This is a wonderful find from Ebay if you are
interested in how things made. ..seed packets in particular.
The Ebay description was as follows:
"This is a genuine original one of a kind progressive proof book used by stone litho printers to check the quality of each stone and it’s functions! This is from the files of Calvert Litho, one of the highest quality lithographers at the turn of the century.
Calvert was the most expensive lithographer in the country, but Mr. Ferry was a proud man and probably wanted the best in everything, especially his own products! ...
Surprisingly clean for a progressive proof book kept in the back room of a printing shop with all 13 pages intact! Approximate size: 6” x 8”."
Before you scroll down, estimate how many colors were used to give the above effect!
from Wikipedia: Chromolithography is a method for making multi-colour prints. ... The initial technique involved the use of multiple lithographic stones, one for each colour, and was still extremely expensive when done for the best quality results. Depending on the number of colours present, a chromolithograph could take months to produce, by very skilled workers. However much cheaper prints could be produced by simplifying both the number of colours used, and the refinement of the detail in the image. Cheaper images, like advertisements, relied heavily on an initial black print (not always a lithograph), on which colours were then overprinted. To make an expensive reproduction print as what was once referred to as a “’chromo’”, a lithographer, with a finished painting in front of him, gradually created and corrected the many stones using proofs to look as much as possible like the painting in front of him, sometimes using dozens of layers.
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