Joseph Martin Kronheim

Joseph Martin Kronheim (1810-1896)

Joseph Martin Kronheim was German wood engraver and lithographer. He was also illustrator and here we can look his illustration of The Little Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe:


What we can add? Kronheim spent most of his life in Great Britain (Scotland) where he improved printing proces with replacin wood blocks with zinc blocks. The results were of slightly lower quality but new process allowed much faster printing (especially when they applied steam power too).

The critics of Kronheim's work claimed he was more concerned with quantitiy than quality and by certain degree this was certainly true. On the other hand he is one of pioneers of mass printing which lowered prices and gave the access to the books to more people.

Kronheim sold his share of business and returned to Germany but his investments fare ill, so he returned into printing business until he he retired at 77 years old. The illustration above is one of his best and comes from the My First Picture Book (available in Project Gutenberg).

Martin Joseph Kronheim died in 1896.

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