The glossary of terms has been created to support the understanding of terms used within the Pre-Raphaelite resource. Please contact us if you would like us to add or amend a term.
Printing technique. The design is incised on a hard wood (usually boxwood) which is cut across the grain (‘end grain’) as opposed to the softer wood used in woodcuts that is sawn lengthways along the grain. The main tool that is used is a burin, similar to that used by metal engravers. The process is capable of producing a considerable amount of detail with closely worked lines. Most of the illustrations produced for journals and books in the nineteenth-century used this technique.
Reference: Rodney Engen, Pre-Raphaelite Prints the Graphic Art of Millais, Holman Hunt, Rossetti and their followers, Lund Humphries, 1995