While the term lithography might conjure up a vision of Currier and Ives, or other mass-produced paper reproductions of art, there have been many variants of it over the many years since its accepted inception in 1798 by Aloys Senefelder.
As an aside, there is some contestation over the priority of Senefelder as the inventor of lithography, and even the date 1798, but I am using those values as presented by Bamber Gascoigne in his landmark and highly collectible How to Identify Prints.
Lithography has been used in both utilitarian and artistic contexts. Music publishers used it early to produce sheet music, but it soon flowered in multiple directions of application.
Lithography is still a staple in the printing industry where its very modern and efficient techniques can churn out thousands and millions of reprints for relatively modest amounts of money. But therein lies the rub. Not all lithographs are of the million print variety, and the trained eye can identify the various modes of creation to find the true treasures.
As the term implies, lithography is the production of prints from stone. While that may have been its initial mode, other media came in to play throughout the 19th century into the 20th C. Most lithography done in modern times is done on metal such as aluminum or zinc, stone supplies having either dried up, or proven uneconomical, or in some ways deemed inefficient. Think of the weight of stones, and their bulk for storage.
…To be continued….
