Today, artists think of stamping as applying ink to a surface with a rubber or acrylic stamp. Stamping, on the other hand, has a long history, with printing ink and Tonic Studios Stamping being relatively late additions to the process.
The oldest application of a tool resembling a stamp is one that did not frequently employ ink: the seal. Seals, which are usually made of wax, are largely used for decoration nowadays, but for millennia they have been essential for authenticating the validity of commerce, correspondence, and official documents.
The usage of seals is mentioned in the Old Testament of the Bible, and archaeologists have discovered surviving instances of seals pressed into clay dating all the way back to ancient Mesopotamia (about 5000-3500 BC). These seals were carved from materials such as stone or bone. Some surviving examples are in the shape of long tubes with holes down the centre, apparently to allow them to be worn.
Signet rings, which permitted a person's seal to be worn as jewellery on his or her hand, were popular in the Middle Ages as wax sealing grew more ubiquitous. The expression "kiss my ring" refers to the tradition of kneeling and kissing a high-ranking figure's signet ring to signify allegiance.
The most renowned signet ring in use today is the "Ring of the Fisherman," which is an important element of the Pope's ceremonial regalia. A new ring is manufactured for each new Pope, containing his name as well as the typical image of St. Peter as a fisherman, according to a tradition that has been practised since at least the 13th century.
When it comes to what we now call stamping, the earliest surviving examples are from Asia, long before the printing machine and movable type were invented in Europe. These ancient tools were used in a process known as woodblock printing, and they resemble current rubber stamps made of wood. To make an image, a craftsman would carve an image into the surface of a wood block, which would then be inked and put to fabric or paper.
The Diamond Sutra, a Buddhist scroll discovered in China in 868 AD and now in the custody of the British Library, is the oldest known complete woodblock printed book. The Diamond Sutra was constructed using woodblock printing on seven separate parts, which were subsequently assembled to form the entire five-meter-long scroll.
Alphabet stamps are perhaps some of the most commonly used stamps in scrapbooking since they are used to title their scrapbook pages. The most prevalent are the wooden ones on blocks. The disadvantage is that they take a long time to write sentences with.
As rubber stamping grew in popularity around the world, it also established itself as a major art form. Once it was recognised as a legitimate art form, many devotees began to preach the gospel of rubber-stamping in its most visually appealing form.
What does it all signify, signed in pencil, signed in the plate? The manner in which a print is signed and its impact on the value of the work generate considerable consternation. There are prints that are unsigned, signed in the plate, signed with a blindstamp, estate signed, and signed with a blindstamp. There are no hard and fast rules about how a graphic artist should sign their work. It is more crucial to understand the standard process for the time period and the standard practise for that particular artist.
The artist has signed their name in the matrix (wood, metal, stone, etc.) so that it is printed within the work. Until the 19th century, an artist would sign their work in this manner, and many of the early artists would not have done so if it had not been mandated by guild rule. Because there are always exceptions in art, a plate signed work of art is more valued than an unsigned piece, but less desirable than one signed in pencil. Because artists did not sign their work in pencil from the 14th to the late 19th centuries, the absence of a pencil signature has no bearing on the value.
Instead of hand signing the work or signing in the plate, an artist may use a stamp of their signature and apply it to the art, usually in the lower margin where the hand signature would normally be found. A stamped signature can occasionally be mistaken for a handwritten signature. Posthumous editions or reproducing copies with a particular signature have been created by heirs and estates. They sign the artwork to give the idea that the artist would have authorised it if they hadn't died. These signatures could be handwritten, stamped, or blindstamped by heirs, museums, or any other recognised body. These are typically worth significantly less than lifetime impressions.
Unfortunately, because many artists sign and number their offset lithographic or giclee reproduction prints, the hand signed signature no longer has the same importance. Kathe Kollwitz signed photolithographic prints of one of her aquatint series are not a new phenomena. Nonetheless, the underlying message has persisted, and pieces that are hand signed are generally more valued than those that are not. All of this is complicated by the fact that it is conceivable to have a fake signature on an original work of art and an authentic signature on a reproduction work of art.
The creative usage of such stamps is tied to the time, place, and context of the stamp itself, whether visual or literary, but also the act and purpose of impressing it, as well as the conditions in which this is done. In this style of artistic expression, we may so define three stages. The first is the stamp itself, as an object designed or created by the artist, but this is not yet a work of art. Only the stamp's actual use, i.e. its impression, has importance for the artist.
The act of printing, then, is the second level. The context level is the third. However, context includes an attribute of stamps dating back to the distant past, when they became the instrument of bureaucracy and mirror of power that they are today. Stamps have traditionally represented authority, finality, validity, or cancellation. Stamps have always been associated with power and the emphasis of importance. Injecting artistic and poetic meaning into this powerful bureaucratic weapon is not only a deliberate (creative) act of subversion, but also a new, more humanitarian application of this age-old means of communication.
Most artistic stamps are created by carving regular rubber erasers, but professional stamp-makers also cast rubber using metal moulds. Metal, wood, linoleum, and other widely available materials are also utilised as stamps. Even children's printing sets with rubber letters can be utilised, and the associated process of applying stencils should be mentioned. The artist normally creates and produces his own stamps, but other people choose to buy ready-made stamps from one of the many companies that offer such items across the world. Some may argue that purchasing a ready-made stamp is not art, but what is important in stamp art is how the stamp is used.
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