Re: A must-see for anybody on this list

[Wim van Dommelen]

Indeed, inspiring. Remembers me of a museum in Kopenhagen (mmmhh, forgot the name) I once visited where they have a small exhibition of these tools. Impressing.

I was a little upset when I read "they decided to disperse the collection", but it is true, I've contacted them and you can indeed buy a random plate, or one from a set which is currently "processed". I decided to order one for myself, just to have one and mount it somewhere on one of my wall. Don't know if I'll see any chance for this later on. I view it as a collectors item.

Other question on the composition materials: in the video there was indeed mentioning of a "blei pencil", that is indeed a lead (Pb) pencil to draw lines. Lead is soft enough to do that. But it is too soft to act as a material to form the base for a printing plate (it would be crushed on the first run), therefore an alloy is made to get the right hardness, see e.g.: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Type_metal for a discussion on this.

The plates shown themselves are composed of an alloy of: lead (Pb), Antimoon (Sb) and Zinc (Zn). Confirmed by Henle.

Regards,

Wim.

On 12 Feb 2013, at 10:35 , Andrew Bernard wrote:

Truly inspiring to watch a master craftsman engraving. I too was astonished at the cutting of beams and stems without a rule, and the virtuoso slur engraving. When you consider slurs are thinner at the ends, there must a lessening of the graver pressure at the ends of the slur which is incredibly subtle. Astounding technique.

The video shows the plates in the archives 'lovingly preserved'. I note that the Henle website now has plates for sale for all of 31 euros each, for which I understand you get a random plate. So have they decided to disperse the collection and throw it away? Seems a great pity to lose such a valuable reference library of engraved material.

Andrew


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