Статті в журналах з теми "Engraved printing plate"

Under-glaze tissue ceramic transfer printing first developed circa 1750 and involved engraved or etched copper plates, from which tissue was printed with cobalt blue oxides. Under-glaze tissue has a very distinctive, subtle quality - it is an integral part of both English ceramic history and the history of copperplate engraving. The process was common in the UK ceramics industry until the1980s. However from the 1950s it began to be supplemented by screen-printing, because underglaze tissue transfer was relatively slow and required skilled artisans to apply the transfers. The authors are collaborating with Burleigh Pottery in Stoke-on-Trent, the last remaining company to produce ceramic tableware decorated using the traditional printed under-glaze tissue method. The pottery was recently saved from closure by the HRH Prince Charles Regeneration Trust, who wish to maintain the traditional manufacturing skills for the next 25 years. The Centre for Fine Print Research (CFPR) in Bristol has been reappraising the use of these traditional 19th Century skills with modern materials and methods for producing engraved plates. The project seeks to demonstrate how those 19th Century methods can be applied by contemporary ceramic artists. The paper will explain the process of ink manufacture, heating the plate for printing, digital methods of making plates and the use of potters tissue.

During intaglio (gravure) printing, a blade wipes excess ink from the engraved plate with the object of leaving ink-filled cells defining the image to be printed. That objective is not completely attained. Capillarity draws some ink from the cell into a meniscus connecting the blade to the substrate, and the continuing motion of the engraved plate smears that ink over its surface. By examining the limit of vanishing capillary number ($Ca$, based on substrate speed), we reduce the problem of determining smear volume to one of hydrostatics. Using numerical solutions of the corresponding free-boundary problem for the Stokes equations of motion, we show that the hydrostatic theory provides an upper bound to smear volume for finite $Ca$. The theory explains why polishing to reduce the tip radius of the blade is an effective way to control smearing.

Gravure printing is widely applied in packaging printing and the ink transfer is very important for printing quality. Ink transfer affects the ink uniform, thickness and dot gain, so it is necessary to optimize the parameter of the gravure plate making. At present, some investigations are developed for the ink transfer only qualitatively. In this paper, the influence of screen ruling and engraving needle tip angle on ink transfer is researched experimentally. Firstly, the standard test gravure plate was prepared, and then the gravure plates are engraved at different parameter combining the screen ruling and engraving needle tip angle. Finally, the printing samples are obtained, from which the transfer amount and the density are measured. This paper, the amount of ink transfer and the density are investigated, and the results show that screen ruling and engraving needle tip angle affect the ink transfer amount.

In order to guarantee the quality of the gravure cylinder making. Three kinds of characteristic files generation software (Monaco、Profile-Maker and GMG Profile Editor) are used to generate the characteristic files of electronic engraved gravure print. The generated characteristic files “profile” which use different methods of color management, is used to conduct color management to gravure cylinder making. Then study the color rendering of the printed matter, analyze and compare the software which generates the gravure printing characteristic files “ICC” and the methods of color management. The results show that in comparison the color gamut of the characteristic files which using the software “Monaco” to generate is bigger; the characteristic files which using the software “Profile make” is smaller in the color gamut range of blue to chartreuse; the characteristic files which using the software “GMG Profile Editer” is more excellent than others in the a axis (the color gamut range of red and green). Using the method of color management “GMG” conduct color management to gravure cylinder making, can get the good consequent, which is the best method of color management to gravure printing.

Gravure printing has been applied widely in flexible packaging, building materials and other fields, and amount of ink transfer is an important factor to affect the printing quality and depends largely on the volume of the gravure cell. The volume of cell is affected by gravure process parameters such as screen lines, cell angle and engraving needle angle, so the volume of cell is calculated difficulty, and it is difficulty for the optimization of the gravure plate-making process. This paper presents a computing model calculating the volume of gravure cell. The cells for three kind of dot coverage rate are carved with 70LPC screening lines and 120°needle angle, their opening length, width and depth are measured by cell measuring instrument, their relation is been found by MATLAB and the computing model is built to calculate the cell volume model .The results show that the computing model is suitable for different cell angle, and the cell volume depends the screening rules, cell angle, needle angle and the cell depth. If the depth for different dot coverage rate is measured the cell volume will be calculated.

