John Baptist Jackson | Page 8

by Jackson, the typefounder."]
It does not seem reasonable that Jackson would learn the art of
woodcutting from Kirkall and then refer to him as a famous engraver
on copper and type metal. It is just as difficult to believe that Kirkall
taught Jackson to work on metal, not wood.
The "EK" who engraved the blocks for Mattaire's Latin Classics might
very well have been Kirkall, whose style also might have had
something in common with Jackson's early work. But this would not
necessarily indicate a definite influence. English pictorial relief prints
for book illustration in the first decades of the 18th century had one
characteristic in common; they were almost all done with the engraver's
burin on type metal or end-grain boxwood. They therefore showed
elements of a "white-line" style as opposed to the black-line or
knife-cut method commonly used in other countries. While it is likely
that Jackson was an exception to the general rule in England (we have
his word for it in the Enquiry, as we shall see), he was also deeply
influenced by the prevailing English style of burin work on wood or
type metal. If Papillon saw a similarity between Jackson's cuts and
those in the Latin Classics, it might have been because he was
unfamiliar with other examples of English work and did not recognize
a national style.
The initials "J. B. I." appear on a small cut in the 1717 edition of
Dryden's plays, also published by Tonson. If this is an early piece by
Jackson it would indicate that he might have been born earlier than
1701, although it is conceivable that he could have made it when he
was sixteen.
This is the extent of the evidence, or rather lack of evidence, of
Jackson's early years in England. Nothing is certain except that
woodblock work was at a particularly low ebb. Standards in
typography and printing were rude (Caslon was just beginning his
career), far inferior to those on the Continent. Cuts were used rather

sparingly by printers, and almost always for initial letters (these
included little pictures), for tailpieces, and for decorative borders. As a
measure of economy the same cut was often repeated throughout a
book. Also, initial letters were sometimes contrived to permit the type
for different capitals to be inserted in the center area, so that in some
instances no more than two cuts were needed to begin alternate
chapters in a volume. Rarely were woodblocks employed to illustrate
the text. Pictures were almost always supplied by the copper-plate
engraver, even when the prints were small and surrounded with
typographical matter. This was an expensive and troublesome
procedure, but it was the only one possible where an able group of
cutters or engravers on wood did not exist and where printers found it
difficult to achieve good impressions on the uneven laid paper of the
time.
The main employment for knife cutters on wood was in making the
popular prints, or illustrated broadsides, which had been sold in city
and village throughout the country since the early 1600's. Plank and
knife could be used for these prints because of the generally large size
of the pictures and the lack of sophistication of the audience. They are
described by Bewick from his memories as a boy in the 1760's:[16]
I cannot, however, help lamenting that, in all the vicissitudes which the
art of wood engraving has undergone, some species of it are lost and
done away: I mean the large blocks with the prints from them, so
common to be seen, when I was a boy, in every cottage and farm house
throughout the country. These blocks, I suppose, from their size, must
have been cut on the plank way on beech, or some other kind of
close-grained wood; and from the immense number of impressions
from them, so cheaply and extensively spread over the whole country,
must have given employment to a great number of artists, in this
inferior department of woodcutting.... These prints, which were sold at
a very low price, were commonly illustrative of some memorable
exploits, or were, perhaps, the portraits of eminent men.... Besides
these, there were a great variety of other designs, often with songs
added to them of a moral, a patriotic, or a rural tendency, which served
to enliven the circle in which they were admired. To enumerate the

great variety of these pictures would be a task.
[Footnote 16: Bewick, 1925 (1st ed. London, 1862), pp. 211-212.]
Bewick adds that some of these popular woodcuts, although not the
great majority, were very good. Since this was the main field for
woodcutters, it is an interesting conjecture that Jackson might have
been trained for this craft. As he matured, we can assume that he felt
the urge to excel as a