Litho Stone with 12 Highly Detailed Images incl. Fire King & Weiskittel Sanitary

Description

Lithographic stones are made from hard limestone, and are actually no longer available from the original Bavarian source in Germany as the quarry was depleted years ago. The stone surface is ground down to a fine grain using different grades of grit until it is sufficiently smooth, homogenous and defect free to be used for lithography.  These litho stones are highly sought after remnants of a highly skilled early era in graphic reproduction.
Geologists use the term lithographic texture to refer to a grain size under 1/250 mm.
Lithography is a method of
printing
originally based on the principle that oil and water 'don't mix'. The printing is from a meticulously crafted manual drawing which is hand-etched onto Litho Stone  The method was invented in 1796 by German author and actor Aloise Senefelder
as a cheap method of publishing theatrical works.
Lithography can be used to print text or artwork
onto paper or other suitable material.
Lithography originally used an image drawn with oil, fat, or wax onto the surface of a smooth, level lithographic limestone plate. The stone was then treated with a mixture of acid and gum
arabic
, etching
the portions of the stone that were not protected by the grease-based image. When the stone was subsequently moistened, these etched areas retained water; an oil-based ink
could then be applied and would be repelled by the water, sticking only to the original drawing. The ink would finally be transferred to a blank paper
sheet, producing a printed page. This traditional technique is still used in some fine art
printmaking applications.
Old litho stones typically have been used many times because of the cost and availability of the stone, and because the artwork being reproduced is usually small, intricate, and complex images which don’t take up much space.  Sometimes used stones can be ground down--imaged eliminated to create a 'new' surface layer--since replacement stones are very hard to come by.  Fortunately, this particular stone
still
has its 6 original images on one side and 4 on the reverse side, among them “ Security...Fire Proof Storage”, Weiskittel Sanitary Ware”, “Fire King Gas Stoves and Ranges” “S.A.Ripple & Bros”, Wintergreen Aids Digestion”, “Wintergreen Automatic Vending” and "St. Nicholas Pepsin Chewing Gum”.