AbstractIn this work we study computationally the dynamics of a liquid bridge formed between a two-dimensional trapezoidal cavity, which represents an axisymmetric cell or a plane groove engraved in a roll, and a moving plate. The flow is a model of the liquid transfer process in gravure printing systems. The considered plate kinematics represents the actual motion of a roll-to-roll system, which includes extension, shear and rotation relative to the cavity. The fluid flow is modelled by solving the Stokes equations, discretized with the finite element method; the evolving free surfaces are accommodated by employing a pseudosolid mesh deforming algorithm. The results show that as the roll radius is reduced, thus increasing the lateral and rotational motions of the top plate relative to the cavity, a larger volume of liquid is transferred to the plate. However, due to lateral displacement of the contact lines, special care must be taken concerning the wettability properties of the substrate to avoid errors in the pattern fidelity. The predictions also show a strong nonlinear behaviour of the liquid fraction extracted from a cavity as a function of the capillary number. At high capillary numbers the fluid dynamics is mainly controlled by the extensional motion due to the strong contact line pinning. However, at low values of the capillary number, the contact lines have higher mobility and the liquid fraction primarily depends on the lateral and rotational plate velocity. These mechanisms tend to drag the fluid outside the cavity and increase the liquid fraction transferred to the plate, as has been observed in experiments.

John Smeaton was engaged from 1755 to 1761 in an abortive attempt to improve the navigation of the river Clyde up to Glasgow. His volumes of Civil and Mechanical Engineering Designs in the Library of the Royal Society contain the maps and plans of the scheme. One is entitled ‘The River of Clyde surveyed by John Watt’. Although surveyed by John Watt in 1734, it was only published posthumously by his nephew James Watt, the famous steam engine improver, in 1759 who revised it with the assistance of his own father and brother. James Watt had helped survey the Clyde in conjunction with Smeaton's schemes in 1758. The background of Smeaton's work is outlined and the story of the revision of the map and its printing in Edinburgh covered. A second edition was run off in 1794 when John Rennie discovered the engraved copper plate at the Edinburgh printers.

The crafts such as lacquerware have made unique strides through decorating techniques using gold such as “Makie”, the technique to draw picture by scattering powdered gold, and “Chinkin”, the technique to rub gold into the design engraved by carving knives. In conventional techniques, practical knowledge and ability are essential to produce craft products. Therefore, screen printing which consists of simple processes has been developed. However, screen printing requires a masking plate made of silk or nylon to create patterns for transcribing ink into objects. This paper presents the formation of a decorative film by inkjet printing with gold nanoparticles for crafts such as lacquerware. The proposed method consists of on-demand process, which makes design changeable without masking. The aims are threefold: 1) to establish a sintering process of gold nanoparticles for acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) and phenol resin substrates used for synthetic resin products; 2) to characterize the sintered gold film; 3) to examine applicability to industry. The major results obtained are as follows: the appearance and the reflectance spectra of the gold nanoparticle film vary with heat conditions; the proper heat conditions which prevent thermal damage to substrates are the temperature of 373 K or below for the ABS resin substrate, and 423 K or below for the phenol resin substrate, respectively; the gold nanoparticle film possessed a good surface integrity without any voids when the sintering temperature is higher than 323 K for 1 h. Moreover, the film had such a high adhesion to substrates that no separation occurred after cross-cut test; the proposed method applied a lacquerware product made of ABS resin, yielding the decorative film

ABSTRACT Aim The aim of the study was to compare the dimensional stability of dies obtained from addition silicone and polyether impressions that were reheated or subjected to vacuum treatment. Materials and methods A master die was constructed of a rectangular stainless steel block on to which a photosensitive nylon printing plate attached which contains engraved test grooves. A custom-tray was fabricated and impressions were made using addition silicone and polyether before and after the two treatments. A total of 90 impressions and dies were made from both the elastomers and divided as control group, group I (reheated impressions) and group II (vacuum-treated impressions). A comparative analysis was done to determine which dies yielded the best dimensional accuracy compared to that of the master die. Results The minimum percentage dimensional change was observed in test dies made from addition silicone impressions of group I (reheated impressions), followed by the test dies made from polyether impressions in control group. The maximum percentage dimensional change was observed in test dies made from polyether impressions in group I (reheated impressions), followed by the test dies made from addition silicone impressions in group II (vacuum-treated impressions). Conclusion The dies obtained from reheated addition silicone impressions yielded the best dimensional stability overall when compared with that of the master die. The dies made of polyether impressions after reheating were not clinically acceptable, because of its hydrophilic nature swelled when they were reheated in a water bath.

