This was the earliest true multi-color printing technique pioneered by Godefrey Engleman of France, first commercialized in 1830. Previously, colors had been applied by an artist with a study hand and patience. The term "chromolithograph" is usually reserved for complex colors that replicate a print that displays unique vibrate coloration. The development is based on "lithography" (printing using stone slabs the finest stones came from Germany), whereby each stone prints a separate color on top of the previous one. It was an expensive method as countless stones were needed and each had to be precisely laid to circumvent "ghosting" (where colors appear out of kilter). As many as 40 stones were used creating radiant colored prints which were so popular with Victorian Britain and later in America.

Chromolithographs are highly sought after by collectors for there dramatic coloring, expertise to make the prints, and the mystic and possible myth about Chromolithographer succumbing to an early death from the chemicals in the dying process makes chromolithographs worth investing in these wonderful artist prints.

The chronology of advancement in printing illustrations with an approximate decade of the first use in America:

•1670 - Woodcut. 
•1700 - Copperplate Engraving.
•1790 - Wood Engraving.
•1820 - Lithography.
•1830 - Aquatints & Etchings. 
•1840 - Chromolithography. 
•1850 - Salt Print Photographs. 
•1860 - Albumen Print Photographs. 
•1860 - Woodburytypes & Heliotypes. 
•1880 - Photogravures.
•1900 - Halftones (invented in 1850).
•Present - Offset Printing (a form of Plano Graphic printing similar to lithography).

Written by Annette Nolan of AnnEpiphany of Wisconsin

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