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Show ORIGIN OF WOOD ENGRAVING. Many Countries Contend for the Honor Hon-or of the Invention. Much controversy was at one time excited about the country that could claim to have originated wood engraving. engrav-ing. A very simple process was known to the Egyptians for the production pro-duction of stamps, and it has been asserted as-serted that the Chinese printed from blocks of peartree as early as the tenth century. The independent origination orig-ination of the art has been generally ' credited to Germany among modern nations. In the Cologne district a St. Christopher, which has often been reproduced, re-produced, was cut in 1423, a St. Se-bastion Se-bastion in 1437 and a Madonna has been dated 1418. Playing cards were, however, in use in France in the middle mid-dle of the fourteenth century, and the figures were impressions from wood blocks, states the Scientific American. It is allowable for France to fiisruti; the priority of Germany, and many attempts at-tempts have been made to claim the art as due to French enterprise. M. . Hanri Bouchot of the Bibliotheque Na-tionale, Na-tionale, now declares that a part of a 1 block with a representation of a cru cifixion has been discovered in a country coun-try town of France. The costumes .re evidently those worn in the mid-; mid-; die fourteenth century, and it is as- . aumed that the wood block belongs to :om Urn between 1340 and 1350. i |