The sixth edition of Camden’s Britannia was published in 1607 with over fifty county maps printed from engraved plates. It was a pioneering work. In 1611, John Speed published his Theatre of The Empire of Great Britaine, again with over fifty county maps, many of them engraved by Jodocus Hondius from Amsterdam, and with an abridged version of Camden’s text. These books established a model that was followed later in Amsterdam itself in the great atlases of Blaeu and Janssonius. One of the ways Camden sought to augment the authority of his work was by using Anglo-Saxon types in his text for county names and the occasional passage in Anglo-Saxon (Old English). As the practice persisted, the progress of these type-designs is examined in relation to the development of the atlases. While Hondius’ map-making skills were imported to add to the English text, when the English text was brought to Amsterdam to add to the Dutch maps, the Dutch printers had to use their own skills to reproduce the Anglo-Saxon characters.

Abstract. Gravure printing has the characteristics including thick ink layer, bright and homochromatic color, rich and sharp tone, and strong stereoscopic impression. In the packaging-printing field, gravure printing gets more and more attentions. But in the region of gravure printing process, the study on gravure printing ink transfer is not as deep as offset print. Most researches just stay in the level of qualitative analysis, but the quantitative analysis researches are still insufficient. The factors which impact gravure printing ink transfer are not only the volume of engraving ink cell, but also printing process. In this paper, gravure printing ink transfer is analyzed quantitatively from the point of views of gravure printing pressure, printing speed, scraping blade pressure and ink viscosity. The following research has been done in this paper. Firstly, electronic engraving machine is used to engrave eight different area ink cells by 45° ink cell angle and 70lpc screen line number on the same gravure roller. Secondly, gravure proofing machine is used to make proofs in different process conditions. Thirdly, density meter is used to determine density of cell ink, and balance is used to determine the weight of ink which moves from the plate onto the paper. Finally, to analyze the influence of different printing processes on gravure printing ink transfer. The research results show that gravure printing ink transfer is influenced certainly by different printing processes. Printing process has a certain influence on the gravure printing ink transfer, and the influence degree of different dot area rate of cell is different. The doctor blade pressure and ink viscosity influence greatly gravure printing ink transfer.

Once highlighted as a hobbyist’s novelty, allied technologies such as 3D scanning, 3D modeling, and 3D printing are fueling vital new advances in a diversity of fields: in biomedical research, human tissue is being 3D printed to form human organs; the development of 3D printed titanium parts in aerospace engineering will save airplane manufacturers millions of dollars per plane; and 3D printing allows mathematicians to create intricate physical representations of geometric models that are otherwise difficult to visualize. Though 3D technologies have only recently gained a similar foothold throughout the humanities, the results are no less encouraging. Perhaps unsurprisingly, these projects focus in large part upon furthering our understanding of physical artifacts. Recent examples range from detailed replicas of delicate fossils and high-resolution 3D scans of engraved wooden blocks to 3D models of damaged paintings and fragile medieval artifacts. Application of these technologies naturally aligns with the study of material culture, facilitating the understanding of and access to rare and delicate materials. The appearance of 3D technologies within special collections is thus a fitting development.

