Watercolor Block Printing

In ancient Chinese society, people use block printing as a mean to reproduce thus to preserve the famous artworks of Chinese traditional painting and calligraphy.

The world's known printed book by engraved blocks, which has the longest history was discovered in the Dunhuang Grottoes in China. It is the 1,100-year-old Prajnaparamita Sutra produced by watercolor block printing about A.D 868 during the Tang Dynasty, which is collected by the British Museum in London, now. The reign of Tianqi of the Ming Dynasty (1621-1627) has witnessed the perfection of the technique of reproducing colored pictures by means of separate blocks, each printing an individual color.

Through a long history of refinement, the art has grown and is still used in the modern society. Regardless of all the evolutions, it still inherited two major operations from the Ming Dynasty's douban block printing which consists of:

1) the replica works use the same paper and colors as the original piece did. That enables the replica indistinguishable from the authentic.

2) the replica use only durable materials, its antiwear and color fastness.

The most famous practitioner of this trade in China is rongbaozhai art shop originated in Beijing. They are noted by their rich experience and extrodinary craftsmanship. The artworks of many well-known artists had been reproduced in the purpose of preserve by Rongbaozhai. Taking for an example, the replica of the celebrated horizontal scroll named "Han Xizai's Evening Party" of the 10th-century artist Gu Hongzhong is a most successful case which shown their extrodinary craftsmanship. Wearing by age, the authentic 4-metre-long work, which is known for its exquisitely portrated characters and intricate combinations of color tones, becomes vague and dim in color. A simple hand-made copy makes the replica too fresh to be resembling its original. However, Rongbaozhai's reproduction made it very hard to tell the replica from the authentic master piece. The original picture was traced into 1667 separate blocks. It took eight years to carve these many blocks. Finally, some three dozens copies were produced, which are highly valued by artists and collectors, almost as much as their ancient model.