Rudolph Ackermann Aquatints

Rudolph Ackermann(1764-1834) pioneered lithography and produced some of the best early colourprinting in Britain, publishing numerous fine illustrated volumes, and magazines .He was born on April 20, 1764 in Stolberg. Apprenticed tohis father a coach-builder, he moved first to Dresden, then to Paris and eventually to London whilst still working at coach-building. In1795 he married and set up a print shop at 96 The Strand, moving the following year to 101 The Strand. He had already taken over a drawing school originally established at this address by William Shipley, the founder of the Society of Arts, and maintained it until 1806. The first major colourplate book he published was The Microcosm of London; (or London in Miniature) which appeared in monthly parts between 1808 and 1810. Printed on hot-pressed handmade paper, books were illustrated using coloured aquatints. The architectural backgrounds were drawn by Augustus Pugin and the figures were drawn by Thomas Rowlandson. Ackermann originally planned to issuethe book in twenty-four numbers at 7/6d a number, but he soon found himself obliged to raise the price to 10/6d, and the number of parts totwenty-six. Successful production techniques and methods of marketing by subscription prompted him to follow the same plan with his next publications. For the reproduction of the drawings by Pugin and Rowlandson, five different engravers were used to produce the plates:fifty-four by J. Bluck, twenty-nine by J.C. Stadler, ten by T. Sutherland, ten by J. Hill and one by Harraden. From 1790 . . 1830 the principle process in book illustration was aquatint engraving. Once the drawing and the engraving had been made, the colour process began. The engravings might be printed in two colours, perhaps brown for the foreground and blue for the sky and distance, the remaining colour would be applied by hand. Ackermann employed colourists and engravers at his 'Repository of Arts' but like most publishers he would also have used pieceworkers. Bundles of sheets to be coloured would be distributed to workers who would do the work in their own homes. Oftenthe work was done by children, but sometimes whole families would work together at home by candlelight.Handcolouring can save money when printing large plates although people like Ackermann stressed the high cost of hand finishing. He used poorly paid French refugees and later hand coloured plate producers used children and stencils.