AbstractThere is circumstantial and documentary evidence that printing from stereotype plates was being undertaken by Joseph Athias in Amsterdam no later than September 1673. The terms of an agreement of that date between Athias and the Widow Schippers and Anna Maria Stam imply that he had two English bibles in plates, one a twelvemo, the other an eighteenmo. The eighteenmo can be equated with an edition with engraved title-page with the imprint 'Cambridge, Roger Daniel, 1648', the last in a sequence of four with the same imprint, each of which carries over from its predecessor a certain amount of setting. The earliest in the sequence appears to have been printed by Joachim Nosche in Amsterdam. That the fourth was impressed at least six times is suggested by the fact that it was printed on six or more discrete papers, thus implying that it was either kept standing or plated. That it was indeed plated at some stage of its life, and that the plates consisted of columns (not pages), is confirmed by the observable differences in alignment of the columns from exemplar to exemplar, particular alignments agreeing with particular papers. Athias's primacy in the history of stereotyping is thus established. From among the many librarians who have assisted me during this investigation I should like to thank in particular Dr Lotte Hellinga, whose advice in the early stages proved especially helpful. Earlier versions of the text were presented to: The Bibliographical Society of Australia and New Zealand, Adelaide, August 1985; The Centre for Bibliographical and Textual Studies, Monash University, September 1985; The Bibliographical Society, London, April 1992.

James Hall, like other authors and editors of 19th-century American state and federal surveys, learned first hand that publishing illustrations was time-consuming, frustrating and expensive. But illustrations were indispensible, providing the graphic communication of morphology that justified the author's taxonomic decisions. That essential information, however, passed through the hands of an illustrator and either an engraver or lithographer before it reached the scientific audience that would test and judge it. Artists and printers, therefore, needed close supervision; plates required careful proofing and sometimes cancellation. Hall, like his colleagues, vastly underestimated the time and expense that his project would entail. The plates illustrating the Palaeontology reflected changes occurring in American science and printing. Over the decades spanned by the publication, picture printing techniques changed from craft to industry, and converted from engraving to lithography; so did the New York survey. Meanwhile, the scientific profession developed illustration conventions to which publications with professional intent increasingly conformed. These conventions combined standards of "accuracy" with issues of style to reflect both scientific activity and its social context. The early illustrations drawn by Mrs. Hall were no less "accurate" although clearly less polished than the collaborations between R.P. Whitfield and F.J. Swinton, or the later work of J.H. Emerton and E. Emmons, Jr. The artists and printers of the Palaeontology plates emulated and contributed to the emerging national style of zoological and paleontological illustration, and thus helped consolidate the "look" of American science.

The city is an important center of social life. In different historical periods of time, the role of cities was changing, as well as the city image in the picture of the world and in the society system of values. The study of the city image is one of the urgent tasks of urban studies, as well as the entire humanitarian knowledge with the involvement of various historical sources. The article sets out a task of studying the city image using the example of textbooks for teaching literacy (Primers) as books that form the initial picture of the human world. To that end Karion Istomin’s illustrated Primer was chosen. It was first created in handwritten form to teach the children of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich. In 1694 it was published at the Moscow Printing Yard. Boards for that all-engraved edition were made by the engraver Leonty Bunin. A Рrimer is a combination of verbal and visual information. For the first time in it an important feature became the illustrative series was important, which was supposed to help the student in mastering letters of the alphabet. Each page of the Primer consisted of pictures with captions and a poem. They interpreted words that began with or included the letter being studied. Among the illustrations by Leonty Bunin, images of the city and city buildings occupy a significant place. As a result of the study of verbal and visual information about the city and the urban environment, the following images of the city are distinguished in the article: the city as a sacred space; the image of a city as a geographical marker (depicting parts of the world through the creation of different types of cities);image of city’s architecture (buildings for the residence of townspeople, churches, outbuildings, protective and the fortification structures); the city image as a symbol of the native land. It was important for the formation of a picture of the world among youths starting to learn to read and write. Through the visual-verbal series of the image of the city, children formed a certain perception of the urban environment, urban space – different and multifunctional.

