamless look. Joel Oppenheimer, Inc. offers an expansive selection of finished corner frames. Each frame is custom designed by our framing specialists to uniquely compliment your artwork and interior decoration. Read more about choosing a frame style.

The frame to the right is an example of a finished corner. The gold leaf is hand-applied over blue clay by skilled artisans. Visit our frame studio and gallery to browse hundreds of finished corner frames in all types of styles.

Flaking

Flaking is a restoration or conservation term used to refer to extreme cracking that causes the paint and/or ground layer to dislodge from its support, often through a combination of cleavage and cracking. Flaking can be repaired by a skilled painting conservator. 

The oil painting on board to the right is severely flaking. 

Floated Facemat

When an artwork is floated with a facemat the entire artwork is visible. This is a traditional way of displaying artwork without covering the edges.

The image to the right is from our Oppenheimer Editions collection of Audubon’s Watercolors and is titled Plate 47 Ruby-throated Hummingbird.

Floated with Fillets

Floated with fillets or spacers is a framing style that fully displays the entire artwork in a shadow box style. This style of framing is ideal for artworks with dimension or uneven edges.

The image to the right is an original Audubon print from the Havell Edition of Audubon’s Birds of America and is titled Plate 102 Blue Jay.

Foxing

Rust-colored spots or blotches on paper are called foxing. Foxing is a type of stain in paper resulting from mold growth and usually occurs when artwork is exposed to high humidity and acidic conditions. Cleaning solutions used in restoration labs can successfully remove foxing from paper without damaging the paper fibers.

Fragmented

A fragmented sheet of paper has portions broken off or detached as seen in this photo. Fragmentation can occur when a tear is not stabilized. Severely embrittled paper can also cause fragmentation of the paper.

French Mat

A French mat is created by highly skilled artisans. Our framing staff can create truly unique French mats with hand-painted lines and color.

Fugitive Pigment

Fugitive pigment becomes unstable when exposed to extreme environmental conditions. The handwritten ink on this marriage certificate has faded from exposure to sunlight.

Interrupted Fiber

In a fold, when the paper fiber has ruptured or torn, and the surface is no longer continuous. Interrupted fibers often lead to a tear. The severely weakened paper fibers should be stabilized to prevent further damage. The folds with interrupted fibers in this vintage letter can be backed with a supportive tissue and will be diminished. 

Line Engraving

Copper plate engraving was introduced in the fifteenth century. A thin copper plate is polished smooth. The lines are manually incised into the plate with a sharp, steel-bladed tool called a burin. The tip of the burin is V-shaped, thus allowing the thickness of the engraved line to be controlled by the depth of the incision in the plate. The plate is inked, and the ink is then wiped away. The ink remaining in the recesses of the engraved lines is transferred to paper under extreme pressure in a printing press. The resulting image is an engraving.

The Oppenheimer Editions publication of Description De L’ Egypte is uniquely produced from the original copper engravings in the collection of The Field Museum’s Mary W. Runnells Rare Book Room. 

Lithograph or Lithography

Lithography is a printmaking technique completely different from the other printing processes in that it does not rely on designs cut in relief or incised in the printing element to retain the ink. Lithography was discovered by a fluke occurrence observed and developed by a German printer named Senefelder. In 1797, Senefelder, out of paper, scribed a laundry list with a grease pencil on a limestone slab in his studio. Attempting to clean the stone, he found that the greasy area resisted the washing.

The lithographic technique relies on this principle. First the drawing is made with a grease-based crayon. The stone is then wetted. The limestone absorbs the moisture and the crayon drawing repels it. Ink is then applied to the stone and the reverse occurs. The wet stone repels the ink, and the crayon drawing accepts it. A print is then made by pressing paper against the stone. This is done with a printing press designed for this purpose.

The ease with which an artist can translate his talent into lithography stimulated a proliferation of art prints in the latter half of the nineteenth century. Stone lithography, as described here, is not to be confused with commercial offset lithography, a photomechanical process that does not involve the artist’s hand.

John James Audubon’s Quadruped Imperial Bowen Edition are hand-colored lithographs. 

Mat Burn or Reverse Mat Burn

Mat burn is discoloration under a facemat is often caused by acidity.

Reverse mat burn is discoloration of the area not covered by a facemat and is often the cause of acidity and/or exposure to UV light. This Gustave Baumann print has a moderate reverse mat burn in the margins.

Cleaning solutions in a restoration lab can most often remove mat burn as well as reverse mat burn. Archival framing materials should be used to prevent mat burn.