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Xylo-py-rog′ra-phy.

Sometimes called pokerpainting.

When a hot iron is applied to the surface of the wood, it chars or scorches the wood wherever it touches; and if the operator possesses artistic taste, he can so manage these charred lines as to give them a pictorial arrangement. There were some specimens of this kind in the Great Exhibition, which displayed surprising skill, especially where the surface was charred all over, and then scraped to produce the picture, as in mezzotint.

Copies from Landseer's pictures, and other subjects, have been thus produced with much boldness of effect. The production of designs by pressure depends upon a singular circumstance. If wood be pressed by suitable instruments, it does not recover its original evenness of surface until it has been steeped in water. The artist produces a sort of design on wood, by strong pressure in particular parts; he planes down the protuberant portions, and then soaks the whole in water; this brings up the pressed, or hardened lines, which thereafter stand up as a sort of bas-relief. It is impossible, however, to produce such effectual results by this as by the charring process.

1877.

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