Uniformes

Oblong quarto. Pp. 22 (text). Plus 50 plates printed in various techniques, some in colour, each preceded by a leaf of captions and explanations, with interleaving tissue guards. With 34 text illustrations. Pictorial title-page printed in colour. Hardcover, bound in the original illustrated cloth, gilt. Binding broken and detached, first few leaves loose. All the plates are in fine condition and as such an ideal copy for visual study. ~ Noteworthy is the technique in which the fine plates in this book are produced. The monochromatic plates are printed in collotype, one of the most accurate and attractive methods of photomechanical tonal printing processes. Highly skilled and expensive process, it cannot produce more than a limited number of impressions. It has been used for single-sheet prints and luxury portfolios, and since the 1950s has been abandoned by all except a few small specialist firms. The colour plates are not chromolithographs as it is sometimes erratically assumed. At the end of the 19th century the term "chromotypograph", implying colour printed from raised metal, as type is, was used for colour prints which made use of metal relief blocks. It is indeed the process used in this book; the colour plates were printed from etched metal blocks, a relief method rather than planographic. ~ [NOTE:] Fine plates. Sold as a binding copy or a collection of plates, priced accordingly.