Page:Chats on old prints (IA chatsonoldprints00haydiala).pdf/152

 rough usage it received. With increasing skill in typographic art came the invention of taking a metal cast, or as many metal casts as were found necessary, of the wood block and printing from them, and not from the wood block itself. These casts are known as clichés.

So that it will be seen that whereas photography was utilised to preserve the drawing of the artist, this later invention preserved the work of the wood engraver.

One of the most remarkable books issued in this period is Dalziel's illustrated "Arabian Nights," published by Messrs. Ward, Lock & Co. in 1865, with over two hundred illustrations, of which ninety are by A. Boyd Houghton. The rest are by Millais, G. J. Pinwell, J. D. Watson, and T. and E. Dalziel. But it is Boyd Houghton who stands pre-eminent. At that time he was only twenty-seven years of age, and Pinwell was only twenty-one.

Boyd Houghton's name carries with it a peculiar magic. It is not easy to forget the first peep into this wonderful edition of the "Arabian Nights." There is in his flowing lines a singular beauty. He conveys with dexterous cunning the life of the East. His drawings are filled with poetry and grace. This volume is unfortunately printed on bad paper, and each page is set in a style offensive to the eye, and has a crude framework around the letterpress. But in spite of everything, the wonderful designs of houris, and genii, of dervishes and singing-girls, of slaves, and of Bagdad merchants, illuminate the stories so perfectly that one forgets margin and type