Posted by Dan M. on July 25, 1999 at 02:46:41:
In Reply to: gauffrage(embossing) posted by eph on July 19, 1999 at 01:50:23:
Adding to what has been appropriately said below, I'll just mention that a great many prints by Toshikata have embossing. All good editions of the 36 Selected Beauties do (at least on the title cartouche), if that's what you're looking at.
It's one of the ironies of Meiji prints that the skills of the carvers and printers were at a peak in this era, while the artistic quality of the prints has been generally (and to some extent wrongly) denigrated. But ukiyo-e has always been a collector's art, with greater value placed on what is rarest, and this trend has only recently been questioned.
can someone tell me if gauffrage or embossing is a natural thing on prints, is it possible that the people who owned the prints did some embossing on the prints to improve bad areas? There is a print by Toshikata for sale that says that there was some gauffrage(embossing) done on it. Can someone tell me if this was probably done when the print ws made? Thanks