The city is an important center of social life. In different historical periods of time, the role of cities was changing, as well as the city image in the picture of the world and in the society system of values. The study of the city image is one of the urgent tasks of urban studies, as well as the entire humanitarian knowledge with the involvement of various historical sources. The article sets out a task of studying the city image using the example of textbooks for teaching literacy (Primers) as books that form the initial picture of the human world. To that end Karion Istomin’s illustrated Primer was chosen. It was first created in handwritten form to teach the children of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich. In 1694 it was published at the Moscow Printing Yard. Boards for that all-engraved edition were made by the engraver Leonty Bunin. A Рrimer is a combination of verbal and visual information. For the first time in it an important feature became the illustrative series was important, which was supposed to help the student in mastering letters of the alphabet. Each page of the Primer consisted of pictures with captions and a poem. They interpreted words that began with or included the letter being studied. Among the illustrations by Leonty Bunin, images of the city and city buildings occupy a significant place. As a result of the study of verbal and visual information about the city and the urban environment, the following images of the city are distinguished in the article: the city as a sacred space; the image of a city as a geographical marker (depicting parts of the world through the creation of different types of cities);image of city’s architecture (buildings for the residence of townspeople, churches, outbuildings, protective and the fortification structures); the city image as a symbol of the native land. It was important for the formation of a picture of the world among youths starting to learn to read and write. Through the visual-verbal series of the image of the city, children formed a certain perception of the urban environment, urban space – different and multifunctional.

This article studies the activities of the Moscow Print Yard during the period under Patriarch Nikon between 1652 and 1658. The period was not only characterised by a serious economic activity intended to organise work at the Print Yard but also a number of considerable changes in the repertoire of publications of the printing house and book design. All these actions took place under the direct supervision of Patriarch Nikon and his participation. This article makes an attempt to trace the overall activity of the Print Yard in two directions: studying the structure of the repertoire of print products and book design and changes in the external form of Moscow editions. The article examines a new type of editions which appeared under Patriarch Nikon — loose-leaf editions, clarifying the reasons and motives for their appearance, which are not due to their economic benefit but their efficiency and circulation, and the opportunity to standardise church administrative issues through them. Additionally, the author considers issues connected with iconographic “preparation” related to changes in the images of the animal symbols of the Evangelists in the frontispiece engravings of the Gospel. Also, the article clarifies the reasons that prompted Patriarch Nikon to make these corrections, which are based on a general approach to correcting church rites and books. In correcting the order of animal symbols, Patriarch Nikon relied on the ancient Russian manuscript tradition (pre-15th century) and Greek samples associated primarily with the images on the Antimins. The article pays special attention to the publication of Antimins as a new type of Moscow edition considering the question of its samples. Finally, the author examines the features of engraved illustrations in Nikon’s editions and their design demonstrating the significance of Nikon’s reforms for the development of the artistic form and art of the Moscow book.

Цель статьи - раскрыть понятие «греческая религиозная гравюра», а именно выявить, что это за гравюры, для чего они предназначались, какая историческая ситуация спровоцировала их распространение, а также определить их роль и значение для обителей, расположенных на оккупированных Османской империей территориях. На гравюрах изображаются образы святых и виды монастырей, которые распространялись монахами взамен на милостыню среди паломников. В условиях оккупации распространение гравюр было существенным источником дохода для обедневших монастырей Афона. Первые афонские гравюры выпускались в Европе, но с XIX в. афонские монахи создают гравюры самостоятельно. Статья раскрывает историю создания греческих религиозных гравюр и определяет место среди них гравюр из собрания Музея Московской духовной академии «Церковно-археологического кабинета», также выявляя уникальные образцы гравюр из коллекции музея. The article is devoted to the phenomenon of Greek religious engravings. There are an easel engraving with images of saints and views of monasteries, which distributed among pilgrims to promote Christian monasteries of the Orthodox Church of the East. When and why were they become used? A lot of Orthodox monasteries became poor after occupation by Ottoman Empire. Moreover, The Mount Athos had not been known in Europe until sixteenth century. The monks of the Saint Catherine’s Monastery found that the views of the Monastery mast be interesting for pilgrims and contributed to fame of their monastery. First woodcuts printed in a large number in Leo police in the middle of the 17th century. It was a great success. The monks exchanged this engraving on charity. And the Athos’s monks followed the example of Sinai’s monks. The first engravings for The Mount Athos were printed in Europe, in such cities as Vienna, and Venice. From the end of the 18th century metal plates engraved on the Mount Athos and in the 19th century the printing of engravings was amazingly extended. The most part of engravings from the collection of Moscow Theological Academy Museum printed in the middle of the 19th century in The Mount Athos. Also, this collection has some unique prints, such as the Burning Bush. This article shows the importance of the Greek engravings for the orthodox world such the instrument for advertising the most holy places for pilgrims. This etching made a great influence on our imagination nowadays about this holly places.

