Transfer print on wood

In the 18th century, new decoration techniques were developed to imitate time-consuming and expensive techniques. One such technique was transfer printing. It was initially used for porcelain, but was soon also applied to wood. Irene Meneghetti investigated this process and describes her findings here.

The decorative techniques that emerged in the 18th century, such as plaster, were intended to imitate more time-consuming and expensive techniques and served to make furniture more affordable and accessible to a newly emerging wealthy middle class. In Europe, transfer printing first appeared as a decorative method for ceramics in the mid-18th century, with the oldest known transfer print on a teapot from the Doccia manufactory in Italy dating back to 1742¹. Doccia’s use of the technique came shortly before its appearance in England in the 1750s, where the mass production of ceramic and enamel objects with transfer printing began². Transfer printing developed into one of the most important decorative techniques for porcelain, as it was much faster and more precise than hand painting, which it gradually replaced on ceramics³. Similarly, transfer printing on wood became increasingly popular as an alternative to the more difficult and time-consuming processes of marquetry, inlay or painting on wood. In addition, transfer printing is not the only technique used to apply printed images to furniture or wooden objects; this trend also developed in other forms, such as decoupage. Allegorical images, classical ornaments, copies of French marquetry⁴ and well-known or popular images⁵ became the most common type of images used.

Documentation on the development of the technique is sparse, but it appears that the first example of transfer printing on wood was a tea caddy decorated with allegorical images by Geoffrey Beard in England in 1790⁶. In 1804, father and son Potter in Erfurt first perfected their technique of printing on all kinds of hard materials, including wood. The transfer printing on furniture was carried out in Vienna in 1810 by Michael Menner and Johann Härle⁷. The Viennese cabinetmaker Böhlmann⁸ is also mentioned as a user of this technique, and a table from 1823 is known⁹. In 1818 and 1819, the production of transfer prints on wood experienced a boom when Johann Georg Hiltl exhibited furniture with transfer prints at the Academy of Arts¹⁰. This marked the beginning of the production of furniture with transfer print decoration on a larger scale¹¹. Johann Georg Hiltl taught the technique to his son Anton Hiltl, who worked as a court cabinetmaker in Berlin until the 1840s¹² and produced furniture with overprints. The Berlin cabinetmaker Joseph Schneevogl also made furniture with overprints from at least 1828, the year in which he presented his masterpiece, a mechanical secretary, which King Frederick William III acquired to decorate the New Pavilion in Berlin’s Charlottenburg Palace. Unfortunately, transfer printing on wooden furniture seems to have died out around the middle of the 19th century, and there are probably no more examples of furniture or wooden objects of this kind after Anton Hiltl’s butterfly cabinet from 1840.

When examining the different methods of transferring print onto wood, it becomes clear that there is a major difference, namely whether the print is transferred mirror-inverted or in the same direction as the original image. The former is the simpler method, requiring only one step, while the latter is more complex and requires an intermediate step that makes it possible, for example, to transfer text or maps as a real and legible image. The oldest historical method for transferring prints onto wood is most likely that of Siddons, who published his first “Cabinet Maker’s Guide” in 1820¹³. Most historical methods for transferring prints to wood are very similar and differ only in minor details. The wood for the transfer must have a fine grain and light color and be hard. The fine grain and hardness provide a firm, but also even and closed surface without grooves and indentations, onto which the print can be transferred evenly. Horse chestnut, lime, maple, hornbeam¹⁴, cherry, pear and walnut wood were all used¹⁵, although maple wood was the wood of choice for transfer printing – due to its fine grain and very light color, which was popular during the Southern German Biedermeier period.
The type of print used for transfer printing was mainly copperplate engraving, although lithographs could also be transferred.

The paper is perhaps the most important factor in the whole transfer process; it must be thick enough to absorb a lot of water, because it is only through the water soaking the paper that it can be separated from the ink and then the image can be transferred. The ink must remain lipophilic and hydrophobic and bond with the varnish, and the paper must remain hydrophilic and water-soluble. If the paper absorbs too much varnish, the paper can no longer be separated from the ink with water and the transfer will not be successful.
The varnish used is almost always a clear varnish based on natural resin, Sandarak was the most commonly used¹⁶. The varnish should have an adhesive component that serves to attach the ink to the wood, it should be transparent and preferably colorless and must be waterproof¹⁷.

The method for transferring the print in the correct direction, which has never been documented in contemporary sources, was reproduced in 2020 using various historical techniques. I present the tested method here.
The varnish chosen for the tests is based on tree resin, the recipe for which was found in the journal of the Polytechnische Gesellschaft zu Berlin published in 1846¹⁸. The quantities were adapted to improve adhesion and processing.

The final recipe for the varnish is as follows:
3 parts mastic
2 parts sandarac
1 3⁄4 parts Venetian turpentine
8 parts turpentine oil

A maple board was prepared to receive the transferred pressure. Then the paper used for transferring the print (“transfer paper”), a thin cardboard, was first soaked with water and stretched on a wooden board after drying. Three layers of glue eraser were then applied to the transfer paper. The print to be transferred was trimmed and soaked in lukewarm water for thirty minutes. The surface of the transfer paper was then coated with a thin layer of varnish and the print was placed face down on the transfer paper. It was then covered with thick drawing paper and a heated wooden support, clamped and left to dry overnight.
After drying, the print was then glued face down onto the varnished surface of the transfer paper using the varnish.
of the transfer paper. The paper of the print was removed by moistening it with water and carefully rubbing it off in small rolls with the fingers until only a very thin layer of paper remained so as not to damage the ink of the print. As soon as the transferred print was dry, the transfer paper was moistened from behind and the excess moisture was briefly soaked up with blotting paper. A layer of varnish was then applied to the surface of the maple board and the print was placed face down on the wood and forced onto the wood as before. The print was left to dry overnight. The process of removing the transfer paper from the print was repeated as previously described, taking care not to rub too hard or damage the print. Finally, the print was coated with varnish and polished after drying.

