Lithograph vs Engraving and How to Tell Old Prints Apart

The dealer's label says "engraving," the price says engraving, and you are standing in a fair hall with a print that might be a lithograph worth a third as much. Telling lithograph vs engraving apart is the single most useful skill for anyone buying old prints, and it takes about two minutes once you know where to look.

I have bought and sold prints for over thirty years, and I still carry the same 10x loupe and small torch to every fair. Here is the method I use, what each process leaves behind on the paper, and why the price gap between the two is not always what people assume.

How each process puts ink on paper

The two techniques work in opposite ways, and that difference is what you can see under magnification.

An engraving is an intaglio print. The engraver cuts lines into a copper or steel plate with a burin. Ink is wiped across the plate, the surface is cleaned, and ink stays only in the cut grooves. Under heavy pressure, damp paper is pushed into those grooves to pick up the ink. The result is ink that sits slightly raised on the paper and a plate mark pressed around the image.

A lithograph is a planographic print. The artist draws on a flat limestone or zinc plate with a greasy crayon or ink. The stone is wetted, greasy ink sticks only to the drawing, and the image is printed with even pressure. There are no grooves, so the ink lies flat on the paper, and there is no plate mark in the usual sense.

Lithography was invented in Bavaria in 1796 and became common in Britain and America from the 1820s. Anything claiming to be a lithograph from before about 1810 deserves a hard second look.

The lithograph vs engraving check under a loupe

Hold the print at an angle to a light source, then look at a dark area of the image through a 10x loupe. These are the five points I check, in this order.

1. Line endings. An engraved line swells in the middle and tapers to a sharp point at each end, because the burin enters and leaves the metal at an angle. A lithographic line ends bluntly or fades out in grainy specks.
2. Texture of dark areas. In an engraving, dark tones are built from crossed lines and dots in a neat grid. In a lithograph, dark tones look like crayon on rough paper, a soft, irregular grain with no system to it.
3. Raised ink. Run a fingertip lightly over a heavily inked area, or tilt it against the light. Engraved ink often stands up from the surface. Lithographic ink is flat.
4. The plate mark. Look for a pressed rectangle a few millimetres outside the image. A crisp plate mark points to intaglio. Be careful: some 19th century lithographs were run through a press with a blind stamp that fakes one, so never rely on this test alone.
5. Tint stones. A flat, buff or pale blue background tone behind the image is a strong sign of a tinted lithograph, common from the 1830s to the 1860s.

For the related problem of telling any original from a photomechanical copy, my notes on the loupe test for old prints cover the rosette dot patterns that give modern reproductions away.

Steel engraving and wood engraving

Two near relatives confuse the picture. Steel engravings, common from around 1820, have extremely fine, dense lines and a silvery grey look. They are still intaglio and pass the same tests. Wood engravings are relief prints, cut into the end grain of boxwood, and show white lines on black rather than black lines on white. They often appear in Victorian books and magazines and rarely carry a plate mark.

What each one is usually worth

A rough guide from recent fair and auction prices for decorative 19th century prints in good condition, unframed:

Colour matters as much as process. If the print has colour, check whether it was added by hand or printed, as described in the guide to judging hand colouring on antique prints.

Why "engraving" is not automatically the better buy

Many new collectors treat engraving as the premium label and lithograph as the lesser one. That habit costs money in both directions.

Victorian steel engravings were printed in enormous numbers for books and annuals. A plate from a popular topographical series might exist in tens of thousands of copies, which is why so many sell for less than the cost of framing. Meanwhile, a fine hand coloured lithograph from a short natural history run can easily outprice it.

The useful questions are not "which process" but "how many were made, how early is this impression, and what is its condition." An engraving pulled late from a worn plate shows broken, faint lines in the darkest areas. A lithograph from an early printing has rich, even blacks. Judge the sheet in front of you, not the word on the label.

A quick routine for fairs and auctions

• Bring a 10x loupe and a small pocket torch. Both together cost under $25.
• Ask to see the print out of the frame or sleeve if possible. Glass hides raised ink and plate marks.
• Check the margins for a printed caption naming the printer. Lithographs often say "lith." or "lithog." after the printer's name, while engravings say "sculp." or "sc." after the engraver.
• Look at the back. Text show-through suggests a book plate, which affects value.
• Note the paper. Wove paper with no chain lines is typical after 1800, and laid paper suggests an earlier sheet.

Those captions are the fastest shortcut of all. If you read "Day and Haghe lith." in the lower margin, you have your answer before the loupe comes out. Just remember that captions can be trimmed away by an earlier owner, so a missing caption proves nothing.

Frequently asked questions

How can you tell if a print is a lithograph or an engraving?

Look at the lines under a 10x loupe. Engraved lines taper to sharp points and dark areas are built from neat crosshatching, while lithographic lines look grainy, like crayon on rough paper. Engravings also usually have a plate mark and slightly raised ink.

Are lithographs worth less than engravings?

Not as a rule. Mass produced Victorian steel engravings often sell for very little, while early hand coloured lithographs can fetch several hundred dollars. Rarity, subject, impression quality and condition matter more than the process.

Does a plate mark prove a print is an engraving?

No. A plate mark strongly suggests an intaglio print, but some lithographs and later reproductions were given a pressed border to imitate one. Always confirm with the line and texture checks before you pay an engraving price.