<p><strong>Abstract.</strong> Nowadays, when visualization is one of the main channels of communication, maps, geo-images and infographics can help develop the concept of space and expand knowledge about our world. But most spatial data are not available to the visually impaired and need to be converted to a tactile format. Tactile and tiflographic maps are becoming more and more popular because they help overcome information barriers for those who cannot see, making it easier to navigate in everyday life.</p><p>Blind or visually impaired people need to know more about their immediate environment to navigate in the room, building, city or country. The ability to read and understand a tactile map is not an automatic skill for visually impaired people. The user of the map must be trained to recognize and understand the relief material, symbols in the form of points and lines, use the texture and legend that reveal the information presented on a particular map.</p><p>The last decade witnessed a great technological leap towards the creation and replication of tactile and tiflographic maps. In addition to such traditional methods of creating relief graphic maps as thermoforming of plastic on the engraved surface and printing on specialized paper, new methods have been added – quickly solidifying varnishes, paper stamping devices and 3D printers. However, the process of drawing up high-quality relief-graphic maps is strongly influenced by the technology of publication. It depends on the tactile distinctiveness and clarity of drawing elements of the map and conventional signs. This has an impact on the choice of tactile variables that can be operated on when mapping. In addition, the selected technology depends on the final price of the final product. In fact, the creators of tactile and tiflographic maps have the choice between a triade: "method of production – material – format edition". These technological moments subsequently influence and determine the scale of the maps, the image methods and the level of generalization. According to some teachers, tactile maps are a special case of relief-graphic materials (tactile graphics) so requirements, content, design, application signatures which are applicable to tactile graphics should also apply to tactile maps. However, for cartographers, tactile and tiflographic maps are a particular area of cartography that uses its own language describing space with a combination of specific rules and regulations.</p><p>Laboratory of cartography at the Institute of geography RAS has been engaged in the creation of thematic tactile maps at different scale levels and areas for 7 years already. A set of thematic maps for the territory of Russia was created to ensure the educational process in specialized institutions (schools and colleges for the blind and visually impaired). This set of thematic maps consists of the following maps: components of the natural environment, climate, minerals, soil cover and land resources, vegetation. In total, the set includes 34 different thematic maps with a total circulation of more than 700 copies. More than 400 maps have been transferred to specialized agencies and are already being used at geography lessons.</p><p>All created tactile maps are made at once by 4 methods: micro-capsule paper, stamping, thermoforming, printing on a 3D printer. With the help of 3D printing and embossing technology, each thematic map is made in a single copy, and the maps on microcapsular paper and plastic are made in large quantities.</p><p>When creating tactile thematic maps for the territory of Russia many factors were taken into the account that are not important in the creation of conventional, traditional maps. In addition to the selection of suitable subjects, scale, projections in the first place the special requirements for the creation of tactile graphics and manufacturing technology were taking into the account primarily, which greatly affect the tactile readability.</p>