The ageing visible on objects with transfer prints is mainly due to the varnish that is applied to the surface of the print and, as already explained, was traditionally based on natural resins. Unfortunately, it has not yet been possible to analyze samples of printed objects to determine whether a thin layer of paper still remains under the print, as described in the historical literature, and whether this could contribute to the thickness of the layers and ageing. Surface coatings, such as natural resins or oils used in the transfer printing process, consist primarily of organic substances that tend to degrade over time due to the chemical and physical interaction of light and oxygen¹⁹. Natural resins are particularly sensitive to light, and the consequences of light absorption can be seen in the yellowing of surface coatings and the loss of transparency²⁰. During the ageing process, oxygen also causes a chemical change in the molecular structure of coatings, which can lead to a reduction in the molecular weight and average length of the polymer chains, resulting in the optical effect of craquelure²¹. Oxygen also manifests itself in the darkening of surfaces, which often occurs in the surface layers of natural resins or oils²². Yellowing due to oxidation, a common ageing process with natural resins, is also typical of oils, which were recommended in almost all historical methods for preparing the wood surface before applying the varnish and subsequent printing.

The method of transfer printing, which was used on a large number of objects, is no longer part of the repertoire of modern furniture making, despite its popularity in the 1820s. Although it has been reproduced several times in the simpler form of transferring a print as a mirror image, it has not been the subject of a major publication and its special features remain largely unnoticed. This article reports on the important but previously undocumented technique of reprinting in the right direction, which makes it possible to reprint maps and text legibly, for example.

This article is based on a research project carried out as part of a bachelor’s thesis at the Potsdam University of Applied Sciences in 2021, which dealt with two tables decorated with transfer printing from the collection of the Prussian Palaces and Gardens Foundation Berlin-Brandenburg, attributed to Joseph Schneevogl around the middle of the 19th century.

Read more: On the outskirts of the small Franconian town of Arnstein, archaeologists discovered a burial ground from the early Middle Ages in 2018 – a find that promises deeper insights into the era.

¹Victoria and Albert Museum, London, C. 407-1938. https://collections.vam. ac.uk/item/O71450/teapot-doccia-porcelain-factory. Accessed 20.03.2022.
²John Sadler, potter and manager of the Battersea enamel factory, was first mentioned in 1756 when he claimed to have printed ‘over 1200 earthenware tiles of various patterns’ in Liverpool. Sadler also decorated Wedgwood pottery. John Fleming and Hugh Honour, The Penguin Dictionary of Decorative Arts (London: Viking, 1989), p. 713.
³Emil Heuser, Porzellan von Strassburg und Frankenthal im achtzehnten Jahrhundert (Neustadt an der Haarst, Pfälzische Verlagsanstalt Carl Liesen- berg, 1922), p. 142.
⁴Louis Edgar Andès, Decoriren von Holzarbeiten mittels Abziehbilder, in: Die Technischen Vollendungs-Arbeiten der Holz-Industrie. The sanding, staining, polishing, varnishing, painting and gilding of wood. Together with a description of the main features of the materials that can be used for this purpose (Leipzig, A. Hartleben’s Verlag, 1895), p. 117.
⁵Christian Moll, Zwischen Handwerk Und Unternehmertum – Das Leben des Johann Georg Hiltl (1771-1845), in: Biedermeier’s Happiness and End: Die gestörte Idylle, 1815-1848, pp. 57-76 (Munich, Hugendubel, 1987), p. 73.
⁶Moll, 1987, p. 73.
⁷Moll, 1987, p. 73.
⁸Jörn Bahns, Biedermeier Furniture. Entstehung, Zentren, Typen (Munich, Keysersche Verlagsbuchhandlung, 1979), p. 32.
⁹Marie von Korff, Johann Georg Hiltls (1771-1845) Möbel mit umgedruckter Grafik – Ein besonderes Phänomen im Münchner Biedermeier (Munich, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, 2008), p. 19
¹⁰Georg Himmelheber, The Art of German Furniture: Classicism, Historicism, Art Nouveau. Vol. 3 (Munich, C. H. Beck, 1993), p. 170
¹¹Moll, 1987, p. 71
¹²Butterfly cabinet by Anton Hiltl from the years 1840-1850 in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum, London http://collections.vam. ac.uk/item/O297683/butterfly-cabinet-hiltl-anton/. Accessed 12.12.2020
¹³Moll, 1987, p. 73
¹⁴Andès, 1895, p. 117
¹⁵Moll, 1987, p. 71, footnote 2.
¹⁶Moll, 1987, p. 74
¹⁷Korff, 2008, p. 27
¹⁸Report on the conditions and effectiveness of the Polytechnische Gesellschaft zu Berlin. Second issue. (Berlin, Moesner and Kühn, 1846), p. 90.
¹⁹Shayne Rivers and Nick Umney, Conservation of Furniture (Oxford: Butter- worth-Heinemann, 2003), p. 331
²⁰Ebenda, p. 331
²¹Ebenda, p. 337
²²Ebenda, p. 331