Lithophane


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Note: The images tended to be artistically unadventurous, mostly repeating designs from prints, or paintings via reproductive prints. A large number were rather sentimental domestic genre scenes, though there were also portraits, landscapes and religious subjects. The technique naturally produced images only in grisaille, tones of grey, but later ones were often painted in translucent paint such as that used for watercolours to give colour images. The name comes from Greek; lithos means "stone," and phainen, means "to cause to appear".

Invented in France in the 1820s, they rapidly became popular and produced in various countries. But Germany soon became the main producer, remaining so for the rest of the century. The largest producer was the Prussian Königliche Porzellan-Manufaktur (KPM) in Berlin, leading to "Berlin transparencies" becoming a common term for them in English. The Plauesche Porzellanmanufaktur in Plaue, Thuringia, Germany, was another large manufacturer, who continued to make them into the second half of the 20th century.

[Last update: 2023/08/26]