To the unrefined or under-bred person, the visiting-card is but a trifling and insignificant piece of paper; but to the cultured disciple of social law it conveys a subtle and unmistakable intelligence. Its texture, style of engraving, and even the hour of leaving it, combine to place the stranger whose name it bears in a pleasant or disagreeable attitude, even before his manners, conversation, and face have been able to explain his social position (1920 etiquette manual quoted in Curtin 138). There’s a scene in the ‘90s TV series Ab Fab where Eddy, stumbling from her car, fresh from Harvey Nicks and tipsy on Bolly, shouts into her mobile ‘it’s ok Bubbles, I’m coming into the office now’ as she enters the office. When it first aired this was a wry comment on the vacuous, superfluous nature of new communication technologies. Now, it’s like ‘so what?’ Why not attempt to convey constantly the banal minutiae of the every day? Indeed, what troubles the technological verisimilitude is not that Eddy desires absolute proximity but that she’s not texting. In these days of ‘intensive propinquity’ (Kang 2002), however, it is easy to overlook the fact that telepresence—text’s uncanny power to stand in for the corporeal body—has a long history. Indeed, one such precursor to today’s technologies of telepresence would undoubtedly appeal to Eddy and Pats. In this paper, I want to consider the extent to which the British eighteenth-century visiting card conceptually, culturally and materially anticipates a range of contemporary technologies of propinquity. Acting as complex cultural avatars, these visiting cards conveyed the desires of class and gender in the construction of identity. The British pictorial visiting card of the early eighteenth century developed from the practice of using playing cards as visiting cards, the caller’s name being inscribed on the back of the playing card. In the mid eighteenth century the custom of using playing cards as visiting cards was replaced by cards manufactured for the express purpose of notifying those with whom one wished to make contact. At first these cards, printed on ‘stout paper or thin card’, were relatively plain, except for ‘an ornamental frame of tasteful design’ that surrounded the edge thus leaving the centre blank so that the caller could write their name. Soon, however, visiting cards were being printed with illustrations. These cards commonly left room for a short message in addition to the caller’s name (Staff 10). By the latter part of the eighteenth century, most visiting cards carried elaborate designs which varied according to the taste, hobbies or professional interests of the intended consumers. For those connected to the military, for example, there were cards illustrated with swords, cannons, flags or a person in uniform was depicted. Cards left by recent callers were commonly displayed in special receptacles on mantelpieces or small tables so that visitors ‘had a chance to see whom the family numbered among its social circle and be suitably impressed’ (Pool 66). At the close of the eighteenth century, the highly illustrated visiting card gave way to an understated and smaller format. No longer pictorial, visiting cards of the nineteenth-century, as Maurice Rickards notes, were ‘reticent’ in style and ‘espoused sobriety’ in typography and design. Victorian culture took seriously the materialities of visiting card practice as the exchange and expression of symbolic capital. As Rickards explains: In Britain, the etiquette of typographic style and layout was rigorously observed: the wording was engraved; printing was in black, card colour was white. A man’s town address appeared in the lower left-hand corner, his club on the right …. Unmarried daughters living at home did not have cards of their own. They appeared compendiously on their mother's cards (351). Visiting cards demonstrate the rich prehistory of contemporary technologies of telepresence in terms of the imaginative, symbolic and rhetorical functions they performed. Telepresence can be defined as the degree to which geographically dispersed agents experience a sense of physical and/or psychological proximity through the use of particular communication technologies. Like many of the media forms they anticipate, visiting cards were used to stand in for the corporeal presence of their author. As a late nineteenth-century etiquette manual explained: ‘the stress laid by Society upon the correct usage of these magic bits of paste-board, will not seem unnecessary, when it is remembered that the visiting card … frequently is made to take the place of one’s self’ (quoted in Davidoff 42). Visiting cards functioned as avatars of presence and identity, a complex language system which allowed the discursive agents to mediate social relations according to the varying degrees of intimacy that were desired. As long as all parties could read the codes and conventions, the level of acquaintanceship could be increased, maintained or decreased. For example, if one wanted to ‘put an end to an unsatisfactory acquaintanceship’, help was, literally, at hand. Instead of the ‘intolerable’ practice of ‘cutting’ – the procedure of pointedly refusing to recognise a person with whom one formerly had been in close contact – one would slowly reduce the time spent calling to the minimum length required. ‘After this’, advises an 1897 guide called Manners for Men, the gentleman ‘may leave cards once more without asking if the ladies of the family are at home. In this way he can gradually and with perfect courtesy break off the intimacy’ (quoted in Curtin 144). But communication might sometimes break down inadvertently. A participant’s failure to interpret the signs correctly could have unpleasant consequences. Because of this, etiquette manuals warned that servants be instructed on how to observe the difference between calling and card leaving. The intricacy inherent in the semiotics of ‘speaking by the card’ is demonstrated by the role servants were expected to play. Protocol demanded that a call was answered with a call and a card by a card. Returning a call with a card could be interpreted as a snub. In some cases that was the intention of one of the participants; leaving a card instead of calling in person was an easily understood gesture intended to scale down a particular acquaintanceship. However, it might just be a mistake. One of the many complications adhering to the practice of calling and leaving cards was that one could not assume the person to whom a card belonged had, in fact, ‘called’ upon one. As Michael Curtin explains: In practice, cards very often substituted for calls since the person receiving the call was not at home. In this case, a card equalled a call, though there was a complication. Since … cards were delivered in person, one who meant to leave cards was easily confused with another who called but merely left cards because no one was at home (141). The first problem, then, is how the caller deploys the card and how the receiver interprets this action; to what degree does the card stand for the physical presence of the caller? Even in the pre-Barthesian era, authorial intention was problematic: did the caller intend to see the person on whom they called or did the card stand for a less intimate mode of communication? Further complicating matters were the servants. Unlike Wilkie Collins’ depiction of a passive and neutral butler bearing a visiting card—‘waiting not like a human being who took an interest in the proceedings but … like an article of furniture’ (85)—many etiquette manuals warned that servants were actively involved in the chain of communication. Servants, as Curtin outlines, often went to call in place of their ‘mistresses’ and ‘therefore should be exactly instructed as to their mistress’s wishes, whether to call or to leave a card’. Likewise, ‘those servants who answered the door should be made to understand this distinction, to inquire into the caller’s intention’ and record this in writing (141). Visiting cards reproduced divisions of class by regulating the public and the private. The finely nuanced signifying system of these cards addressed only middle-class and aristocratic participants. For the middle classes and the aristocracy, privacy was the inherited right which visiting cards sought to protect. Those of the working class, as Davidoff argues, had to accept that their homes could be entered at any time by members of the ‘superior’ class, who would walk in and ‘at once become involved in the life of the family by asking questions, dispensing charity or giving orders’ (46). If the visiting card was significant as a medium of telepresence, enabling subjects to imagine, desire, fear or forestall each other’s presence, in 1854 this function was enhanced with the addition of a photographic image. The carte-de-visite reworked and conflated the technical, formal and social uses of both portraiture and the visiting card. Distinguished from the older types of visiting card by being smaller in dimension, usually measuring 4½ x 2½ inches, the carte-de-visite also carried a photographic print which was affixed to the cardboard of which it was made. Mediating the performance of identity in new ways, cards now visually depicted their bearers: Thus for a ceremonial visit, the print would represent the visitor with his hands imprisoned in spotless gloves, his head slightly inclined, as for a greeting, his hat resting graciously on his right thigh. According to etiquette, if the weather were bad, an umbrella faithfully reproduced under the arm of a visitor would eloquently declare the merit of his walk (quoted in McCauley 28). The role played by the carte-de-visite in the performance of gender is emphasised by an 1862 article on ‘flirting’ which warned that a woman would be so branded ‘if she be lavish in the distribution of her carte-de-visite’ (‘Flirts’ 163). The carte-de-visite was also an important element in the production of celebrity and the emerging commodity culture. While functioning as a visiting card, the particular topics and scenes represented on the carte-de-visite meant that it became a popular object to collect and display. Often depicting royalty, politicians or military leaders, this new mode of portraiture, as an 1862 newspaper put it, made ‘the public thoroughly acquainted with all its remarkable men’ to the extent that ‘we know their personality long before we see them’ (Wynter 673). The carte-de-visite familiarised the famous and made famous the familiar: The commercial value of the human face was never tested to such an extent as it is at the present moment in these handy photographs. No man, or woman either knows but that some accident may elevate them to the position of the hero of the hour (Wynter 673). Although invented to modernise the existing visiting card, the carte-de-visite neither replaced the older version nor was it used solely for calling. For the bourgeoisie, argues McCauley, the carte-de-visite album became a ‘faddish parlour amusement’ (48). As an enabler of telepresence, the carte-de-visite seemed to promise future generations an intimate knowledge of their distant ancestors. It would collapse time, bringing history into the present. As one nineteenth century journalist remarked, ‘it is very pleasing to have one’s relatives and acquaintances reunited in an album … you converse with them, it seems as if they were there beside you’ (quoted in McCauley 48). In general, the literature on presence, virtual presence and telepresence limits its historiography to an examination of electronic media (for example, Goldberg, Sconce, and Sobchack). As this paper has suggested, what’s needed is research that focuses on those forms of analogue textual culture that, functioning as avatars of corporeality and presence, might be regarded as fabulous. 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